WORLD

Wildly popular social network TikTok approved adverts containing political disinformation ahead of European polls, a report showed Tuesday, flouting its own guidelines and raising questions about its ability to detect election falsehoods.

A Chinese probe carrying samples from the far side of the Moon started its journey back to Earth on Tuesday, the country's space agency said -- a world first and a major achievement for Beijing's space programme.

Garry Conille was sworn in as Haiti's prime minister on Monday, promising to "deliver" for the impoverished Caribbean nation grappling with overlapping security, humanitarian and political crises.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office on Tuesday denied American media reports that he will address the US Congress on June 13, amid mounting pressure to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas.

Russia is waging an intense disinformation campaign aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the International Olympic Committee and stoking fears of violence at this summer's Paris Games, according to a new report from Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center.

Britain's Labour opposition party committed Monday to ensuring the UK's nuclear arsenal, pitching itself as strong on defence for July's election in contrast to the last vote, when it lost heavily.

Claudia Sheinbaum, the former city mayor elected Mexico's first woman president, is an environmental scientist and dedicated leftist known for keeping a cool head in times of crisis.

The executive editor of the Washington Post, Sally Buzbee, has abruptly stepped down from the role, as the storied American newspaper undergoes a major restructuring, its chief executive said late Sunday.

Doubts were growing on Monday about a plan for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden as heavy fighting raged for a third day since his White House address.

China on Monday accused Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) of recruiting a couple who worked for the central government to spy for the UK, adding to months of mutual espionage allegations between Beijing and Western powers.

Ignored by Russia and Israel, the International Court of Justice is hamstrung by a dysfunctional global system that sees countries comply with its rulings -- or not -- based on their own double standards, experts say.

Former US president and current White House hopeful Donald Trump has joined TikTok, posting his first video on the wildly popular social media app he once tried to ban while in office.

The Indian Ocean nation of the Maldives will ban Israelis from the luxury tourist hot spot, the office of the president said Sunday, announcing a national rally in "solidarity with Palestine".

Media magnate Rupert Murdoch has married for the fifth time at age 93, tying the knot with a retired molecular biologist a quarter century younger than him.

President Cyril Ramaphosa urged South African party leaders to work together in the public interest Sunday, after his ANC lost its 30-year-old governing majority in a bruising general election.

Donald Trump has suggested that sending him to prison could prove a "breaking point" for his supporters -- a warning that will fuel concerns of political violence around the US presidential election on November 5.

Taiwan's premier said Friday the controversial bills expanding parliament's powers will be sent back to the legislature, citing worries about their constitutionality after they drew thousands of protesters angered by government overreach.

An Indian court has urged the government to declare a national emergency over the country's ongoing heatwave, saying that hundreds of people had died during weeks of extreme weather.

The United States and Britain carried out air strikes on Yemen in what they said was a bid to degrade Iran-backed rebels' maritime attack capabilities, with Huthi media on Friday reporting 16 killed.

Israeli forces on Friday struck targets across the Gaza Strip, with witnesses reporting air raids around the southern city of Rafah, the latest focus of the nearly eight-month war.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg Friday downplayed Kremlin threats of escalation after President Joe Biden secretly lifted restrictions on Ukraine using US-supplied weapons against targets inside Russian territory, as five people were killed in an overnight strike on Kharkiv.

The United States and China will resume military-to-military communications "in the coming months", US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday, as Beijing hailed the "stabilising" security relations between the countries.

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered what appears to be a new record-holder for the most distant known galaxy, a remarkably bright star system that existed just 290 million years after the Big Bang, NASA said Thursday.

Ordinary Haitians expressed hope Thursday that the country's new interim leader can bring much-needed change to the violence-wracked nation, though the challenges facing the former UN official are staggering.

Donald Trump on Thursday became the first former US president ever convicted of a crime after a New York jury found him guilty on all charges in his hush money case, months before an election that could see him yet return to the White House.

Humanity is in a race against time to harness the colossal emerging power of artificial intelligence for the good of all, while averting dire risks, a top UN official said Thursday.

Mexico's outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is a veteran leftist and self-proclaimed anti-corruption fighter who remains widely popular after nearly six years in office.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and nearly two dozen Democrats called on the Justice Department Thursday to investigate the oil and gas industry over allegations of price-fixing.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg pushed at the start of a meeting of the alliance's foreign ministers on Thursday to let Ukraine use Western weapons to strike inside Russia, a move sought by Kyiv but opposed for now by its chief backer Washington.