WORLD

International mediators were with Hamas negotiators in Cairo Tuesday for talks on a truce to pause nearly five months of fighting in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins early next week.

Britain's Conservative government unveils a pre-election budget Wednesday that could feature voter-friendly measures as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's party badly trails main opposition Labour in polls.

Mediators in Cairo pushed on Monday with efforts towards a Gaza truce after Israel's top ally the United States stepped up pressure for a halt in fighting and more aid to enter the besieged Palestinian territory.

In this week's "Super Tuesday" primaries, security guards will monitor the back door at one Shasta County polling precinct -- a sign of the high political tensions in rural northern California.

Coined by the World Health Organization to denote a hypothetical future pandemic, "Disease X" is at the center of a blizzard of misinformation that American conspiracy theorists are amplifying -- and profiting from.

Philippine foreign minister Enrique Manalo told AFP on Monday that his country wants to solve maritime disputes with China peacefully -- but delivered a simple message to Beijing: "stop harassing us."

The ceremony comes two weeks after Navalny died in an Arctic prison -- a death that his supporters have blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The confirmation of the democratic island's latest major data leak followed a report by local news channel TVBS on the hack of telecom giant Chunghwa Telecom.

Extending a global retreat from news content, Meta said it would scrap the Facebook News tab in Australia and would not renew deals with news publishers worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ties between the two Koreas have been in a deep freeze as Pyongyang accelerates its weapons development programs and Seoul ramps up military cooperation with Washington and Tokyo.

Using tractors and bales of hay, farmers briefly brought traffic to a halt on the famed avenue near the Arc de Triomphe monument, only a short distance from President Emmanuel Macron's office, the Elysee.

Bangladesh firefighters said Friday that glaring safety lapses were responsible for a Dhaka restaurant blaze that killed 45 people, with more deaths likely among those rushed to hospital in critical condition.

A closing conference previously scheduled for 1000 GMT on Friday was pushed back by three hours, as trade ministers negotiated agreements on fisheries and agriculture with new draft texts on the table after all-night talks.

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg met South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul Thursday and discussed cooperation on AI and ways to prevent fake news circulation ahead of key elections, Yoon's office said.

Democracy faced sharp, widespread setbacks worldwide in 2023 with violence and manipulation marring a series of elections, Freedom House said Thursday.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos told Australia's parliament his country was on the "frontline" of a battle for regional peace Thursday, pledging resolve as he sought support in maritime disputes with China.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday he will travel to South Korea next month as it holds the Summit for Democracy, a signature initiative of President Joe Biden.

The US Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to hear Donald Trump's claim that as a former president he is immune from prosecution, further delaying his trial on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.

A bag containing a computer and two USB memory sticks holding police security plans for the Paris Olympic Games was stolen on Monday evening from a train at the capital's Gare du Nord station, police sources said Tuesday.

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg met Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a visit to Japan, discussing the risks of generative AI, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

The Gaza war's reported Palestinian death toll neared 30,000 Wednesday as fighting raged in the Hamas-run territory despite mediators insisting a truce with Israel could be just days away.

Ukraine has been locked in an existential fight for its freedom ever since Russia sent armed soldiers with no insignia -- dubbed the "little green men" -- to take over the Crimea peninsula on February 28, 2014, following a pro-EU revolution in Kyiv.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's funeral is planned for Friday in a Moscow church, his allies said two weeks after his shock death in an Arctic prison.

President Joe Biden and Donald Trump will both visit the US-Mexico border on Thursday in a high-profile clash of schedules as they vie to win over voters on immigration -- one of the hottest issues in the 2024 election.

French President Emmanuel Macron triggered a shockwave in Europe on Tuesday by refusing to rule out the dispatch of Western ground troops to Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.

Hong Kong activists on Tuesday staged a rare public protest against government plans for a new national security law, saying it lacked democratic oversight and human rights safeguards.

US President Joe Biden said Monday he hoped a ceasefire in Gaza could start by the beginning of next week, adding that Israel was ready to halt operations during the Muslim month of Ramadan as part of any deal.

An apple farmer, an airline caterer and an out-of-work graduate are among the Indian nationals hired by Moscow, with the help of recruiters around the world, for the Russian army in Ukraine.

As Iranians head to the polls for legislative and other elections on Friday, candidates have promised them on campaign posters to "fight corruption" and "fix the economy".