WORLD

Thousands of Georgians took to the streets Wednesday in the latest round of a weeks-long mass protest against a "foreign influence" law whose adoption by Georgia has prompted a blizzard of international condemnation.

Hong Kong, once a financial beacon, now faces challenges with a slipping global ranking and stringent Chinese controls on cross-border money flows.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump agreed Wednesday to hold presidential debates in June and September after the Democratic incumbent challenged his rival to "make my day" and the scandal-plagued Republican replied he was ready to "rumble."

It is Putin's first trip abroad since his March re-election and the second in just over six months to China, an economic lifeline for Russia after the West hit it with unprecedented sanctions over its military offensive in Ukraine.

Six months after Geert Wilders won a stunning election victory, squabbling politicians finally clinched a deal Wednesday on a coalition government, said the Dutch far-right leader, who will not be prime minister.

Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan has catapulted to the forefront of Armenian politics, galvanising mass popular protests against the government's plan to cede land to arch-foe Azerbaijan.

US consumer inflation eased slightly last month, according to US government data published Wednesday, a positive sign for President Joe Biden ahead of November's election.

Georgia faced a blizzard of international condemnation Wednesday as the EU, NATO and UN slammed the adoption of a controversial "foreign influence" law targeting overseas-funded NGOs. Ruling party lawmakers voted through the legislation Tuesday in defiance of protesters worried the Caucasus country is shifting away from its pro-Western course towards Russia.

Qatar is one of the world's top LNG producers alongside the United States, Australia and Russia. Asian countries led by China, Japan and South Korea have been the main market for Qatari gas.

Mohamed Amra, the convict freed by gunmen in a murderous motorway attack Tuesday, has a long history of convictions for violent crimes that started when he was only 15, according to judicial sources.

The European Commission expects inflation to fall to 2.5 percent in 2024, down from a previous forecast of 2.7 percent -- news that will be welcomed by the European Central Bank (ECB).

The military gave details of the pull back as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on an unannounced visit to Kyiv where President Volodymyr Zelensky urged him to speed up US supplies of weapons.

As Israel keeps up its campaign against Hamas, Arab leaders are mapping out ways to support post-war Gaza, placing one major condition on their involvement: a pathway to Palestinian statehood.

Walking between the corrugated iron shacks of the informal settlement west of Johannesburg she calls home, Lutho Makheyi points out trenches filled by dirty rainwater holing the unpaved streets.

From a voyage through the human body with Cate Blanchett, to a feminist superhero satire featuring giant tampons and octopus demons, the Cannes Film Festival launches its first competition for virtual reality films on Wednesday.

Indonesian rescuers raced Wednesday to find dozens of people still unaccounted for after flash floods and cold lava flow that inundated neighbourhoods and swept away houses over the weekend left 58 people dead.

At least 16 people were killed Tuesday in Peru when a bus rolled off a ledge in the mountainous Ayacucho region, authorities said.

Four neighborhoods of Fort McMurray, a city in Canada's major oil-producing region, were ordered evacuated Tuesday as an out of control wildfire drew near and thick smoke filled the skies.

When Kristal Lee and her husband bought a house in Gaston County, North Carolina two years ago, they envisioned a "forever home".

Once confined to jail over the killings of hundreds under his watch, former Colombian general Henry Torres now spends his days planting trees and otherwise free.

Singapore will swear in Lawrence Wong on Wednesday as the city-state's new prime minister, as Lee Hsien Loong steps down after two decades in office.

Alice Munro, the Nobel Prize-winning author known as "Canada's Chekhov" for her mastery of the short story, has died at 92, her editor said Tuesday.

On Israel's 76th Independence Day, victory feels far away for many agonising over the fate of dozens of hostages still held in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

Gunmen on Tuesday attacked a prison van at a motorway toll in northern France, killing at least two prison officers and freeing a convict who had been jailed last week.

A French court on Tuesday acquitted French-Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski of defaming British actor Charlotte Lewis after she accused him of raping her when she was a teenager.

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday his administration's plan to increase tariff rates on Chinese imports totaling an estimated $18 billion.

Israeli police said they have opened an investigation after right-wing activists stopped and ransacked at least seven Gaza-bound humanitarian aid trucks, in a statement received Tuesday.

The EU on Tuesday gave the final green light to a landmark overhaul of its migration and asylum policies that will see hardened borders and responsibility shared among member states.

Six months after Geert Wilders swept to a stunning election win in the Netherlands, top politicians have until Wednesday to form a government -- without the far-right firebrand as prime minister.