WORLD

Bosnia's top international envoy has warned of Russia's growing influence in the Balkan country amid a growing stand-off with the Moscow-backed Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, which combed 120,000 square kilometers (46,332, square miles) of the sea floor of the southern Indian Ocean, only a few fragments of the Boeing 777-200ER plane have been found.

Taiwan will introduce a new digital assets draft law later this year as the self-governing island looks to regulate what the territory's finance regulator chief said is a "quite risky and speculative" sector.

China's parliament opened its annual meeting with subdued pageantry on Tuesday as sleet and cloudy skies left delegates shivering under umbrellas.

The Maldives has signed a "military assistance" deal with China after ordering Indian troops deployed in the small but strategically-placed archipelago to leave, officials said Tuesday.

Iran executed a "staggering" total of at least 834 people last year, the highest number since 2015 as capital punishment surged in the Islamic republic, two rights groups said Tuesday.

South Korea said Tuesday it would start notifying striking trainee doctors that their medical licences would be suspended, as it moves to punish medics who have quit hospitals in protest at training reforms.

French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Prague on Tuesday to clarify his country's standpoint on a Czech plan to buy weapons outside Europe for war-ravaged Ukraine.

When US President Joe Biden gives his State of the Union speech on Thursday, it will be the culmination of three months' intensive work for his speechwriters.

China on Tuesday set a growth target of five percent, in line with last year's GDP but a far cry from the double-digit expansion that for years drove the world's second-largest economy.

Gazans detained by Israeli forces are coming back "completely traumatized" upon release and reporting abuses while in captivity, the head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency said Monday.

Former top executives of Twitter sued Elon Musk on Monday saying he has failed to pay them nearly $130 million after the billionaire took over the social media company and dismissed them.

China is set to unveil some of its lowest growth targets in decades when top Communist Party officials begin an annual meeting Tuesday, as the world's second largest economy faces dire headwinds.

Argentina's government on Monday suspended the Telam state news agency in the wake of an announcement by President Javier Milei that he would shut down what he called a mouthpiece of "propaganda" for previous leftist administrations.

The joint session, attended by 925 lawmakers from both houses of parliament, witnessed scenes of elation as almost the entire assembly stood in a protracted standing ovation.

The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and other senior leaders, replacing a broad two-decade-old pressure campaign with targeted action.

A US envoy said Monday that a diplomatic solution was key to ending nearly five months of intensifying hostilities between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel after the eruption of the Israel-Hamas war.

The US Supreme Court on Monday removed a potential hurdle to Donald Trump's bid to recapture the White House, unanimously dismissing a state court ruling that could have barred him from the ballot for engaging in insurrection.

More than 40 countries on Monday demanded an independent international investigation into the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny -- and said President Vladimir Putin bore ultimate responsibility.

Ghana's finance ministry has advised President Nana Akufo-Addo against endorsing a highly contested anti-LGBTQ bill, warning that it could end up with the financially-strapped country losing billions of dollars in World Bank funds.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is set to defend his organization's work at the General Assembly on Monday, after crippling backlash over accusations that some employees were involved in Hamas's surprise October 7 attack on Israel.

It's Day 150 of the Israel-Hamas war – the warring sides appear to be in a deadlock as the international community calls for an immediate halt to the fighting, and over in northern Israel, one person was killed and several others wounded following a missile attack that targeted Galilee.

A "famous" South Korean broadcast jockey was swindled for funds equivalent to almost his entire assets – not getting back even half of his money back from a fake Bitcoin expert.

The plan on the table aims for a six-week truce, the exchange of scores of remaining hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and for more aid to enter Gaza -- but sticking points remain.

South Korea said Monday it will take steps to suspend the licences of striking trainee doctors who have defied orders to return to work in a standoff over medical training reforms.

China's annual political conclave kicks off in Beijing on Monday, with officials saying the flagging economy and youth unemployment are of "great concern" as they lay out plans for the coming year.

Tunisian civil society groups fear the government is planning to starve them of foreign funding under the pretext of fighting money laundering and terrorism.

French lawmakers are expected Monday to anchor the right to abortion in the country's constitution, in a global first that has garnered overwhelming public support.

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".