WORLD

Mitch McConnell, the veteran and powerful US political tactician who has advanced conservative causes for years and been a strong defender of aid to Ukraine, announced abruptly Wednesday that he would leave his post as leader of the Republicans in the Senate later this year.

The United States on Wednesday urged Israel to allow Muslims to worship at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem during Ramadan, after a far-right minister proposed barring Palestinians from the occupied West Bank from praying there.

A US-led push to reform the World Trade Organization's embattled dispute settlement system sparked divisions at a WTO meeting Wednesday, with India accusing Washington of bringing the trade body to a "standstill".

The lunar lander that touched down on the Moon last week is still working via solar power, the private company behind the historic mission said Wednesday, after announcing the day before that its batteries were on the verge of running dry.

The scheduled execution by lethal injection of a convicted serial killer in Idaho was halted on Wednesday after a medical team had problems inserting an intravenous line, prison officials said.

Rules making the EU's border and coast guard agency Frontex dependent on national authorities need to change to avoid a repeat of a migrant ship tragedy off Greece last year that cost some 600 lives, an official probe concluded Wednesday.

Emmanuel Macron's refusal to rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine has exposed deep divisions with France's traditional partner, Germany, which could play into the hands of Russia, analysts warned Wednesday.

US President Joe Biden is set to issue an executive order Wednesday aimed at limiting the flow of sensitive US personal data abroad -- amid concerns they could be misused by countries including China.

Sporadic shots were heard Wednesday in Chad's capital near the headquarters of an opposition party, accused by the government of an overnight attack on the internal security agency's offices which left several dead.

US President Joe Biden reported to a hospital Wednesday for his last yearly medical examination before November's election as scrutiny intensifies over the 81-year-old's fitness and mental acuity for a second term.

Walt Disney and Reliance are merging their Indian media businesses into a joint venture valued at $8.5 billion.

Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki said Wednesday he believes Hamas understands why it should not be part of a new government in the Palestinian territories.

Germany on Wednesday hailed the "courageous steps" taken by Armenia and Azerbaijan as the Caucasus neighbours began peace talks in Berlin, in a new push to resolve a decades-long conflict.

More than 50 UK-based broadcast journalists have sent an open letter to the Israeli and Egyptian embassies calling for "free and unfettered access" to Gaza for foreign media, British media reported Wednesday.

Pro-Russian rebel officials in Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria gathered for a rare meeting Wednesday, amid fears the territory could open a new flashpoint in Moscow's conflict with neighbouring Ukraine.

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.

On Day 145 of the Israel-Hamas war, Hamas claimed that it fired 40 missiles toward two Israeli army sites, marking one of the largest attacks from the Palestinian terror group in recent weeks.

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.

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.

Workers across Greece were set to strike on Wednesday to demand answers a year after the nation's deadliest train crash, which killed 57 people and injured dozens more.

South Korea's birth rate fell to a record low last year, the government said on Wednesday, despite having poured billions of dollars into efforts to encourage women to have more children and maintain population stability.

Iranians will cast ballots in legislative and key assembly elections on Friday, with conservatives expected to tighten their grip on power in the absence of any serious competition.

G20 finance ministers will meet Wednesday in Brazil, seeking ways to shore up a global economy whose nascent recovery is threatened by a raft of conflicts and crises, including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Famine is "imminent" in northern Gaza, where no humanitarian group has been able to provide aid since January 23, the World Food Programme warned Tuesday, as Israel wages war on Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The former boss of a feared Colombian paramilitary group arrived back in the country on Tuesday after serving a 16-year jail term in the United States, and will participate in the country's ongoing peace process with armed groups, migration authorities said.

The Lebanese armed group has been trading fire with the Israeli military across Lebanon's southern border in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.

Attempts to organise an Israel-Hamas ceasefire to allow the release of hostages held in Gaza dominated the first day of a state visit to France by Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Guyana, hosting a summit of Caribbean countries, on Tuesday welcomed an announcement that Benin was mulling a 2,000-strong troop contribution to a UN security mission in crisis-torn Haiti.

Reports say Chinese police officers are actively engaged in community policing and the development of a crime database program in Kiribati.