WORLD

Marie-Pascale Radoux has been waiting for three months for news of her son, Orion, still believed held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip after their October 7 attack in Israel.

French leader Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday picked Gabriel Attal as prime minister in a bid to give new momentum to his presidency, with the 34-year-old becoming France's youngest and first openly gay head of government.

Russia on Tuesday said its military would do everything possible to stop the Ukrainian shelling of Belgorod, a border town where hundreds were evacuated after fatal bombardments.

It's Day 95 of the Israel-Hamas war, and developments in Israel's northern border with Lebanon add up to fears of the war spreading across the Middle East.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday was expected to name a new prime minister in a long-awaited cabinet reshuffle to reboot the final three years of his presidency.

One of Ecuador's most feared gangsters is believed to have escaped from prison, a government spokesman said Monday as hundreds of police officers searched a maximum security jail.

Taiwan's presidential election frontrunner on Tuesday accused Beijing of using "all means" to influence this weekend's crucial poll, which will set the course of cross-strait ties for the next four years.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken was set to meet Israeli leaders Tuesday as part of efforts to contain the war in Gaza, a day after strikes in Syria and Lebanon killed high-profile members of Hamas and its ally Hezbollah.

Cuba's cash-strapped government announced Monday that fuel prices will soar by more than 500 percent beginning February 1, part of a series of economic measures aimed at reducing the deficit.

China's foreign minister said Tuesday that relations with the United States "stabilised" last year, as the two powers seek to put ties on a surer footing in 2024.

Since Sudan's war spread to Al-Jazira state south of Khartoum, farmers have watched their livelihoods wither away after fighting between paramilitary forces battling the army wreaked havoc on once-bountiful lands.

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan began voting Tuesday in general elections with parties vowing to tackle serious economic challenges, calling into question its longstanding policy of prioritising "Gross National Happiness" over growth.

Hundreds of thousands of Catholic faithful swarmed a historic statue of Jesus Christ as it was pulled through the streets of the Philippine capital on Tuesday, in one of the world's biggest displays of religious devotion.

A caravan in Mexico of at least 1,000 migrants resumed its march northward towards the US border on Monday, accusing Mexican authorities of failing to fulfill their promise of granting humanitarian visas.

Bottled water is up to a hundred times worse than previously thought when it comes to the number of tiny plastic bits it contains, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said Monday.

Ecuador has launched a manhunt for an "extremely dangerous" narco leader who has vanished from a maximum security prison in the South American country beset by drug gang violence.

In an exhibition laden with symbolism, Brazil on Monday marked the anniversary of the far-right riots that rocked the capital a year ago by displaying artworks, antique furniture and other objects vandalized in the attacks.

French President Emmanuel Macron was on Monday preparing a long-awaited cabinet reshuffle with the prime minister's job on the line but uncertainty remaining to the last minute over the head of state's intentions.

Public anger is mounting over what has been described as Britain's biggest ever miscarriage of justice that saw hundreds of subpostmasters wrongly convicted of theft because of a computer software glitch.

Former Gambian interior minister Ousman Sonko faced trial in Switzerland on Monday, accused of crimes against humanity committed under the regime of ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh.

Furious farmers opposed to Berlin's plans to cut tax breaks for agriculture used tractors to block roads across Germany on Monday, kicking off a series of crippling strikes sinking the country deeper into a winter of discontent.

India's top court ruled Monday that 11 murderers convicted of a gang rape that drew global outrage, but who were released early, must return to jail.

Russia said Monday it had moved some 300 people from the border city of Belgorod due to Ukrainian shelling, the biggest evacuation from a major Russian city since the conflict began.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler on Monday before heading to Israel as part of efforts to stop the Gaza war spiralling into a regional conflict.

A heavy dumping of snow meanwhile complicated relief efforts a week after the 7.5-magnitude quake, with more than 2,000 people still cut off and many others lacking power or forced to take shelter in crowded emergency sites.

The death toll from Japan's New Year's Day earthquake jumped to 161 on Monday as snow complicated relief efforts with more than 2,000 people still cut off and many others lacking power or in crowded emergency shelters.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken was due in Israel on Monday for difficult talks on the war in Gaza as fears grow that the conflict could engulf the wider region.

Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in 2011 and is now "suicidal" according to his lawyer, appears in court Monday in his lawsuit against Norway over his prison conditions.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will mark the first anniversary Monday of the far-right riots that rocked the Brazilian capital last year, with a ceremony in Congress declaring "democracy unbowed."