WORLD

Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah served as Kuwait's emir for just three years but spent decades in top posts through the House of Sabah's tumultuous rule of the oil-rich state.

A Greek art museum this week handed over its halls exclusively to women artists, in a pioneering exhibition titled "What if women ruled the world?"

Two of the world's largest shipping firms, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, said Friday they were suspending passage through a Red Sea strait vital for global commerce, after Yemeni rebel attacks in the area.

A jury ordered Donald Trump's former lawyer Rudy Giuliani to pay $148 million in damages on Friday for defaming two Georgia poll workers with his false claims they engaged in election fraud.

The behaviour of French cinema superstar Gerard Depardieu, charged with rape and facing new scrutiny after sexist comments were broadcast in a television documentary, shames France, the culture minister said on Friday.

A British 17-year-old found in France six years after going missing in Spain is to return home to England this weekend, a French deputy prosecutor said on Friday.

Fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitaries engulfed the aid hub of Wad Madani Friday triggering an exodus of civilians already displaced by eight months of war, an AFP correspondent reported.

Former first lady Melania Trump made a rare public appearance Friday, telling new US citizens at a naturalization ceremony to "be proud of yourself, stand your ground and embrace the opportunities that lie ahead."

Russia's central bank on Friday raised its key interest rate to 16 percent, announcing a fifth hike since summer in a bid to fight accelerating inflation.

Russia's radical conservative turn since it invaded Ukraine is changing life inside the country, with even the long-held right for women to have abortions being questioned.

A more precise picture of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel has emerged from social security data, confirming the unprecedented scale of the violence but also challenging some initial testimonies.

The Netherlands can continue to deliver parts for F-35 fighter jets being used by Israel in the Gaza Strip, after a Dutch court Friday threw out a case brought by a group of human rights organisations.

Georgia's imprisoned opposition leader and former president Mikheil Saakashvili has warned that Tbilisi's failure to secure European Union membership would put at risk its very existence as an independent nation.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will not be on the ballot in Sunday's parliamentary and local elections, but the contest is nevertheless a referendum on his government amid soaring inflation and months of protests.

France's foreign minister travels to Lebanon on Saturday as part of diplomatic efforts by President Emmanuel Macron's government to help contain the Middle East conflict.

When Jose Soriano was a child, the hills near the village of Sarrion in Spain's remote and sparsely populated eastern province of Teruel were mostly uncultivated, covered in brush and rocks.

With bawdy songs and violin solos, a live concert near Ukraine's front line gave troops a chance to unwind and clear their heads of warfare.

Cannabis smokers in two Dutch cities will be able to light up legally for the first time Friday, as authorities roll out a trial decriminalising the production and supply of weed.

Israel pressed its offensive in the Gaza Strip on Friday after telling key backer the United States that the war to crush Hamas will last "more than several months".

On Day 70 of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli army said it has taken over the headquarters of Hamas' Shuja'iyya Battalion, the same Hamas formation that gave Israeli troops a fierce fight Tuesday, when nine soldiers were killed in a multi-round ambush, including the IDF's highest-ranking official to fall in battle since the war started.

A group of condors rip into the carcass of a calf at the top of a Colombian mountain which rises 4,200 metres above sea level.

A little-known dog lineage with fur so thick it was spun into blankets was selectively bred for millennia by Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest until its rapid demise following European colonization, a study in Science showed Thursday.

The presidents of Venezuela and Guyana met Thursday in the Caribbean for talks that analysts said could "de-escalate" tensions but would do little to resolve their countries' long-standing -- and now reheating -- territorial dispute.

The United States told Israel on Wednesday to scale down its war on Hamas in Gaza in the "near future," with President Joe Biden urging it to take more care to save civilian lives in Gaza.

International aid group Doctors Without Borders said Thursday it was suspending work at a medical center in the Haitian capital after an armed group pulled a critically ill patient from an ambulance and shot him dead in the street.

Experts say that India has the potential to extend its successful track record in the automobile industry to electric vehicles as well.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Thursday he was open to toughening up his controversial plan to send migrants to Rwanda, which has divided his ruling Conservative party.

A Senegalese judge on Thursday ordered that jailed opposition leader Ousmane Sonko be reinstated on the electoral roll, clearing the way for him to stand in next year's presidential election.

Vladimir Putin on Thursday holds his first year-end press conference since sending troops into Ukraine, with the Russian president feeling the tide turning in his favour nearly two years into the conflict.