WORLD

Rabbi Mendel Moscowitz from the northeastern city of Kharkiv never imagined his family would be forced to flee a second war after leaving Ukraine for Israel last year.

Hikers hit the trail before dawn at South Africa's natural jewel Table Mountain, but instead of simply trekking its rugged landscape they were also demonstrating against a surge in attacks on walkers and tourists.

As the number of refugees soars worldwide, the United Nations is appealing for countries to support displaced people at a global summit this week with the aim of showing that "change is possible".

As Edinah Nyasuguta Omwenga fought for her life after developing complications during childbirth, she overheard doctors in the Kenyan hospital describe her condition as a textbook example of the damaging -- even deadly -- effects of genital mutilation.

If sipping White Russians while you go bowling with your odd-ball friends is your thing, you might like to bid on the bathrobe Jeff Bridges wore in "The Big Lebowski."

China's President Xi Jinping arrived in Vietnam Tuesday for his first visit in six years, as he seeks to counter the United States' growing influence with the communist nation.

A Japanese zoo has launched a probe after apparently massacring 31 of its 40 squirrels by mistake with treatments meant to kill parasites, officials said.

On Day 67 of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Israeli army continued to implement intensified ground operations across the Gaza Strip. In the north, the defense minister said Israeli troops surrounded the two remaining Hamas strongholds.

Myanmar became the world's biggest producer of opium in 2023, overtaking Afghanistan after the Taliban government's crackdown on the trade, according to a United Nations report released on Tuesday.

Israel pressed on with its bombing of Gaza on Tuesday after saying its campaign to destroy Hamas has left the Palestinian militant group on the "the verge of dissolution".

Things got off to a rough start between Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky, two men who on the surface at least have little in common -- but since Russia invaded Ukraine they have become firm allies.

Allies of the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that they had been unable to locate him for six days, and that he had likely been transferred to another facility.

Cows grazing on lush pastures with ornate metal bells gently tinkling around their necks may be one of the ultimate symbols of Switzerland, but not everyone is enchanted by such traditional scenes.

A Texas woman has been forced to leave the state for an emergency abortion after being prevented from terminating her potentially life-threatening pregnancy, a court filing by her lawyers said Monday.

Teachers at a school outside Paris refused to work on Monday as the establishment grappled with a crisis sparked by the showing in class of a painting by a Renaissance master containing several nude women.

Aid trucks stalled at the Gaza border, hospitals treating missing limbs: UN Security Council envoys visiting Egypt on Monday encountered the fallout of the Israel-Hamas war, days after the United States vetoed a ceasefire resolution.

Women and girls getting their periods in Gaza face humiliating conditions and infections, forced to use diapers or scraps of cloth after more than two months of war.

Russians have voiced concern about the growing cost of a basic food staple -- eggs -- pointing to the fragile state of the sanctions-hit economy, as President Vladimir Putin seeks a fifth term in office.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was set Monday to make a last-ditch plea for US aid before it runs out this year, with Republicans arguing that the United States should no longer provide open-ended backing to Ukraine's battle against Russian invasion.

A French frigate that shot down two drones in the Red Sea was acting in self-defence after coming under attack from the unmanned aerial vehicles, the foreign ministry in Paris said on Monday.

More than 400 South African gold miners who remained underground for four days, amid tensions between unions and the mine owners, returned to the surface on Monday, some telling AFP that workers had collapsed due to lack of food.

The children of imprisoned Iranian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi said Monday they were "extremely worried" about her health after she undertook a hunger strike in a Tehran prison.

Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders appeared Monday to have persuaded his preferred coalition partners to keep negotiating but reportedly major "stumbling blocks" remain over his hardline anti-Islam, anti-European views.

France's powerful Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has indicated he is no longer interested in running for the presidency in 2027, saying that former prime minister Edouard Philippe is best placed to succeed Emmanuel Macron.

The risk she could lose her children is driving Chiara and her family into self-imposed exile, away from Italy and a hard-right government hostile to same-sex parents.

The Philippines said it had summoned China's envoy on Monday and flagged the possibility of expelling him following the most tense confrontations between the countries' vessels in years at flashpoint reefs in the disputed South China Sea.

The Polish parliament on Monday is expected to vote out a populist cabinet and approve a pro-EU government led by former European Council president Donald Tusk, ushering in a new era for the country.

Several Israeli soldiers were wounded when Hezbollah launched a drone attack from Lebanon on Sunday, both the Israeli army and the militant group said.

Papua New Guinea's prime minister has promised to tread carefully with Belt and Road funding from China, telling AFP on Monday he would not be "reckless" with foreign loans.