WORLD

A new exhibition at Madrid's Prado museum is throwing a spotlight on the reverse side of paintings, letting visitors see labels, seals and sketches that are usually hidden from view.

Zimbabwe will hold nine by-elections on Saturday with opposition candidates largely absent as President Emmerson Mnangagwa cements his control over the mineral-rich nation.

The UN Security Council meets on Gaza Friday under acute pressure from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and will vote on urging an immediate ceasefire after weeks of ruinous war.

Hunter Biden was indicted late Thursday on multiple counts of tax evasion, the second time this year President Joe Biden's troubled son has been charged by a special counsel investigating his personal and business dealings.

On Day 63 of the Israel-Hamas conflict, fire exchanges have intensified further in Israel's northern border with Lebanon even as the Israeli army moves deeper into Khan Yunis to hunt down Hamas' top leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

Arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan said Thursday they would exchange prisoners of war and work towards normalising their relations, in a joint statement hailed by the EU as a "breakthrough".

Blanca, an asylum seeker with two daughters, must leave the New York City shelter she has called home for the past year after Christmas to make room for new arrivals.

Ukraine urged residents to save electricity Thursday after a power plant near the front line was hit by shelling, the first such warning this winter as temperatures plunge below freezing.

The United States and Mexico plan to form a working group on foreign investment screening, aimed at guarding against national security threats, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday.

French President Emmanuel Macron meets Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday in a bid to break the deadlock ahead of an EU summit after the Hungarian leader threatened to block further backing for Ukraine.

A 14-year-old girl shot a classmate dead and injured five people before killing herself at a secondary school in the Russian city of Bryansk near the Ukraine border on Thursday.

Heavy urban combat raged in and around Gaza's biggest cities Thursday as the bloodiest ever war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas entered its third month since the October 7 attacks.

Fatah, the largest Palestinian party, has seen its popularity plunge during the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, from where the Islamists violently ousted rivals Fatah in 2007.

Agnes Chow was trapped in Hong Kong, had her passport seized and was branded a "foreign agent" after years as one of the city's most prominent democracy activists.

EU President Ursula von der Leyen told Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday that the bloc and its biggest trading partner must address their differences, as they began the first in-person EU-China summit in over four years.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travels to Athens on Thursday in a keenly watched visit billed as an attempted "new chapter" between the NATO allies and historic rivals after years of tension.

Indonesian authorities on Thursday said they had ended a search and rescue mission for any hikers missing or killed after a volcano eruption over the weekend that left 23 people dead.

Israeli troops battled Hamas fighters Thursday in the heart of southern Gaza's main city where a top militant leader is believed to be hiding, while pressing their offensive across the besieged territory.

On Day 62 of the Israel-Hamas conflict, Israeli troops have advanced deeper into Khan Yunis, the hometown of the terror group's top leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

Australia clinched a security deal with Papua New Guinea on Thursday, bolstering ties to a key Pacific neighbour that has been courted persistently by China.

Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, 85, was freed from prison on Wednesday after a court reinstated a pardon of his 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity.

The United States said Wednesday that Sudan's rival forces have both committed war crimes in their brutal conflict and alleged a new ethnic cleansing campaign in scarred Darfur.

Hydroelectric power is the world's most significant source of renewable energy, but it's not exactly 'green'.

A plastic sheet rigged up as a tent, branches gathered from here and there to make a fire -- at the southern tip of Gaza, displaced Palestinians are settling in as best they can.

Britain's hardline former interior minister Suella Braverman on Wednesday issued Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak an ultimatum to get tougher on immigration or face certain wipeout at the polls.

COP28 may become the first-ever international climate summit to commit to eventually phasing out oil and gas.

The United States charged four pro-Russian soldiers with war crimes on Wednesday for the abduction and torture of an American national in Ukraine.

Beach lovers were able to take a dip in New Caledonia's capital Noumea for the first time in months Wednesday, after the French Pacific territory installed a controversial net to keep sharks out.

Authoritarian states are increasingly targeting journalists working in exile as part of government reprisal campaigns against dissidents living outside their countries, US-based rights group Freedom House said in a new report Wednesday.