WORLD

The World Health Organization said Friday that a mass evacuation of the northern Gaza Strip would be "disastrous" for hospital patients, with hospitals in the south already at full capacity.

Australians are poised to reject greater rights and recognition for Indigenous citizens Saturday, voting in a referendum that has exposed deep fissures between the country's white majority and the descendants of its first inhabitants.

Great Britain and the Philippines are celebrating 77 years of diplomatic relations this year, and the UK's show of support comes as the smaller Southeast Asian nation resists Beijing's pressure in a disputed shoal at the Spratly Islands.

The massive Hamas attack on Israel cannot justify the "limitless destruction" of the Gaza Strip, the Red Cross said Friday, as it called for pauses in the fighting.

Fabian Picardo was sworn in for a fourth consecutive term as leader of Gibraltar Friday after his centre-left alliance narrowly won an election in the tiny British overseas territory.

Police have arrested a 22-year-old woman in England suspected of having made a speech backing Hamas, despite laws forbidding explicit support for banned organisations, the local force said Friday.

A man of Chechen origin stabbed to death a teacher and severely wounded two other adults Friday at a school in northeastern France, with prosectors opening a probe into a suspected act of terror.

An Israeli embassy worker in Beijing was attacked on Friday, Israel's foreign ministry said.

New Zealand's centre-left prime minister, Chris Hipkins, says he is "going full-tilt" to win a general election Saturday, vowing to defy polls indicating an end to his brief reign since his charismatic predecessor Jacinda Ardern stepped down.

Israel on Friday gave Palestinians 24 hours to leave Gaza City ahead of an expected ground offensive in retaliation against Hamas for the deadliest attack in Israeli history.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Friday that trust between the bloc and China had been eroded, blaming the trade imbalance between the two on "difficulties" faced by European companies in the world's second-largest economy.

In a working-class neighbourhood of Myanmar's Yangon, plastic waste is piled a metre high, the toxic product of what a recent investigation said is rampant dumping of Western trash.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday issued an emotional, final-day plea to salvage a landmark referendum on Indigenous rights, his voice trembling as he told voters: "Kindness costs nothing."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday began a tour of Arab capitals as he seeks to build pressure on Hamas while Israel readies a likely massive offensive on the Gaza Strip following the militants' attacks.

Israel has throughout its history been targeted by hostage-taking in standoffs resolved by both force and diplomacy, but the mass seizure of citizens by Palestinian militant group Hamas presents the authorities with an unprecedented quandary.

Hearing firsthand from Israeli survivors of the massive Hamas assault, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken experienced a rare scene for a diplomat: a cheering crowd.

The moment Kim Prosser learned that her 19-year-old son Ashtyn had died by suicide, she says she dropped to the floor, where she lay "shaking and so cold."

Five things to know about Ecuador, which holds a runoff presidential election on Sunday.

Yossi Landau has spent decades collecting corpses in Israel, but he almost reached breaking point recovering the remains of people killed by Gaza militants in the country's deadliest assault.

The Republican nominee to lead the US House of Representatives struggled Thursday to find enough support to win a vote of the full chamber, underlining the mountain he will have to climb to unite the deeply fractured party.

The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday extended the mandate of its rapporteur on rights violations in Russia by a year, in a second diplomatic defeat for Moscow in three days.

Like clockwork, every 30 seconds Israeli artillery goes into action against a barely visible target somewhere in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

ASEAN nations have signed an agreement to enhance customs clearance for export and import transactions among members, marking another step towards strengthening relations within the group.

In its bloody assault on Israel, Hamas was aiming to break a stalemate in Gaza, analysts say, but with its neighbour now determined to eradicate the Islamist group, it may have made a fatal mistake.

Foes Armenia and Azerbaijan crossed swords at the UN's top court Thursday, as Yerevan accused Baku of "ethnic cleansing" in Nagorno-Karabakh, sparking a furious response from the Azerbaijani side over the "unfounded" charges.

Italian prosecutors called Thursday for journalist Roberto Saviano to be fined 10,000 euros in a defamation case brought by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, after he criticised her stance on migrants.

At least two unknown assailants entered the mosque in the Daska town of Pakistan, and fatally shot 53-year-old Shahid Latif and another mosque-goer.

Gibraltar votes on Thursday in a tight election which could affect talks on a deal settling the tiny British overseas territory's ties with the European Union following Brexit.

Consumer inflation held steady in the United States last month, according to government data released Thursday, giving policymakers some reprieve in their battle to tamp down price increases.