WORLD

Extreme temperatures across India are having their worst impact in the country's teeming megacities, experts said Thursday, warning that the heat is fast becoming a public health crisis.

Spain's parliament gave the final green light to a controversial amnesty bill for Catalan separatists Thursday, paving the way for the return of their figurehead Carles Puigdemont after years of self-imposed exile.

EU states agreed on Thursday to impose "prohibitive" duties on grain imports from Russia in a bid to cut off revenues to Moscow for its war on Ukraine.

Authorities arrested four people and took down or disrupted more than 100 servers in the "largest ever" operation against botnets that deploy ransomware, Europol said Thursday.

Since its invasion of Ukraine, Russia's grain exports have not only been spared by European Union sanctions, but even stayed free of tariffs -- a seeming anomaly the bloc has now agreed to rectify.

Hong Kong activist Chan Po-ying became one of the city's only pro-democracy voices after her prominent husband's arrest in 2021, refusing to give up the struggle they had waged together for decades.

On the edge of the Afghan border with Uzbekistan, where the railway abruptly stops, throngs of young men transfer sacks of wheat or flour from freight trains to trucks.

The Israeli military launched its incursion into Rafah in early May despite international objections over the fate of Palestinian civilians sheltering there.

A gunman shot dead an aspiring mayor at a rally Wednesday in southern Mexico, marking a bloody end to campaigning in a country expected to elect its first woman president this weekend.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Thursday for a peace conference on the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas as he addressed Arab leaders and diplomats at a forum in Beijing.

A bid for wholesale reform of New Zealand rugby's governing body was rejected by heartland unions on Thursday, threatening to throw the game into disarray in the rugby-mad nation.

A Hong Kong court found 14 people guilty of subversion on Thursday in the biggest case against pro-democracy campaigners since China imposed a national security law to crush dissent.

Almost every Indian meal requires an onion -- one of the cooking essentials along with sugar and lentils that sweet-talking politicians use to curry favour with their voters by lowering costs.

Novak Djokovic believes he's moving in a "positive direction" as he targets a place in the last 32 of the French Open on Thursday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will on Thursday address Arab leaders and diplomats at a forum in Beijing, seeking to deepen ties with the region and speak with a "common voice" on the conflict in Gaza.

A Hong Kong court will convene Thursday morning to deliver verdicts in the city's biggest case against pro-democracy campaigners since China imposed a national security law to crush dissent.

Brazil has recalled its ambassador to Israel, a diplomatic source told AFP Wednesday, ratcheting up tensions between the two countries over Israel's war in Gaza.

The remains of Ferdinand Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the first king of Bulgaria following five centuries of Ottoman rule, were repatriated from Germany Wednesday to be interred in a family mausoleum, 76 years after his death.

The move by Spain, Ireland and Norway to recognise the State of Palestine will give a major boost to the cause, the Palestinian Authority's health minister said Wednesday, urging other European countries to follow suit.

President Xi Jinping told his Egyptian counterpart on Wednesday that China was "deeply pained" by the "extremely severe" situation in Gaza, as Beijing hosts Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and several other Arab leaders.

Twelve New York jurors were to begin deliberating Wednesday on whether to convict Donald Trump in the first ever criminal trial of a former US president -- with their decision potentially upending the November election in which the Republican seeks a return to power.

Investigators on Wednesday raided the home and offices of an EU parliamentary staffer as Belgium probes claims that Russia paid far-right lawmakers -- including Germany's embattled Maximilian Krah -- to spread Kremlin propaganda.

The European Union on Wednesday announced the creation of an "AI Office" of tech experts, lawyers and economists to regulate artificial intelligence under a sweeping new law.

The expected meeting between the United States' Lloyd Austin and China's Dong Jun at the Shangri-La Dialogue will be the first substantive face-to-face talks between their countries' defense chiefs in 18 months.

Haiti's transitional government council on Tuesday named a new prime minister to lead the violence-hit Caribbean nation, council members said, choosing Garry Conille, who briefly served in that role from 2011 to 2012.

Colombia's congress passed a bill Tuesday banning bullfighting, a controversial yet popular pastime in the South American country with hundreds of events drawing thousands of spectators every year.

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte was questioned by prosecutors Tuesday over the shuttering of a police unit that had searched her house in a corruption case.

Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be prosecuted for insulting the monarchy, the attorney general's office said Wednesday, over comments he made almost a decade ago.

Israel carried out fresh strikes on Wednesday in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where its forces are battling Hamas militants, after the UN Security Council met to discuss a deadly attack that sparked global outcry.