WORLD

Net migration to the UK dropped by half in 2024, the latest official figures showed on Thursday, in what will be a welcome boost for under-fire Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The Israeli army issued an evacuation warning on Thursday for 14 neighbourhoods of northern Gaza, as it pressed a renewed offensive that has drawn international condemnation.

A British court on Thursday was reviewing the government's deal to return the remote Chagos Islands to Mauritius after imposing a last-minute block on the accord.

Irish rappers Kneecap on Thursday denied supporting a proscribed group and vowed to defend themselves after a singer was charged with a "terror" offence for allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag at a London concert.

Lyudmila Vasilyeva, 84, survived the Siege of Leningrad in World War II as a child.

Director Joachim Trier found himself crying behind the camera as he shot "Sentimental Value", his moving new tale about a quietly fractured family that got an extraordinary 19-minute standing ovation Thursday at the end of its premiere at the Cannes film festival.

The High Court in London said it would examine Thursday the UK government's deal to return the remote Chagos Islands to Mauritius after imposing a last-minute block on the accord.

A major accident occurred at the launch ceremony for a new North Korean naval destroyer, state media reported Thursday, with leader Kim Jong Un calling the mishap a "criminal act".

Working with the utmost care, a Belgian deminer wiggled a century-old artillery shell from the soil and deposited it safely in a sandbox in the back of his truck.

Two Israeli embassy staffers were shot dead late Wednesday outside a Jewish museum in Washington by a gunman who shouted "free Palestine," authorities said, with US officials and Israeli diplomats expressing shock and outrage over the killings.

Hundreds of young Mongolians turned out this week in the country's capital calling for the prime minister's resignation on allegations of corruption, a longstanding source of deep public anger in the landlocked democracy.

Torrential rain continued to lash eastern Australia on Thursday, swelling already engorged rivers, engulfing roads and leaving almost 50,000 people stranded.

For world leaders an invitation to the Oval Office used to be a coveted prize.

Israeli troops fired what the army called "warning shots" during a visit by foreign diplomats to the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, drawing widespread international condemnation.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has accepted the Boeing 747 that the Gulf emirate of Qatar offered to President Donald Trump for use as Air Force One, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

Film director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke felt Thailand's popular gay cinema needed to branch out and do more politics, so he enlisted one of the country's top influencers to help.

South Africa's finance minister presented Wednesday a third version of the 2025 budget after being forced to backtrack on a proposed increase in value-added tax that threatened to split the coalition government.

The Tour de France will make three circuits of the historic Paris district of Montmartre on its last stage this year in what organisers said Wednesday would add a competitive finale to the world's greatest bike race.

Prosecutors on Wednesday urged a French court to hand 10-year prison terms to the four men accused of robbing American superstar Kim Kardashian of some $10 million worth of jewellery at a Paris hotel.

A US-sanctioned Ukrainian ex-MP and senior aide to the country's former pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych was shot dead near Madrid on Wednesday, a Spanish police source told AFP. Officers rushed to the scene in the upmarket town of Pozuelo de Alarcon where several people shot a man in the back and head as he prepared to climb into a vehicle, the source said, confirming the deceased person was Andriy Portnov.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has recovered well after his release from jail last year, his wife told AFP ahead of the premiere of a documentary Wednesday that includes never-seen-before footage of the whistleblower.

The Kremlin on Wednesday rejected Ukrainian and European accusations that it was stalling Ukraine peace talks, saying it plans to name its conditions for a ceasefire, but declining to give a time frame.

Manchester United and Tottenham face off in the Europa League final in Bilbao on Wednesday with both clubs eyeing a golden ticket into the Champions League after historically poor seasons.

Gazans waited desperately for vital supplies on Wednesday after Israel said it let in dozens of UN trucks but faced mounting international pressure to increase the aid flow and abandon its intensified military campaign.

A suspected suicide bomber targeted a schoolbus in southwestern Pakistan killing at least four children and two adults on Wednesday, in an attack the government accused India of backing.

India's Asiatic lion population has increased by over a third to 891, according to a five-yearly census released on Wednesday, boosting efforts to conserve the vulnerable species.

Britain's annual inflation rate surged more than expected in April as energy and water bills rose sharply, official data showed on Wednesday.

A team of doctors and vets in Pakistan has developed a novel treatment for a pair of elephants suffering from tuberculosis that involves feeding them at least 400 pills a day.

Japan's farm minister resigned Wednesday after a gaffe about rice drew public fury in a country experiencing soaring prices of the cherished staple.