WORLD

Brazil's 2026 presidential election may offer a field of candidates featuring neither incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva nor far-right rival Jair Bolsonaro.

A "tidal wave" of the flu has hit the United Kingdom, with health officials delivering 28 million vaccines to Christmas markets, football clubs and Kroger supermarkets as a precaution for Britons.

An annual report by the Canadian government showed that utilizing euthanasia has steadily grown in the past five years.

UN investigators say they have compiled secret lists of 4,000 perpetrators of serious crimes in Syria and hope the fall of Bashar al-Assad will help ensure accountability up to the highest level.

Salome Zurabishvili was a French diplomat before entering the turbulent politics of her ancestral homeland, where she was elected Georgia's first woman leader in 2018 and became the beacon of Tbilisi's EU aspirations.

The United States was pushing Thursday for an "inclusive" transition in Syria from president Bashar al-Assad's brutal rule, after the country's new leaders pledged to protect minority rights.

French President Emmanuel Macron was expected Thursday to name a new prime minister a week after MPs toppled the government, with politicians across the spectrum holding their breath while he conducts a day visit to Poland.

In the small town of Dedovsk, just outside Moscow, pensioner Zinaida Kudriavtseva is struggling to pay the bills.

French politics was on hold Thursday during a day trip to Poland by President Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to name a new prime minister a week after MPs toppled the government.

At a popular meeting spot for substance abusers near central Helsinki, even the addicts warn that Finland has a spiralling drug problem, particularly among young people.

Her husband orchestrating her sexual abuse by strangers could have broken her.

Riyad Avlar spent 20 years languishing in Syria's jails, including a decade in the infamous Saydnaya prison, the scene of some of the Bashar al-Assad government's most brutal abuses.

A rash of unexplained drone sightings in the skies above New Jersey has left locals rattled and sent US officials scrambling for answers.

Taiwan said Thursday it detected 16 Chinese warships in waters around the island, one of the highest numbers this year, as Beijing intensifies military pressure on Taipei.

Mohammed Naeem knew the Kabul street where he and his brothers built matching apartment buildings was too narrow, but he was still in disbelief as their homes were reduced to rubble to widen the road.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday vowed to fight "until the very last minute", defending his shock decision last week to declare martial law and deploy troops to the country's parliament The South Korean leader is banned from foreign travel as part of an "insurrection" probe into his inner circle over the dramatic events of December 3-4 that stunned South Korea's allies.

The movers and shakers of the video game industry will gather Thursday in Los Angeles to celebrate the annual Game Awards, the sector's equivalent of the Oscars.

Pope Francis travels to the French island of Corsica Sunday to visit the small Catholic community, just days after having skipped the reopening ceremony for Notre Dame cathedral.

Law enforcement in the United Kingdom are warning citizens to be on the lookout for an inmate who escaped from a prison.

Somalia and Ethiopia have reached a deal to end a nearly year-old bitter dispute following hours of Turkish-brokered talks in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday.

This year is on track to become the hottest year on record, with global temperatures expected to exceed the1.5 degrees Celsius above benchmark set by the Paris Agreement.

The UN General Assembly voted Wednesday in favor of a draft resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, a symbolic gesture after the United States vetoed a similar action in the UN Security Council.

Adidas AG headquarters was raided as part of a five-year tax investigation.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday urged businesses to invest in war-torn Ukraine and stressed a commitment to smooth Kyiv's path to European Union accession.

Russia on Wednesday vowed retribution against Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of firing Western-supplied missiles on a military airfield in its southern Rostov region.

In the corridors of Damascus's main hospitals, thousands of families have gathered for the foreboding mission of trying to find the bodies of loved ones captured years ago by the Syrian authorities.

"It was an incredible coincidence that we heard the child's voice despite the engine running."

The Afghan minister for refugees was killed on Wednesday in a suicide bombing at the ministry's offices in the capital Kabul, government sources said, blaming the Islamic State group for the attack which has not been claimed.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday urged the release of protesters "arbitrarily" arrested in a crackdown on pro-EU demonstrations in Georgia, in telephone talks with the billionaire former premier Bidzina Ivanishvili, the Elysee said.