WORLD

Questions -- and, for some, outrage -- intensified over several of President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks Friday, as Washington awaits announcements for more major positions including head of the FBI and Treasury.

The head of the Spanish region devastated by the country's deadliest floods in decades admitted to "mistakes" and apologised on Friday but rebuffed calls for his resignation.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to engage in peace talks with Ukraine, in the first call between the leaders in almost two years.

Suzanne Karkaba and her father Ali were both civil defence rescuers whose job was to save the injured and recover the dead in Lebanon's war.

The world-famous Pompeii archaeological park introduced a daily limit of 20,000 visitors on Friday, the latest Italian tourist site to take action against overcrowding.

The wife of a Russian poet jailed for seven years for reciting anti-war verses said she was afraid he could be killed in prison after he was sexually assaulted with a dumbbell during his arrest.

A French court on Friday ordered the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, jailed for 40 years for the killing of two foreign diplomats, prosecutors said.

Donald Trump's White House comeback gives his ally Elon Musk a sizeable advantage in a running standoff with EU tech regulators -- who may now think twice before fining his X platform over disinformation concerns.

China is expected to push forward in its quest to build the first lunar base on Friday, launching an in-space experiment to test whether the station's bricks could be made from the Moon's own soil.

Typhoon Usagi blew out of the Philippines early Friday as another dangerous storm drew closer, threatening an area where scores were killed by flash floods and landslides just weeks ago, the weather service said.

Asian markets were mixed Friday after Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell tempered expectations for interest rate cuts, while traders also contemplated a hawkish Trump presidency.

Across northern Israel's lush, green nature reserves, the ecological toll of the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants is laid bare: wild boar hit by shrapnel, trees reduced to ashes and swathes of charred vegetation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday inaugurated Latin America's first Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru -- a symbol of the Asian superpower's growing influence on the continent as it prepares to face off with a new Donald Trump administration.

From the ground floor of a low-income apartment building in Toronto, Sultana Jahangir runs an organization that helps South Asian woman get established in Canada -- a challenge she said is getting harder.

A US appeals court on Thursday granted a request by Special Counsel Jack Smith to pause the case against Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.

Princess Mikasa, the oldest member of Japan's royal family and great aunt to the emperor, died aged 101 on Friday in a Tokyo hospital, the Imperial Household Agency said.

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire closely allied with US President-elect Donald Trump, met Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in a bid to defuse tensions between Tehran and Washington, The New York Times reported Thursday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered the "mass production" of suicide attack drones, state media reported on Friday, after he witnessed a test of the weapons system a day earlier.

More than a year of clashes that recently escalated into war have cost Lebanon more than $5 billion in economic losses, with actual structural damage amounting to billions more, the World Bank said on Thursday.

New York said Thursday it will revive a controversial scheme to charge drivers entering parts of the city, a first in the United States, putting local authorities on a collision course with President-elect Donald Trump.

Israel's warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, a special UN committee said Thursday, as a Human Rights Watch report said Israel's displacement of Gazans amounts to a "crime against humanity".

A war monitor said Israeli strikes in and around Damascus on Thursday killed 20 people including Palestinian militants and Iran-backed fighters, as attacks intensify during the Lebanon war.

New York said Thursday it will revive a controversial scheme to charge drivers entering parts of the city, a first in the United States, putting local authorities on a collision course with President-elect Donald Trump.

The UN peacekeeping chief whose force monitors Lebanon's south said redeploying Lebanese troops there is crucial for any solution to more than a year of Hezbollah-Israel clashes that escalated into war in September.

Migration to richer countries reached a record level for the second year running in 2023, the OECD said on Thursday, reflecting demand for foreign labour and gaps in the workforce left by ageing populations.

An independent central bank is "fundamental" to good economic outcomes, a senior Federal Reserve official said Thursday, amid concerns that president-elect Donald Trump may seek to influence Fed policy.

Authorities in Brazil on Thursday were searching for the motive of a man who apparently tried to bomb the Supreme Court, killing himself in the process.

Two women in Norway, swapped at birth almost six decades ago, allege a government coverup of the mix-up. Their lawsuit against the state seeks justice and compensation after discovering the truth through DNA tests and withheld information.

Israel's warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, a special UN committee said Thursday, accusing the country of "using starvation as a method of war".