WORLD

The White House on Monday criticized Republicans for spreading videos purported to show President Joe Biden's mental and physical decline, saying the images had been deceptively cut and manipulated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday praised North Korea for "firmly supporting" Moscow's war in Ukraine ahead of his visit to Pyongyang aimed at boosting ties between the nuclear-armed allies.

A Russian nuclear-powered submarine and other naval vessels on Monday left the port of Havana after a five-day visit to Cuba, the communist state off Florida's coast.

Eurovision winner Nemo received a hero's welcome on Monday as they took to the stage to give their Swiss hometown of Biel a celebratory rendition of victorious song "The Code".

Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to North Korea on Tuesday, in a rare visit that may see Moscow sign a "strategic partnership treaty" with Pyongyang, the Kremlin said.

In Argentina's strangled economy, one sector is thriving: the pawn shops buying up gold and other family treasures that many are forced to sell to pay their bills.

France is planning to reduce its military presence in West and Central Africa to around 600 troops in line with President Emmanuel Macron's plans to limit the French military footprint in the region, three sources told AFP. In February 2023, Macron announced a "noticeable reduction" of French troop presence in Africa, as anti-French sentiment is running high in some former colonies and countries like Russia are vying for greater influence.

China's property market showed worrisome inactivity while factory output fell short of expectations.

EU leaders gather Monday in Brussels to thrash out over dinner how to distribute the bloc's top jobs, with Ursula von der Leyen seemingly on track for a second term heading the European Commission.

More than one billion dollars will be pledged towards ramping up vaccine production in Africa at a summit held in Paris later this week, France said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia on Monday warned of a temperature spike in Mecca as Muslim pilgrims wrapped up the hajj in searing conditions, with more than a dozen heat-related deaths confirmed.

Israel struck Gaza on Monday and witnesses reported blasts in the besieged territory's south, but fighting has largely subsided after a day of relative calm and as Muslims marked Eid al-Adha.

At least seven people were killed when an express passenger train and a goods train collided Monday in India's West Bengal state, derailing three passenger carriages, police said.

China hailed mended ties with Australia on Monday, saying relations were "on the right track" as the trading partners moved on from a bitter economic dispute despite a duel for influence in the Pacific. Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived to a grand ceremonial welcome at Parliament House in Canberra.

US journalist Evan Gershkovich will go on trial on espionage charges in Russia's Urals city of Yekaterinburg behind closed doors on June 26, the court overseeing the process said on Monday.

Nuclear-armed countries hiked spending on atomic weapons arsenals by a third in the past five years as they modernised their stockpiles amid growing geopolitical tensions, two reports showed on Monday.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Italy for the G7 summit, it was not diplomatic meetings that dominated headlines back in India -- but the relationship with his Italian counterpart.

Gaza saw its first day of relative calm in months Sunday, after Israel's military said it would "pause" fighting daily around a southern route to facilitate aid flows, following repeated UN warnings of famine in the Palestinian territory.

France on Monday began less than a fortnight of frenetic election campaigning for snap polls called by President Emmanuel Macron to combat the far right, with star footballer Kylian Mbappe warning the country was at a historic crossroads.

On the banks of the Madre de Dios river, dredges work day and night in search of gold, part of a scourge of illegal mining that is slowly devouring the Peruvian Amazon.

The role of atomic weapons has become more prominent and nuclear states are modernising arsenals as geopolitical relations deteriorate, researchers said Monday, urging world leaders to "step back and reflect".

South African former president Jacob Zuma said Sunday his new party would join an opposition alliance to coordinate resistance to the government, while maintaining its challenge to the general election results.

Pilgrims on Sunday performed the last major ritual of the hajj, the "stoning of the devil", in western Saudi Arabia as Muslims the world over celebrated the Eid al-Adha holiday.

Taliban authorities will attend the third round of United Nations-hosted talks on Afghanistan in the Qatari capital, a government spokesman said on Sunday, after snubbing an invitation to the previous round.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang will receive a grand ceremonial welcome at Australia's parliament on Monday, the prelude to thorny talks expected to raise recent military confrontations and rising regional tensions.

A Swede freed in a prisoner swap with Iran, 33-year-old EU diplomat Johan Floderus, said in his first words since his release that he was "in seventh heaven", in a video published Sunday.

World leaders on Sunday backed Ukraine's independence and territorial integrity, and the need for eventual talks with Russia on ending the war -- but left the key questions of how and when unresolved.

Israel's military said Sunday it would "pause" fighting around a south Gaza route daily to facilitate aid deliveries, following months of warnings of famine in the besieged Palestinian territory.

In a second-hand shop in the suburbs of Senegal's capital, Seynabou Sarr is inundated with orders days before West Africa's largest Muslim festival of Tabaski.