WORLD

A Russian strike Wednesday on the northern Ukrainian city of Chernigiv killed nine people and wounded about 20, as Kyiv sounds the alarm over shortages in its air defence capabilities.

Dutch Crown Princess Amalia fled to Spain to escape threats to her safety, local media reported, as she prepared to make her official debut at a state occasion later Wednesday.

A Brussels gathering of hard-right European politicians resumed Wednesday for a second day headlined by Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, after a top court scrapped a local ban widely denounced as an assault on free speech.

Australia unveiled its first National Defence Strategy on Wednesday, signalling a new focus on deterring China's "coercive tactics" in a region seen as lurching towards conflict.

Enrico Letta, a former Italian prime minister, has criss-crossed Europe and spent months preparing a report for EU leaders on what the 27-nation bloc needs to do to keep pace with other global economies including China.

Jailed Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest, a military official said Wednesday, as the junta announced a heatwave had prompted measures to protect inmates.

France's far-right National Rally is banking on its youthful and charismatic party leader to be a major asset as it scents massive gains in upcoming European elections.

Dutch tech giant ASML, which supplies chip-making machines to the semiconductor industry, on Wednesday reported a drop in net profits and orders amid a high-tech trade spat between China and the West.

Croatia began voting in a parliamentary election on Wednesday after a bitter campaign between a prime minister seeking a new term and a populist president who wants to be head-of-government despite a court warning.

The US ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday she believed sanctions were still an "effective tool" to discourage North Korea and its nuclear development, even as global enforcement of UN sanctions stumbles.

Myanmar's junta has moved jailed democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi from prison to house arrest, a source told AFP on Wednesday.

Even small delays in Japan's much-vaunted bullet trains are rare, and more unusual still are snakes on board holding up the speedy "shinkansen" services.

Peru has defended its decision before a human rights court to free ex-president Alberto Fujimori from prison after he only served part of a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity.

The United Nations Security Council will vote Thursday on the Palestinians' application to become a full UN member state, several diplomatic sources have told AFP. Amid Israel's military offensive in Gaza, the Palestinians in early April revived a membership application first made to the world body in 2011, though the veto-wielding United States has repeatedly expressed opposition to the proposal.

Around 130 million young adults aged 18 to 22 will be newly eligible to vote in India's national elections when polls open Friday -- more people than the entire population of Mexico.

India's opposition faces huge challenges as their loose coalition of more than two dozen parties take on the juggernaut of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party.

Leonardo Muylaert was just another mild-mannered professional on vacation with his girlfriend when the 36-year-old Brazilian went viral on social media thanks to an unexpected superpower that has changed his life: his uncanny resemblance to Superman.

A contentious bill that aims to eventually phase out smoking in Britain advanced in parliament on Tuesday, as the House of Commons voted in favour of the controversial measure.

A top US university has canceled its plans for a graduation speech by a Muslim student over what it says are safety concerns, after pro-Israel groups criticized her selection.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday he had ordered the closure of his country's diplomatic missions in Ecuador after a raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito.

Solomon Islanders began voting Wednesday in an election that could reshape regional security, with citizens effectively choosing if their Pacific nation will deepen ties with China.

The fate of US aid to Ukraine hung in the balance Tuesday as House Speaker Mike Johnson faced potential revolt from within his Republican party over his complex plan to renew the long-delayed funding along with fresh assistance for Israel.

Georgian lawmakers on Tuesday agreed an early draft of a controversial "foreign influence" bill, sparking fresh street protests against the legislation criticised for mirroring a repressive Russian law.

A top rebel commander has pulled out of Colombia's peace negotiations amid a split in one of the most powerful guerrilla groups in the country, the government said Tuesday.

Donald Trump could not have made his stance clearer: he would rather be anywhere else than in a New York courtroom Tuesday, on trial for business fraud.

President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday hailed the heroism of members of the World War II Resistance based on a remote Alpine plateau, but also remembered the "errors" of French collaborationist forces who sided with the Germans against them.

Hard drugs like cocaine and ecstasy should be regulated, according to the mayor of Amsterdam, who believes this is the only way to defeat narco-trafficking and its "disastrous" effect on her city.

Joe Biden loves nothing more than peppering speeches with references to his blue-collar roots in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun via video teleconference Tuesday, the Pentagon said, in the first substantive talks between the superpowers' defense chiefs in nearly 18 months.