WORLD

On Day 88 of the Israel-Hamas war, Houthis targeted a U.S. warship in the Red Sea as Israel responds to attacks by Hezbollah and launches from Syrian territory.

South Korean opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck on Tuesday while talking to reporters in the port city of Busan.

Deep under the Red Sea, a passing Israeli warship could barely be heard as Yamit Avital held her breath and dived, her mind briefly cleared of the trauma of the October 7 Hamas attacks.

A Chinese exchange student who fell victim to a "cyber kidnapping" scam in which his parents were extorted for $80,000, was found alive but "cold and scared" in a tent in the Utah wilderness, police said.

At least six people died in a major earthquake that struck central Japan on New Year's Day, triggering tsunami waves over a meter high, damaging homes and sparking a major fire that wreaked destruction overnight, authorities said Tuesday.

Modi had avoided his annual summit with Putin in the last two years after Russia invaded Ukraine. But Putin could be reaching out now.

Fourteen Nicaraguan priests have now been arrested in a crackdown on the Catholic Church in the Central American country, prompting Pope Francis to call for dialogue during his Monday prayer.

Chad's transitional president General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno on Monday appointed one of his leading opponents, who recently returned from exile, as prime minister.

President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Moscow would intensify strikes on military targets in Ukraine, after an unprecedented Ukrainian attack over the weekend on the Russian city of Belgorod.

A long-awaited European Union's visa liberalisation scheme allowing Kosovo nationals to travel to Europe's borderless zone without a visa came into force on Monday with the first travellers hailing it as a great relief.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a New Year's message that some of the 300,000 army reservists would get a break from the war, in order to prepare for the "prolonged fighting" ahead.

Tsunami waves over a metre high hit central Japan on Monday after a series of powerful earthquakes that damaged homes, closed highways and prompted authorities to urge people to run to higher ground.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for unity in the country in his New Year's Eve address Sunday as it prepares for the 2024 Olympic Games, after a difficult year for his government.

The war in Gaza ground into the new year on Monday, with Hamas firing a barrage of rockets at Israel just as the clock struck midnight and two dozen people killed overnight in Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen expressed hopes on Monday for Taipei and Beijing to seek "long-term peaceful coexistence" and said future relations should be decided by Taiwan's "democratic procedures".

Seconds after ringing in the new year on a lively street in Tel Aviv, some young Israelis found themselves running for cover while others kept the party going with a shrug as missile defence systems intercepted a barrage of rockets overhead.

It's Day 87 of the Israel-Hamas war, and Hamas continued to fire rockets toward Israel on New Year's Day. Yemen's rebel army also pursued its disruption of Red Sea shipping, and Hezbollah carried out attacks toward northern Israel that displaced thousands of residents.

The fighting begins and ends with a hug, part of a singular ritual that has residents of the Peruvian Andes punching and kicking in a year-end fight competition known as Takanakuy.

Denmark's popular Queen Margrethe II, Europe's longest-serving monarch and last reigning queen after the death of Britain's Elizabeth II, is hailed for modernising Danish royalty in her half-century on the throne.

Denmark's popular Queen Margrethe II, Europe's longest-serving monarch, said Sunday that she would abdicate on January 14 and pass the baton to her son Crown Prince Frederik.

German police arrested three people on Sunday over an alleged attack plot targeting the cathedral in Cologne on New Year's Eve.

Mexico's Zapatista demobilized guerrilla group prepared Sunday to mark the 30th anniversary of its pro-Indigenous, anti-capitalist uprising in an impoverished southern region where today drug traffickers are a greater foe than the military.

Australian-born investigative journalist and documentary maker John Pilger, known for his support for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his coverage of the aftermath of Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia and the Thalidomide scandal, has died in London, his family said Sunday.

It started with a morning knock on the door just days into Russia's mobilisation drive in September 2022.

Jubilant crowds will bid farewell to the hottest year on record Sunday, closing a turbulent 12 months marked by clever chatbots, climate crises and wrenching wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

Charred beams and broken tiles still poke out from the gutted roof of South Africa's parliament in Cape Town two years after it was engulfed by a devastating fire.

DR Congo's incumbent president Felix Tshisekedi is expected to be announced on Sunday as the winner in recent elections that opposition leaders have already dismissed as a "sham".

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wrapped the year with fresh threats of a nuclear attack on Seoul and orders for a military arsenal build-up to prepare for a war that can "break out at any time" on the peninsula, state media reported Sunday.

Ukraine has exported about 13 million tonnes of merchandise on some 400 ships since setting up a protected maritime corridor in August to fend off Russian threats, a government minister said Saturday.