WORLD

An agreement on Sweden joining NATO could be reached in time for a summit of the alliance next month in Lithuania, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday after meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

Half a million protesters packed the streets of central Warsaw on Sunday, Poland's opposition organisers said, claiming one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in the 30 years since the end of communism.

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Sunday he was in good spirits on his third birthday behind bars, despite tougher prison conditions and yet another spell in solitary confinement.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday called on Ankara to drop its opposition to Sweden's bid to join the US-led defence alliance, hoping Stockholm's accession would be finalised "as soon as possible".

The United States and Saudi Arabia on Sunday made a renewed push for truce talks between Sudan's warring generals as deadly fighting has raged into its eighth week.

Soap, wet wipes and children's toys: Irina Burlakova, a 30-year-old Russian woman, picks up humanitarian aid after having fled Shebekino, a border town heavily shelled by Ukraine this week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the International Atomic Energy Agency on Sunday of ineffectually policing Iran's nuclear activities and suggested the U.N.

Ukrainian rescuers outside the city of Dnipro on Sunday recovered the body of a two-year-old girl from the rubble left by a Russian strike on a residential area.

Some 54 Ugandan peacekeepers died when militants besieged an African Union base in Somalia last week, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni said, in one of the worst recent attacks by Al-Shabaab jihadists in the war-torn country.

Mexico holds a state election on Sunday that looks poised to bolster President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ahead of the race to succeed him, with his party forecast to capture the last major bastion of the country's old rulers.

Some 54 Ugandan peacekeepers died when militants besieged an African Union base in Somalia last week, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said, in one of the worst recent attacks by Al-Shabaab jihadists.

Pakistan's embattled former Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused the powerful military and its intelligence agency of openly trying to destroy his political party, saying he had "no doubt" he would be tried in a military court and thrown in jail.

Rescuers and families searched through mangled train carriages on Sunday for more victims of India's worst rail crash in more than two decades with signal failure emerging as the likely cause.

Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu told Asia's top security summit on Sunday that conflict with the United States would be an "unbearable disaster" but that his country sought dialogue over confrontation.

North Korea denounced on Sunday the U.N. Security Council for discussing its recent satellite launch in response to a "gangster-like U.S.

At a makeshift morgue in an Indian school, a couple scanned photos of disfigured corpses before leaning in for a closer look at one they think is their 22-year-old son.

The United States should ease off military deployments close to China in an act of "good faith" if high-level defence talks between the two superpowers are to resume, a retired veteran Chinese diplomat said in Singapore on Sunday.

China's defence minister warned Sunday against establishing NATO-like military alliances in the Asia-Pacific, saying they would plunge the region into a "whirlpool" of conflict.

Senior officials from about two dozen of the world's major intelligence agencies held a secret meeting on the fringes of the Shangri-La Dialogue security meeting in Singapore this weekend, five people told Reuters.

The "Lord's chicken" no more: US fast food chain Chick-fil-A -- beloved among Americans for its sandwiches, nuggets and milkshakes -- found itself on the receiving end of right-wing ire this week, accused of succumbing to "woke" ideology.

Since the start of Moscow's offensive in Ukraine, Russian pensioner Antonina Zaikina had a bag prepared in case she had to flee her town of Shebekino on the border with Ukraine.

A senior US diplomat will embark on a rare trip to Beijing Sunday, the government said, as Washington seeks to allay tensions between the rival powers.

Police detained at least two performance artists in Hong Kong, according to AFP reporters on Saturday, the eve of the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.

Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that Kremlin factions were destroying the state by trying to sow discord between him and Chechen fighters.

Three Europeans returned home on Saturday a day after being released by Iran in a prisoner swap, and Tehran said there was no reason for Europeans to be arrested if they were not "exploited" by foreign security services.

Streets filled with rubble and ransacked shops greeted residents of some Dakar neighbourhoods on Saturday - fallout from clashes between anti-government protesters and police that have gripped Senegal in recent days.

Pope Francis will make an Aug. 31-Sept. 4 trip to Mongolia, one of the most far-flung places he has ever visited and which has only about 1,300 Catholics but is strategically significant for the Roman Catholic Church because of its proximity to China.

Tayyip Erdogan was set to be sworn in as Turkey's president on Saturday after winning re-election last weekend and will later name his cabinet, which is expected to signal a change to his unorthodox economic programme.

The United States, Japan and South Korea aim to share North Korean missile warning data before the end of 2023, the three countries said in a statement following a Saturday meeting of their defence chiefs in Singapore.