WORLD

Policymakers should find a way to reduce the uncertainty over trade policy kicked up by Donald Trump's tariff plans in order to boost global growth, the International Monetary Fund's chief economist said in an interview.

US Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that "good progress" had been made towards a trade deal with India after meeting with "tough negotiator" Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

The Kremlin on Tuesday warned against rushing Ukraine peace talks, pushing back on US President Donald Trump's hopes for a speedy deal the day before Ukraine's allies are set to meet in London.

More than 100 US universities and colleges, including Ivy League institutions Princeton and Brown, issued a joint letter on Tuesday condemning President Donald Trump's "political interference" in the education system.

A Hamas delegation departed for Cairo to discuss "new ideas" aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza, an official from the group said, as Israeli air strikes killed 26 people across the territory Tuesday.

A Myanmar ethnic minority armed group is preparing to hand a captured city back to the military in a Beijing-brokered deal, China's foreign ministry said Tuesday, as residents reported junta troops already returning.

A populist party in New Zealand's governing coalition on Tuesday proposed a law to enforce a biological definition of men and women, condemning the existing "woke ideology" of "cancerous social engineering".

Around the time the Vatican announced the death of Pope Francis, music floated out from a church in a Kosovo valley where dozens of Muslims were participating in an unusual ceremony: they were converting to Catholicism.

Latin American migrants paid tribute on Monday to Pope Francis as a staunch defender of their rights who gave them much-needed encouragement on their long and dangerous journeys fleeing poverty and violence.

The Argentine pontiff, 88, died on Monday from a stroke, less than a month after returning home from five weeks in hospital battling double pneumonia. Pope Francis's coffin -- which he previously ordered should be of wood and zinc -- will then be taken inside the church and from there to the Rome basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore for burial.

Harvard sued US President Donald Trump's administration Monday in a sharp escalation of the fight between the prestigious university and the Republican, who has threatened its funding and sought to impose outside political supervision.

At the school in Buenos Aires where he started his religious journey at the young age of 5, the nuns remember the boy who would later become Pope Francis as "mischievous."

Haiti, where rampant gang violence has surged in recent weeks, is approaching a "point of no return" leading to "total chaos," the UN special representative to the troubled Caribbean nation warned Monday.

The death of Pope Francis silences arguably the most powerful moral voice on the world stage critical of Donald Trump, with the pontiff taking the lead against the US president's mass deportations of migrants.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced a three-billion-euro package over six years to finance a plan to "rebuild" Mayotte, France's poorest department, which was devastated by a cyclone in December.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fought back Monday -- with White House support -- against another scandal over his reported use of Signal to discuss airstrikes on Yemen, this time with his wife, brother and lawyer.

As the news of Pope Francis's death broke, Christians and non-believers alike made their way towards churches across the world, paying tribute to a pontiff renowned as a champion of the vulnerable.

The April 21 death of Pope Francis triggered a period of mourning in the Catholic Church, but also kick-started the race for his successor.

Church bells rang out across the Philippines early Monday evening as Asia's bastion of Catholicism mourned the death of Pope Francis.

Locals in Catholic-majority East Timor held prayers after the death of Pope Francis on Monday, while others refused to accept the news of the late pontiff's passing.

World leaders remembered Pope Francis as "a beacon of compassion," as the death on Monday of the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics prompted a global outpouring of grief.

A hush reigned over the normally boisterous St Peter's Square on Monday as the faithful and the curious alike gathered at the seat of Catholicism to mark the death of Pope Francis.

Asian crime networks running multi-billion-dollar cyber scam centres are expanding their operations across the world as they seek new victims and new ways to launder money, the UN said on Monday.

When Pope Francis took over in 2013, the Catholic Church was embroiled in a global scandal over child sex abuse by priests, and the institution's attempts to cover it up.

His predecessor loved Mozart, but Pope Francis's passion was football, for him "the most beautiful game" and also a vehicle to educate and spread peace.

Pope Francis navigated a complex relationship with politics in Argentina, a juggling act observers say explains why he never once returned to the country that informed his love for the downtrodden, for tango and for soccer.

Russia launched a wave of aerial attacks at Ukraine on Monday in an abrupt end to a fragile 30-hour Easter truce between the two sides.

Pope Francis, an energetic reformer who inspired widespread devotion from Catholics but riled traditionalists, died on Monday aged 88.

Gaza's civil defence agency on Monday accused the Israeli military of carrying out "summary executions" in the killing of 15 rescue workers last month, rejecting the findings of an internal probe by the army.