International news

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Israel would make Hamas pay for failing to release the body of hostage Shiri Bibas as agreed.

Luigi Mangione, the man accused of fatally gunning down health insurance executive Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street in December, is due in court in New York on Friday afternoon as he faces state murder and terrorism charges.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the military to carry out an "intensive" operation in the West Bank after explosions on buses close to Tel Aviv on Thursday, in what Netanyahu's office described as an attempted mass attack.

The Israeli military said on Friday that one of the bodies released by Hamas did not belong to any of the hostages held in Gaza, accusing Hamas of violating an already shaking ceasefire.

Staff at the US Internal Revenue Service were told on Thursday that about 6,000 employees would be fired, in a move that would eliminate roughly six per cent of the agency's workforce in the midst of the busy tax-filing season.

Hamas handed over the bodies on Thursday of Israeli infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel, the two youngest captives taken by Hamas in their October 7, 2023 attack and among the most potent symbols of the trauma inflicted that day.

Two people have been killed in a midair plane crash in Arizona, police said. The small, single-engine aircraft both had two people onboard when they made contact above Marana Regional Airport, north-west of Tucson.

A US appeals court let stand an order blocking US President Donald Trump from curtailing automatic birthright citizenship nationwide as part of the Republican's hardline crackdown on immigration and illegal border crossings.

US President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "better move fast," calling him a "dictator without elections" after the Ukrainian leader earlier on Wednesday accused Trump of being trapped in a "disinformation bubble."

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that a mass campaign to vaccinate children against polio in Gaza would resume on Saturday, with over half a million children targeted.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hit back on Tuesday at Donald Trump's suggestion that Ukraine was responsible for Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion, saying the US president was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble.

The Israeli military prosecutor has filed indictments against five reservists, alleging severe abuse and injury of a Palestinian prisoner at Sde Teiman prison, the military said on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump said he intends to impose auto tariffs "in the neighbourhood of 25 per cent" and similar duties on semiconductors and pharmaceutical imports, the latest in a series of measures threatening to upend international trade.

Unknown gunmen shot dead seven passengers on a Lahore-bound bus in southwestern Pakistan's Balochistan provinceafter forcing them off the vehicle and checking their identity documents late on Tuesday, officials said.

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte has asked the Supreme Court to nullify an impeachment complaint against her, making her first legal move to fight the case that could lead to her removal and lead to a lifetime ban from public office.

Former Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro was charged on Tuesday with overseeing a plot to overturn his 2022 election loss with a coup, further complicating the far-right firebrand's already narrow hopes of pulling off a political comeback.

Wildlife rangers will on Wednesday begin shooting 90 dolphins stranded on a remote Australian beach, saying the stressed creatures would be euthanised after attempts to refloat them failed.

Pope Francis has the onset of double pneumonia, the Vatican said on Tuesday, complicating treatment for the 88-year pontiff and indicating a further deterioration in his fragile health.

The United States and Russia said on Tuesday they had agreed to press ahead with efforts to end the war in Ukraine after holding talks in the Saudi capital at which Kyiv was not represented.

A large-scale overnight Russian drone attack hit a residential building in the city of Dolynska in central Ukraine, injuring a mother and her two children and forcing evacuations from 38 apartments, a regional official said on Tuesday.

Top US and Russian officials are set to meet on Tuesday in Riyadh for what are expected to be the most significant talks between the two former Cold War foes on ending Moscow's war in Ukraine.

A deadline expired on Tuesday for all Israeli troops to leave south Lebanon under a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, hours after Israel said it planned to remain in five strategic locations.

A Delta Air Lines regional jet flipped upside down upon landing at Canada's Toronto Pearson Airport on Monday as windy weather following a snowstorm, injuring 18 of the 80 people on board, officials said.

A passenger bus plunged into an 800-meter-deep abyss in southern Bolivia on Monday, killing at least 30 people and injuring 15, police and local media said.

Israel is preparing to receive the bodies of four hostages from Gaza on Thursday and is working on bringing back six living captives on Saturday, an Israeli security official said on Monday.

A Florida man was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder after shooting at a vehicle with two men who he thought were Palestinians but turned out to be Israeli visitors, local authorities said. 

The Israeli military on Monday killed a Hamas leader in southern Lebanon's Sidon area, it said in a statement.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday ruled out territorial concessions to Ukraine, setting out a tough opening stance on the eve of talks on Tuesday with US President Donald Trump's team in Saudi Arabia.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday ahead of expected high-stakes talks between American and Russian officials aimed at ending Moscow's nearly three-year war in Ukraine.

Israel has received a shipment of heavy MK-84 bombs from the United States, after US President Donald Trump lifted a block imposed on the export of the munitions by the administration of predecessor Joe Biden, the defence ministry said.

Israel and the United States are both determined to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions and its "aggression" in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday following a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

France said on Sunday it would host a summit of European leaders on Monday to discuss the Ukraine war and European security as the continent tries to respond concretely to US President Donald Trump's unilateral approach to the conflict.

An Israeli airstrike killed three policemen east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Hamas-run interior ministry said, calling it a breach of the fragile January 19 ceasefire.

At least 18 people died in a stampede at the main railway station in India's capital New Delhi on Saturday night, the chief minister of the capital territory told reporters early on Sunday.

Forty-three people, mostly women, were killed after an artisanal gold mine collapsed in western Mali on Saturday, the head of an industry union said.

A 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker stabbed several passers-by in the centre of the Austrian town of Villach on Saturday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, police said, adding that the suspected attacker had been arrested.

The attorney-general for England and Wales, Richard Hermer, has rejected calls to request a court review of the length of a jail sentence imposed on the British teenager who killed three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event last summer.

The outgoing deputy force commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was injured on Friday after a convoy taking peacekeepers to Beirut airport was "violently attacked", UNIFIL said.

Israeli hostages Iair Horn, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Sasha (Alexander) Troufanov were freed in Gaza on Saturday and Israel began releasing some 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange, after mediators helped avert a ceasefire collapse.

The death toll due to heavy rains in Bolivia since November last year has risen to 28, said Juan Carlos Calvimontes, Vice Civil Defence Minister, on Friday.

The campaign by US President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk to radically cut back the US bureaucracy spread on Friday, firing more than 9,500 workers who handled everything from managing federal lands to caring for military veterans.

Palestinian officials in Gaza said they would release hostages Iair Horn, U.S.-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen and Russian-Israeli Alexandre Sasha Troufanov on Saturday, in accordance with the terms of the ceasefire with Israel.

Pope Francis was taken to hospital on Friday with bronchitis and he will skip several planned public events over the next three days, the Vatican said, after the 88-year-old pontiff was seen struggling to speak during one of his meetings in the morning.

A Russian drone attack caused significant damage to the radiation shelter of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday.

The United States will increase military sales to India starting in 2025 and will eventually provide F-35 fighter jets, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Ukraine would be involved in peace talks with Russia, although Kyiv said it would be premature to speak with Moscow at a security conference on Friday.

The Palestinian group Hamas said on Thursday it will continue implementing the Gaza ceasefire deal, including a hostage exchange within the agreed timeframe.

The Indian federal government took over direct control of the restive northeastern state of Manipur on Thursday after its chief minister resigned amid ethnic violence that has killed at least 250 people over two years and displaced thousands.

A grenade attack has injured twelve people in a bar in France, authorities have said. The incident happened in the city of Grenoble, leaving two people in critical condition.

A car drove into a crowd in Munich on Thursday injuring several people, police said, as the southern German city prepares for a top-level security conference due to be attended by US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

A search was under way for six people missing after a fishing boat caught fire in waters off Korea's southwestern coast on Thursday, the Coast Guard said. Five other people were rescued.

A suspected gas explosion at a department store in the central Taiwanese city of Taichung killed at least four people and injured 24 others on Thursday, the fire department said.

US President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed a desire for peace in separate phone calls with him on Wednesday, and Trump ordered top US officials to begin talks on ending the war in Ukraine.

Israel's military has called up reservists in preparation for a possible resumption of fighting in Gaza if Hamas fails to meet a Saturday deadline to release more Israeli hostages and a nearly month-old ceasefire breaks down.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the ceasefire in Gaza would end and the military would resume fighting Hamas until it was defeated if the Palestinian group did not release hostages by midday Saturday.

Officials from Bangladesh's former government and security apparatus systematically committed serious human rights violations against protesters staging mass demonstrations last summer, the UN human rights chief said on Wednesday.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that a Russian citizen was freed from a US prison in exchange for Moscow's release of jailed American schoolteacher Marc Fogel.

NASA on Tuesday swapped out the astronaut capsule it plans to use for an upcoming routine flight to the International Space Station, a scheduling move that will allow a slightly earlier return for two Starliner astronauts who have been on the station far longer than expected.

A predawn Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian capital killed at least one civilian and injured four others on Wednesday, sparking several fires in the city of three million people, Ukrainian officials said.

Russia's emergency services said on Wednesday that it had rescued all 139 fishermen stranded on an ice floe drifting in the Sea of Okhotsk in the Western Pacific.

The United Nations said on Tuesday that one of its staff members had died in detention in northern Yemen, where the UN has repeatedly called for the Houthi movement to free detained UN employees.

Government offices, schools and workplaces fell silent in Sweden at midday on Tuesday in remembrance of the victims of a mass shooting at an adult education centre last week when a gunman killed 10 people before turning his weapon on himself.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Hamas to continue with the planned release of hostages on Tuesday, a day after the group announced its intention to halt the exchange.

US President Donald Trump substantially raised tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to a flat 25 per cent "without exceptions or exemptions" in a move to aid the struggling industries but which increases the risk of a multi-front trade war.

Armed rebels killed more than 35 civilians during an attack on a cluster of villages in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri province on Monday night, a village chief said on Tuesday.

A teacher accused of stabbing an 8-year-old student to death at an elementary school in the central city of Daejeon has said she was "annoyed" at being excluded from a class, police said Tuesday.

Campaigning for the Philippines' midterm elections kicked off on Tuesday against a fractured political backdrop, heightened by a high-profile row among warring elites that culminated in last week's impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte.

At least 55 people are dead after their bus plunged into a gorge and landed under a bridge Monday on the outskirts of Guatemala’s capital.

Hamas announced on Monday it would stop releasing Israeli hostages until further notice over what it said were Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement.

Overnight Russian drone attacks sparked a fire in Kyiv and injured a woman and damaged several houses in the northeastern city of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he is committed to buying and owning Gaza, but could allow sections of the war-ravaged land to be rebuilt by other states in the Middle East.

US President Donald Trump said he will introduce new 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the US, on top of existing metals duties, in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul.

The Israeli military has withdrawn from an area of Gaza known as the Netzarim corridor that bisects the enclave, Hamas said on Sunday, a move that was expected under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian group.d children.

Five Thai nationals held captive by Hamas for over a year returned to Thailand on Sunday, reuniting with their tearful families at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Saudi Arabia affirmed its categorical rejection of remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about displacing Palestinians from their land, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Twenty-nine people were confirmed missing as of 0:00 Sunday after a landslide struck southwest China's Sichuan Province, according to a preliminary investigation by the local government.

Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages on Saturday, whose emaciated appearance shocked Israelis following their release on live TV, in the latest stage of a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.

The US Coast Guard in Alaska found the wreckage of a small plane atop frozen sea ice on Friday, after the aircraft suddenly lost altitude on Thursday and the crash killed all 10 people on board, officials said.

A US judge has temporarily allowed roughly 2,700 US Agency for International Development employees put on leave by President Donald Trump's administration to go back to work, pausing aspects of a plan to dismantle the agency.

Hamas accused Israel of multiple breaches of their ceasefire agreement on Friday, a day before the scheduled exchange of three more Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners in the latest stage in a fragile deal aimed at ending the war in Gaza.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the United States from February 12 to 13 and hold talks with President Donald Trump, India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Friday.

The Trump administration plans to reduce the number of staff at the US government's giant humanitarian agency USAID to fewer than 300 people from more than 10,000, the New York Times reported.

Sweden's right-wing government said on Friday it would seek to tighten gun laws in the wake of the country's deadliest mass shooting at an adult education centre where the attacker appeared to have used several of his own licensed rifles.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday authorised economic and travel sanctions targeting people who work on International Criminal Court investigations of US citizens or US allies such as Israel, repeating action he took during his first term.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on Friday that the number of attacks on the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine had increased, Russia's TASS state news agency reported.

At least 29 bodies of migrants have been recovered in two locations in the southeast and west of Libya, a security directorate and the Libyan Red Crescent said on Thursday.

The UN human rights chief said on Friday that he was deeply disturbed by the escalating crisis in eastern Congo, urging all those with influence to help halt the violence and warning of a risk that it spreads beyond the country's borders.

The Trump administration’s effort to slash and reshape American foreign aid is crippling the intricate global system that aims to prevent and respond to famine.

Israel has withdrawn from the United Nations Human Rights Council, following the footsteps of the United States, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Thursday.

Democrats on the US House oversight committee on Thursday called for an investigation of potential national security threats posed by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have received the country's first ship capable of launching drones and helicopters at sea, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Israel would hand over Gaza to the United States after fighting was over and the enclave's population was already resettled elsewhere, which he said meant no US troops would be needed on the ground.

Hundreds of Bangladeshi protesters smashed down buildings connected to ousted former leader Sheikh Hasina on Thursday, hours after students with excavators began demolishing a museum to her father.

US President Donald Trump's administration appeared to backtrack on Wednesday after his proposal to take over Gaza sparked uproar, with the United Nations warning against "ethnic cleansing" in the Palestinian territory.

Africa's leading public health official will write to the US Secretary of State on Thursday to highlight how the US aid freeze is threatening the lives of people across the continent and efforts to contain disease outbreaks that could ultimately impact Americans.

Last month was the world's warmest January on record, continuing a streak of extreme global temperatures despite a shift towards the cooling La Nina weather pattern, European Union scientists said on Thursday.

One person died and 15 were arrested trying to enter Canada from the United States in three incidents in recent weeks, Canadian police said on Wednesday, highlighting efforts to secure the border as US President Donald Trump demands a crackdown.

President Donald Trump's plan for the US to take over war-torn Gaza and create a "Riviera of the Middle East" after resettling Palestinians elsewhere has shattered US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and sparked widespread criticism.

Argentina will pull out of the World Health Organization (WHO), President Javier Milei's office said Wednesday, following in the footsteps of the United States which announced its exit from the UN agency last month.

Saudi Arabia said Wednesday it will not normalise ties with Israel unless a Palestinian state is established, after Israel's prime minister said he thought normalisation with the Gulf kingdom was "going to happen".

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said on Wednesday that US President Donald Trump's remarks about taking over the Gaza Strip are "ridiculous" and "absurd" and could destabilise the Middle East.

Students and teachers recalled trying to save the lives of their comrades before fleeing the scene of a mass shooting in Sweden described by the prime minister on Wednesday as a "dark day" in the country's history.

Several metro stations in Brussels were closed on Wednesday after a shooting at the central Clemenceau station, the Belgian prosecutor's office said.

The Philippine lower house of Congress on Wednesday endorsed an impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte, the daughter of the country's firebrand former president, paving the way for a rare trial in the Senate.

Eleven people were killed in a shooting at an adult education centre on Tuesday, Swedish police said, marking the country's deadliest gun attack in what the prime minister called a “painful day”.

China announced a wide range of measures on Tuesday targeting US businesses including Google, farm equipment makers and the owner of fashion brand Calvin Klein, minutes after new US tariffs on Chinese goods took effect.

Over 90 per cent of schools in Gaza have been either completely or partially destroyed, rendering them unfit for use according to United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed.

Syria's transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan are expected to discuss a joint defence pact in Ankara on Tuesday, including establishing Turkish airbases in central Syria and training for Syria's new army, four sources familiar with the matter said.

US President Donald Trump suspended his threat of steep tariffs on Mexico and Canada on Monday, agreeing to a 30-day pause in return for concessions on border and crime enforcement with the two neighbouring countries.

The air forces of the Philippines and the United States held joint patrols over the South China Sea on Tuesday, a move that angered China, which also conducted a "routine patrol" over a disputed shoal.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday said that it launched the first-ever vaccine trial in Uganda for ebola from the Sudan species of the virus.

El Salvador on Monday offered to house in its jails "dangerous criminals" from anywhere in the world deported by the United States, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after lengthy talks with the Central American country's leader.

Families boarded ferries and extra flights were laid on to help people leave Santorini on Monday as dozens of tremors shook the Greek island for a fourth day.

A bomb tore through the lobby of a luxury apartment block in Moscow on Monday, killing at least one person and injuring four others in an attack targeting a pro-Russian paramilitary leader from eastern Ukraine, the state TASS news agency reported.

A car bomb killed at least 15 people in the Syrian city of Manbij on Monday, the second attack there in three days and Syria's deadliest since Bashar al-Assad was toppled from power in December.

President Donald Trump said the sweeping tariffs that he has imposed on Mexico, Canada and China may cause "short term" pain for Americans as global markets reflected concerns the levies could undermine growth and reignite inflation.

The Israeli military blew up buildings in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Sunday in an operation that the Palestinian state news agency said leveled around 20 buildings.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday warned Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino that Washington will "take measures necessary" if Panama does not immediately take steps to end what President Donald Trump sees as China's influence and control over the Panama Canal.

Qatar's prime minister on Sunday called on Israel and Hamas to immediately begin negotiating phase two of the Gaza ceasefire, adding that there is no clear plan for when talks will begin.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to leave Israel on Sunday for a meeting with US President Donald Trump, looking to strengthen ties with Washington after tensions with the previous White House administration over the war in Gaza.

One person died on Sunday in Australia's north Queensland state in heavy flooding, authorities said, urging thousands of people to move to higher ground due to torrential rains.

Ukraine and Russia traded blame for a deadly missile strike on Saturday that killed at least four people in the dormitory of a boarding school situated in a part of Russia's Kursk region held by Kyiv forces.

Turkey said on Sunday it had killed 23 Kurdish rebels in northern Syria, the latest in a series of strikes against them which have continued since US President Donald Trump took office last month.

Syria's transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Sunday in his first foreign trip as Syrian leader, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

Greek authorities have advised people on the Aegean island of Santorini to shut schools on Monday, avoid two small ports and refrain from gathering in indoor spaces after increased seismic activity in the area over recent days.

Canada, China and Mexico have ordered retaliatory tariffs in response to the US decision to slap 25 per cent tariffs on all goods coming from Mexico and Canada and 10 per cent on imports from China.

Arab foreign ministers rejected the transfer of Palestinians from their land under any circumstances, presenting a unified stance against US President Donald Trump's call for Egypt and Jordan to take in residents of the Gaza Strip.

Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles on Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least four civilians and damaging residential buildings and infrastructure across the country, Ukrainian officials said.

Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages on Saturday, in the latest stage of a truce aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.

A medevac plane crashed soon after takeoff in Philadelphia on Friday with a child and five others on board, the air ambulance company that operated it said, adding that it had not confirmed any survivors.

Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, will be boarding Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity and blasting off to space on Sunday.

Singapore is reviewing penalties for violent offences following an outcry over a 12-day prison sentence for a student who strangled his girlfriend until she blacked out.