WORLD

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will host Chinese President Xi Jinping in Budapest on Thursday in a bid to strengthen already flourishing ties between Beijing and its closest EU ally.

A Mexican court on Wednesday ordered the alleged murderer of two Australians and an American killed during a surfing trip to be prosecuted, as grieving relatives awaited the repatriation of their bodies.

North Macedonia appeared to be on a collision course with its EU neighbours Greece and Bulgaria, as the nationalist opposition swept parliamentary and presidential elections on Wednesday.

In halting a shipment of thousands of bombs, President Joe Biden has sent his most serious signal yet both to Israel and his domestic critics, although it remains doubtful he can fundamentally alter the course of the war in Gaza.

The Olympic flame arrived on French soil on Wednesday at the port of Marseille on board a 19th century ship in front of 150,000 spectators for a ceremony that posed a first major test for organisers ahead of the 2024 Paris Games.

German police on Wednesday arrested a 74-year-old man suspected of hitting a former mayor of Berlin in the head, the latest in a rash of assaults against politicians in Germany.

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic reaffirmed his strong support for China's sovereignty over Taiwan Wednesday as he gave a lavish welcome to President Xi Jinping, who is seeking to deepen political and economic ties with friendlier countries in Europe.

Israel bombarded the overcrowded Gaza city of Rafah, where it has launched a ground incursion, as talks resumed Wednesday in Cairo aimed at agreeing the terms of a truce in the seven-month war.

Ukraine on Wednesday warned of possible power shutdowns across the country after a "massive" wave of Russian missiles and drones targeted the battered Ukrainian energy system.

While Ukrainian troops struggle to hold the front line more than two years into the war, Moscow has intensified strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, triggering blackouts and electricity rationing across the country.

The icy peaks of Jargalant Mountain are supposed to belong to snow leopards, whose numbers have dwindled to fewer than 1,000 in Mongolia, but hard-pressed herders are increasingly pushing into the vulnerable animals' traditional habitat.

Israel struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after seizing the main border crossing with Egypt, where negotiators were working to make good on their "last chance" to cement a ceasefire deal.

The United States paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over fears it would invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah, an official said Tuesday, marking the first time in the conflict that President Joe Biden has squeezed military aid to the key US ally.

North Korea's former propaganda chief, credited with masterminding the personality cult surrounding the ruling Kim dynasty, has died, state media said Wednesday, with leader Kim Jong Un photographed bowing at his funeral bier.

Americans Harold Terens and Jeanne Swerlin promise their courtship is "better than Romeo and Juliet": He is 100, she's 96, and they marry next month in France, where the groom-to-be served during World War II. US Air Force veteran Terens will be honored on June 6 at a commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, the historic Allied operation that changed the course of the war.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold talks with his Serbian counterpart in Belgrade on Wednesday, as Beijing seeks to deepen its political and economic ties with friendlier countries in Europe.

Inflation-battered Argentina on Tuesday introduced a 10,000-peso banknote, worth the equivalent of about $11 -- five times the face value of the previous biggest 2,000-peso bill.