WORLD

Yogyakarta, Indonesia | AFP | Barack Obama took his wife and daughters to the ancient Borobudur temple on Java on Wednesday on a family vacation to Indonesia, where the former US president spent part of his childhood. The Obamas arrived in the city of Yogyakarta in central Java and headed …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis on Wednesday created five new cardinals in a Vatican ceremony that, while deeply traditional in form, also reflected his vision of a reshaped Church for the 21st century. Four of the five new cardinals come from countries that have never had …

Sydney, Australia | AFP | Cardinal George Pell, one of the most powerful figures in the Vatican and Australia’s most senior Catholic, was Thursday charged with historical child sex offences, which he “strenuously denied”. Pell, the Vatican’s finance chief and the highest-ranking Catholic cleric to face such charges, had been …

Hong Kong, China | AFP |  President Xi Jinping arrives in Hong Kong on Thursday to mark 20 years since it was handed back to China by Britain, a trip that has already riled democracy activists in the politically divided city. The three-day visit is his first since becoming leader …

Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuela’s army has been put on alert after four grenades were hurled at the Supreme Court from a helicopter, President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday, in a potentially dramatic escalation of the violence gripping the oil-rich South American country. The helicopter assault comes a day after …

  Washington, United States | AFP |  Top Gulf diplomats were in Washington Tuesday as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought to help resolve the stubborn Qatar crisis, amid concerns that Saudi Arabia’s unyielding stance could foil the effort. With a one-week Saudi deadline looming for Qatar to meet …

Washington, United States | AFP |  US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi embraced each other as friends and partners Monday, pledging their quest for economic growth would strengthen rather than undermine ties between the world’s two largest democracies. While Trump’s relations with some traditional allies had …

Who’s the daddy: Digging up the famous for DNA testing Paris, France | AFP |  The decision to dig up the remains of surrealist artist Salvador Dali, ordered by a Madrid court on Monday, will lead to the latest high-profile exhumation to settle a paternity claim. Some examples from recent …

Madrid, Spain | AFP |  A boy travelled at least 230 kilometres from Morocco to Spain hanging underneath a bus, officials said Monday, in another example of desperate measures taken by migrants to get to Europe. Emergency services in the southern Spanish city of Seville tweeted a video of the …

Washington, United States | AFP |  President Donald Trump called on Monday for the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic programs to be “rapidly” tackled, as he thanked visiting Indian leader Narendra Modi for rallying behind sanctions on Pyongyang. “The North Korean regime is causing tremendous problems and …