South Korea's conservative party on Saturday named its former labor minister as its candidate for June's snap election to replace former president Yoon Suk Yeol who was ousted over his martial law declaration.

Japan's annual "Golden Week" holiday period gets into full swing Saturday, but inflation and hotel prices sent soaring by record inbound tourism have left domestic travelers less eager to pack their bags.

Firefighters have installed the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel which will emit white smoke to signal the election of a new pope as preparations proceed just five days before cardinals gather for the conclave.

The United Nations is considering a massive overhaul that would merge major departments and shift resources across the globe, according to an internal memo prepared by senior officials tasked with reforming the world body.

Millions of Australians voted Saturday in a bitterly contested general election, following a campaign shaped by living costs, climate anxiety and US President Donald Trump's tariffs.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday his administration will revoke Harvard University's tax-exempt status, returning to a threat he issued against the Massachusetts school last month as part of his wider attack on elite universities.

Singaporeans cast their votes Saturday in an election where Prime Minister Lawrence Wong faces his first major test against a rejuvenated opposition in uncertain economic times for the trade-centered nation.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, which has been tracking press freedom for the last 23 years, said its main index had fallen to its lowest-ever level.

NPR and PBS are only partly funded by the US taxpayer and rely heavily on private donations.

Foreign Minister Sugiono has said Israel must adhere to the obligations reserved for an occupying power as its siege of Gaza continues, asserting at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Geneva that Israeli blockages of humanitarian aid have unfolded one of “the biggest humanitarian catastrophes” in recent history.

As the BRICS foreign ministers meeting concluded without a joint statement portending internal rifts, experts suggest that Indonesia, as the bloc’s newest and nonaligned member, should tread carefully as it navigates deepening global divides.

The United States and Ukraine on Wednesday signed a minerals deal after a two-month delay, in what President Donald Trump's administration called a new form of US commitment to Kyiv after the end of military aid.

In the statement, Brazil said the group's foreign ministers expressed "serious concern at the prospect of a fragmented global economy and the weakening of multilateralism" at their gathering in Rio de Janeiro. 

A narrowly divided United States Senate rejected the latest bipartisan bid to block President Donald Trump's tariffs on Wednesday, just hours after the federal government reported that the nation's economy contracted for the first time in three years amid the chaos of the president's tariff policies.

Foreign Minister Sugiono has urged BRICS to deepen cooperation and strengthen its leadership in fostering global peace, amid the humanitarian crises in Gaza and Ukraine as well as the trade tensions under United States President Donald Trump, marking Indonesia’s debut at the bloc’s ministerial talks held this week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

United States Ambassador to Indonesia Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir, who was appointd by former US president Joe Biden, will leave the country by the end of April and be temporarily replaced by the embassy's deputy chief of mission until the appointment of the next ambassador.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Friday said its coast guard had landed on Sandy Cay as part of maritime control operations to exercise its sovereignty. It did not say China was occupying the feature. 

The admission comes just days after Moscow confirmed the North's participation, while Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday heralded the "feat" of Pyongyang's troops.

The world's two biggest economies are locked in an escalating tit-for-tat trade battle triggered by Trump's levies on Chinese goods, which have reached 145 percent on many products.

Speaking to reporters in New Jersey, Trump said he was disappointed that Russia has continued to attack Ukraine, and said his one-on-one meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vatican on Saturday had gone well. 

The former president was one of four envoys President Prabowo tasked with paying his and Indonesia's respects to the late pope, which has ruffled some feathers among the public.

University advisors quietly told students from abroad to hire a lawyer and keep attending classes while legal appeals played out, according to over two dozen students, immigration attorneys and university officials.

Francis strove for "a Church determined to take care of the problems of people and the great anxieties that tear the contemporary world apart".

The crowds, packed with young people, applauded as the pope's coffin was carried out of St Peter's Basilica by white gloved pallbearers, accompanied by more than 200 red-robed cardinals.

Relations between the nuclear-armed rivals have plunged to their lowest level in years.

Since Trump took office on Jan. 20, records for more than 4,700 students have been removed from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement-maintained Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

WFP, one of the main providers of food assistance in the Palestinian territory, said it had "delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens in the Gaza Strip" on Friday.