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Sydney (AFP) – Australia's parliament will reopen two weeks early to crack down on hate crimes and gun ownership following the mass shooting at Bondi Beach, the government said Monday.

Australia has flagged a suite of reforms to hate crime and gun laws since the December 14 attack on a Jewish festival that killed 15 people -- the country's deadliest mass shooting in nearly three decades.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would recall both houses of parliament for a sitting from January 19-20 to pass the new legislation and offer condolences to the victims.

Members of parliament had been scheduled to return from their summer break on February 3.

"The terrorists at Bondi Beach had hatred in their minds but guns in their hands -- this law will deal with both," Albanese told a news conference.

The legislation would create new offences for "hate preachers", stiffen hate crime penalties, expand a ban on prohibited symbols, and set the framework for a new list of banned hate groups.

It would allow the home affairs minister to reject or cancel visas for people intending to spread hatred, the prime minister said.

The laws would enable the launch of a national guns buyback scheme, the largest since Australia last targeted firearms following a mass shooting in 1996 that killed 35 people at Port Arthur, Tasmania.

Stricter checks would also be imposed for gun licences, the government said.

Details of the draft laws are to be released publicly on Tuesday.

Last week, the government announced a royal commission inquiry into the Bondi Beach shooting.

The federal royal commission -- the highest level of government inquiry -- will probe everything from intelligence failures to the prevalence of antisemitism in Australia.

Sajid Akram and his son Naveed allegedly targeted Jews attending a Hannukah celebration at Bondi Beach.

Sajid, 50, was shot and killed by police during the assault. An Indian national, he entered Australia on a visa in 1998.

His 24-year-old son Naveed, an Australian-born citizen who remains in prison, has been charged with terrorism and 15 murders.

The Hague (AFP) – Did Myanmar commit genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority? That's what judges at the International Court of Justice will weigh during three weeks of hearings starting Monday.

The Gambia brought the case accusing Myanmar of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention during a crackdown in 2017.

Legal experts are watching closely as it could give clues for how the court will handle similar accusations against Israel over its military campaign in Gaza, a case brought to the ICJ by South Africa.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled violence by the Myanmar army and Buddhist militias, escaping to neighbouring Bangladesh and bringing harrowing accounts of mass rape, arson and murder.

Today, 1.17 million Rohingya live crammed into dilapidated camps spread over 8,000 acres in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.

From there, mother-of-two Janifa Begum told AFP: "I want to see whether the suffering we endured is reflected during the hearing."

"We want justice and peace," said the 37-year-old.

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Washington (United States) (AFP) – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Sunday that US prosecutors have opened a probe into his comments to lawmakers and threatened an indictment, a move he said is part of President Donald Trump's pressure campaign on monetary policy decisions.

Powell added in a statement that the bank received grand jury subpoenas on Friday, "threatening a criminal indictment" related to his Senate testimony in June, which concerned a major renovation project of Federal Reserve office buildings.

He dismissed the possible threat of indictment over his testimony or the renovation project as "pretexts."

"The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President," Powell said.

He branded the "unprecedented action" part of the "administration's threats and ongoing pressure."

The Fed, which makes independent monetary policy decisions, has a dual mandate to keep prices stable and unemployment low.

Its main tool in doing so is by setting a key interest rate that influences the cost of borrowing across the economy, while its board members typically serve under both Republican and Democratic presidents.

Trump has consistently pressured Powell and the central bank to move faster in lowering interest rates, in a breach of the long-standing independence of the institution.

Trump on Sunday denied any knowledge of the Justice Department's investigation into the Federal Reserve.

"I don't know anything about it, but he's certainly not very good at the Fed, and he's not very good at building buildings," NBC quoted Trump saying.

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Buenos Aires (Argentina) (AFP) – Forest fires in southern Argentina have scorched more than 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) this week, authorities said, though rain began falling in parts of Patagonia on Sunday to the relief of residents.

The largest blaze, burning since Monday near the small town of Epuyen in the Andes, has charred some 11,980 hectares, the Chubut provincial fire service said in a statement.

Another fire of unspecified size is burning nearby in the Los Alerces National Park.

Firefighters are also battling to contain another two fires in Chubut and neighboring Santa Cruz provinces that have burned some 3,800 hectares, Argentina's emergency management agency said.

On Sunday afternoon, rain fell in some parts of the region, to the relief of residents like Atilla Missura, a 59-year-old who leads horseback tours.

"We are very happy; hopefully it will stay this way," Missura told AFP by telephone from Rincon de Lobos, one of the most affected areas.

More than 500 firefighters, rescuers, police officers, and support personnel were combating the blazes, while dozens of local people supported operations on the front lines.

The governor of Chubut, Ignacio Torres, said in a radio interview that the situation in the area was "calmer" on Sunday morning but it "remains very critical."

Torres urged people "never again to downplay the implications of climate change" and emphasized that the province is experiencing "the worst drought since 1965."

A volunteer firefighter working near Epuyen was in intensive care due to severe burns, health authorities told local media.

Approximately 3,000 tourists have been evacuated from the area in recent days, and at least 10 homes have been destroyed by the fire, Torres said.

The region lost 32,000 hectares to wildfires in early 2025.

Epuyén (Argentina) (AFP) – Argentine authorities have evacuated some 3,000 tourists from a sparsely populated Patagonian district ravaged by wildfires for days, officials said Wednesday.

Thousands of hectares of forest have been devoured since Monday in a part of Argentina still recovering a year on from its worst wildfires in three decades.

Hundreds of firefighters with backup from helicopters and six water-bombing planes were working to contain the flames whipped up by high temperatures, strong winds and severe drought conditions.

"We evacuated more than 3,000 tourists" from the Puerto Patriada lake resort, along with a few dozen permanent residents, Ignacio Torres, the governor of Chubut province, said on Wednesday.

He did not say where the visitors were from.

Torres said at least one of the fires was the result of arson, and announced a reward of 50 million pesos (about $33,000) for information on the culprits.

Besides Chubut, fires are also raging in the provinces of Neuquen, Santa Cruz and Rio Negro as well as southern Buenos Aires province, according to the Federal Emergency Agency.

Nearly 32,000 hectares -- an area twice the size of Brussels -- was burnt in Argentine Patagonia in January and February last year, the peak of the Southern Hemisphere summer.

Phnom Penh (AFP) – Chinese-born tycoon Chen Zhi, who was indicted by the United States on fraud and money-laundering charges for running a multibillion-dollar cyberscam network from Cambodia, has been arrested there and extradited to China, Phnom Penh said Wednesday.

Chen allegedly directed operations of forced labour compounds across Cambodia, where trafficked workers were held in prison-like facilities surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, according to US prosecutors.

Since the US indictment and sanctions by Washington and London in October, authorities in Europe, the United States and Asia have targeted Chen's firm, Prince Holding Group, with a frenzy of asset confiscations.

Chen founded Prince Group, a multinational conglomerate that authorities say served as a front for "one of Asia's largest transnational criminal organizations," according to the US Justice Department.

Cambodian authorities "have arrested three Chinese nationals namely Chen Zhi, Xu Ji Liang, and Shao Ji Hui and extradited (them) to the People's Republic of China," Cambodia's interior ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The operation was carried out on Tuesday "within the scope of cooperation in combating transnational crime" and according to a request from Chinese authorities "following several months of joint investigative cooperation," it said.

Chen's Cambodian nationality was "revoked by a Royal Decree" in December, the interior ministry added.

Chinese authorities did not immediately comment late Wednesday on Chen's arrest and extradition.

The US Justice Department also declined to comment Wednesday.

US authorities in October unsealed an indictment against Chen, a businessman accused of presiding over compounds in Cambodia where trafficked workers carried out cryptocurrency fraud schemes that have netted billions of dollars.

He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted in the United States on wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges involving approximately 127,271 bitcoin seized by Washington, worth more than $11 billion at current prices.

Prince Group has denied the allegations.

According to the US charges, scam workers were forced -- under threat of violence -- to execute so-called "pig butchering" scams, cryptocurrency investment schemes that build trust with victims over time before stealing their funds.

The schemes target victims worldwide, causing billions in losses.

Scam centers across Cambodia, Myanmar and the region use fake job ads to attract foreign nationals -- many of them Chinese -- to purpose-built compounds, where they are forced to carry out online fraud.

Since around 2015, Prince Group has operated across more than 30 countries under the guise of legitimate real estate, financial services and consumer businesses, US prosecutors said.

Chen and top executives allegedly used political influence and bribed officials in multiple countries to protect their illicit operations.

In Cambodia, Chen has served as an adviser to Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, former leader Hun Sen.

The Southeast Asian nation hosts dozens of scam centres with tens of thousands of people perpetrating online scams -- some willingly and others trafficked -- in the multibillion-dollar industry, experts say.

New York (AFP) – The lawyer defending deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is a veteran trial attorney who previously represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Barry Pollack, 61, appeared beside Maduro during his arraignment in a New York courtroom on Monday on drug trafficking and other charges.

Maduro pleaded not guilty and it will be up to Pollack to try to convince a federal jury to render that verdict when the case eventually goes to trial.

The next hearing has been set for March 17.

A graduate of Georgetown University law school, Pollack is a partner in Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler LLP, a boutique New York law firm, and a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Law firm research guide Chambers USA describes him as a "thorough and deep-thinking lawyer" who "lives, breathes and sleeps trials, and has such a natural way in front of juries."

In 2024, Pollack secured the release of Assange from a British prison after negotiating a plea deal with the US Justice Department that saw the Australian plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act by unlawfully disclosing national defense material.

In another high-profile case, Pollack obtained the acquittal of a former Enron accountant who was facing criminal fraud charges stemming from the collapse of the energy giant.

Another prominent case involved a New York man who was wrongfully convicted of murdering his parents when he was a teenager and spent 17 years in prison.

Pollack managed to get the charges dismissed and secured his freedom.

Pollack gave a hint of his defense strategy during Monday's brief arraignment of Maduro before District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, questioning the "legality of his abduction" by the US military.

Paris (France) (AFP) – Iranian security forces fired tear gas on Tuesday to disperse demonstrators at the Tehran bazaar, as an NGO said more than two dozen people had been killed in a crackdown on the most significant protests to hit the Islamic republic in three years.

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In social media footage verified by AFP, protesters at the scene could also be heard shouting slogans including "Pahlavi will return" and "Seyyed Ali will be overthrown" -- references to the monarchy ousted by the 1979 Islamic revolution and to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Dozens of people are seen shouting "freedom" and "shameless" in footage posted by IHR and the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRNA).

Security forces then fire tear gas at the protesters, who rush to disperse as acrid smoke rises from the ground.

The official IRNA news agency said "some" people were arrested, without giving numbers.

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According to official announcements in Iranian media, at least 12 people have been killed since the protests began, including members of the security forces.

But IHR said: "At least 27 protesters have been killed by gunfire or other forms of violence carried out by security forces in eight provinces. Five of those killed have been verified to have been children."

It added that more than 1,000 people had been arrested nationwide.

IHR said security forces killed at least six people in a single incident alone on Saturday when they opened fire on protesters in the Malekshahi district of the western Ilam province.

It also accused authorities of raiding the main hospital in Ilam the day after to detain injured protesters.

Amnesty International said on Tuesday that the "attack" on the hospital "exposes yet again how far the Iranian authorities are willing to go to crush dissent".

There have been reports of a significant number of arrests in the city of Yasuj in western Iran which has seen several protest actions in the last days, according to social media footage.

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Mogadishu (AFP) – The Israeli foreign minister arrived in Somaliland on Tuesday in a high-profile visit, condemned by Somalia as an "unauthorised incursion", after Israel recognised the breakaway region in the Horn of Africa.

Israel announced last month it was officially recognising Somaliland, a first for the self-proclaimed republic since it declared independence from Somalia in 1991.

Somaliland enjoys a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden and has its own currency, passport and army, but has struggled to win international recognition, amid fears of provoking Somalia and encouraging other separatist movements in Africa.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, whose delegation was welcomed at the airport by senior government officials, said recognising Somaliland had been "the moral thing to do".

Somaliland President Abdirahman Abdullahi Mohamed praised Israel's "courageous" decision, and said it would open up economic and development opportunities.

"It promotes the strategic interest partnership of the two countries," he said in a joint press conference.

Somalia reacted furiously to news of the visit, labelling it an "illegal" and "unauthorised incursion".

In a statement, Somalia's foreign ministry said it "reserves the right to take all appropriate diplomatic and legal measures... to safeguard its sovereignty, national unity, and territorial integrity".

A special meeting of the African Union Peace and Security Council on Tuesday condemned "in the strongest terms" the recognition by Israel and called for its "immediate revocation".

The Arab League said in a statement that "any official or quasi-official dealings" with officials in Somaliland treated as separate from Somalia was a "flagrant violation of Somalia's unity and sovereignty".

The move would "undermine regional peace and security and exacerbate political tensions in Somalia, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa", the League added.

Following Israel's recognition, Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, which has fought the Somali government for around two decades, said they would fight any attempt by Israel to use Somaliland as a base.

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Caracas (AFP) – US forces killed 55 Venezuelan and Cuban military personnel during their stunning raid to capture Nicolas Maduro, tolls published by Caracas and Havana showed Tuesday.

In the first confirmation of its losses, Venezuela's military said 23 of its service members died in Saturday's attacks by the United States, which led to the ouster of Maduro as the country's leader. Caracas has yet to give an official figure for civilian casualties.

Cuba, which had already announced that 32 members of its armed forces and interior ministry security personnel assigned to duties in Caracas were killed in the raids, also listed its dead.

They ranged in age from 26 to 67 and included two colonels and one lieutenant colonel.

Many of the dead Cubans are believed to have been members of Maduro's security detail, which was largely wiped out in the attacks, according to Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.

The assault began with bombing raids on military targets and culminated with US special forces swooping in by helicopter to seize Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from a compound.

They were later taken to New York, where they appeared in court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday called on the United States to ensure Maduro receives a "fair trial."

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Paris (France) (AFP) – Freezing temperatures plunged swathes of Europe into a second day of travel chaos on Tuesday, with six people dying in weather-related accidents during the continent's bitterest cold snap this winter so far.

Since the mercury dropped on Monday, five people have died in France and one woman in Bosnia as heavy snow and rain sparked floods and power outages across the Balkans.

Paris's two main airports, Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Orly, were to cancel many flights early Wednesday to allow ground crews to clear snow from runways and de-ice planes.

Forty percent of morning flights at Charles de Gaulle were to be scrapped, and 25 percent at Orly.

In Britain, temperatures plunged to -12.5C overnight Monday-Tuesday in Norfolk, eastern England, while temperatures below -10C across the Netherlands brought trains to a standstill on Tuesday morning.

"Last night was the coldest night of the winter so far," Britain's Met Office said, with nearly all of the United Kingdom on alert for snow and ice and more snowfall expected.

With the chill making roads perilous, three people died in accidents linked to black ice in southwestern France on Monday morning, authorities said, while a taxi driver died in hospital on Monday night after his vehicle veered off the road and plunged into the Marne river in the Paris region.

His passenger was still being treated for hypothermia, according to a police source. Another driver died east of Paris on Monday after colliding with a heavy goods vehicle.

Melanie Coligneaux, a pastry chef, said that she left her home in Beny-Bocage in northwestern France at 5:00 am (0400 GMT) to avoid the worst of the snow-day traffic.

"The roads are bad, so we don't want to damage the car or even have an accident," the 30-year-old told AFP.

Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, the Netherlands' main flight hub, meanwhile saw a second day of weather-driven cancellations Tuesday, with at least 600 flights grounded and travellers facing huge queues at the airline counters.

Dutch airline KLM, which is responsible for removing ice from most aircraft at Schiphol, warned that it had nearly run out of de-icing fluid, blaming the "extreme" weather conditions and supply delays.

Trains from the Dutch national railway operator NS only began rolling again after 10:00 am (0900 GMT), with services limited afterwards.

But planes got off the ground again from Liverpool in northwest England and Aberdeen in northeast Scotland, after the cold had forced both airports to close on Monday.

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Bangkok (AFP) – Australia's forests are losing trees more rapidly as the climate warms, a new study examining decades of data said Tuesday, warning the trend was likely a "widespread phenomenon".

The research used forest inventory data from 2,700 plots across the country, ranging from cool moist forests to dry savanna.

It excluded areas affected by logging, clearance or fires to examine how "background tree mortality" has changed in recent decades.

"What we found is that the mortality rate has consistently increased over time, in all of the different forest types," said Belinda Medlyn, a professor at Western Sydney University's Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment.

"And this increase is very likely caused by the increase in temperature," she told AFP.

The world has warmed by an average of nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era. Most of this warming has occurred in the last 50 years.

The rate at which trees die off in a forest can vary in response to different types of disturbances, or as forests grow thicker and there is greater competition for resources.

But the research, published in the Nature Plants journal, excluded areas affected by fires or clearing, and also examined the stand basal area -- the sum of the cross-sectional areas of all trees in an area.

"The (mortality) trend over time remains even after we correct for basal area," explained Medlyn, who led the research.

The scale of the increase varied across the four different biomes surveyed, with the sharpest rise in tropical savannas.

There, the number of trees dying on average increased by 3.2 percent a year, from close to 15 per 1,000 in 1996, to nearly double that number by 2017.

The research found that the deaths were not being matched by tree growth, so forest stock overall is declining.

That makes it "very likely that the overall carbon storage capacity in the forests is declining over time", said Medlyn.

And given the trend was observed across four ecosystems -- tropical savanna, cool temperate forest, warm temperate forest and tropical rainforest -- it is likely to be "a widespread phenomenon, not just an Australian thing", she added.

The rising mortality rate tracks warming and drying linked to climate change, and the study found the fastest rise in hotter, dryer regions.

The research comes months after a study found Australia's tropical rainforests were among the first in the world to start emitting more carbon dioxide than they absorb.

Taken together, the findings paint a worrying picture of our continued ability to rely on forests to absorb our emissions.

"Forests globally currently sequester about one-third of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions," said Medlyn.

"Our study suggests their capacity to act as buffer will decline over time."