He has suffered profound personal tragedy and seen his earlier political ambitions thwarted, but veteran Democrat Joe Biden hopes his pledge to unify Americans will deliver him the presidency after nearly half a century in Washington.

Rarely has the profile of opposing presidential nominees differed so sharply as in the 2020 race, which pits the empathetic Biden, with decades of leadership and a blue-collar upbringing, against brawling President Donald Trump, the billionaire businessman who insists he remains the outsider.

All his life, the only constant about Donald Trump has been that everything must be about Donald Trump.

In the build-up to Tuesday's U.S. presidential election, AFP correspondents have travelled to dozens of towns and cities far beyond Washington to hear from voters about how they view hot-button issues. 

Simultaneously battling the twin crises of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and a resurgence in Islamist attacks, French President Emmanuel Macron faces a defining moment that will determine the success of his presidency and even his chances of reelection.

It's been a race like no other: held amid the coronavirus pandemic, economic turmoil, and a national reckoning on race -- and after four turbulent years with Donald Trump as president.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may present himself as the advocate of Muslims but his jibes at French leader Emmanuel Macron on Islam also aim to score points at the expense of Middle Eastern rivals, analysts say.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region of Azerbaijan mainly inhabited by ethnic Armenians and backed by Yerevan, has been the scene of deadly clashes for the past month.

Despite failing to realise the Kremlin's hopes of spearheading a new era in US-Russia ties, President Donald Trump is still Moscow's preferred candidate in the US election over his rival Joe Biden, analysts say.

The discovery in recent years of huge natural gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean has whetted the appetite of nearby countries but exacerbated geopolitical tensions between Turkey and its neighbours. 

Relations have been strained in recent months following Turkish exploration and drilling operations in waters claimed by both Cyprus and Greece. 

One year after mass protests pushed him to resign, Saad Hariri is back as Lebanon's prime minister designate to draw together a pro-reform cabinet that can save the crisis-hit country.

What circumstances brought him back? What do the international community and key players inside Lebanon think? And will the consensus on him being named make his tricky task any easier?