AFP news

Israel reacted with fury after three European countries said Wednesday they would recognize a Palestinian state, more than seven months into the devastating Gaza war.

When he was a 20-week-old embryo -- before he even had a real name -- Choi Hee-woo became one of the world's youngest-ever plaintiffs by joining a groundbreaking climate lawsuit against South Korea.

An unconventional South Korean DJ "monk" who dispenses Buddhist wisdom and Gen-Z life advice over his thumping beats will be barred from performing in Singapore, the interior minister said Wednesday.

When a weary David Ferrer managed to win just five games in his French Open semi-final loss to Rafael Nadal in 2012, he was in no doubt over the enormity of the challenge.

Vietnam's rubber-stamp parliament voted in public security minister To Lam as the country's new president on Wednesday, after a major anti-corruption campaign forced his predecessor to resign.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for late president Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday as huge crowds thronged the capital Tehran for his funeral procession.

Mexico appears almost certain to elect its first woman president on June 2 -- a prospect that divides opinion among women's rights activists in a country with a long history of macho culture.

An inquiry ordered by Pope Francis into an allegation of sexual assault against a Canadian cardinal has found no evidence of wrongdoing, the Vatican said Tuesday.

The US Department of Energy announced Tuesday that it will sell off a million barrels of gasoline from a small strategic reserve in the northeast, paving the way for its closure.

A 73-year-old British man died and more than 70 people were injured Tuesday in what passengers described as a terrifying scene aboard a Singapore Airlines flight that hit severe turbulence, triggering an emergency landing in Bangkok.

More than a dozen of the world's leading artificial intelligence firms made fresh safety commitments at a global summit in Seoul on Tuesday, the British government said in a statement.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock voiced concern on Tuesday over the worsening battlefield conditions for Ukrainian forces on the eastern front, during an unannounced visit to Kyiv.

NGOs filed a criminal complaint against French oil giant TotalEnergies and its top shareholders in Paris on Tuesday, seeking a trial for involuntary manslaughter and other consequences of climate change "chaos".

Two statues smuggled out of Thailand, including a 900-year-old sculpture that spent three decades at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, were welcomed back to the kingdom in an official repatriation ceremony in Bangkok on Tuesday.

Israeli forces battled Hamas in Gaza on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu angrily dismissed a bid for an international arrest warrant against him on war crimes charges in the Palestinian territory.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's British-born wife Asma, who recovered from breast cancer in 2019, has been diagnosed with leukaemia, the president's office said on Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of Iranians gathered Tuesday to mourn president Ebrahim Raisi and seven members of his entourage who were killed in a helicopter crash on a fog-shrouded mountainside.

Taliban poets, long fuelled by fervour for jihad against foreign forces, have focused their efforts on flattering the men who now rule Afghanistan.

Markets in Asia and Europe suffered a downturn Tuesday after racking up a series of gains as profit-takers stepped in, while traders were also spooked by a surge in commodity prices.

Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns former US president Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social, lost more than $300 million in the first quarter of 2024, it said Monday.

Legendary Japanese animators Studio Ghibli on Monday became the first collective to receive an honorary Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

A Japanese town mounted a large mesh barrier at a popular viewing spot for Mount Fuji on Tuesday, in an attempt to deter photo-taking by an ever-growing number of tourists.

The women's tennis tour (WTA) on Monday announced "a multi-year partnership" with the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund (PIF), emulating a deal made by the men's tour (ATP) in February.

A top US banking regulator offered his resignation Monday after an independent report found evidence of widespread sexual misconduct and a "patriarchal" culture at the agency he leads.

Movie star Scarlett Johansson said Monday she was "shocked" by an OpenAI synthetic voice that sounds like her, which was released after she declined to work with the ChatGPT-maker on such a project.

The international airport in Haiti's capital reopened for commercial flights on Monday, some two and a half months after it was forced to close due to gang-fueled violence.

Australian actor Cate Blanchett, goodwill ambassador for the UN agency for refugees, on Monday urged the film industry to take a leap and include their "incredible" stories.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella unveiled a new category of PC on Monday that features generative artificial intelligence tools built directly into Windows, the company's world leading operating system.

US President Joe Biden denied Monday that Israel's war in Gaza was genocide, as he slammed an "outrageous" request by the International Criminal Court's prosecutor for an arrest warrant for Israeli leaders.