AFP news

Rescue teams on Tuesday evacuated a flood-ravaged town in northeastern Australia, racing to airlift hundreds of people to safety before they run out of food and water.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to accelerate his country's nuclear build-up and warned Washington against making a "wrong decision" after overseeing the launch of the country's most powerful ballistic missile, state media said Tuesday.

From Hamas's brutal attacks in Israel and the fierce retribution it provoked to the kiss that sparked a revolt in Spanish football, here are 10 events that marked a tumultuous 2023.

Finland on Monday signed an agreement to enhance military cooperation with the United States, saying it saw a long-term threat from Russia, a day after its giant neighbor issued a warning over Helsinki's recent entrance into NATO.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that he would seek deeper ties with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, during his second visit to the country within four months.

The UN Security Council is expected on Tuesday to accede to a demand from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and launch a gradual withdrawal of peacekeepers, starting later this month.

A Swedish appeals court will announce on Tuesday its verdict in the trial of a former Iranian prison official handed a life sentence in a lower court for crimes committed during a 1988 purge of dissidents.

Apple on Monday said it will stop selling some of its smartwatch models in the United States while it fights a patent battle over technology for detecting blood oxygen levels.

Japan's Nippon Steel agreed to buy US Steel Corp for $14.1 billion, the companies announced on Monday, sparking criticism about the firm's ownership in an industry crucial to US national security.

A US jury on Monday ordered chemical company Monsanto to pay $857 million to seven people at a school in the western state of Washington who said they were sickened by chemicals leaking from light fittings.

The Panama Canal delivered $2.5 billion to the national treasury for last year's operations, the government said Monday, despite record-low water levels that limited ship transits.

The EU announced "formal infringement proceedings" against Elon Musk's platform X on Monday, under a law designed to combat disinformation and hate after identifying suspect posts related to Hamas's October 7 attack in Israel.

Artificial intelligence allowed Pakistan's ex-prime minister Imran Khan to campaign from behind bars on Monday, with a voice clone of the opposition leader giving an impassioned speech on his behalf.

When news broke about a bedbug outbreak in his native South Korea, 29-year-old blockchain engineer and self-professed insectophobe Kang Jae-gu got straight to work -- on the data.

Artist Candice Breitz worked for several years to set up an exhibition in the German city of Saarbruecken, only for it to be cancelled over her stance on the Israel-Hamas war.

A second-hand pop-up store in Tokyo by casual clothing giant Uniqlo was a first for the Japanese firm, but also a sign that a local aversion to used garments may finally be fading.

Rising Hollywood star Jonathan Majors was convicted Monday of assaulting and harassing his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari, prompting Marvel to drop him from a prime role in its superhero blockbusters.

Algerian international footballer Youcef Atal went on trial in France Monday accused of inciting hatred after posting a video in which a Palestinian preacher purportedly threatens Israel with a "black day".

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said Monday that the tickets for the Paris Olympics are "expensive" and pleaded for the families of athletes to be given priority by organisers.

The Republican governor of Texas signed a bill on Monday that would allow state police to arrest and deport migrants who cross illegally into the United States from Mexico.

The United States on Monday announced a 10-nation coalition to quell Huthi missile and drone attacks on ships transiting the Red Sea, with Britain, France, Bahrain and Italy among countries joining the "multinational security initiative."

Kenya and the European Union on Monday signed a long-negotiated trade agreement to increase the flow of goods between the two markets, as Brussels pursues stronger economic ties with Africa.

At least 12 people were killed and another dozen were wounded in an attack early Sunday on a pre-Christmas party in central Mexico, authorities in the state of Guanajuato said.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hailed Italian premier Giorgia Meloni's approach to tackling illegal migration Saturday, in a visit to Rome where they agreed to co-fund a project to help migrants return home from Tunisia.

Dozens of journalists took part in a funeral on Saturday for an Al Jazeera cameraman killed in an Israeli strike in the south of the war-torn Gaza Strip.

With few tourists watching the daring feat, Abraham Estrada dives off La Quebrada, an emblematic Acapulco cliff where the spectacle has resumed but struggles to attract visitors after the Mexican resort was hammered by Hurricane Otis.

Glaciologist Andrew Hodson used to collaborate with his Russian colleagues in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic, but snowmobile excursions to see them have come to a halt since the war in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday vowed to make Russia "sovereign and self-sufficient" in the face of the West, in his first campaign speech before a March vote to extend his long rule until at least 2030.

The Israeli army said on Sunday it had uncovered the biggest Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip so far, just a few hundred metres from a key border crossing.