AFP news

Natural disasters are now happening so frequently that reinsurers -- the firms that sell insurance to insurance companies -- are scaling back their exposure to such risks.

Did banking giant UBS make "the deal of the century" when it bought one of the world's biggest banks for a pittance as it teetered on the edge of the abyss?

Equities fluctuated Wednesday ahead of a crunch US inflation report, with investors increasingly nervous that a recent spike in oil will put fresh upward pressure on consumer prices and force the Federal Reserve to lift interest rates again.

With France slowly weaning itself off its traditional obsession with meat, the top chefs in charge of feeding the sporting masses at the 2024 Olympic Games are emphasising a more vegetarian approach.

Libya's devastated eastern city of Derna was counting its dead on Wednesday with the toll from the floodwaters unleashed by Storm Daniel expected to rise even further.

Armed groups from northern Mali on Tuesday claimed they captured the key town of Bourem, between Gao and Timbuktu, before pulling out, fuelling fears of the collapse of a peace deal between the ex-rebels and government forces.

As colder weather sets in, Covid rates are once more rising across the Northern Hemisphere, with several new variants on the scene.

The powerful quake last Friday killed more than 2,900 people, most of them in remote villages of the High Atlas Mountains.

French regulators on Tuesday ordered Apple to halt sales of the iPhone 12 for emitting too much electromagnetic radiation, and to fix existing handsets.

A top senator on Tuesday urged the United States to impose sanctions on Azerbaijan's leader, accusing him of starting a campaign of "genocide" against an ethnic Armenian enclave, charges rejected by Baku.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, bowing to pressure from his party's hard right, gave the go-ahead on Tuesday for an impeachment investigation into US President Joe Biden.

NATO member Romania announced Tuesday that it has begun building air-raid shelters for residents near the Ukraine border, after drone fragments were found there last week.

The construction sector -- the most polluting and difficult to decarbonise -- must build less, use more sustainable materials and clean up conventional ones to slash its emissions, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

In the cluttered basement of a residential building outside Moscow, 81-year-old Raisa carefully attached plastic strips to a camouflage net stretched over a wooden stand in front of her.

The head of UK anti-monarchy group Republic said on Tuesday he was suing police for wrongful arrest before King Charles III's coronation.

When Apple unveils its latest iPhone on Tuesday, the European Union will have left its mark on the US giant's flagship product.

The shelters popping up in tent cities and beside destroyed or dangerously damaged homes show that aid is starting to flow, but also leave survivors unsure how long these temporary structures will be home.

Thousands are feared dead or missing in Libya after huge flash floods devastated eastern regions, with a surge of muddy river water ripping away entire neighbourhoods in one coastal city, local authorities and international aid groups said Tuesday.

The de-globalisation of international trade is far from being a reality, but "the first signs of fragmentation" are appearing, the WTO warned Tuesday, concerned of the effects of the phenomenon on growth and development.

A 15-year high in rice prices, prompted by top exporter India's restrictions on overseas sales, should be a wake-up call on how climate change can disrupt food supplies, experts say.

World demand for oil, gas and coal is forecast to peak this decade for the first time as the use of cleaner energy and electric cars accelerates, the International Energy Agency's chief wrote Tuesday in the Financial Times.

Three decades after a historic handshake on the White House lawn that capped months of secret Israeli-Palestinian talks, disillusioned young Gazans face the consquences and failed promises of the once-celebrated Oslo Accords.

The United States confirmed Monday it had signed off on the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds from South Korea, paving the way for five US citizens to leave Tehran.

Asian markets struggled Tuesday to extend a Wall Street and European rally as traders nervously await US inflation data, while lingering concerns about China's economy remain a millstone.

Medics treated a constant flow of casualties after Morocco's strongest-ever earthquake killed more than 2,800 people, but hopes were fading Tuesday of finding more survivors under the rubble.

Virat Kohli and returning KL Rahul hit unbeaten centuries to lead India's 228-run thrashing of Pakistan in a rain-hit Super Four clash of the Asia Cup on Monday's reserve day.

Dressed in colorful ponchos, a group of Peruvian shamans tie up an effigy of Neymar as they seek to "neutralize" him ahead of Tuesday's World Cup qualifying match against Brazil.

An international team of rescuers on Tuesday pulled to safety a US explorer who spent nine days trapped deep in the narrow tunnels of a Turkish cave with internal bleeding.

The United States and Armenia opened military drills on Monday, the latest sign of Yerevan drifting from Moscow's orbit as Russia's invasion of Ukraine reshapes post-Soviet relations.