AFP news

A major power outage plunged much of Puerto Rico into darkness on New Year's Eve, with the US island territory's electric utility saying restoration could take up to two days.

Beijing insisted on Tuesday that it had shared information on Covid-19 "without holding anything back", after the World Health Organization implored China to offer more data and access to understand the disease's origins.

President Xi Jinping said China will put in place "more proactive" macroeconomic policies next year, state media reported, as he addressed a top political advisory body on Tuesday.

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, celebrating his 40th birthday Monday, said he could play another five to seven years in the NBA at a high-caliber level -- though he conceded he would probably retire before then.

Famed actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie signed off on a divorce settlement Monday, according to People Magazine, marking a turning point in the eight-year legal saga.

South Korean authorities began releasing the bodies of plane crash victims to families Tuesday, as investigators raced to determine why the Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 crash landed and burst into flames.

Asian stocks ended the year mainly in the red on Tuesday after worries about 2025 and profit-taking turned Wall Street's usual holiday period "Santa Claus rally" into a mini-rout.

Crowds will marvel at fireworks and toast champagne to greet 2025 on Tuesday, waving goodbye to a year that brought Olympic glory, a dramatic Donald Trump return, and turmoil in the Middle East and Ukraine.

King Charles III announced awards for actors Stephen Fry and Carey Mulligan, as well as victims of Britain's Post Office scandal in the country's traditional New Year's Honours on Tuesday.

In Jimmy Carter's tiny hometown of Plains, Georgia on Monday, the former US president's death was only beginning to sink in, even if friends and neighbors have been bracing for it since he went into hospice care nearly two years ago.

Venezuela's highest court on Monday fined TikTok $10 million in connection with viral challenges that authorities say left three adolescents dead from intoxication by chemical substances.

The US Treasury Department said Monday that a China state-sponsored actor was behind a cyber breach resulting in access to some of its workstations, according to a letter to Congress seen by AFP. The incident happened earlier this month, when the actor compromised a third-party cybersecurity service provider and was able to remotely access the Treasury workstations and some unclassified documents, a Treasury spokesperson added.

Climate change sparked a trail of extreme weather and record heat in 2024, the United Nations said on Monday, urging the world to pull back from the "road to ruin".

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou arrived in Mayotte on Monday, vowing to bring help to the Indian Ocean territory ravaged by Cyclone Chido.

Wildly popular with young people for their dizzying array of flavours, including apple, watermelon and cola, the time is up for disposable e-cigarettes in Belgium -- the first EU country to ban them.

European and Asia stock markets mostly fell Monday in jittery holiday trade ahead of a potentially tumultuous 2025 when Donald Trump returns to the White House.

South Korea ordered Monday a "comprehensive inspection" of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country's carriers, after a Jeju Air plane crash-landed and burst into flames, killing 179 people on board.

Wearing a safety belt, helmet and work boots, Raju Nishad navigates the scaffolding, hammering blocks that will form part of a building in a new neighbourhood in central Israel's town of Beer Yaakov.

Investigators probing South Korea's Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived declaration of martial law said Monday they had sought an arrest warrant for the suspended president after he failed to report for questioning.

The blockbuster clash against India on Monday became the best attended Test in Australia's history as fans flocked to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the final day.

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa told Al Arabiya TV on Sunday that elections could take four years, noted the importance of ties with Iran and Russia, and called for the United States to lift sanctions.

Joe Biden led US presidents and other world leaders in paying tribute to Jimmy Carter, who died aged 100.

Tributes poured in Monday for Jimmy Carter, the former US president and Nobel peace laureate who rose from humble beginnings in rural Georgia to lead the nation and died aged 100.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier dissolved parliament on Friday and confirmed the expected February date for an early general election after the collapse of Olaf Scholz's government last month.

Israeli air strikes hit rebel-held Sanaa's international airport and other targets in Yemen on Thursday as the head of the UN's World Health Organization said he and his team prepared to fly out.

Oleksandr deserted from the front line in eastern Ukraine after watching his fellow servicemen being pulverised by Russian bombardments for six months.

From tiny and impoverished Mayotte to oil-rich behemoth Saudi Arabia, prosperous European cities to overcrowded slums in Africa, nowhere was spared the devastating impact of supercharged climate disasters in 2024.

The growing popularity of Chinese sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks has shaken up Mexico's luxury car market, hitting sales of traditionally dominant brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW. According to industry experts, Mexicans are increasingly switching from traditionally dominant sedans to Chinese vehicles due to a combination of comfort, technology and price.

India announced seven days of state mourning on Friday after the death of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, one of the architects of the country's economic liberalisation in the early 1990s.