WORLD

Rupert Murdoch's audacious bid to cement his eldest son's control over one of the world's most influential media empires has failed, a US report said Monday.

Donald Trump does not take office until January 20, but on the world stage he is already acting as if he is US president.

A 26-year-old man was arrested and charged with murder Monday in the targeted killing of a health insurance executive on the streets of New York, along with other violations.

As South Korean lawmakers tried to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol for declaring martial law, ruling party MPs stormed out of the chamber to thwart the effort -- except for Ahn Cheol-soo.

UK hereditary lawmaker Richard Fletcher-Vane, better known as Lord Inglewood, will soon no longer commute the few hundred miles from his country house in northwest England to the House of Lords in London -- and he is not happy about it.

French President Emmanuel Macron was on Monday set to hold a series of consultations with party bosses as pressure grew on him to name a new prime minister and defuse a political crisis.

A volcano erupted in the central Philippines on Monday, sending a huge ash column high into the sky as the government ordered the evacuation of surrounding villages.

Syrians flocked to the main square of the capital Damascus on Monday, AFP journalists saw, to mark what many regard as a long-awaited new dawn after the fall of president Bashar al-Assad.

Taiwan's military was on high alert Monday after detecting Chinese warships near the island, Taipei said, as it prepared for likely drills by Beijing in response to President Lai Ching-te's US visits.

Billie Fusto is not after a fat pay cheque: he is training to be an archivist and wants nothing more than "a quiet life" at home in Italy.

This year is "effectively certain" to be the hottest on record and the first above a critical threshold to protect the planet from dangerously overheating, Europe's climate monitor said Monday.

Donald Trump doubled down Sunday on hard-line campaign pledges to impose trade tariffs and carry out mass deportations, while dangling the idea that the United States could withdraw from NATO after he takes office next month.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said Kyiv needed an "enduring" peace to protect it from Russia, after talks in Paris with US President-elect Donald Trump, who warned he would "probably" reduce aid to Ukraine.

Newly restored Notre Dame cathedral held its first mass on Sunday, with Christians celebrating the return of the French capital's most famous place of worship after a historic re-opening ceremony.

President Emmanuel Macron on Friday was holding talks with French political leaders on the left and right as he seeks to name a new prime minister and find a way out of France's political crisis.

When he attends the re-opening ceremony of Notre Dame on Saturday, Macron can boast that this target has been met, dispelling the doubts of many who argued that the half decade goal was wildly ambitious.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet leaders of South America's Mercosur bloc on Friday, aiming to push through a controversial pact to create the world's biggest free trade zone despite last-minute resistance.

In low-lying Copenhagen where rising sea levels, groundwater and rainfall pose a risk to infrastructure, the Danish capital is trying to adapt and protect urban areas from climate change.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said Friday he was "confident" of deeper cooperation with the next Donald Trump administration, a day after his call with US Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson that angered China.

Europe's new Vega-C rocket launched Thursday from French Guiana and put a satellite into orbit in its first takeoff since a failed flight two years ago.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said he hoped Ukraine's allies took "seriously" Moscow's recent use of a hypersonic missile in the conflict there, and warned that Russia was ready to use "any means" to defend itself.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday looked increasingly likely to be unseated after the head of his ruling party demanded he be stripped of office for briefly imposing martial law.

A powerful earthquake that struck off the coast of California sparked a brief tsunami warning on Thursday, with residents warned to flee to higher ground before the alert was cancelled.

New York police released a new security camera picture Thursday of the man believed to have shot a top health insurance executive at close range in a brazen daylight murder outside a Manhattan hotel.

The Bahamas on Thursday said it had rejected a proposal from the incoming Trump administration to receive deported migrants, with Mexico and Panama also stressing they would only take back their own citizens.

President Yoon Suk Yeol faces an impeachment vote this Saturday after briefly imposing martial law in South Korea.

The more than five-year reconstruction of Notre Dame cathedral has featured some near-miraculous recoveries, as well as several controversies.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer will unveil Thursday a "plan for change" for Britain as he attempts a de facto relaunch of his government following a bumpy first five months in power.

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Thursday was meeting Emmanuel Macron to submit his resignation after losing a vote of no confidence in parliament, with the president urgently seeking ways to halt growing political and financial chaos.