AFP news

Tens of thousands of mourners began saying their last goodbyes to Pope Francis at St Peter's Basilica Wednesday, as the body of the late Argentine pontiff began three days of lying in state.

President Donald Trump's top diplomat Marco Rubio on Tuesday unveiled a restructuring of the US State Department that will cut positions and scale back human rights offices, saying the "bloated" organization was ideologically out of sync with the administration.

China said on Wednesday the door was "wide open" for trade talks with Washington, a day after US President Donald Trump signalled the possibility of a "substantial" lowering of tariffs on Beijing.

In the chapel of the Vatican's Santa Marta residence, where Pope Francis lived and died, a nun prayed Tuesday with tears in her eyes before the pontiff's wooden coffin.

The EU on Wednesday slapped Apple and Meta with 700 million euros in fines for breaking digital competition rules, risking the wrath of US President Donald Trump.

Gaza's civil defence agency on Wednesday said its crew recovered charred bodies from a school-turned-shelter for displaced people, as Israeli strikes killed 17 people in the Hamas-run territory since dawn.

The World Economic Forum confirmed Wednesday that it has launched an investigation into allegations made against its founder Klaus Schwab that reportedly prompted his resignation this week.

Singapore's election campaign officially kicked off Wednesday, with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong facing his first major test amid public frustration over rising living costs and a rejuvenated opposition.

Indian security forces in Kashmir were conducting a major manhunt on Wednesday, a day after gunmen opened fire on tourists and killed 26 people in the region's worst attack on civilians in a quarter of a century.

Envoys from Washington, Kyiv and European nations gathered for talks in Britain on Wednesday amid a new US push to end Russia's war in Ukraine, but a planned meeting of foreign ministers was postponed.

OpenAI is ready to buy Chrome if Google is forced to sell its popular browser as part of antitrust trial, a top executive testified Tuesday, according to media reports.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he had no plans to fire the Federal Reserve chief, in apparently conciliatory remarks after berating him and triggering market turmoil.

Elon Musk will significantly scale back his Trump administration work in May to focus on Tesla, the billionaire announced Tuesday as the electric vehicle maker reported a 71 percent drop in first-quarter profits.

The World Health Organization chief said Tuesday that operations and jobs would be slashed as US funding cuts had left the UN agency with a budget hole of several hundred million dollars.

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche on Tuesday announced plans to invest $50 billion in the United States over the next five years, following in the footsteps of rival Novartis, with US President Donald Trump's tariff war fuelling uncertainty in the sector.

Latin American migrants paid tribute on Monday to Pope Francis as a staunch defender of their rights who gave them much-needed encouragement on their long and dangerous journeys fleeing poverty and violence.

Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis heads up a stellar cast of athletes kicking off the 16th Diamond League season in Xiamen on Saturday amid a changing landscape that has seen Michael Johnson launch his Grand Slam track series.

More than 100 US universities and colleges, including Ivy League institutions Princeton and Brown, issued a joint letter on Tuesday condemning President Donald Trump's "political interference" in the education system.

Pope Francis's funeral will be held on Saturday, the Vatican announced Tuesday, as world leaders from US President Donald Trump to Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky said they would attend to honor the Catholic leader.

The United States on Monday announced its intention to impose tariffs of up to 3,521 percent on solar panels from Southeast Asia, a move aimed at countering alleged Chinese subsidies and dumping in the sector.

With his storm of tariffs on Chinese goods, US President Donald Trump has torched ties with Beijing and likely wrecked any hope of meeting his counterpart Xi Jinping in the near term, analysts say.

X rival Bluesky on Monday said it was adding blue checks to accounts that have been verified to confirm users are who they claim to be.

Oscar voters will be required to demonstrate that they have watched all the films in each category before they cast their final ballots, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday.

Harvard sued US President Donald Trump's administration Monday in a sharp escalation of the fight between the prestigious university and the Republican, who has threatened its funding and sought to impose outside political supervision.

US government attorneys urged a federal judge Monday to make Google spin off its Chrome browser, arguing artificial intelligence is poised to ramp up the tech giant's online search dominance.

A Hamas delegation departed for Cairo to discuss "new ideas" aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza, an official from the group said, as Israeli air strikes killed 26 people across the territory Tuesday.

Asian crime networks running multi-billion-dollar cyber scam centres are expanding their operations across the world as they seek new victims and new ways to launder money, the UN said on Monday.

The World Economic Forum said on Monday that its founder Klaus Schwab has stepped down from the board, turning a page in the history of the organisation that hosts the annual meeting of wealthy, famous and influential global elites at the luxury Swiss ski resort of Davos.

Russia launched a wave of aerial attacks at Ukraine on Monday in an abrupt end to a fragile 30-hour Easter truce between the two sides.