AFP news

Israel struck Gaza on Monday and witnesses reported blasts in the besieged territory's south, but fighting has largely subsided after a day of relative calm and as Muslims marked Eid al-Adha.

At least eight people were killed in India on Monday when a goods train driver missed a signal and slammed into an express passenger train from behind, police and railway officials said.

Coming-of-age musical "The Outsiders" and "Stereophonic," a play about a 1970s band putting together an album, earned top honors Sunday at the Tony Awards, the highest accolades in American theater.

US journalist Evan Gershkovich will go on trial on espionage charges in Russia's Urals city of Yekaterinburg behind closed doors on June 26, the court overseeing the process said on Monday.

Nuclear-armed countries hiked spending on atomic weapons arsenals by a third in the past five years as they modernised their stockpiles amid growing geopolitical tensions, two reports showed on Monday.

Superstar Portugal striker Cristiano Ronaldo is determined to make more European Championship history this summer.

Asian markets fell Monday to extend last week's losses, with traders trying to assess the Federal Reserve's plans for interest rates, while the euro was weighed by political uncertainty as France prepared for a snap parliamentary election.

Philippine and Chinese vessels collided near the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea on Monday, the Chinese Coast Guard said, as Beijing steps up efforts to push its claims over the disputed area.

Executive salaries at major US corporations are soaring -- but shareholders happy with stock prices and greater transparency over remuneration are not pushing back.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Italy for the G7 summit, it was not diplomatic meetings that dominated headlines back in India -- but the relationship with his Italian counterpart.

South African former president Jacob Zuma said Sunday his new party would join an opposition alliance to coordinate resistance to the government, while maintaining its challenge to the general election results.

Pilgrims on Sunday performed the last major ritual of the hajj, the "stoning of the devil", in western Saudi Arabia as Muslims around the globe celebrated the Eid al-Adha holiday.

Taliban authorities will attend the third round of United Nations-hosted talks on Afghanistan in the Qatari capital, a government spokesman said on Sunday, after snubbing an invitation to the previous round.

China hailed mended ties with Australia on Monday, saying relations were "on the right track" as the trading partners moved on from a bitter economic dispute despite a duel for influence in the Pacific.

Grieving families kept a solemn vigil in the terminal of an Indian airport on Friday as the bodies of dozens of migrant workers killed in a Kuwait building fire returned home.

Pope Francis on Friday clowned around with over 100 top global comedians including Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock and Jimmy Fallon before leaving to address a summit of G7 leaders in Italy.

The Conservative party of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has fallen behind the hard-right anti-immigration Reform UK party for the first time in a poll by YouGov, which called the development a "seismic shift".

Debt-laden tech group Atos said Friday the French state has made a 700-million-euro bid for its most sensitive businesses, including cybersecurity and supercomputers used for the country's nuclear deterrent.

China has organised seminars and training courses for officials in African and Latin American countries, aimed at promoting its single-party system and President Xi Jinping's worldview, a report said this week.

Italy kick off their European Championship title defence against Albania on Saturday as a new-look team tries to rebuild the reputation of one of the world's most important football nations.

It looks like the lair of a Bond villain: behind armoured doors, buried underground below the Louvre in Paris, lies one of the most high-tech art labs in the world.

Afghanistan underlined their growing status as the dark horses of the 2024 T20 World Cup with a seven-wicket victory over Papua New Guinea on Thursday to advance to the Super Eight phase of the competition and send New Zealand crashing out.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived in New Zealand's northern hub of Auckland on Friday, stirring up hope of new trade avenues among the country's business leaders.

More than a million Muslim pilgrims were in Mecca Friday for the start of a hajj pilgrimage held against the grim backdrop of the Gaza war and in exhausting summer heat.

G7 leaders meeting in Italy turn their attention to China on Friday, from security in the Asia-Pacific to how best to protect their industries while avoiding an outright trade war with Beijing.

The IMF executive board voted Thursday to approve a payout of almost $800 million for Argentina as it continues a program of drastic economic reforms under its libertarian president, Javier Milei.

Members of US Congress on Thursday pressed Microsoft to explain a "cascade of avoidable errors" that allowed a Chinese hacking group to breach emails of senior US officials.

Two cruise missiles launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels struck a bulk cargo carrier in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, severely injuring a sailor who was evacuated by American forces, the US military said.

Presidents Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky signed a landmark 10-year security deal between Washington and Kyiv on Thursday in what the Ukrainian leader called a historic day in the fight against Russia's invasion.