AFP news

Japan's SLIM space probe entered the Moon's orbit on Monday in a major step towards the country's first successful lunar landing, expected next month.

Turkish air strikes killed eight civilians in Syria's Kurdish-held northeast Monday, a war monitor and local media said, as Ankara launched operations in Iraq and Syria following deadly attacks on its soldiers.

World Health Organization staff visited Monday a Gaza hospital receiving casualties from deadly strikes on a refugee camp, hearing distressing stories of entire families killed and seeing dying children.

Sadness over the war in Gaza subdued the holiday cheer in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, when the biblical town would usually be decked out in festive finery.

A joint US-Canadian military monitoring agency continued this year its decades-long Christmas tradition of tracking Santa's whereabouts, helping children around the globe find out when his reindeer-powered, present-filled sleigh would be coming to town.

Police in London said on Sunday that officers had arrested a second man on suspicion of theft and criminal damage, after a Banksy artwork was removed from a south London street corner within hours of appearing.

Austria on Sunday said three people were detained for suspected involvement in an "Islamist network", as Vienna and Cologne step up police controls citing heightened security concerns during Christmas.

At least 13 people were killed and 38 injured in eastern Indonesia on Sunday in an explosion at a Chinese-funded nickel-processing plant, the owner of the industrial park that hosts the facility said.

Israel said its armed forces were increasingly focused on Hamas targets in south Gaza Sunday, as the United States again pressed its ally to do more to protect Palestinian civilians.

The United States on Saturday voiced deepening concern over the fate of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has not been heard from since early December.

Nearly three years after President Joe Biden took office vowing "America is back," the country's international image is taking a beating as his administration backs Israel in its war with Hamas.

VNG co-founder Le Hong Minh's first taste of international competition was as a gamer for Vietnam at an early e-sport tournament in South Korea.

Exiled Senegalese opposition figure Karim Wade, an ex-minister and the son of former head of state Abdoulaye Wade, Saturday said he had filed papers to contest presidential elections in February.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu on Sunday said she would seek a second term next year as she looks to steer the former Soviet republic to EU membership.

China's top electric automaker BYD will build a car factory in Hungary, the company said Friday, as it pushes forward with plans for expansion into Europe despite growing concerns around fair competition.

Artists under siege by artificial intelligence (AI) that studies their work, then replicates their styles, have teamed with university researchers to stymy such copycat activity.

A hunchback with goiter, a child decapitated by a soldier, and a woman with a bloodied face are among the unusual figures in an Ecuador nativity scene that aims to provide a realistic depiction of historical life.

British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has agreed a deal to buy a 25 percent stake in Manchester United for about $1.3 billion, vowing to return the Premier League club to the "top of world football".

Ukrainian Orthodox Christians attended services on Sunday as the country for the first time celebrated Christmas on December 25, after the government changed the date from January 7, when most Orthodox believers celebrate, as a snub to Russia.

A deal has been reached to end an hours-long strike by ground staff at Geneva airport, which had caused numerous flight delays and cancellations during the holiday rush.

Two years after the end of the Netflix hit "Money Heist", which won millions of fans around the world, one of its main characters, "Berlin", returns to the small screen later this month with a spin-off series.

Lining up, they receive some rice, dried beans and other basic foodstuffs, whose soaring prices have left millions in Nigeria facing a bleak Christmas.

Cecilia Rojas has scoured shops across greater Buenos Aires to find an affordable gift for her children this Christmas, which is set to be a gloomy affair as the country grapples with its worst economic crisis in decades.

Top US military officer General Charles "CQ" Brown spoke with China's General Liu Zhenli on Thursday, a spokesman said, after a more than year-long halt to high-level defense talks between the two countries.

Britain and Switzerland unveiled a post-Brexit financial services agreement on Thursday, aimed at making it easier for corporate and wealthy people in both countries to do business together.

The White House said Thursday it was preparing a new proposal to Russia to seek the release of two imprisoned Americans after Moscow rejected an earlier attempt.

Protesting youths and security forces clashed in Guinea's capital Conakry on Thursday as demonstrators demanded petrol be restored at service stations whose supplies were suspended after a deadly explosion at the country's main fuel depot.

Queen Elizabeth II was persuaded to step back from making decisions about her own funeral after mentioning that it would be "more difficult" if she died in Scotland, her daughter told a forthcoming documentary.

The United Nations Security Council was expected to vote Friday on a resolution to boost aid to Gaza, as the world body warned the Israel-Hamas war was pushing the Palestinian territory towards famine.