AFP news

Temperature records are being toppled across Asia, from India's summer to Australia's winter, authorities said Friday, in fresh evidence of the impact of climate change.

Markets mostly rose Friday ahead of a crucial US jobs report later in the day and following data showing inflation in the world's largest economy had ticked up slightly.

The bank of screens in Ismail Aydin's Istanbul water management system control room flashes a worrying number: 29.7 percent.

Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Sudan's war have crossed into Chad to find themselves in overcrowded camps, sweltering in plastic huts and awaiting healthcare that never comes.

Singaporeans headed to the polls Friday in the city-state's first contested presidential election in more than a decade, a vote being closely watched as an indication of support for the ruling party after a rare spate of political scandals.

Chinese manufacturers will be out in force at next week's IAA auto show, one of the industry's biggest, revving their new electric models on the turf of German carmakers, which have been lagging in the e-mobility race.

A key US inflation measure used by the Federal Reserve to set interest rates rose in July, due largely to another jump in the cost of services, according to government data published Thursday.

At least 48 people have been killed in a crackdown on an anti-UN protest in eastern DR Congo, according to sources and official documentation reviewed by AFP on Thursday, raising a previously reported death toll.

The United Nations Security Council on Thursday renewed the mandate for its peacekeeping force in Lebanon for another year after tense debate around the troops' freedom of movement.

Five railway workers died after being hit by a train during overnight maintenance in northern Italy, officials said Thursday, triggering outrage among trade unions who blamed a lack of safety procedures.

US envoy Amos Hochstein who oversaw a maritime border deal between Lebanon and Israel, countries technically still at war, said Thursday it was time to delineate their land border also.

Eurozone inflation remained unchanged in August, official data showed Thursday, leaving the European Central Bank faced with a conundrum over whether to continue hiking interest rates amid fears of a deepening economic downturn.

The social media platform X will begin offering video and audio calling, owner Elon Musk announced on Thursday, a step towards turning the former Twitter into an "everything app."

Britain's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who last month announced he would step down in the next UK government cabinet reshuffle, has resigned, the prime minister's office said Thursday.

A fire that engulfed a five-storey building killed more than 60 people including children in central Johannesburg on Thursday, the South African city's emergency services said.

A truck driver rammed his vehicle near a checkpoint in the West Bank Thursday, injuring three people before he was "neutralised", medics and police said, in the latest attack to rock the occupied territory.

Russia on Wednesday vetoed an attempt to keep inside military-run Mali a team of UN experts who had charged that foreign forces -- a veiled reference to Moscow-linked Wagner mercenaries -- were involved in widespread abuses.

China's biggest developer Country Garden on Thursday faces a crunch vote on extending debt repayment terms that could determine whether it defaults, plunging the country's property market deeper into turmoil.

China's Baidu rolled out its ChatGPT rival ERNIE Bot to the public on Thursday, in a major leap for the country's tech sector as it aims to cash in on the global artificial intelligence gold rush.

Markets were mixed Thursday as investors struggled to maintain momentum from Wall Street's rally, even after fresh data reinforced optimism the Federal Reserve will be able to hold off any more interest rate hikes this year.

Rebel officers in the oil-rich central African state of Gabon announced on Wednesday they had seized power following disputed elections in which President Ali Bongo Ondimba, in power since 2009, had been declared victor.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he had raised human rights concerns at "every single one" of his meetings with top Chinese officials, as he made a state visit to Beijing on Wednesday.

Iran is ratcheting up a crackdown ahead of the one-year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, arresting prominent personalities, campaigners and relatives of those killed by security forces in protests last year, activists say.

A Pakistan court on Wednesday ordered that former prime minister Imran Khan be kept in jail over allegations he leaked classified documents, a day after a judge granted his release in a separate graft case.

Indian officials preparing for the G20 summit next week have hired teams of "monkey-men" and erected primate cutouts to deter marauding monkeys from munching on the floral displays laid out for global leaders.

Oil companies are paying popular influencers to pump their gas on social media, sparking a backlash from some climate-conscious fans for promoting planet-warming fossil fuels among young people.

Sixty years ago, a crisis hotline for the first time sent a message between the world's superpowers.

Welcoming back potentially misleading political messages at X came less than a week after former president Donald Trump posted there for the first time since January 2021.

Former Algerian defence minister Khaled Nezzar has been indicted in Switzerland on charges of committing crimes against humanity in the 1990s during the civil war, state prosecutors said Tuesday.