AFP news

Kyoto authorities announced Tuesday plans to hike lodging taxes, as Japan's ancient capital seeks to assuage grumbles from locals about too many tourists.

Among the charred ruins of Pacific Palisades, Jeff Ridgway walks his dog Abby as if nothing has happened.

North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Tuesday, according to Seoul's military, in what experts said could be a message to US President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration.

Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, called off the inaugural launch of its huge new rocket again on Monday evening after facing weather issues.

NATO countries on the Baltic Sea met in Helsinki on Tuesday, looking to boost security following the suspected sabotage of undersea cables, widely blamed on Russia.

Donald Trump's second presidential term promises a return to tariffs as he pressures partners and rivals to tackle everything from migration to drug trafficking, while protecting US industries -- in moves that could trigger new trade wars.

Last year's runner-up Daniil Medvedev destroyed his racquet and avoided a huge shock at the Australian Open on Tuesday to join a rampant Taylor Fritz and veteran Gael Monfils in the second round.

Nine people have been charged in connection with looting in evacuation zones around huge fires burning in Los Angeles, the area's chief prosecutor said Monday.

Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of launching a weekend drone attack on infrastructure of a major gas pipeline that carries Russian supplies to Europe via Turkey.

Did US tech giant Apple abuse the dominant position of its app store in the UK?

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told US President Joe Biden that his blocking of Nippon Steel's takeover of US Steel raised "strong" concerns in both countries, local media reported Monday.

The Australian Open has introduced court-side "coaching pods" at this year's tournament in a Grand Slam first, but they have met with a mixed reaction.

China's exports surged to a record high in 2024, providing a much-needed boost for the economy as the prospect of biting tariffs imposed by US president-elect Donald Trump looms.

Asian and European markets sank Monday after an outsized US jobs report dealt another blow to hopes for more interest rate cuts, while oil extended a rally sparked by new sanctions on Russia's energy sector.

An Australian mother has spoken of how she tried in vain to save her blind son from the Los Angeles wildfires as water supplies ran dry.

New Lebanese President Joseph Aoun began parliamentary consultations Monday to designate a prime minister tasked with forming a government desperately needed to tackle major challenges in the crisis-hit country.

As Los Angeles is gripped by wildfires that resemble a Hollywood disaster movie, the city's vast entertainment industry is already counting the costs of yet another drastic setback that its workers can ill-afford.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday he was ready to hand over captured North Korean soldiers to Pyongyang in exchange for the return of Ukrainian POWs held in Russia.

The last two years exceeded on average a critical warming limit for the first time as global temperatures soar "beyond what modern humans have ever experienced", an EU agency said Friday.

Donald Trump will be sentenced Friday for covering up hush money payments to a porn star despite the US President-elect's last-ditch efforts to frustrate a process that would make him the first felon in the White House.

Artificial intelligence is moving from data centers to "the edge" as computer makers build the technology into laptops, robots, cars and more devices closer to home.

A Russian court was to issue guilty verdicts Friday in an "extremism" trial against three lawyers who worked for Alexei Navalny, escalating a crackdown against the Kremlin critic's allies even after his death.

Novak Djokovic has claimed that he was "poisoned" by lead and mercury in his food while he was briefly held in Melbourne in 2022 before being deported on the eve of the Australian Open.

Research published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday estimates that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war was around 40 percent higher than recorded by the Palestinian territory's health ministry.

Pakistan's state-owned airline, plagued by a history of deadly crashes and a pilot licence scandal, resumed flights to Europe on Friday after a four-year ban was lifted by EU regulators.

With its soldiers trained in France and high-profile endorsements from the French and Ukrainian presidents, the "Anne of Kyiv" brigade was supposed to be a flagship unit for Ukraine's army.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, in office since 2013, is due to take the oath of office for a third term Friday despite a global outcry that brought thousands out in protest on the ceremony's eve.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai will attend a summit on girls' education hosted by her native Pakistan, where she was nearly killed by militants as a schoolgirl.

Nicholas Norman managed to save his home using little more than buckets of water when towering flames ripped through his neighborhood in a suburb of Los Angeles.