AFP news

Pope Francis held mass and made a plea for migrant workers to be paid fairly, as he visited the affluent city-state of Singapore Thursday on the last stop of his marathon Asia-Pacific tour.

China will "crush" any foreign incursion into its sovereign territory including in the South China Sea, a senior Beijing military official said Thursday on the sidelines of a defence forum.

UK online property website Rightmove said Wednesday it had rejected a multi-billion-pound takeover offer from Australian peer REA Group, majority owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Wednesday the European Union should "reconsider" a plan to impose tariffs of up to 36 percent on Chinese electric cars, calling for a "compromise" between the economic powerhouses.

Residents of Hanoi waded through waist-deep water Wednesday as river levels hit a 20-year high and the toll from the strongest typhoon in decades passed 150, with neighbouring nations also enduring deadly flooding and landslides.

US presidential hopefuls Kamala Harris and Donald Trump clashed on China and economic issues Tuesday, with the Democratic candidate saying he "sold us out" on China while the former president declared "they've destroyed the economy."

Pope Francis left East Timor for Singapore on Wednesday for the last leg of a gruelling 12-day Asia-Pacific tour, flying from one of the world's poorest regions to one of its richest.

Taylor Swift, a self-declared "childless cat lady," has endorsed Kamala Harris for president of the United States.

Fewer climbers tackled Mount Fuji during this year's hiking season, preliminary figures show, after Japanese authorities introduced an entry fee and a daily cap on numbers to fight overtourism.

Catalan independence supporters are set to mark the Spanish region's commemorative day on Wednesday with separatists deeply divided and out of office in Catalonia for the first time in over a decade.

Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, began a visit to Iraq on Wednesday, aiming to deepen already close ties with the neighbouring country on his first trip abroad since taking office.

The US and British top diplomats headed together into Ukraine on Wednesday to discuss further easing rules on firing Western weapons into Russia, whose alleged acquisition of Iranian missiles has raised new fears.

Australia football head coach Graham Arnold said his side were "extremely disappointed" after their goal-drought continued into a second World Cup qualifier, this time leading to a 0-0 draw with Indonesia in Jakarta.

A private crew set out on an audacious orbital expedition Tuesday, journeying deeper into the cosmos than any humans in half a century as they prepare for the first ever spacewalk by non-professional astronauts.

Sony said Tuesday it would launch an upgraded version of its flagship games console with better graphics and AI capabilities on November 7, calling it PlayStation 5 Pro.

Chinese tech giant Huawei on Tuesday unveiled the world's first triple-folding phone at more than three times the price of the newest iPhone, hours after its US competitor lifted the curtain on its own new handset built for AI.

It began with a warning -- Telegram groups notorious for sharing illicit sexual content had set their sights on student Stasa Ivkovic.

Thousands of people were stranded on rooftops and posted desperate pleas for help on social media Tuesday after severe flooding in parts of typhoon-hit Vietnam, as the death toll climbed to 82.

A senior US military official warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing's "dangerous" moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for "a negotiated solution" at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to end a stand-off between Beijing and the European Union.

The EU's top court on Tuesday delivered two major victories in the bloc's battle to rein in tech giants by ruling against Apple and Google in separate legal sagas with billions of euros at play.

After South Korean authorities uncovered a sprawling network of AI deepfake porn Telegram chatrooms targeting schools and universities, teenage activist Bang Seo-yoon began collecting testimony of abuse from victims.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets the new UK government on Tuesday, with the close allies expected to share their resolve on Ukraine and paper over differences on Gaza.

Australia will ban children from using social media with a minimum age limit as high as 16, the prime minister said Tuesday, vowing to get kids off their devices and "onto the footy fields".

Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli strike Tuesday on a humanitarian zone in the Palestinian territory killed 40 people, with the Israeli army saying it had targeted a Hamas command centre in the area.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will clash in their first and possibly last televised debate Tuesday, in a potentially game-changing moment for the blockbuster 2024 US presidential election.

Controversial proposals by Mexico's outgoing president to allow voters to elect judges face a final hurdle in Congress against a backdrop of opposition street protests, diplomatic tensions and investor jitters.

Is Brazil's shutdown of Elon Musk's X a drastic but necessary move in the global fight against disinformation, or pure censorship?

Beyonce did not receive a Country Music Association awards nomination when the nods for the 58th edition were announced Monday, even though her "Cowboy Carter" album proved a cultural phenomenon upon release this year.