AFP news

Tearful mourners prayed on Thursday as ceremonies were held across Asia to remember the 220,000 people who were killed two decades ago when a tsunami hit coastlines around the Indian Ocean in one of the world's worst natural disasters.

Desi Bouterse, the former dictator and later elected president of Suriname, who became a fugitive of justice for the killing of political opponents, has died at 79, the government said Wednesday.

Angry protests broke out Wednesday in Syria over a video showing an attack on an Alawite shrine, with a war monitor saying one demonstrator was killed in Homs city.

Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning Thursday after a passenger jet from the flag carrier crashed in Kazakhstan killing 38 people, as experts pointed to apparent shrapnel damage on the wreckage as evidence of a possible missile explosion.

Beside India's holy rivers, a makeshift city is being built for a Hindu religious festival expected to be so vast it will be seen from space, the largest gathering in history.

New Vietnamese internet rules requiring Facebook and TikTok to verify user identities and hand over data to authorities came into force on Wednesday, in what critics say is the latest attack on freedom of expression.

Christmas revellers around the world donned red and white Santa hats, offered meals to the homeless and lit candles on Wednesday, as Pope Francis launched observation of the global holiday with a sombre mass in the Vatican.

Japanese foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya met counterpart Wang Yi and other top officials in Beijing on Wednesday, with the two sides agreeing to try to increase cooperation despite acknowledging challenges, reports said.

Fuelled in part by the success of TV hit "Shogun", foreign studios are hungry for quality Japanese content and local creators are adapting to meet demand.

Santa Claus has no need to worry about recent mystery drone sightings over New Jersey, a US Air Force general said Tuesday, as an annual tradition of "tracking" Saint Nick swung into action.

A leading US government agency that tracks foreign disinformation has terminated its operations, the State Department said Tuesday, after Congress failed to extend its funding following years of Republican criticism.

Protesters in Panama on Tuesday burned an image of US President-elect Donald Trump following his threat to demand control of the country's interoceanic canal be returned to Washington.

A rift between Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa and his deputy deepened on Tuesday as his ally-turned-adversary accused the leader of the South American nation of trying to banish her to Turkey.

Jailed former leaders of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiyah militant group are being considered for parole, a senior counter-terror official said Tuesday, after the network disbanded and members pledged allegiance to the country.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Tuesday that the days of France's new government are already numbered, predicting an early presidential election in a few months.

A German flying taxi firm was Tuesday saved from collapse after investors swooped in to take it over, in a case that has fired debate about support for the country's startup scene.

The status of the Panama Canal is non-negotiable, President Jose Raul Mulino said in a statement Monday signed alongside former leaders of the country, after Donald Trump's recent threats to reclaim the man-made waterway.

Hong Kong police announced bounties on Tuesday of HK$1 million (around $130,000) for information leading to the arrest of six democracy advocates based overseas and accused of national security crimes.

South Korea's opposition said Tuesday it would hold back a decision to impeach acting president Han Duck-soo until later in the week.

One of the world's most active volcanoes sprang into life again Monday, spewing columns of lava 80 meters (260 feet) above Hawaii, US vulcanologists said.

Global stocks were mostly higher on Tuesday boosted by a tech rally on Wall Street, but gains remained modest in thin Christmas Eve trade.

A US government panel failed to reach a consensus on whether US Steel's acquisition by Nippon Steel threatens Washington's national security, shifting the decision to the White House, the Japanese company said late Monday.

A factory turned into a battlefield, riot police armed with tasers and an activist who spent 100 days atop a chimney -- the unrest that inspired Netflix's most successful show ever has all the hallmarks of a TV drama.

President-elect Donald Trump's repeated support for TikTok has sparked speculation about potential solutions to prevent the app's impending ban in the United States, though the path forward remains unclear.

Nearly 50,000 people in Canada died of an apparent opioid overdose from January 2016 to June 2024, with fentanyl playing an increasingly prominent role in fatalities, the national health agency said Monday.

A massacre of more than 200 people in Haiti this month followed a gang-ordered manhunt that saw victims, many of them elderly, pulled from their homes and shot or killed with machetes, the UN said Monday.

The world's deadliest tsunami hit nations around the Indian Ocean two decades ago before social media platforms flourished, but they have since transformed how we understand and respond to disasters -- from finding the missing to swift crowdfunding.

Bangladesh has launched a probe into the alleged $5 billion embezzlement connected to a Russian-backed nuclear power plant by ousted leader Sheikh Hasina and her family, the anti-corruption commission said Monday.

The United States said Monday it is opening an investigation into China's policies for its semiconductor industry, over concerns that Beijing is turning to "extensive anticompetitive and non-market means" to undermine other economies.