AFP news

Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of Venezuela's presidential election Sunday but the opposition and key regional neighbours immediately rejected the official results.

Reigning Ballon d'Or Aitana Bonmati scored one goal and helped create another as World Cup holders Spain beat Japan 2-1 in their first game of the women's Olympic football tournament on Thursday, while record four-time gold medallists the United States beat Zambia 3-0.

Former US president Barack Obama endorsed his fellow Democrat Kamala Harris' bid for the White House on Friday, delivering a major boost to her campaign to defeat Donald Trump in November's presidential election.

Arson attacks scrambled France's high-speed rail network for tens of thousands of passengers on Friday, after what officials called premeditated acts of "sabotage" just hours before the Paris Olympics opened.

China and Russia's foreign ministers met their Southeast Asian counterparts Friday after vowing to counter "extra-regional forces", a day before Washington's top diplomat was due to arrive.

Santorini is a key stopover of the Greek cruise experience. But with parts of the island nearing saturation, officials are considering restrictions.

Authorities evacuated nearly 300,000 people and suspended public transport across eastern China on Friday, as Typhoon Gaemi brought torrential rains already responsible for five deaths in nearby Taiwan.

Taiwanese giant TSMC tumbled with several other leading chip makers Friday as traders returned from a typhoon-imposed two-day break to play catch-up with a global tech rout.

Sri Lanka's first presidential elections since an unprecedented economic crisis spurred widespread unrest will be held in September, the election commission said Friday.

The Philippine Coast Guard on Friday raced to offload 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel oil from a sunken tanker and prevent an "environmental catastrophe" in Manila Bay.

World-famous stars are in line to perform at Friday's opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, which will take place along the Seine river.

US agents arrested two top leaders of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel in Texas on Thursday, the justice department said, striking a major blow to one of the most powerful and violent criminal organizations in the world.

An "out of control" wildfire has devoured up to half of the main town in western Canada's popular Jasper National Park, authorities said Thursday, with 400 foreign firefighters called in to help battle the blaze.

OpenAI on Thursday said it was putting its artificial intelligence engine to work in a challenge to Google's market-dominating search engine.

Humanity is suffering from an "extreme heat epidemic," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Thursday, calling for action to limit the impacts of heat waves intensified by climate change.

The United States sees no need to negotiate an international agreement on taxing the super-wealthy, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday on the sideline of a G20 finance ministers' meeting.

Kamala Harris launched a blistering attack on Donald Trump and his "extremist" Republicans as she addressed teachers Thursday, seeking to rally a key part of the Democratic coalition behind her bid to take on the billionaire for the presidency.

US economic growth blew past expectations in the second quarter, boosted by consumer spending and inventory building despite high interest rates, government data showed Thursday.

Anton Yushyn spent four years studying Italian at university in Kyiv but the outbreak of war taught him the most valuable lesson of his student life: to prioritise what matters most.

Hong Kong pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai will take the witness stand for the first time in November in a high-profile national security trial where he is accused of sedition and colluding with foreign forces, a court said Thursday.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wept Thursday as she surveyed the destruction wrought by days of deadly unrest, as student leaders weighed the future of the protests that precipitated the disorder.

The death toll from landslides in a remote region of southern Ethiopia has risen to 257, the United Nations said Thursday, warning that the number of victims could soar to up to 500.

Police on Thursday arrested climate activists who glued themselves to the tarmac at Frankfurt airport, Germany's busiest, compelling it to temporarily suspend arrivals and departures.

Israeli forces retrieved the remains of five Israelis, killed during Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel, whose bodies had been taken to the Gaza Strip, the military said Thursday.

Myanmar's junta and an ethnic minority armed group both claimed on Thursday they were in control of a town and regional military command in northern Shan state following days of clashes.

Joe Biden will press Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to seal a Gaza ceasefire deal, despite the US president's shock election exit threatening to limit his leverage over the Israeli premier.

The strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan in eight years killed three people and flooded parts of the island's second-biggest city on Thursday, while rescuers searched for nine sailors missing after their cargo ship sank in the storm.

It started with a raid on a Chinese-run online gambling center north of Manila where hundreds of foreigners and Filipinos were forced to run scams or risk torture.

A Philippine-flagged tanker carrying 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel oil sank off Manila on Thursday, authorities said, as they raced to contain a spill.