AFP news

Tourists have a few more days to snap Mount Fuji at a popular vantage point after Japanese authorities said Thursday that the construction of a barrier has been delayed.

Spain's second-largest bank BBVA announced Thursday a hostile takeover bid for smaller rival Banco Sabadell but the government vowed to block the move, which would create a European giant in the sector.

The highest-grossing tour in history finally arrived in Europe on Thursday as Taylor Swift kicked off her European dates with four nights in Paris.

Smoke rose from strikes on Gaza's crowded southern city of Rafah Thursday after US President Joe Biden vowed to cut off artillery shells and other weapons supplied to Israel if a full-scale offensive into the city goes ahead.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held a rare press conference Thursday, admitting "shortcomings" after his party's recent electoral defeat, and laying out policies on issues from the country's low birthrate to Russia's war in Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned his nuclear forces were "always" on alert and added that Moscow would not tolerate any Western threats, during an address on the annual Victory Day parade.

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Hungary on Thursday seeking a "new journey" with Beijing's closest European Union ally amid divisions with the West over the Ukraine war and global trade.

Canada offered hope for thousands of undocumented migrants with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promising a major regularization program.

Latin America and the Caribbean had their warmest year on record in 2023 as a "double-whammy" of El Nino and climate change caused major weather calamities, the World Meteorological Organization said Wednesday.

North Macedonia appeared to be on a collision course with its EU neighbours Greece and Bulgaria, as the nationalist opposition swept parliamentary and presidential elections on Wednesday.

Former Fiji prime minister Frank Bainimarama was sentenced Thursday to one year in prison for perverting the course of justice, with a judge finding he used his political clout to shut down a police investigation.

Ukraine on Wednesday warned of possible power shutdowns across the country after a "massive" wave of Russian missiles and drones targeted the battered Ukrainian energy system.

US singer Katy Perry said even her own mother was fooled by AI-generated fake images she posted Tuesday of herself pretending to attend the Met Gala in New York.

Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca on Wednesday said it was withdrawing Covid vaccine Vaxzevria, one of the first produced in the deadly pandemic, citing "commercial reasons" following a slump in demand.

Israel bombarded the overcrowded Gaza city of Rafah, where it has launched a ground incursion, as talks resumed Wednesday in Cairo aimed at agreeing the terms of a truce in the seven-month war.

The United States paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over fears it would invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah, an official said Tuesday, marking the first time in the conflict that President Joe Biden has squeezed military aid to the key US ally.

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic reaffirmed his strong support for China's sovereignty over Taiwan Wednesday as he gave a lavish welcome to President Xi Jinping, who is seeking to deepen political and economic ties with friendlier countries in Europe.

A Florida judge on Tuesday indefinitely postponed Donald Trump's criminal trial over his alleged mishandling of classified documents, making it unlikely the case will be heard before the November presidential election.

Washington is redoubling efforts to disrupt irregular migration, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday at regional talks in Guatemala, as the hot-button issue looms large once again over US elections in November.

Protests by students demanding universities sever ties with Israel over the Gaza war spread across western Europe on Tuesday, sparking clashes and dozens of fresh arrests.

OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence company behind the popular image generator DALL-E, on Tuesday announced the launch of a new tool aimed at detecting whether digital images have been created by AI. Authentication has become a major concern in the fast development of AI, with authorities worried about the proliferation of deep fakes that could disrupt society.

Inflation-battered Argentina on Tuesday introduced a 10,000-peso banknote, worth the equivalent of about $11 -- five times the face value of the previous biggest 2,000-peso bill.

TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance filed a legal challenge against the United States on Tuesday, taking aim at a law that would force the app to be sold or face a US ban.

Disney reported higher revenues Tuesday on a strong performance by its theme parks division and an improving streaming business, but a write-down in the company's India business resulted in a small loss.

Italian luxury carmaker Ferrari on Tuesday posted a double digit rise in both profits and sales for the first quarter of 2024, and confirmed its full-year guidance.

The United States, Britain and Australia unveiled sanctions Tuesday against the leader of the Russian ransomware outfit LockBit, which they accuse of extorting billions of dollars from thousands of victims.

France's ambassador to Moscow on Tuesday represented Paris at the inauguration of President Vladimir Putin for a fifth term, a day after the envoy was summoned to the Russian foreign ministry in a move France denounced as intimidation.

Stormy Daniels, the porn star at the heart of Donald Trump's historic criminal trial, testified Tuesday -- in sometimes explicit detail -- about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with the former president in a hotel penthouse suite.

US President Joe Biden condemned a "ferocious surge" in anti-Semitism on Tuesday, in a Holocaust memorial speech that came at a fraught moment in Israel's war in Gaza and with protests roiling American universities.