WORLD

Using tractors and bales of hay, farmers briefly brought traffic to a halt on the famed avenue near the Arc de Triomphe monument, only a short distance from President Emmanuel Macron's office, the Elysee.

Bangladesh firefighters said Friday that glaring safety lapses were responsible for a Dhaka restaurant blaze that killed 45 people, with more deaths likely among those rushed to hospital in critical condition.

A closing conference previously scheduled for 1000 GMT on Friday was pushed back by three hours, as trade ministers negotiated agreements on fisheries and agriculture with new draft texts on the table after all-night talks.

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg met South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul Thursday and discussed cooperation on AI and ways to prevent fake news circulation ahead of key elections, Yoon's office said.

Democracy faced sharp, widespread setbacks worldwide in 2023 with violence and manipulation marring a series of elections, Freedom House said Thursday.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos told Australia's parliament his country was on the "frontline" of a battle for regional peace Thursday, pledging resolve as he sought support in maritime disputes with China.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday he will travel to South Korea next month as it holds the Summit for Democracy, a signature initiative of President Joe Biden.

The US Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to hear Donald Trump's claim that as a former president he is immune from prosecution, further delaying his trial on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.

A bag containing a computer and two USB memory sticks holding police security plans for the Paris Olympic Games was stolen on Monday evening from a train at the capital's Gare du Nord station, police sources said Tuesday.

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg met Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a visit to Japan, discussing the risks of generative AI, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

The Gaza war's reported Palestinian death toll neared 30,000 Wednesday as fighting raged in the Hamas-run territory despite mediators insisting a truce with Israel could be just days away.

Ukraine has been locked in an existential fight for its freedom ever since Russia sent armed soldiers with no insignia -- dubbed the "little green men" -- to take over the Crimea peninsula on February 28, 2014, following a pro-EU revolution in Kyiv.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's funeral is planned for Friday in a Moscow church, his allies said two weeks after his shock death in an Arctic prison.

President Joe Biden and Donald Trump will both visit the US-Mexico border on Thursday in a high-profile clash of schedules as they vie to win over voters on immigration -- one of the hottest issues in the 2024 election.

French President Emmanuel Macron triggered a shockwave in Europe on Tuesday by refusing to rule out the dispatch of Western ground troops to Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.

Hong Kong activists on Tuesday staged a rare public protest against government plans for a new national security law, saying it lacked democratic oversight and human rights safeguards.

US President Joe Biden said Monday he hoped a ceasefire in Gaza could start by the beginning of next week, adding that Israel was ready to halt operations during the Muslim month of Ramadan as part of any deal.

An apple farmer, an airline caterer and an out-of-work graduate are among the Indian nationals hired by Moscow, with the help of recruiters around the world, for the Russian army in Ukraine.

As Iranians head to the polls for legislative and other elections on Friday, candidates have promised them on campaign posters to "fight corruption" and "fix the economy".

Hungary's parliament was expected to ratify Sweden's NATO bid on Monday, the final obstacle for an enlargement of the alliance spurred by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

An active member of the US Air Force set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington on Sunday, officials said, as media reported he was protesting the war in Gaza.

Israel said Monday its army had readied a plan to evacuate Gazans ahead of a feared invasion of far-southern Rafah, leading the UN chief to warn a ground attack would "put the final nail in the coffin" of its aid operations.

Israeli air strikes targeted homes in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses said on Friday, adding to what aid groups describe as an increasingly hopeless humanitarian situation despite efforts towards new truce talks.

Vice, the dynamic, fast-growing digital media company that gained a wide following with young readers, said Thursday it will no longer publish on its flagship website and is eliminating hundreds of jobs.

The United States plans to impose sanctions Friday on more than 500 targets involved in Russia's war in Ukraine, as Moscow claims fresh battlefield advances two years after its invasion.

A Spanish court on Thursday sentenced former Brazil international Dani Alves to four and a half years in prison after finding him guilty of raping a young woman at a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022.

As a casino-owning playboy who has been married three times and faced multiple sexual misconduct allegations over the years, Donald Trump is an unlikely role model for America's evangelical Christians.

Israel launched air strikes Thursday on southern Gaza's Rafah after threatening to send troops into the city, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought shelter from around the territory.

Pregnant women had C-sections cancelled and cancer treatments were postponed Wednesday as the number of South Korean trainee doctors to walk off the job over proposed reforms swelled, officials and local reports said.