AFP news

Concerns grew Friday over the fairness of Venezuela's presidential elections as Caracas was accused of blocking international observers from arriving for the Sunday vote, including a delegation of ex-presidents.

Boeing's safety troubles and the Airbus scramble to ramp up production should have left a gap for smaller rivals to challenge their dominatiion of the commercial airliner market.

US President Joe Biden on Friday welcomed the arrests of two notorious leaders of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel as details emerged of an elaborate ruse used to capture the drug kingpins.

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.

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.

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.

The US Federal Reserve's favored inflation measure eased further in June, according to government data published Friday, in more good news for policymakers ahead of next week's interest rate decision.

A long-haired sorcerer wearily checked his smartphone as elves and androids bustled past at the digital entertainment expo ChinaJoy on Friday, the crowds a testament to the local gaming industry's tentative recovery after a period on pause.

Britain's new Labour government will announce next week that the country's public finances have an additional hole of around GBP20 billion ($26 billion), risking tax rises in an upcoming budget, media reported on Friday.

One of the most enduring images of Greece's summer travel brand is the world-famous sunset on Santorini Island, framed by sea-blue church domes on a jagged cliff high above a volcanic caldera.

Through a basement door in southeastern Turkey lies a sprawling underground city -- perhaps the country's largest -- which one historian believes dates back to the ninth century before Jesus Christ.

Asian traders struggled to fight back Friday after a tech-fuelled sell-off, taking heart from forecast-beating US growth data that reassured that the economy was still in rude health, but did not dent hopes for an interest rate cut.

Thousands of athletes are set to sail through central Paris on Friday during an unprecedented and high-risk Olympics opening ceremony that will showcase the country's hugely ambitious vision for the Games.

The giant steelworks that greets visitors to Allentown, Pennsylvania once symbolized the city's success as an industrial hub.

A fraught election campaign closed Thursday in Venezuela, mired in uncertainty after President Nicolas Maduro warned of a "bloodbath" if he loses -- which polls suggest is likely.

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.

Paris was on Thursday counting down the hours to the most ambitious Olympics opening ceremony in history on the river Seine, as tennis icon Rafael Nadal was fighting an injury battle which could shatter his gold medal dreams.

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.

The United States sees no need to negotiate an international agreement on taxing the super-wealthy, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday, highlighting divisions on a plan that is top of the agenda at a G20 finance ministers' meeting in Rio de Janeiro.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and CEO of Meta, has become an unexpected evangelist for open source technology when it comes to developing artificial intelligence, pitting him against OpenAI and Google.

Comic-Con returns in full force to San Diego this week, where a hugely anticipated Marvel superhero film event is among the draws for tens of thousands of hyped-up fans dressed as fantasy heroes and sci-fi villains.

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.

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.

President Vladimir Putin held talks with Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Moscow amid calls for Russian mediation to cool tensions between Turkey and Syria.

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.

The foreign ministers of Russia and China met on Thursday on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers talks in Laos, Moscow and AFP journalists said.

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, after a slow start to the year.

French oil heavyweight TotalEnergies on Thursday reported slumping profits in the second quarter, blaming lower margins in refining and falling sales and prices for natural gas.