AFP news

The River Seine reopened to swimmers in Paris on Saturday morning, marking the first time since 1923 that bathers could take a dip in the iconic waterway following a years-long cleanup effort.

Rescuers were desperately searching for at least 20 girls missing from a riverside summer camp, officials said Friday, after torrential rains caused a "catastrophic" flash flood that killed at least 24 people as it swept through south-central Texas.

BRICS leaders will meet in Rio de Janeiro from Sunday, with the bloc depleted by the absence of China's Xi Jinping, who is skipping the annual summit of emerging economies for the first time in 12 years.

British pop legends Oasis kicked off a hotly anticipated worldwide reunion tour in Cardiff on Friday, commencing an unlikely comeback few thought possible nearly 16 years after last performing together.

Hamas said Friday it was holding consultations with other Palestinian groups on a proposed truce with Israel, in a possible sign that it was preparing for negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire.

The Kremlin said on Friday that it sees no immediate diplomatic way out of the war in Ukraine, hours after launching its largest ever drone and missile barrage of the invasion.

In a riverine battleground in western Myanmar, an entrepreneur hunts for reception using a makeshift bamboo antenna, his payphone kiosk providing locals a lifeline to connect with their loved ones.

Pope Leo XIV heads off on holiday on Sunday, having spent his first two months as Catholic leader rebuilding unity and bolstering tradition after his predecessor's unorthodox papacy.

UN rights expert Francesca Albanese on Thursday denounced companies she said "profited from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid, and now genocide", in a report that provoked a furious response from Israel.

Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother died in a car crash in Spain on Thursday, police said, sparking widespread grief just after the Portugal star had got married.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 69 people on Thursday, including 15 in a strike on a school sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war nearing its 22nd month.

Stocks struggled in Asia on Thursday as investors gave a lukewarm reception to the US-Vietnam trade deal, while the dollar held losses ahead of key US jobs data that could impact Federal Reserve interest rates plans.

Donald Trump's signature tax and spending bill was in limbo early Thursday as Republican leaders in the US Congress scrambled to win over a group of rebels threatening to torpedo the centerpiece of the president's domestic agenda.

When an Indonesian mother dropped off her daughter at school in May, she did not expect her to become violently sick after eating lunch from the government's new billion-dollar free meal programme.

Ukraine appealed to the United States for clarity on Wednesday after it was caught off-guard by a White House announcement that Washington was halting some arms shipments to the war-battered country.

Iran on Wednesday officially suspended its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, a move the world body described as "obviously concerning".

Music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs was found not guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking Wednesday but convicted of a less serious prostitution charge after a high-profile marathon trial in New York.

Israel's top diplomat on Wednesday said any chance to free hostages held in Gaza "must not be missed", after US President Donald Trump urged Palestinian group Hamas to agree to a 60-day ceasefire that he said had Israel's backing.

Asian markets swung Wednesday amid trade war worries after Donald Trump said he would not push back next week's tariff deadline, with Tokyo taking a hit from threats to ramp up Japanese levies.

There were so many mines on Larisa Sysenko's small farm in Kamyanka in eastern Ukraine after the Russians were pushed out that she and her husband Viktor started demining it themselves -- with rakes.

When Jocelyn Leitzinger had her university students write about times in their lives they had witnessed discrimination, she noticed that a woman named Sally was the victim in many of the stories.

A nickel stockpile towers over farmer Moharen Tambiling's rice paddy in the Philippines' Palawan, evidence of a mining boom that locals hope a new moratorium will tame.

US President Donald Trump urged Hamas on Tuesday to accept a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, saying that Israel had agreed to finalize such a deal, as its forces also stepped up operations in the Palestinian territory.

Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin on Tuesday spoke by telephone for the first time in over two-and-a-half years, with the French president urging a ceasefire in Ukraine but the Russian leader hitting back that the West was to blame for the conflict.

More than 14 million of the world's most vulnerable people, a third of them small children, could die by 2030 because of the Trump administration's dismantling of US foreign aid, research projected on Tuesday.

Israel's military said Tuesday that it had expanded its operations in Gaza, where residents reported fierce gunfire and shelling days ahead of a planned trip to Washington by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was suspended by the country's Constitutional Court on Tuesday, while her father went on trial for royal defamation in the latest setbacks for the country's dominant political dynasty.

Embarrassed and in debt, Edwin was left reeling after losing $16,000 to CryptoBridge Exchange (CBEX), one of the crypto-trading platforms preying on investors in Africa.

Asian stocks rose Tuesday amid optimism countries will strike US trade deals, though Tokyo's Nikkei sank after Donald Trump threatened to impose a fresh tariff rate on Japan as he hit out at the country over rice and autos.