AFP news

Trekking through mud and rocks in Japan's humid Okinawan jungle, Takamatsu Gushiken reached a slope of ground where human remains have lain forgotten since World War II. The 72-year-old said a brief prayer and lifted a makeshift protective covering, exposing half-buried bones believed to be those of a young Japanese soldier.

When wedding season comes in India, the phone of child rights activist Tatwashil Kamble never stops ringing with appeals to stop girls from being married off due to poverty.

Sasha and Jamie Cordle thought their small farm in rural Georgia would be a ladder out of working-class struggle, and a gift for their children and grandchildren.

At least 20 people were killed Sunday in a suicide attack on a church in Damascus, authorities said, with Syria's interior ministry blaming a member of the Islamic State group.

Unprecedented US strikes have wrecked Iran's nuclear program, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday as Washington sought to assess what remained of the three targeted sites.

Israelis expressed relief and optimism Sunday after US President Donald Trump ordered air strikes on Iran, 10 days into a war that has widespread public support.

Tesla is expected to begin offering robotaxi service Sunday in Austin, an initial step that Elon Musk's backers believe could lead to the company's next growth wave.

Asia's fourth largest economy South Korea is facing gruelling tariffs by US President Donald Trump, but its shipbuilding industry could prove a useful bargaining chip.

The US military attacked three sites in Iran on Sunday -- Natanz, Isfahan and the mountain-buried Fordo, all key parts of Tehran's nuclear programme, which it maintains is purely for civilian purposes.

For nearly a half-century the United States has squabbled with Iran's Islamic republic but the conflict has largely been left in the shadows, with US policymakers believing, often reluctantly, that diplomacy was preferable.

Inter Milan came from behind to beat Urawa Red Diamonds and knock the Japanese side out of the Club World Cup on Saturday, while Borussia Dortmund held off Mamelodi Sundowns to win a seven-goal thriller.

More than four months since his release from Gaza, former hostage Keith Siegel bears the mental scars of 484 days of captivity in destroyed buildings and tunnels in the hands of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Belarus freed top opposition figure Sergei Tikhanovsky and more than a dozen other political prisoners Saturday following an appeal from the White House, Minsk said, a sign of warming ties between Washington and Belarus-ally Moscow.

With a monthly pension barely sufficient to buy 15 eggs or a small bag of rice, Cuba's elderly struggle to make ends meet in one of Latin America's poorest and fastest-aging countries.

The hosts of the most recent UN climate talks are worried international lenders are retreating from their commitments to help boost funding for developing countries' response to global warming.

Army strongmen who have seized power in coups across Africa's Sahel region since 2020 have ramped up pressure on foreign mining companies in the name of greater control over their countries' riches.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he had held "in depth" talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on a rare visit to arch-foe Turkey Friday, in what Yerevan described as a "historic" step toward regional peace.

Britain's parliament took a historic step towards allowing euthanasia on Friday when MPs backed contentious legislation that would introduce assisted dying for terminally ill people.

Since launching air strikes on Iran last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been working to pull President Donald Trump into the war, and sway a sceptical American public.

European foreign ministers will hold nuclear talks with their Iranian counterpart on Friday, as President Donald Trump mulls the prospect of US involvement in the Iran-Israel war.

Small, fuzzy and baring sharp teeth, Chinese toymaker Pop Mart's Labubu monster dolls have taken over the world, drawing excited crowds at international stores and adorning the handbags of celebrities such as Rihanna and Cher.

Sitting in his spacious office with a view of the Black Sea, Tayfun Denizer smiles: his rainbow trout, raised in submerged cages, have made him a wealthy man.

Europe's ambition to be a world player in decarbonised transportation arguably depends on sourcing lithium abroad, especially in South America.

Israel and Iran exchanged fire again on Thursday, the seventh day of the war between the longtime enemies.

President Donald Trump's proposed "Golden Dome" defence system is a plan that will face mammoth technical and financial hurdles, and could increase global insecurity, experts say.

With the rise of a paramilitary force that analysts say is controlled by the Kremlin, Russia is openly expanding its state military footprint in Africa, after years of distancing itself from mercenaries deployed on the continent to support pro-Russian rulers.

Israel increasingly appears eager to oust the clerical leadership that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution but is taking a gamble given the Iranian opposition is divided and there is no guarantee new rulers would be any less hardline, analysts say.

Governments around the world are evacuating thousands of their nationals caught up in the rapidly spiralling Israel-Iran conflict, organising buses and planes and in some cases assisting people crossing borders on foot.

Life in 1990s former Yugoslavia was a nightmare of war, economic collapse and an all-powerful mafia.