AFP news

Ukraine on Saturday said Russia had launched a "massive" overnight attack on energy infrastructure in the west and south, adding that at least seven people died from Moscow strikes elsewhere.

Abdullah Hammoud's election as the first Muslim mayor of Dearborn was a watershed moment for this city, an automaking hub home to the highest concentration of Arab-Americans in the United States.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said 22 people were killed in shelling that damaged its Gaza office Friday, as the Israeli army intensified strikes in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Left-wing parties in France on Friday pledged to raise 30 billion euros a year from taxing businesses and the rich if they win a majority at snap parliamentary polls, drawing ire from centrists and business leaders.

Asian markets mostly fell Friday following a broadly negative lead from Wall Street, where tech giants led a sell-off on profit-taking, while traders are on intervention watch as the yen retreats back towards a three-decade low.

Seoul's military said Friday it had fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the heavily fortified border in the third such incursion this month.

Stretching, arching his back and kneeling on a mat, India's Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi led hundreds of people performing yoga in the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir on Friday.

Italian luxury carmaker Ferrari on Friday inaugurated a new solar-powered factory at the group's historic Maranello site, where its much anticipated wholly electric car should be produced from 2026.

After years of failing to secure a hajj visa, Yasser finally concluded he had no choice but to perform the holy pilgrimage illegally, a move he has now come to regret.

When Russian paramilitary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin sent his Wagner mercenaries charging towards Moscow last year in a short-lived rebellion, President Vladimir Putin looked weak and vulnerable.

Israel and Hezbollah traded fresh cross-border fire, as fears of a regional conflict grew after Israel revealed it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive and the Iran-backed militants vowed to blanket their foe in rockets.

Donald Sutherland, the enigmatic actor whose lengthy career encompassed films including "The Dirty Dozen" and "The Hunger Games," has died, his son said Thursday.

Marathon rehearsals, informal consultations, campaign rallies: Joe Biden and Donald Trump are each preparing in their own unique way for their televised debate next Thursday, the first in the 2024 race for the White House between the bitter rivals.

Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who on Thursday sealed the race to be the next head of NATO, will take the reins of the Western military alliance at a perilous moment.

Best-known for riding his bike to work, often crunching an apple, Dutchman Mark Rutte will need all his sense of balance to steer NATO through one of its toughest-ever periods.

A Stockholm court on Thursday acquitted a Syrian former general of war crimes charges, saying prosecutors had not proved his involvement in the attacks carried out during the country's civil war.

Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Thursday clinched the race to become the next head of NATO at a pivotal time for the alliance, after sole challenger Romanian President Klaus Iohannis pulled out.

France likes to honour its late pioneers and visionaries, but the aristocratic Frenchman who founded the modern Olympics is proving to be a troublesome figure for organisers of the Paris 2024 Games.

The death toll from this year's hajj has exceeded 1,000, an AFP tally said on Thursday, more than half of them unregistered worshippers who performed the pilgrimage in extreme heat in Saudi Arabia.

Russian attacks overnight damaged a Ukrainian power plant and several energy facilities, Kyiv said on Thursday, the latest in a series of bombardments that have pushed its power grid to the brink.

In the sizzling Baghdad heat, Mussa Abdallah takes to the Tigris river during the day to cool off, while others opt for ice skating to escape the relentless temperatures.

Fears of a regional war rose Thursday after Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement said none of Israel would be spared in a full-blown conflict, and Israel said it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive.

Chinese coast guard sailors brandished knives, an axe and other weapons in a clash with Philippine naval vessels near a strategic reef in the South China Sea, dramatic new footage released by Manila showed.

When invading Russian troops advanced towards Kyiv and the first explosions rang out in the suburbs, Daria Zymenko took refuge in Gavronshchyna, her parents' village near the Ukrainian capital.

Saudi taekwondo standout Donia Abu Taleb had an unusual introduction to the sport: for years she trained at a boys' club because there were no girls to compete with.

France boast fearsome strength in depth but remain hugely reliant on Kylian Mbappe for inspiration and are now facing the prospect of being without their injured superstar for at least their next Euro 2024 game against the Netherlands on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin begins a state visit to Vietnam on Thursday, a day after signing a mutual defence pact with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, who offered his "full support" on Ukraine.

Hosts Germany became the first team to qualify for the knockout phase of Euro 2024 on Wednesday thanks to a 2-0 win over Hungary, while Scotland drew with Switzerland and Croatia's hopes of progressing were left hanging in the balance after they were held by Albania.

French President Emmanuel Macron faced accusations of transphobia on Wednesday after criticising an election manifesto while the far-right RN party's leader pledged to honour France's international commitments including on NATO. With less than two weeks to go before the first round in the snap elections called by Macron in response to the far right drubbing his party in European polls, the president's party is trailing badly.