AFP news

Russia bombed a hardware superstore in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday, killing at least six people and wounding 40, Ukraine officials said, in an attack condemned as "vile" by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"Anora", an explicit and often hilarious story about a New York erotic dancer, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, which also saw a first-ever win for a trans actress.

G7 finance ministers cited "progress" on Saturday in finding ways to use profits from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine, envisioning a concrete proposal to present to a leaders' summit next month.

South Africa's ruling African National Congress was betting on its last major stadium rally Saturday ahead of next week's election to restore its glory and protect its unbeaten streak of post-apartheid victories.

If there's one thing the parties competing in next week's South African general election don't want to talk about, it's bussing in supporters to fill out huge stadium rallies.

China has ended two days of military drills around Taiwan that saw jets loaded with live munitions and warships practise seizing and isolating the self-ruled island.

Israel bombed the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, on Saturday, a day after the top UN court ordered it to halt military operations in the southern city as efforts get underway in Paris to seek a ceasefire in the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack.

The Berrio family moves around their home on raised planks, upon which their beds and furniture have been raised, to avoid the knee-high, murky waters that have invaded their modest brick house.

A Ukrainian pilot project to compensate women raped by invading Russian soldiers could offer a roadmap for dealing with wartime sexual violence, says a Nobel Prize winner and expert on conflict atrocities.

Alexander Zverev expects to face "peak Rafael Nadal" in their mouth-watering French Open duel as he prepares to deliver a heart-breaking, final blow to the 14-time champion's storied Roland Garros career.

UK Labour leader Keir Starmer visited the key battleground of Scotland on the second day of general election campaigning Friday, as his party bids to reclaim power for the first time in 14 years.

The top United Nations court Friday ordered Israel to halt military operations in Rafah, a landmark ruling likely to increase mounting international pressure on Israel more than seven months into the Gaza war.

The AI tools that crunch numbers, generate text and videos and find patterns in data rely on mass surveillance and exercise concerning control over our lives, the boss of encrypted messaging app Signal told AFP on Thursday.

Countries trying to thrash out a global agreement on handling future pandemics are hoping to seal the deal Friday after weeks of creeping progress in exhausting talks.

Singer Casandra Ventura said Thursday -- in her first comments since video emerged of her being beaten by rap mogul and former partner Sean "Diddy" Combs -- that domestic violence "broke" her.

The United States was imposing new visa restrictions and reviewing relations with Georgia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday, after it pushed forward a Russian-style "foreign influence" law that triggered mass protests.

The pace of Japanese inflation slowed in April to 2.2 percent as gas bills fell, government data showed Friday, with the figure remaining above the Bank of Japan's two percent target.

The world cannot look to UN peacekeepers as a way of stopping wars, whether in Gaza or other active conflict zones, the department chief told AFP, citing the famous Blue Helmets' inherent limitations.

Asian and European stock markets fell Friday following Wall Street losses, as better-than-expected US data compounded worries the Federal Reserve will hold off on cutting interest rates this year.

Russian forces have become "bogged down" trying to capture the Ukrainian border town of Vovchansk but have intensified their offensive elsewhere on the eastern front, Ukraine's top general said on Friday.

UK police have arrested 16 people at a protest organised by a pro-Palestinian student group at Oxford University, in the latest flare-up on a prestigious campus over the war in Gaza.

Propagandists and scammers are exploiting xenophobia and anger over failing infrastructure to unleash a wave of disinformation ahead of South Africa's most contested polls since 1994, experts warn.

A massive landslide struck six villages in Papua New Guinea's highlands Friday, local officials said, with many homes believed to be buried and scores of villagers feared dead.

China said on Friday that Taiwan's leadership was pushing the self-ruled island into war and warned of further "countermeasures", as Beijing conducted military drills around the territory.

Israeli forces struck the Gaza Strip on Friday, as the UN's top court was due to rule on a plea to halt the military offensive over accusations of "genocide".

The black mushroom cloud had barely faded in Ghazni province before kids clustered around the edge of the crater created by the mine, one of the devices that kills a child every other day in Afghanistan.

A diplomatic upgrade and a surprise appearance by Barack Obama: US President Joe Biden pulled out the stops as he hosted Kenyan counterpart William Ruto for a lavish state visit aimed at competing with Russia and China for influence in Africa.

The UN General Assembly voted Thursday to establish an annual day of remembrance for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, despite furious opposition from Bosnian Serbs and Serbia.

Russia has arrested a number of generals and military leaders in recent weeks, seeking to overhaul an army hierarchy seen as corrupt and inefficient in an reinvigorated push for victory in Ukraine.