AFP news

Global temperatures "smashed" heat records last year, as heatwaves stalked oceans and glaciers suffered record ice loss, the United Nations said Tuesday -- warning 2024 was likely to be even hotter.

Hong Kong legislators unanimously passed a new national security law on Tuesday, introducing penalties such as life imprisonment for crimes related to treason and insurrection, and up to 20 years in jail for the theft of state secrets.

Efforts to hammer out a temporary truce in Gaza intensified Tuesday after months of war that have left parts of the devastated territory facing imminent famine.

Look at this stone bridge," said writer Vedat Akcayoz pointing to the crumbling stumps of a 10th-century span over the Arpacay river that marks the closed border between Turkey and Armenia.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Artem knew that he would not "sit idly by".

Nottingham Forest have been thrust into the Premier League relegation zone after being hit with a four-point deduction for breaches of financial rules, that are becoming a dominant topic in the world's richest league.

Half of Gazans are experiencing "catastrophic" hunger, with famine projected to hit the north of the territory by May unless there is urgent intervention, a United Nations-backed food security assessment warned Monday.

Argentina's President Javier Milei has slashed public spending but 100 days into his presidency social tensions are simmering and he is still battling to pass his flagship economic reforms.

Allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin including China and India congratulated him Monday on winning a fifth term in power but Western leaders dismissed the election as illegitimate, held under repressive conditions with no credible opposition.

Ukrainian forces facing a lack of munitions and manpower are digging in to resist Russian attack, mirroring the invaders' strategy and showing Kyiv expects a drawn-out war.

Russia's election commission on Monday hailed what it said were "record" results for President Vladimir Putin, guaranteeing the former spy a fifth term in office after a vote that featured no credible opposition.

As a US campaign to sever TikTok from its Chinese parent heads to the Senate, analysts say Beijing's response to a forced sale of the app -- and its 'secret sauce' algorithm -- will be clear: Hands off.

Afghan rider Sarwar Pahlawan blinked away pain from the fresh stitches between his eyes as his buzkashi team chased victory in a tournament for an ancient sport still steeped in risk but now offering modern-day rewards.

The Israeli army launched Monday an operation around Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, with witnesses reporting air strikes on the devastated neighbourhood where it is located.

It's a task of grave importance, but there's nothing to stop New Zealanders having a laugh as they work on DIY caskets in the country's "coffin clubs".

Ali is 12 and has survived things no child should see, spending half his life in what amounts to a prison camp for jihadist families in an arid corner of northeastern Syria.

Their stories are divided into before and after.

From vampires and wendigos to killer asteroids, TikTok users are pumping out outlandish end-of-the-world conspiracy theories, researchers say, in yet another misinformation trend on a platform whose fate in the United States hangs in the balance.

A major film that imagines a second civil war in the near-future United States has highlighted fears about the divided state of the nation ahead of November's presidential election.

An unstoppable Kylian Mbappe hit a hat-trick as Paris Saint-Germain romped to a 6-2 win away to Montpellier on Sunday that allowed them to open up a huge 12-point lead at the top of Ligue 1.

The Russians who came to cast a protest ballot in Moscow on Sunday had little hope for political change, but took comfort from knowing they were not alone in opposing Vladimir Putin's hardline rule.

The European Union and Egypt on Sunday signed a 7.4-billion-euro financial package to support the indebted north African country, boost energy sales to Europe and stem irregular migrant flows.

Russians formed long queues outside Moscow's embassies in European capitals on Sunday to cast their votes on the final day of elections set to extend President Vladimir Putin's rule.

At least 61 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli bombardment, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Sunday, as Israel was preparing to send negotiators to new truce talks in Qatar.

Memories of the UK's once-mighty mining industry are fading but 40 years after an epoch-defining strike, Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band still embodies the close ties that once bound the community.

Russia said it was targeted by a wave of Ukrainian drones overnight Sunday, as Kremlin critics called for mass protests at polling stations on the final day of elections set to extend President Vladimir Putin's rule.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has over the past two decades built up a system of domestic repression and confrontation with the West that is almost certain to guarantee a fifth term in office on Sunday.

For people at the trend-setting tech festival here, the scandal that erupted after Google's Gemini chatbot cranked out images of Black and Asian Nazi soldiers was seen as a warning about the power artificial intelligence can give tech titans.

To the sound of Russian pop music blasting from speakers at the polling station, Eduard Ishnazarov cast a ballot for the only candidate he thought could deliver peace: Vladimir Putin.