AFP news

Indonesia will hold one of the world's biggest one-day elections next week -- a mind-boggling feat that involves shifting votes by boat, plane and horseback across the vast archipelago of more than 278 million people.

Indonesians vote in a presidential election Wednesday with Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto the clear favourite after a campaign mixing nationalist rhetoric and pledges to continue the era of popular outgoing leader Joko Widodo.

They are only teenagers, but a pair of New Jersey high school students -- one Jewish and one Muslim -- are tackling an issue much bigger than themselves, bridging divides in their suburb shaken by the Israel-Hamas war.

The San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs clash in a blockbuster Super Bowl showdown here Sunday as Las Vegas stages the American sporting showpiece for the first time.

Gaza's Hamas rulers warned on Saturday that Israel's planned army operation in overcrowded Rafah could cause "tens of thousands" of casualties in the city that has become the last refuge for displaced Palestinians.

Israel's army has deployed some AI-enabled military technology in combat for the first time in Gaza, raising fears about the use of autonomous weapons in modern warfare.

On a corner by the entrance to Tunis zoo, Leila waits for a hot meal from the Tunisian capital's "Restaurant of Love" in a cardboard shelter where she and her dogs sleep.

Senegalese security forces on Friday used tear gas to disperse people attempting to gather in the capital after being urged to mobilise against a last-minute delay of presidential elections.

The dismissal of Ukraine's popular army chief Valery Zaluzhny spread anger and dismay across the war-torn country on Friday -- from the streets of Kyiv to the frontline.

Israel launched new air strikes Friday on the city of Rafah in Gaza's far south, after US President Joe Biden said its response to Hamas's October 7 attack has been "over the top".

A Nazi henchman as a drooling gorilla with a swastika armband. Bloch outlived the Nazi regime but his mother and sisters were rounded up and murdered in the camps.

Israel conducted fresh strikes on southern Gaza's overcrowded border town of Rafah on Friday, where more than a million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter, with key backer the United States warning of a looming "disaster".

On a typical workday, Vinanda Febriani starts her morning in Indonesia scrolling on her phone.

More than two decades after the outbreak of war in Darfur, fears are growing that the world has abandoned its people as a new conflict ravages Sudan and the perpetrators of atrocities act with impunity.

The biggest party in American sport is about to get even bigger on Sunday when Las Vegas hosts the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs in what promises to be a Super Bowl blockbuster for the ages.

Independent candidates linked to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan were outperforming expectations Friday in Pakistan's election, local TV tallies showed, as a slow trickle of official results sparked fears of a fix.

A long-awaited report cleared President Joe Biden of any wrongdoing in his mishandling of classified documents Thursday but dropped a political bombshell by painting the Democrat as a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

A majority of justices on the US Supreme Court appeared to be leaning on Thursday towards rejecting a ruling by a state court that would bar Donald Trump from running for president again.

Earth has endured 12 consecutive months of temperatures 1.5C hotter than the pre-industrial era for the first time on record, Europe's climate monitor said Thursday, in what scientists called a "warning to humanity".

In Israel's biblical city of Nazareth, the basilica is empty, restaurants and shops that usually thrive on Christian pilgrims are closed, and many hotels have been shut for months.

Iraq on Thursday condemned a US air strike that killed a senior commander from a pro-Iran armed group accused of having been involved in attacks on American troops in the region.

"The instructions were very clear: when you see a thief, you chase him until you arrest him and you beat him up brutally," says Daniel Kamau Wainaina, a former security guard on a Kenyan pineapple plantation owned by US food giant Del Monte.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered troops to prepare to enter Gaza's crowded southern city of Rafah, even as new talks aimed at securing a truce with Hamas were set to open Thursday in Cairo.

Stocks mostly rose Thursday following another record on Wall Street, with strong earnings, a resilient US economy and Chinese moves to boost the country's markets playing up against fading hopes for an early Federal Reserve interest rate cut.

Nepali mercenaries are fighting for Russia in Ukraine, lured to kill far from their Himalayan homeland by promises of a passport and cash, but wounded returnees warn anyone tempted to join the war: "Do not come."

West African foreign ministers hold emergency talks on Thursday confronted by a major political crisis in Senegal and weakened by disputes with military rulers in three coup-hit countries.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered troops to prepare to enter the overcrowded Gazan city of Rafah, even as a new round of talks aimed at securing a truce with Hamas were set to open Thursday in Cairo.

Millions of Pakistanis began voting Thursday in an election marred by allegations of poll rigging, with the country's most popular politician in jail and a military-favoured candidate tipped to win.

Screaming and gesturing at the TV in his San Francisco 49ers jersey and scarf, Brazilian computer programmer Carlos Marins wills his team to come from behind and make it to the Super Bowl.