AFP news

Seeking to tame public anger over soaring inflation, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has imposed price controls on basic food items sold in supermarkets, renewing his fight against multinational companies.

China's fury at the sale of Panama Canal ports to a US-led consortium reflects how container hubs have become prized currency as Beijing and Washington vie for global influence, analysts say.

Sky-high tobacco prices in Australia have created a lucrative black market, analysts say, sparking a violent "tobacco war" and syphoning away billions in potential tax revenue.

As he has done for years, Erik Payan had just opened up his tire repair shop in the small Texas town of Cleveland on February 24 and was getting to work when armed and masked US immigration agents swooped in to arrest him and take him away.

Twelve years after her last novel, best-selling Nigerian author and feminist icon Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is making a highly anticipated return with "Dream Count".

Exhausted, overwhelmed rescuers in Myanmar's second-biggest city pleaded for help Saturday as they struggled to free hundreds of people trapped in buildings destroyed by a devastating earthquake.

Denmark on Saturday said it did not like the "tone" of US Vice President JD Vance's comments that Copenhagen had not done enough for Greenland, during his visit to the strategically placed, resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump.

Waving flags and chanting slogans, hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators rallied in Istanbul Saturday calling for democracy to be defended after the arrest of mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey's worst street unrest in over a decade.

Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modelling suggesting thousands could be dead.

The death toll from a huge earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand passed 700 on Saturday, as rescuers dug through the rubble of collapsed buildings in a desperate search for survivors.

Washington's Smithsonian is a sprawling chain of museums dedicated to both celebrating and scrutinizing the American story -- and the latest cultural institution targeted by President Donald Trump's bid to quash diversity efforts.

Marwa fled Taliban rule in Afghanistan because she wanted to study, work, wear jeans and go to the park without a male chaperone.

Turkey intensified its crackdown on anti-government protests on Friday, arresting the lawyer of the jailed Istanbul mayor and targeting more journalists, as the country faces its biggest wave of unrest in more than a decade.

Donald Trump's attacks on NATO and the established world order are undermining the confidence of its allies under the US security umbrella, fuelling fears of an eventual proliferation of nuclear weapons, experts told AFP. Since his return to power in January, the US president has criticised the transatlantic alliance, reopened direct dialogue with Russia and flattered North Korea's Kim Jong-Un with warm words.

The South Sudan government said on Friday First Vice President Riek Machar was "under house arrest," two days after he was detained, as a former Kenyan premier arrived in Juba to mediate the crisis threatening to end the fragile peace deal between rival factions.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to remove "improper ideology" from the famed Smithsonian Museums -- and the National Zoo -- expanding his conservative clampdown on cultural institutions.

Auto companies once again took the brunt of the selling on another tough day for markets on Friday after President Donald Trump announced steep tariffs on vehicle imports to go with a wave of other US levies pencilled in for next week.

An Australian judge sentenced a policeman who fatally tasered a "frail and confused" 95-year-old woman to do community service rather than jail time.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday warned of "severe challenges" to global trade, vowing to open the country's door "wider and wider" to foreign firms as Beijing faces down a mounting trade war with the United States.

A woman sentenced to life in prison for murdering a Mexican-American pop star in a Texas motel was denied parole on Thursday, almost three decades after the killing.

Israel carried out air strikes in southern Lebanon Friday after its defence minister threatened Beirut over new rocket fire, rattling an already fragile truce that largely ended more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah.

Australia's competition regulator gave the go-ahead Friday for Qatar Airways to launch an alliance with Virgin Australia.

US Vice President JD Vance is on Friday due to tour a US military base in Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation amid President Donald Trump's bid to annex the strategically-placed, resource-rich Danish territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Friday for a "transitional administration" to be put in place in Ukraine and vowed his army would "finish off" Ukrainian troops, in hardline remarks as US President Donald Trump pushes for a ceasefire.

A powerful earthquake hit Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand on Friday, turning a major hospital in the Myanmar capital into a "mass casualty area" and trapping dozens of workers in an under-construction skyscraper in Bangkok.

China has rushed ahead in recent years as the world's forerunner in wind energy, propelled by explosive local demand as Beijing aggressively pursues strategic and environmental targets.

Since his teenage years, Koji Hayashi has dreaded one thing: his stubborn, once-vivacious mother being hanged for murder after failing to win her long campaign for a retrial.

South Korean game publisher Krafton released early access to its life simulation game "InZOI" Friday, hoping its powerful lifelike graphics will unseat the decades-long dominance of "The Sims" hit franchise.

Turkey stepped up its crackdown on both student protesters and press coverage of the mass demonstrations gripping the country on Thursday, generating defiance but also a growing sense of fear.