AFP news

Alibaba shares soared by more than 6% on Friday following reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping was poised to meet with the tech juggernaut's co-founder Jack Ma.

In a desolate area of Syria where Lebanese militant group Hezbollah once held sway, security forces shot open the gates to an abandoned building and found a defunct drug factory.

At a scam compound in Myanmar, Filipina worker Pieta had just days to romance strangers online and trick them into investing in a fake business -- failing which she would be beaten or tortured with electric shocks.

Bangladeshi high schooler Laiba is being educated for the future, but what she learns has been determined by the latest chapter in her country's battle over its past.

Cambodian scientist Yeang Chheang has spent six decades fighting malaria -- even in the Khmer Rouge labour camp where his wife and baby died -- and stands tantalisingly close to fulfilling his life's work.

Hamas was expected Friday to name three hostages it will release this weekend as part of a planned exchange for Palestinian prisoners, local media said, after days of uncertainty in which Israel threatened to scrap a nearly month-old Gaza ceasefire deal.

President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet US Vice President JD Vance in Germany on Friday with a warning against trusting Russia's Vladimir Putin, as concerns mount in Kyiv and among its European allies that the Ukraine war will be settled over their heads.

One victim was visiting Rio de Janeiro's iconic Christ the Redeemer statue.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday offered to sell state-of-the-art fighter jets to India as he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to ramp up trade, rekindling a bond that defies the new US administration's punitive approach to much of the world.

On Ecuador's lawless southwest coast, drug gangs operate with impunity and terrified residents ask if their president's "iron fist" security policies are just words.

Police arrested an Afghan asylum seeker at the scene of what German leaders labelled a car ramming "attack" that injured 28 people, some seriously, in the southern city of Munich Thursday.

US President Donald Trump committed Wednesday to announcing "reciprocal tariffs" on other countries, saying he could sign an order for them within a day, a move that could open new fronts in a trade war.

Major stock markets mostly rallied, while the dollar and oil prices retreated Thursday on hopes for an end to the war in Ukraine.

The Republican-controlled US Senate was expected Thursday to approve vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, despite major concerns from both political parties and many in the medical and scientific communities.

Donald Trump's defence chief denied Thursday the US president was betraying Ukraine by opening talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin, as blindsided European powers insisted they and Kyiv must have a seat at the table.

Swiss food giant Nestle reported better-than-expected annual sales on Thursday, boosting its shares after the maker of Nescafe coffee, KitKat chocolate and Purina dog food hiked prices to offset inflation.

Pesticides are significantly harming wildlife across the planet, stunting growth, damaging reproduction and even causing behavioural changes in animals not meant to be targeted, according to a large-scale study published on Thursday.

While NATO countries living near the Russian border pay well over two percent of their GDP on defence, those further away pay less.

Managers of a chemical plant accused of knowingly contaminating the water of hundreds of thousands of people are on trial in Italy, in one of Europe's biggest environmental disaster lawsuits.

Jonas spent more than a year trying to reach Tunisia after escaping ethnic violence in his native Nigeria, but rising anti-migrant sentiment and a government crackdown in the North African country have left him without help.

Palestinian sources reported progress on Thursday in efforts to salvage the ceasefire in Gaza from its worst crisis yet, with a view to ensuring that Hamas releases Israeli hostages this weekend as planned.

For the first time in nearly two years of war, soup kitchens in famine-stricken Sudan are being forced to turn people away, with US President Donald Trump's aid freeze gutting the life-saving schemes.

Young engineers deployed across the US government as part of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have triggered alarm throughout Washington's security establishment.

A Houston poultry supply company is selling chickens like there is no tomorrow, as sky-high prices for eggs prompt some Americans to produce their own at home.

Harry Kane was on target as Bayern Munich beat Celtic 2-1 in Glasgow in the first leg of their Champions League play-off on Wednesday, while there were also wins for Benfica, Feyenoord and Club Brugge.

US President Donald Trump revealed Wednesday he expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine peace talks, in an extraordinary thaw in relations after a surprise phone call between the two leaders.

Imposing punitive tariffs on countries with high trade surpluses with the United States has been at the heart of US President Donald Trump's economic policy.

The feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman has become one of the bitterest rivalries in business history, with the Tesla tycoon bidding to buy Altman's OpenAI in an apparent attempt to derail the ChatGPT maker's ascent to becoming one of the world's most important companies.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to open new fronts in his tariffs war by announcing reciprocal levies on other countries as soon as Tuesday, branding this "the only fair way" to trade.