AFP news

Prosecutors will begin to make their case against disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein to a majority-women jury on rape and sex assault charges Wednesday as opening statements begin in his retrial.

Ahead of his lying-in-state, Pope Francis's body was made ready to withstand Rome's warm spring weather with a temporary embalming and a touch of make-up, an expert told AFP. The body of the 88-year-old, who died on Monday, will be on display for three days in Saint Peter's Basilica from Wednesday before his funeral on Saturday.

The EU on Wednesday slapped Apple and Meta with 700 million euros in fines for breaking digital competition rules, risking the wrath of US President Donald Trump.

Gaza's civil defence agency on Wednesday said its crew recovered charred bodies from a school-turned-shelter for displaced people, as Israeli strikes killed 17 people in the Hamas-run territory since dawn.

Equities rallied with Wall Street on Wednesday after Donald Trump said he had "no intention" of firing the head of the Federal Reserve and that eye-watering tariffs on China would be slashed drastically.

Envoys from Washington, Kyiv and European nations gathered for talks in Britain on Wednesday amid a new US push to end Russia's war in Ukraine, where a brief Easter truce was shattered by fresh air strikes.

Pope Francis's coffin began its transfer to St Peter's Basilica Wednesday for three days of lying in state, with thousands of well-wishers gathering to pay their respects to the leader of the world's Catholics before he is laid to rest.

Every morning the Congolese city of Bukavu, now under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 movement, counts its dead.

Nguyen Thi Kim's small verdant community in northern Vietnam no longer exists, wiped away in a landslide triggered by Typhoon Yagi's devastating heavy rains last year.

On a mountain near Sudan's border, journalists climb rugged slopes, phones held high, hoping to catch a faint signal from neighbouring Chad to send stories amid the war's two-year communications blackout.

Indian security forces in Kashmir carried out a major manhunt Wednesday, a day after gunmen opened fire on tourists, slaughtering at least 26 people in the region's deadliest attack on civilians since 2000.

In Silicon Valley, they talk about "moving fast and breaking things." One of his first and splashiest moves was to send emails to 2.3 million civil servants, offering buyouts -- and making clear their futures now hang by a thread.

US President Donald Trump's return to power has emboldened Israeli leaders' push to increase military presence in Gaza and reinvigorated right-wing ambitions to annex the occupied West Bank, experts say.

At least 24 people were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir when gunmen opened fire on tourists on Tuesday, a senior police officer told AFP, with authorities calling it the worst attack on civilians in years.

US envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to visit Russia this week, a Kremlin aide said Tuesday, as US President Donald Trump seeks a speedy deal to end the three-year Ukraine conflict.

Fourteen months after the deadliest storm in Philippine history, Pope Francis stood on a rain-swept stage to deliver a message of hope to the battered town of Tacloban.

The IMF said Tuesday it now believed China's economy will only grow by four percent this year, well below Beijing's official target as it fights a mounting trade war with the United States that threatens to hammer the global economy.

A Hamas delegation departed for Cairo to discuss "new ideas" aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza, an official from the group said, as Israeli air strikes killed 26 people across the territory Tuesday.

More than 100 US universities and colleges, including Ivy League institutions Princeton and Brown, issued a joint letter on Tuesday condemning President Donald Trump's "political interference" in the education system.

Oscar voters will be required to demonstrate that they have watched all the films in each category before they cast their final ballots, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday.

X rival Bluesky on Monday said it was adding blue checks to accounts that have been verified to confirm users are who they claim to be.

Gold reached $3,500 an ounce for the first time Tuesday as US President Donald Trump's tariffs and verbal assault on the Federal Reserve prompted investors to snap up the safe haven asset.

A populist party in New Zealand's governing coalition on Tuesday proposed a law to enforce a biological definition of men and women, condemning the existing "woke ideology" of "cancerous social engineering".

The first US official to visit Southeast Asia since Washington announced punitive tariffs on the region's countries on Tuesday issued a robust defence of President Donald Trump's foreign policy approach.

In March 2001, the Taliban shocked the world by dynamiting the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan.

On a cloudy spring morning in one of Athens' most densely inhabited districts, thousands of fresh saplings dotting a small hilltop park mark a fledgling effort to tackle crippling heat that critics say is long overdue.

Paris has everything -- stunning architecture and arguably the best food and fashion in the world.

Cardinals will meet Tuesday to decide the date for Pope Francis's funeral, starting a process that will culminate in the election of a new Catholic leader within three weeks.

The humble pinata has become one of the latest targets to take a whacking in US President Donald Trump's trade war.