AFP news

The first commercial flight since the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad took off from Damascus airport on Wednesday, offering Syrians a glimmer of hope after years of war and decades of oppression.

The district of La Vigie on the French overseas territory of Mayotte was until last week a bustling hub of life.

The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut interest rates by a quarter point on Wednesday and signal a slower pace of cuts ahead, brushing off uncertainty about inflation's downward path and the possible impact of some of President-elect Donald Trump's economic proposals.

Japan's government voiced dismay on Wednesday over the release of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson after Danish authorities refused Tokyo's extradition request.

Djafaruddin says he has recovered from the trauma of collecting bodies when the world's deadliest tsunami devastated Indonesia's western coast two decades ago, but he still breaks down when thinking about the orphaned children.

Call it an antidote to fast fashion: Japanese jeans hand-dyed with natural indigo and weaved on a clackety vintage loom, then sold at a premium to global denim connoisseurs.

A Filipina who spent nearly 15 years on Indonesia's death row tearfully reunited with family members Wednesday after arriving in Manila, where she now awaits a hoped-for pardon in a women's prison.

In the early hours of January 3, 2023, 32 people climbed onto a makeshift raft off southern Cuba and set out across the Caribbean for Florida, 170 kilometers (100 miles) away.

Sudanese doctor Mohamed Moussa has grown so accustomed to the constant sound of gunfire and shelling near his hospital that it no longer startles him.

The family of a French man who enlisted dozens of strangers to rape his heavily-sedated wife have been torn apart by his crimes but are still seeking answers after a gruelling three-month trial.

A shock outsider when he was first elected president eight years ago -- and a pariah when he left office -- Donald Trump appears to be the most popular person in America as far as the rich and powerful are concerned.

Authorities announced a nighttime curfew Tuesday to curb looting after a devastating cyclone hit the French overseas territory of Mayotte, with the country's prime minister warning the death toll could rise.

A UK court on Tuesday handed life sentences to the father and stepmother of a murdered 10-year-old British-Pakistani girl who died after being subjected to a prolonged "campaign of torture" and "despicable abuse".

On a farm in the southern US state of Virginia, David Ayares and his research teams are breeding genetically modified pigs to transplant their organs into human patients.

Syria's new rulers stepped up engagement on Tuesday with countries that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah, with the French flag raised at the embassy for the first time in over a decade.

The head of the Russian army's chemical weapons division was killed on Tuesday in a brazen attack in Moscow claimed by Kyiv -- the most senior military figure assassinated in Russia yet as the Kremlin's campaign in Ukraine drags on.

A powerful earthquake struck the Pacific island of Vanuatu on Tuesday, smashing buildings in the capital Port Vila including one housing the US and other embassies, with a witness telling AFP of bodies seen in the city.

In the shadow of the Grand Lisboa, the Macau casino world-famous for its "golden lotus" design, fashion boutique owner Suzanne Leong wonders if the economic miracle that initially made her fortune has now cast her aside.

The successor to Thomas Bach as International Olympic Committee president must "embody the principles of justice" and that means refusing to welcome Russia back into the sporting world, Ukraine's Sports Minister Matviy Bidnyi has told AFP. Seven candidates are vying to succeed Bach in an election in March but the German will step down in June 2025 after 12 years in charge.

As Britain's new Labour government bids to reset long-fraught ties with China amid a suspected spy scandal, another issue could mar relations: Beijing's controversial plans to open the largest embassy in the UK. China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital's upmarket Marylebone district, to a sprawling historic site in the shadow of the Tower of London.

As Germany heads for elections, its security services warn that Russia and its sympathisers may step up meddling and disinformation to boost extremist parties and sow doubt about the democratic process.

Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland quit Monday in a surprise move after disagreeing with Justin Trudeau over US President-elect Donald Trump's tariff threats.

The pack of stray dogs -- thin and rain-soaked -- yelped in fear at the roar of incoming Russian artillery fire that echoed off abandoned Soviet-era buildings and an Orthodox church in frontline Pokrovsk.

European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde said Monday eurozone policymakers would keep cutting interest rates and warned that higher US tariffs under President-elect Donald Trump could hit growth in the bloc.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday hailed his army's accelerating advance in Ukraine and praised 2024 as a "landmark" year in the course of Moscow's military offensive on its Western-backed neighbour.

Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus, who heads the caretaker government installed after an August revolution, said Monday that general elections would be held late next year or in early 2026.

The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to announce a quarter point cut to its key lending rate on Wednesday despite a recent uptick in inflation, in the central bank's last meeting of Joe Biden's presidency.

Germany's embattled centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz traded angry blows with his top rival ahead of a parliament vote Monday that was expected to trigger the process towards February 23 elections.

The five remaining members of the Australian "Bali Nine" drug ring flew home Sunday after 19 years in jail in Indonesia, ending a saga that had frayed relations between the two countries.