AFP news

North Korea has ratified a landmark defence pact with Russia, state media reported Tuesday, deepening security cooperation that has seen Pyongyang send thousands of troops to help Moscow fight Ukraine.

Once confined to rectangular screens, chirpy plumber Mario and pointy-eared Princess Zelda are popping up in theme parks and toy stores as Nintendo goes all out to win non-gamer fans.

Senior Russian official Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday told China's foreign minister Wang Yi their two countries' most urgent task should be countering "containment" by the United States, as they met for security talks in Beijing.

"We used to hate elephants a lot," Kenyan farmer Charity Mwangome says, pausing from her work under the shade of a baobab tree.

New Zealand's prime minister delivered a historic apology Tuesday to victims abused in state care, acknowledging the "unimaginable pain" suffered within children's homes and psychiatric hospitals.

Germany, mired in political crisis, is headed for February 23 elections, the main parties agreed Tuesday, aiming to form a stable government after Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party coalition collapsed last week.

The Central African Republic (CAR) sought Tuesday to convince the regulatory body for global diamond trading to lift all restrictions against it, ending an export embargo in place for more than a decade.

The host of the UN climate summit in Azerbaijan on Tuesday defended fossil fuels and the right of countries to exploit them as dozens of world leaders arrived for the COP29 conference.

In a mask and a hazmat suit, Ermek Murataliyev drives a truck filled with Soviet-era radioactive waste along the winding mountain roads of Kyrgyzstan.

US President-elect Donald Trump announced new members of his incoming administration on Monday, and was expected to pick Florida Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state.

Aspiring South Korean writer On Ji-goo never considered herself a feminist but changed her mind after being physically attacked by a man for having short hair.

The heavyweights of the EU's new top team are to be quizzed by lawmakers in Brussels on Tuesday during confirmation hearings that are set to lay bare political dividing lines within the bloc.

Sri Lanka's new leftist leader has drawn strong support from an unlikely source as he seeks to expand his three parliamentary seats to a house majority in elections on Thursday.

Arab and Muslim leaders demanded on Monday that Israel withdraw from occupied Palestinian territories as a precondition for regional peace, while denouncing "shocking" Israeli crimes in war-ravaged Gaza.

By the time most Londoners had rolled out of bed on Monday morning, Gary Marshall was already winding down for the day at New Covent Garden Market.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba kept his job in a parliamentary vote on Monday, despite having recently led the ruling coalition to its worst general election result in 15 years.

Taylor Swift led the way at the 2024 MTV Europe Music Awards in Manchester on Sunday, picking up four awards on a night dominated by female artists, including Tyla and Sabrina Carpenter.

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed 23 people, including seven children, in the village of Almat north of the capital Beirut.

Major stock markets diverged, the dollar gained and bitcoin extended a record run higher Monday, as traders took their lead from events in the United States and China.

US president-elect Donald Trump said late Sunday he was bringing back hardline immigration official Tom Homan to oversee the country's borders in the incoming administration.

The Kremlin on Monday denied a US media report that Russian President Vladimir Putin and US president-elect Donald Trump shared a call about the Ukraine conflict.

The White House will spend its remaining $6 billion of Ukraine funding before Donald Trump's presidential inauguration in January, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday, warning of the global risks of ending US support for Kyiv.

Air alerts wailed across Ukraine early Monday as Russian strikes killed at least six people, a day after record drone attacks by both sides and US president-elect Donald Trump reportedly urging Russia's Vladimir Putin not to escalate the conflict.

Deep in a thick forest in Italy's northwestern Piedmont region, the hunt is on for the white Alba truffle, with excited dogs zigzagging and digging into the wet earth.

The COP29 climate talks open Monday in Azerbaijan, under the long shadow cast by the re-election of Donald Trump, who has pledged to row back on the United States' carbon-cutting commitments.

Art teacher Daniil Klyuka believes the headmistress of the provincial Russian school where he worked reported him for doodling horns on pictures of officials in a newspaper.

Donald Trump's election victory paves the way for a fresh wave of misinformation, not only around politics but also on vaccines and climate, with his expected cabinet picks ready to challenge the scientific community.

The presence of North Korean soldiers alongside Russians fighting Ukraine raises many tactical and military questions, leading some analysts to wonder about their effectiveness and ultimate objectives.

Russia and Ukraine both launched record drone attacks on each other overnight, despite a phone call reported by the Washington Post from US president-elect Donald Trump urging Russian President Vladimir Putin not to escalate the conflict.