AFP news

In the mid-19th century, Dutch colonial officials climbing an Indonesian volcano spotted an ancient statue meant to serve as protection against misfortune, looted it, and took it to the Netherlands.

German police arrested a Saudi Arabian man after a deadly car-ramming attack on a Christmas market Friday in which an SUV barrelled through a crowd of revellers at high speed, leaving a trail of bloody carnage.

Syrian media outlets which trumpeted the glories of Bashar al-Assad's oppressive rule quickly adopted revolutionary fervour after his ouster, but uncertainty shadows the sector.

US diplomats met with Syria's new ruler on Friday, an official told AFP, as outside powers seek assurances the country's Islamist-led authorities will be moderate and inclusive.

El Salvador will privatize or close the cryptocurrency wallet "Chivo" created by President Nayib Bukele when he made bitcoin legal tender in 2021, an official said Thursday.

Russian missiles targeted Kyiv at sunrise on Friday, killing at least one person and damaging six diplomatic missions and a university in the centre of the Ukrainian capital.

Switzerland's financial regulator was ineffective in tackling the scandals at Credit Suisse, where executive mismanagement scuppered the bank and nearly triggered a global financial crisis, a Swiss inquiry concluded Friday.

Bursting with customers one afternoon the week before Christmas, a second-hand charity shop in London's Marylebone High Street looked even busier than the upscale retailers surrounding it.

A French court on Friday was expected to deliver a verdict against eight people charged in connection with the jihadist beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty in 2020, a murder that horrified France.

Australian Olympic breakdancer Rachael "Raygun" Gunn says her legal dispute with the makers of a parody musical about her has been resolved, with a new version planned.

Australia said Friday it had agreed to boost Solomon Islands' police force with a multi-year funding, training and infrastructure package for the Pacific nation, which has fostered close ties with China.

China has lifted a ban on imports of Australian live rock lobsters, Canberra said Friday, demolishing the final barrier in a broader, multibillion-dollar trade war between the countries.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini was defiant Friday as he arrived for the verdict in his long-running trial for blocking a migrant rescue ship at sea, for which he risks six years in jail.

Lyubov Voronova still remembers a time before the war when the Oskil river flowing by her east Ukraine home was an idyll where families would swim, picnic and make memories.

From great leaps in artificial intelligence to the heroic defendant in a mass rape trial that shocked France, here are the stories of five people who made their mark on 2024: - Gisele Pelicot: anti-rape icon - Gisele Pelicot, 72, was at the centre of a mass rape trial in France which resonated around the world, becoming an icon for women in the fight against sexual violence.

In Pakistan's largest city, cars inch forward in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

From an anonymous office in a New Delhi mall, matrimonial detective Bhavna Paliwal runs the rule over prospective husbands and wives -- a booming industry in India, where younger generations are increasingly choosing love matches over arranged marriage.

On Bethlehem's Manger Square, Christmas decorations and pilgrims are notably absent for a second wartime festive season in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city.

The man accused of gunning down a US insurance executive in Manhattan -- a killing that tapped into widespread anger with the American health care system -- appeared in a New York court Thursday to face federal charges including murder.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he needed both Europe and the United States on board to secure a durable peace, as he huddled with EU leaders at their final summit before Donald Trump's inauguration.

In the villages above the Syrian port city of Tartus they once hailed the sons who died fighting in Bashar al-Assad's service as martyrs.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels said Israeli air strikes on Thursday killed nine people, after the group fired a missile toward Israel, badly damaging a school.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he was ready for talks at "any time" with US President-elect Donald Trump, who has touted his ability to strike a Ukraine peace deal within hours of coming to office.

In his first post-election news conference, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to "straighten out" the "corrupt" US press.

At least 100 North Koreans deployed to support Russia's war effort in Ukraine have been killed since entering combat in December, South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters Thursday.

The Bank of England on Thursday kept its key interest rate at 4.75 percent, deciding against a cut in line with the US Federal Reserve, as UK inflation rises again.

Concerns are growing in the UK as tech billionaire Elon Musk takes an increasingly close interest in Britain's political scene, appearing to cosy up to hard-right firebrand lawmaker Nigel Farage.

Seated in the audience at Macau's Dom Pedro V Theatre in the 1970s, 16-year-old Miguel de Senna Fernandes understood not a word of the "strange language" spoken on stage -- but right away he was mesmerised.

US President-elect Donald Trump urged Republican lawmakers Wednesday to scupper a cross-party deal to avert a fast-looming US government shutdown, as the White House accused him of "playing politics."