AFP news

A former partner of a co-defendant in a mass rape trial that has sparked horror and protests in France broke down in tears on Monday, telling the court she had "lived a lie" and might herself have been sexually assaulted.

Pig farmer Alberto Cavagnini has slaughtered 1,600 of his hogs due to swine fever, a virus threatening the 20-billion-euro pork industry in Italy, including its world-famous prosciutto.

The US Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates by half a percentage-point was "an appropriate and necessary first step," given progress on reducing inflation, a senior bank official said Monday.

European and Asian stock markets diverged Monday as investors digested weak eurozone economic data and an interest rate cut by China's central bank.

Jakarta and Wellington denied Monday a claim by rebels in Indonesia's restive region of Papua that a New Zealand pilot was freed from captivity over the weekend after they received payment from a local leader.

Bitter enemies Russia and Ukraine clashed at the world's oldest arbitration court on Monday over a long-running case about access to coastal waters around the annexed Crimea peninsula.

REA Group, the Australian online property website majority-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire, said Monday it has made a third multi-billion-pound offer to buy British peer Rightmove.

Sri Lanka's first leftist president was sworn in to office Monday vowing to restore public faith in politics but said he had no magic solution to the hardships suffered following an unprecedented economic crisis.

Israel's military pounded targets in south and east Lebanon on Monday and said more strikes were coming, warning Lebanese to stay out of harm's way despite international calls for restraint.

Sonia waited 32 years to see her rapists convicted, a glacially slow legal process all too common in India where half a million cases have been pending for longer than two decades.

Rohingya refugee Syed fled Myanmar for a second time last month, after he was forced to fight alongside the military that drove his family out of their homeland years earlier.

Hamas's multipronged attack on southern Israel on October 7 was unprecedented in scale.

A veneer of calm has settled over Narino, one of the most violent regions of Colombia, where armed groups until recently waged bloody battles for control of vast coca fields.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday arrived in the United States for a crucial visit to present Kyiv's plan to end two and a half years of war with Russia.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised to protect public services and ruled out austerity measures as the Labour Party's annual conference kicked off on Sunday, its first in 15 years as a governing party.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats narrowly beat the far-right AfD in a state election Sunday in the formerly communist east, initial projections by public broadcasters said.

Civilians combed through the wreckage of their homes Sunday in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher, besieged for months by paramilitaries who have now launched a "full-scale assault", according to the United Nations.

A previously fringe Marxist politician was on course Sunday to become Sri Lanka's next leader after a presidential vote coloured by discontent over the island nation's response to an unprecedented financial crisis.

Germans began casting ballots Sunday for a regional election in a formerly communist eastern state where the far-right AfD party is narrowly ahead in opinion polls.

Hundreds of thousands of people sought shelter from Hezbollah rockets fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Sunday, the military said, as a UN official warned of imminent regional "catastrophe" from the worsening violence.

France finally got a new government Saturday in a shift to the right, as left-wing protesters took to the streets to denounce what they say is a denial of July's election results.

Liverpool moved to the top of the Premier League with a resounding 3-0 win over Bournemouth as Manchester United were held to a disappointing 0-0 draw by Crystal Palace on Saturday.

The United States and Britain have not authorised Ukraine to use long-range missiles on targets inside Russia, fearing an escalation of hostilities, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, hinting he hoped US leader Joe Biden would change his mind.

New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens has been released from captivity by rebels in Indonesia's restive Papua region and is in good health despite the 19-month ordeal, Indonesian and New Zealand authorities said Saturday.

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka was voting for its next president Saturday in an effective referendum on an unpopular International Monetary Fund austerity plan enacted after the island nation's unprecedented financial crisis.

Kamala Harris on Friday attacked Republican rival Donald Trump and his party as "hypocrites" over abortion, as the first voters cast their ballots for November's knife-edge US election.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Friday announced plans for Brussels to lend Ukraine 35 billion euros backed by revenues of frozen Russian assets and promised to help Ukraine "keep warm" ahead of a third winter of war with Russia.

Thousands of activists from anti-immigration party Reform UK gathered to hear leader Nigel Farage at its annual conference on Friday, buoyed by its electoral breakthrough -- and eyeing potentially bigger prizes to come.

Video of men allegedly raping a drugged Frenchwoman will not be shown at their trial to the public or journalists, the judge in the case ruled Friday.