AFP news

Questions remained Thursday over the military plane crash that Russia said had killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers ahead of a planned prisoner exchange.

Long gone is the Joe Biden of February 2023, strolling confidently through the streets of Kyiv, basking in the role as champion of the Ukrainian cause in the fight against Vladimir Putin's Russia.

A Spanish judge on Thursday proposed that disgraced former Spanish football chief Luis Rubiales be tried over the kiss he forced on Women's World Cup star Jenni Hermoso.

After years of estrangement with Washington during the Cold War, Angola has seen growing common ground with the United States, including by working together to address violence in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The bill is one of the flagship reforms of President Emmanuel Macron's second term but its text had to be hardened under pressure from the right and caused a revolt among lawmakers from the ruling party.

Japan's "Moon Sniper" craft made a pin-point lunar landing despite last-minute engine problems, the space agency said Thursday as it released the first images from the mission.

Lai won the January 13 poll despite warnings from Beijing that he would bring "war and decline" to Taiwan, securing a third term for the Democratic Progressive Party that rejects China's claim to the island.

Colombia has already extinguished hundreds of fires this month, but 25 continue to burn, according to data from the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD) on Wednesday.

Landing in Jaipur, state capital of Rajasthan, Macron will be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a banquet in a 19th-century maharaja's palace.

Finnish telecommunications equipment maker Nokia warned Thursday that it expects another tough economic environment in the first half of this year after its net profit sank in 2023.

The Israeli army says it has "encircled" Khan Yunis, the hometown of Hamas's Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, accused of being the mastermind of the October 7 attacks that sparked the war.

Joe Biden won the endorsement of America's biggest car workers union Wednesday, as the race for the White House dramatically revved up following Donald Trump's victory in the New Hampshire primary.

Transport Minister Volker Wissing has slammed as "destructive" the six-day industrial action that heaps further pressure on supply chains that are already facing disruption because of attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on shipping via the Red Sea.

Netflix finished 2023 with slightly more than 260 million subscribers worldwide, with a profit of $938 million in the final quarter versus just $55 million in the same period a year earlier.

Boeing came under renewed pressure Tuesday as the head of Alaska Airlines said inspections carried out after a dangerous incident had found many loose bolts on its 737 MAX 9 aircraft.

No Republican who won both Iowa and New Hampshire has ever lost the nomination battle. That historical data point is gold for Trump, now widely seen as the party's presumptive flag-bearer heading into November -- despite multiple legal scandals and a chaos-filled record as president.

The Russian world number three was twice pegged back by Polish ninth seed Hurkacz after going a set up but produced the crucial break in the decider to get over the line.

The European Union will unveil a raft of measures Wednesday to better coordinate action on protecting sensitive technology and stopping critical infrastructure from falling into the hands of geopolitical rivals like China.

The incident took place in the early morning hours in Ulaanbaatar's eastern Bayanzurkh district, and involved a truck carrying 60 tons of liquified natural gas (LNG), the Mongolian National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said.

Pyongyang has accelerated weapons testing in the new year, including tests of what it called an "underwater nuclear weapon system" and a solid-fueled hypersonic ballistic missile.

Heavy Israeli bombardment of Gaza overnight killed at least 125 people, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said Wednesday, against the backdrop of talks in Cairo aimed at reaching a truce.

The EU on Wednesday launches a "European Ports Alliance" to harmonize methods in the fight against drug smuggling and to combat the hubs' infiltration by criminal groups.

Last month European Union leaders agreed to open formal membership talks with the small nation which borders Ukraine.

The dispute began when the Russian defense ministry said on January 17 that it had carried out a "precision strike" on a temporary base for foreign fighters in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, saying the bulk of them were "French mercenaries".

US President Joe Biden's Middle East envoy held talks in the region Tuesday as hopes rose for a new deal to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a longer pause in fighting in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought progress Tuesday in reversing West Africa's democratic decline in talks with the presidents of two key partners, Nigeria and Ivory Coast, as he promoted a fight against extremism that goes beyond military might.

Britain's unelected upper house of parliament inflicted a blow Monday to the government's controversial plan to send migrants to Rwanda, by voting to delay ratification of the treaty with Kigali.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has recommended that airlines inspect door plugs on Boeing 737-900ER jets after a blowout on another type of aircraft with a similar mid-cabin exit earlier this month.

On paper, the easing of US oil sanctions against Venezuela should allow its battered economy to once again profit from a resource it has more of than any country in the world.