AFP news

World leaders take centre stage at UN climate talks in Dubai on Friday, under pressure to step up efforts to limit global warming as the Israel-Hamas conflict casts a shadow over the summit.

Visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday urged Israel to create safe zones for Palestinian civilians in Gaza before it resumes "major military operations" in the Hamas-ruled territory.

President Joe Biden and his Angolan counterpart Joao Lourenco met at the White House on Thursday to discuss infrastructure and regional security, as the United States seeks to counter China's growing influence in Africa.

Western energy firms are the usual suspects when it comes to criticism about the sector's role in climate change, but a less visible lineup of powerful state companies dominates the industry.

Manchester United are facing elimination from the Champions League in the group stage after squandering a two-goal lead to draw 3-3 with Galatasaray in Istanbul on Wednesday, while Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven secured qualification for the last 16.

Hours after the traumatic October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Michael and his wife knew they had to abandon their Tel Aviv home and flee to the nearest destination, Athens, for the sake of their family.

Shane MacGowan, songwriter and lead singer of Celtic folk-punk band The Pogues, has died aged 65 after a long illness, his wife announced Thursday.

Four years after startling the car world with designs for the Cybertruck, Elon Musk is set Thursday to mark the arrival of Tesla's iconoclastic take on the American pickup.

Stock markets rose Thursday before publication of key US inflation data and as investors reacted to mixed economic news out of the eurozone.

They are ambitious and relatively young leaders whose passionate views about running their large, powerful states offer contrasting ideals on how the deeply-polarized United States should be run.

The UN's former climate chief said she was "giving up hope" that fossil fuel firms will be part of the solution to warming as pivotal COP28 talks start Thursday in oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

China on Thursday hailed the late Henry Kissinger as an "old friend", paying tribute to a diplomat central to establishing ties between Beijing and Washington.

Kazakhstan said Thursday that at least 13 people were killed in a fire that broke out at dawn in a hostel in the Central Asian country's largest city Almaty.

Google's position as king of the search engines is under threat like never before, but the firm's global policy chief told AFP this week it still had the edge over its AI competitors.

Inflation in the eurozone fell to its lowest level in more than two years in November, official data showed Thursday, raising hopes the European Central Bank could soon cut interest rates.

This year is set to be the hottest ever recorded, the UN said Thursday, demanding urgent action to rein in global warming and stem the havoc following in its wake.

Uncertainty hovered over what major oil-producing nations -- collectively known as OPEC+ -- will decide on output policy as they headed into virtual meetings Thursday in a bid to halt a continuous slump in prices.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday visited a frontline command post in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have been stepping up attacks after holding back a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Russian forces were ramping up attacks in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, Moscow and Kyiv said, as they vie to secure elusive territorial gains before the end of the year.

Four-year-old American hostage Abigail is surrounded by family in Israel who "brought her life back" after seven weeks of captivity, her great aunt said Wednesday, as relatives stressed they will not rest until everyone held by Hamas is freed.

The speaker of Kenya's parliament has cracked down on what he described as inappropriate attire worn by MPs, even banning traditional African dress and safari-style suits favoured by President William Ruto.

A US Navy warship shot down a drone on Wednesday launched from a part of Yemen controlled by Iran-backed Huthi rebels, the American military's Central Command said.

After 17 days trapped inside a collapsed Himalayan road tunnel they were building, Indian workers described the horror of their ordeal, and the hopes and prayers that kept them strong.

In an ordinary house in a north London suburb in the late 1970s, children levitated, objects flew across rooms, heavy furniture moved on its own and a young girl was flung from her bed.

A US Osprey military aircraft crashed on Wednesday off a Japanese island, killing one crew member and leaving five unaccounted for, the coastguard said, in the latest incident involving the tilt-rotor military aircraft.

Shares in Dutch medical device manufacturer Philips plunged Wednesday after the US Food and Drug Administration warned that its new machine to help patients sleep risked overheating.

Emily Hand, the nine-year-old girl released after Hamas held her hostage for 50 days, will now only talk in whispers having been ordered to stay silent by her captors, her father told British tabloid The Sun in an interview published on Wednesday.

Pope Francis presided over his weekly audience Wednesday despite the flu that caused him to scrap a trip to Dubai, but asked an aide to deliver his reading for him.

When delegations from Moscow and Kyiv met in Belarus for secretive peace talks weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, it took Ukraine's lead negotiator less than an hour to lose hope.