AFP news

Wealthy nations likely met their goal of providing $100 billion in annual climate finance to poorer nations last year -- two years later than promised and only a fraction of the "extensive needs", the OECD said Thursday.

Bartender Richard Alam has poured hardly any drinks at his pub in Lebanon's seaside city of Byblos, where once-busy streets have emptied of customers scared by border tensions during the Israel-Hamas war.

Israeli troops on Thursday advanced their campaign to destroy Hamas in Gaza, fighting gun battles and taking control of a key port a day after a raid on the territory's main hospital.

About 250 desperate Rohingya refugees reached western Indonesia on a decrepit, overcrowded wooden boat Thursday, bringing the total number reported by local officials to have arrived this week to nearly 600.

Manchester United chief executive Richard Arnold is stepping down from his role, the club announced on Wednesday, as British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe edges closer to becoming a minority stakeholder.

Indian rescuers said Wednesday they had sent medicine to 40 men trapped after the road tunnel they were building collapsed, as frantic efforts to free them entered a fourth day.

The ancient Vietnamese city of Hue, a world heritage site popular with tourists, was underwater Wednesday after heavy rain flooded thousands of homes and blocked highways.

Pedro Sanchez will seek a new term as Spain's prime minister in parliament Wednesday, after securing the backing of Catalan separatists in exchange for a controversial amnesty.

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will try to stop the superpowers' rivalry spilling into conflict when they meet for the first time in a year at a high-stakes summit in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Negotiators for the EU's member states and lawmakers on Wednesday reached a deal on new rules to curb methane emissions which would put new reporting requirements on the coal, gas and oil industry.

Israeli forces, some wearing facemasks and firing guns into the air, raided early Wednesday Gaza's biggest hospital which was packed with thousands of Palestinian patients and displaced people, in the army's battle against Hamas.

To reach Ukrainian soil from Russia, teacher Olena Yevdokiyenko had to lug suitcases and push her mother's wheelchair for two kilometres in the dark.

France has issued an international arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, accused of complicity in crimes against humanity over chemical attacks in 2013, a judicial source and plaintiffs in the case said Wednesday.

Chinese internet giant Tencent announced on Wednesday a nine percent year-on-year dip in third-quarter net income, even as it posted growth in revenue over the same period.

More than 200,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Myanmar after an alliance of ethnic minority groups launched an offensive against the military last month, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

The European Commission on Wednesday lowered its eurozone growth forecast for 2023 and 2024, saying the high cost of living and interest rates were weighing on consumers and businesses.

Bangladesh garment factories reopened Wednesday as hundreds of thousands of workers returned to key manufacturing hubs after days of violent protests demanding a near-tripling of the minimum wage.

Former US president Donald Trump faced a furious backlash Monday over Veteran's Day weekend remarks branding his political opponents "vermin," as leading scholars and President Joe Biden accused him of parroting Hitler and Mussolini.

US President Joe Biden urged Israel on Monday to protect Gaza's main hospital as heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas raged around the complex.

Argentina's annual inflation rate has hit 143 percent, the statistics agency announced Monday, just days before a presidential election in which the dire state of the economy will be a deciding factor.

Leaders of Asia-Pacific economies want to boost output with an eye on issues like reducing inequality and protecting the environment, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday.

Dominica is set to create the world's first sperm whale reserve, designating a swath of ocean where large ships and commercial fishing are restricted and visitors can swim alongside the gentle marine giants.

Stock markets struck a mixed note Tuesday as caution prevailed before key US inflation data, which could spell major implications for the Federal Reserve's interest-rate plans.

President Joe Biden's administration signaled Monday it would postpone a draft of an Asia trade pact that had been set to be unveiled at a summit in San Francisco, after facing domestic criticism.

A humble restaurant on a Beijing street serving up a hearty dish of pork liver, lungs and intestines was once the site of an unconventional China-US rapprochement.

More than a hundred rescuers in northern India struggled for a third day on Tuesday to save dozens of workers trapped underground after the road tunnel they were building collapsed.

Gaza's main hospital has been forced to bury scores of dead patients in a mass grave, its director said Tuesday, as US President Joe Biden pressed Israel to protect the complex trapped in fierce combat.

New use of landmines, including extensive deployment by Russia in Ukraine, drove a global rise of new casualties from the weapons in 2022, a monitor said on Tuesday.

The world is "failing to get a grip" on climate change, the UN warned Tuesday, as an assessment of current climate pledges shows only minor progress on reducing emissions this decade.