AFP news

Once confined to rectangular screens, chirpy plumber Mario and pointy-eared Princess Zelda are popping up in theme parks and toy stores as Nintendo goes all out to win non-gamer fans.

The ruling at the Hague Appeals Court comes as governments of some 200 countries gather at the COP29 talks in Azerbaijan to discuss the future of the planet including a transition to clean energy.

Regulators are preparing a proposal that would enable major cities such as Shanghai and Beijing to reduce the deed tax for buyers to as low as one percent from the current level of up to three percent, Bloomberg News said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The tech industry is holding its breath to see what Trump's second term will bring when he takes over in January, especially as SpaceX and Tesla chief Elon Musk is expected to have a huge influence on the next US government.

Moscow and Beijing have expanded military and defense ties since Russia ordered troops into Ukraine nearly three years ago, with Chinese President Xi Jinping one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most important allies on the world stage.

A 19th-century play directed by US actor John Malkovich has enraged nationalists in Bulgaria who call it an insult to the country -- a claim the Hollywood star rejected as stirred up by the far right.

Trump's election to the White House has the potential to upend the almost three-year conflict and has thrown into question Washington's multi-billion dollar support for Kyiv, crucial to its defense.

China announced provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports last month, saying the alleged "dumping" threatened "substantial damage" to the domestic industry.

The territory on the northwest point of Somalia unilaterally declared independence in 1991 and has been far more stable and peaceful than the rest of the country since then.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that Trump had urged the Russian leader not to escalate the war in Ukraine.

Sullivan said President Joe Biden is expected to go over top foreign policy issues when he meets with President-elect Trump Wednesday in the Oval Office.

Manchester United signed off Ruud van Nistelrooy's temporary stint in charge with a 3-0 win over Leicester and Nottingham Forest dropped out of the top four after a 3-1 home defeat by Newcastle.

Despite a large police presence and the expected attendance of French President Emmanuel Macron, Israeli officials on Sunday warned fans to stay away because of fears they could be targeted.

Trump's election to the White House has the potential to upend the almost three-year conflict and has thrown into question Washington's multi-billion dollar support for Kyiv, crucial to its defense.

Scholz, whose coalition collapsed on Wednesday, said that "asking for the vote of confidence before Christmas, if all sides agree, is no problem at all for me".

North Korea had never sent troops into combat abroad before, primarily out of fear that they might defect or make unflattering comparisons between foreign armies and their own.

In the closing weeks of his 2024 campaign, Trump aired false claims about weather manipulation and government assistance after hurricanes hit North Carolina, a swing state he would ultimately win.

Ishiba, 67, took office in early October and called a snap election which he hoped would shore up his mandate as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

For six months, they handed over paintings and other artworks to people leaving Gaza through its Rafah border crossing with Egypt until Israeli ground forces closed it in May when they took control of the frontier.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage as Typhoon Toraji hit the nation's northeast coast near Dilasag town, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) northeast of the capital, Manila, the national weather agency said.

Countries come to Baku for the main United Nations forum for climate diplomacy after new warnings that 2024 is on track to break temperature records, adding urgency to a fractious debate over climate funding.

The 78-year-old Republican tycoon has pledged to launch -- on day one of his presidency -- the largest deportation operation of undocumented immigrants in US history.

"Singles Day" -- launched by tech giant Alibaba in 2009 -- has ballooned into an annual blockbuster period for retail, with days of discounts luring customers to the country's online shopping platforms.

The event will bring together some 70,000 attendees with more than 3,000 startups and 1,000 investors, according to the organizers.

The yen's weakness against the dollar and euro had a positive impact on takings in those key sectors, the Japanese conglomerate said.

AFP journalists in Kharkiv saw rescue workers at night hauling panicked civilians from Soviet-era residential buildings hit in the strike, that were surrounded by broken glass and rubble.

In a fresh report, the United Nations human rights office detailed the "horrific reality" that has unfolded for civilians in both Gaza and Israel since Hamas's attack in Israel on October 7, 2023.

Orban, the closest ally of both Trump and the Kremlin in the European Union, has repeatedly infuriated the bloc's fellow leaders with his rogue diplomacy.

With the exception of a few limited strikes, Sidon, a Sunni Muslim-majority city, has been relatively spared the deadly air raids targeting south Lebanon in Israel's war against the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.