AFP news

In the crucial first minutes, it was bystanders who spotted the fire and braved the blaze to rescue the newborns inside.

Sitting down Monday morning with President Lai Ching-te, Representative Michael McCaul -- who heads the influential House Foreign Affairs Committee -- said he and his colleagues stood in "strong support of this beautiful island".

The French civil aviation authority said Friday it had ordered airlines operating at Paris Orly airport to cancel 70 percent of flights ahead of a weekend air traffic controller strike.

Saudi Arabia is moving aggressively with its investments in more gaming companies, the Canadian industry veteran steering the kingdom's push to become a global hub for the sector told AFP Friday.

A massive landslide struck six villages in Papua New Guinea's highlands Friday, local officials said, with many homes believed to be buried and scores of villagers feared dead.

In the rural Mexican town where opposition presidential candidate Xochitl Galvez grew up, the smiling face of her ruling party rival looks out from posters plastered around the streets.

Countries trying to thrash out a global agreement on handling future pandemics are hoping to seal the deal Friday after weeks of creeping progress in exhausting talks.

Africa's vast potential in the global fight against climate change is at risk due to the heavy burden of debt and lack of international investment, Kenyan President William Ruto said Thursday.

Kylian Mbappe will bring the curtain down on his Paris Saint-Germain career on Saturday and has the chance to sign off with another trophy in the French Cup final against Lyon.

Markets fell in Asia and Europe on Friday, tracking a sell-off on Wall Street sparked by a string of better-than-expected US data that added to worries the Federal Reserve will hold off on cutting interest rates this year.

Propagandists and scammers are exploiting xenophobia and anger over failing infrastructure to unleash a wave of disinformation ahead of South Africa's most contested polls since 1994, experts warn.

Israeli forces carried out strikes on Gaza and battled militants on the ground Friday, as the UN's top court was due to rule on a plea to halt the military offensive.

Russian forces have become "bogged down" trying to capture the northeastern border town of Vovchansk, but were putting intense pressure on Ukraine's army in the east, Kyiv's top general said Friday.

The Japanese dog whose photo inspired a generation of oddball online jokes and the $23-billion Dogecoin cryptocurrency beloved by Elon Musk died on Friday, her owner said.

The top United Nations court on Friday will rule on a plea by South Africa to order a halt to the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, with Pretoria accusing Israel of "genocide".

The pace of Japanese inflation slowed in April to 2.2 percent as gas bills fell, government data showed Friday, with the figure remaining above the Bank of Japan's two percent target.

China warned on Friday of war over Taiwan and said it would ramp up countermeasures until "complete reunification" was achieved, as Chinese forces conducted military drills around the self-ruled island.

Singer Casandra Ventura said Thursday -- in her first comments since video emerged of her being beaten by rap mogul and former partner Sean "Diddy" Combs -- that domestic violence "broke" her.

The United States was imposing new visa restrictions and reviewing relations with Georgia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday, after it pushed forward a Russian-style "foreign influence" law that triggered mass protests.

The US Department of Justice filed a major antitrust lawsuit Thursday seeking to break up an alleged monopoly in the live music industry between concert promoter Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary, bookings website Ticketmaster.

In a tie and leather jacket, Argentina's President Javier Milei rocked out in front of thousands of fans during the launch of his latest economics book in Buenos Aires Wednesday night.

The North Atlantic hurricane season, which starts on June 1, is forecast to be "extraordinary," with up to seven storms of Category 3 or higher expected, the US NOAA weather agency said Thursday.

A Paris court ruled Thursday that X needed to provide French media with information about how much money it makes from publishing their content as part of a legal battle over rights payments.

The AI tools that crunch numbers, generate text and videos and find patterns in data rely on mass surveillance and exercise concerning control over our lives, the boss of encrypted messaging app Signal told AFP on Thursday.

The Oscar winner ("Darkest Hour") also addressed controversial remarks he had recently made about his role in the "Harry Potter" films, which upset some fans of the boy wizard.

Lookman became the first player to score a hat-trick in a European final since 1975 to secure Atalanta's first ever continental trophy.

Fed policymakers voted to hold rates at a 23-year high after the rate-setting meeting concluded on May 1, as they sought to tackle inflation still stuck firmly above the bank's long-term target of two percent.

The California-based company reported a net profit of $14.9 billion, while its revenue of $26 billion was almost four times what it took in during the same fiscal quarter last year.

The Republican-backed Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act -- known as FIT21 -- would split responsibility for cryptocurrency regulation between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.