In the villages above the Syrian port city of Tartus they once hailed the sons who died fighting in Bashar al-Assad's service as martyrs.
Dec 20, 2024
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he was ready for talks at "any time" with US President-elect Donald Trump, who has touted his ability to strike a Ukraine peace deal within hours of coming to office.
Dec 20, 2024
At least 100 North Koreans deployed to support Russia's war effort in Ukraine have been killed since entering combat in December, South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters Thursday.
AFP news Dec 20, 2024
Seated in the audience at Macau's Dom Pedro V Theatre in the 1970s, 16-year-old Miguel de Senna Fernandes understood not a word of the "strange language" spoken on stage -- but right away he was mesmerised.
Dec 19, 2024
US President-elect Donald Trump urged Republican lawmakers Wednesday to scupper a cross-party deal to avert a fast-looming US government shutdown, as the White House accused him of "playing politics."
Dec 19, 2024
The haggard faces in the wreckage-and-water-strewn corridors betrayed the nerves and exhaustion of those soldiering on at the main hospital on the French archipelago of Mayotte, ravaged by a deadly cyclone last weekend.
Dec 19, 2024
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's wife Begona Gomez denied wrongdoing in court testimony Wednesday to an investigation into alleged corruption, one of several legal cases connected to the minority left-wing government.
Dec 19, 2024
France's trial of a man who drugged his wife so dozens of strangers could rape her while unconscious has been both ordinary and extraordinary, AFP journalists who have been covering it say.
Dec 19, 2024
After losing hope of finding his two brothers among those freed from Syrian jails, Ziad Alaywi was filled with dread, knowing there was only one place they were likely to be: a mass grave.
AFP news Dec 19, 2024
Dutch authorities fined video streaming giant Netflix 4.75 million euros ($4.98 million) Wednesday over its handling of subscribers' personal data, which it said was unclear or incomplete in several respects.
AFP news Dec 19, 2024
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was to meet NATO chief Mark Rutte and key European leaders in Brussels Wednesday to discuss "next steps" on Russia's war as Donald Trump prepares to take office as US president.
AFP news Dec 19, 2024
The promotional stunt, organized by the Libertarian Party, aimed to protest the government's fuel taxes, which currently added 55 cents per litre to the cost of petrol.
Vidhya CK Dec 19, 2024
The first commercial flight since the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad took off from Damascus airport on Wednesday, offering Syrians a glimmer of hope after years of war and decades of oppression.
Dec 18, 2024
The district of La Vigie on the French overseas territory of Mayotte was until last week a bustling hub of life.
Dec 18, 2024
Djafaruddin says he has recovered from the trauma of collecting bodies when the world's deadliest tsunami devastated Indonesia's western coast two decades ago, but he still breaks down when thinking about the orphaned children.
Dec 18, 2024
In the early hours of January 3, 2023, 32 people climbed onto a makeshift raft off southern Cuba and set out across the Caribbean for Florida, 170 kilometers (100 miles) away.
Dec 18, 2024
Sudanese doctor Mohamed Moussa has grown so accustomed to the constant sound of gunfire and shelling near his hospital that it no longer startles him.
Dec 18, 2024
The family of a French man who enlisted dozens of strangers to rape his heavily-sedated wife have been torn apart by his crimes but are still seeking answers after a gruelling three-month trial.
Dec 18, 2024
A UK court on Tuesday handed life sentences to the father and stepmother of a murdered 10-year-old British-Pakistani girl who died after being subjected to a prolonged "campaign of torture" and "despicable abuse".
Dec 18, 2024
The head of the Russian army's chemical weapons division was killed on Tuesday in a brazen attack in Moscow claimed by Kyiv -- the most senior military figure assassinated in Russia yet as the Kremlin's campaign in Ukraine drags on.
Dec 17, 2024
A powerful earthquake struck the Pacific island of Vanuatu on Tuesday, smashing buildings in the capital Port Vila including one housing the US and other embassies, with a witness telling AFP of bodies seen in the city.
Dec 17, 2024
The pack of stray dogs -- thin and rain-soaked -- yelped in fear at the roar of incoming Russian artillery fire that echoed off abandoned Soviet-era buildings and an Orthodox church in frontline Pokrovsk.
Dec 17, 2024
Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus, who heads the caretaker government installed after an August revolution, said Monday that general elections would be held late next year or in early 2026.
AFP news Dec 17, 2024
Three years ago, Andrea Vanek was studying to be an arts and crafts teacher when spells of dizziness and heart palpitations suddenly started to make it impossible for her to even take short walks.
Dec 16, 2024
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory on Sunday killed at least 40 people, including several children, an Al Jazeera TV cameraman and three rescuers.
Dec 16, 2024
The Syrian military intelligence officers who detained Ghazi Mohammed al-Mohammed told him to forget his name and who he was.
Dec 16, 2024
South Korea's swift rebuke of martial law and removal of President Yoon Suk Yeol from office have been hailed in the country as evidence of the strength of its young democratic institutions.
Dec 15, 2024
South Korean lawmakers have voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his shock decision to declare martial law last week, which plunged the country into some of its worst political turmoil in decades.
Dec 15, 2024
The citizens of Damascus largely celebrated the fall of Bashar al-Assad's hated regime with joy, after 13 long years of brutal civil war.
Dec 15, 2024
Hours before rebel forces seized Damascus and toppled his government on Sunday, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was already out of the country, telling hardly anyone, five former officials told AFP.
The night before, Assad had even asked his close adviser Buthaina Shaaban to prepare a speech -- which the ousted leader never gave -- before flying from Damascus airport to Russia's Hmeimim air base in Syria, and from there out of the country.
Dec 15, 2024
