AFP news

Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith.

It is one of history's most intriguing "murders" -- the mysterious disappearance over five centuries ago of two young princes from the Tower of London.

In a small, refrigerated room at a Brussels university, parka-wearing scientists chop up Antarctic ice cores tens of thousands of years old in search of clues to our planet's changing climate.

An Israeli strike on Gaza's only Catholic church killed three people on Thursday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, as Israel said it "never targets" religious sites and regretted any harm to civilians.

Dozens of Druze crowded the Israeli-controlled side of the armistice line in the occupied Golan Heights on Thursday, hoping to catch a glimpse of relatives on the Syrian-held side who might try to cross the barbed-wire frontier.

France on Thursday formally handed back its last two military bases in Senegal, leaving Paris with no permanent army camps in either west or central Africa.

Syrian troops pulled out of the Druze heartland province of Sweida Thursday on orders from the Islamist-led government, leaving bodies strewn on the street, AFP journalists reported from the provincial capital.

A fire tore through a newly opened shopping mall in the eastern Iraqi city of Kut overnight, killing at least 61 people, authorities said Thursday, as grief-stricken families searched for missing relatives.

Filipino seafarer Cocoy was off-duty and resting in his cabin when the captain's voice boomed over the intercom of the cargo ship: "We are under attack".

Asian markets rose Thursday, tracking a record day on Wall Street where traders endured a rollercoaster fuelled by fears Donald Trump was considering sacking the head of the US Federal Reserve.

The day before Bad Bunny kicked off his blockbuster residency that's expected to bring hundreds of millions of dollars to Puerto Rico while showcasing its rich culture, he posted a simple message: Shop Local.

The big-screen success of 1990s video game speedster "Sonic the Hedgehog" has brought new fans to Japan's Sega, which says it is poised for a comeback after two tough decades.

Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen won stage 11 of the Tour de France in Toulouse on Wednesday while defending champion Tadej Pogacar emerged largely unscathed despite crashing 4km from the line.

At least 20 people were killed in a chaotic crush at an aid centre in southern Gaza on Wednesday, with the site's operator blaming "agitators" within the crowd and the territory's civil defence agency attributing the panic to Israeli gunfire.

Israel bombed the Syrian army headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday after warning the Islamist-led government to leave the Druze minority alone in its Sweida heartland, where a war monitor says sectarian clashes have killed nearly 250 people.

Pakistanis are increasingly ditching the national grid in favour of solar power, prompting a boom in rooftop panels and spooking a government weighed down by billions of dollars of power sector debt.

The Kremlin warned Tuesday that US President Donald Trump's pledge of more weapons for Kyiv and threat of sanctions targeting Russian trading partners could embolden Ukraine and further delay already stalled peace efforts.

Israel launched strikes Tuesday against Syrian government forces in the Druze-majority region of Sweida, saying it was acting to protect the religious minority.

Stopwatch in hand, dozens of Ivory Coast students raced against the clock to design robots for the farms of the future in the world's top cocoa-producing nation.

US President Donald Trump told Russia on Monday to end its Ukraine war within 50 days or face massive new economic sanctions, as he laid out plans for new infusions of weaponry for Kyiv via NATO. Trump said he was "very, very unhappy" with Vladimir Putin, underlining his insistence that his patience had finally snapped with the Russian leader's refusal to end the deadly conflict.

Al Tomson, mayor of a tiny town tucked away in an idyllic corner of the eastern United States, points to a spot on a map of his region.

Stuttering Gaza ceasefire talks entered a second week on Monday, with meditators seeking to close the gap between Israel and Hamas, as more than 20 people were killed across the Palestinian territory.

After years in a Syrian detention camp, Ibrahim Darwish was relieved to be allowed to return home to Iraq, but his joy was quickly punctured by the harsh reality that he had to disown his sons accused of being jihadists.

Rising from the muddy fields on the Mekong riverbank in Laos, a lotus tops a casino in a sprawling city which analysts decry as a centre for cybercrime.

Dark sci-fi office drama "Severance," gritty hospital series "The Pitt" and buzzy teen murder saga "Adolescence" are expected to pile up nominations for this year's Emmys when the contenders for television's Oscars are revealed Tuesday.

Donald Trump experienced the agony and the ecstasy of football on Sunday as he was booed at the final of the FIFA Club World Cup -- even as he joined in some high-spirited celebrations with champions Chelsea.

Jannik Sinner downed defending champion Carlos Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on Sunday to win his first Wimbledon title, gaining sweet revenge for his painful defeat in the French Open final.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed more than 40 Palestinians, including at a market and a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled.

The Indonesian government's plans to issue new history books have sparked fears that mention of deadly riots in 1998 targeting mostly ethnic Chinese in the country will be scrubbed from the text.