AFP news

US President Joe Biden on Monday issued pre-emptive pardons to former Covid-19 advisor Anthony Fauci and retired general Mark Milley to shield them from "politically motivated prosecutions" under the Trump administration.

Donald Trump will be sworn in for a historic second term as US president Monday, promising a new "golden age" for America as the world braces for the return of his unpredictable leadership.

Novak Djokovic was at the centre of another Australian Open row on Monday while Jannik Sinner needed medical attention in fierce heat to battle into the quarter-finals and Iga Swiatek won easily.

A fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war was holding Monday, following the dramatic exchange of three hostages for 90 Palestinian prisoners in an agreement aimed at ending more than 15 months of war in Gaza.

A fresh outbreak of guerrilla violence amid a faltering peace process in Colombia has left more than 80 people dead, including civilians, and displaced around 11,000 in just four days, officials reported Sunday.

A sweeping deportation program, "drill, baby, drill," and peace for Ukraine: President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to move big and fast when he returns to the White House on Monday.

At a shopping mall in Beijing, Zhang Yachun murmurs quietly to her closest confidant, a fluffy AI-powered robot whose soothing chirps remind her that she is not alone.

Two buses carrying Palestinian prisoners released in the Gaza ceasefire deal had to inch through a thick crowd when they at last arrived in the West Bank at 2 am Monday.

Donald Trump pledged a blitz of presidential actions to end "American decline," telling a fired-up inauguration eve rally on Sunday that he would crack down on woke ideology and immigration.

Military medic Natalya carried a jug of water blessed by priests at the Sviatogirsk monastery in east Ukraine as she celebrated Orthodox Epiphany in a Russian-affiliated church, despite the war.

Thousands of supporters of US President-elect Donald Trump braved long waits in freezing temperatures, rain and snow to attend a "victory rally" in the US capital on Sunday, saying they were eager to see him get to work.

Barbed wire lines the road to work for Pawel Sawicki, deputy spokesman of the Auschwitz museum at the site of the former Nazi death camp that was liberated 80 years ago this month.

Columns of people hundreds strong were making their way home in northern Gaza on Sunday, flanked on both sides by countless buildings turned to rubble, as a ceasefire took effect in the Palestinian territory.

President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday called for the United States to take part-ownership in TikTok and vowed to issue an executive order delaying a looming ban on the wildly popular app to allow time to "make a deal."

Novak Djokovic surged into an Australian Open quarter-final clash against Carlos Alcaraz with a dominant victory on Sunday while women's world number one Aryna Sabalenka was a ruthless winner.

A ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war is to begin on Sunday at 0630 GMT, with three Israeli hostages to be released from captivity in return for a first group of Palestinian prisoners.

A fringe anti-vaccine movement took advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to bring conspiracy theories to a much wider audience, propelling dangerous misinformation about life-saving jabs that still endures five years later, experts warn.

TikTok has pledged to "go dark" in the United States on Sunday, threatening access for 170 million app users without 11th-hour guarantees from the government, as President-elect Donald Trump says he is considering a reprieve -- after he takes office.

Thousands gathered in northern Liberia on Saturday for the funeral of warlord-turned-politician Prince Johnson, a notorious face of the country's brutal civil wars who died without facing trial.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has told investigating magistrates in France, where he is charged with multiple infractions linked to enabling organised crime, that he "realised the seriousness of all the allegations", according to a source close to the case.

Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attended court for the first time on Saturday to fight a request by investigators to extend his detention as they probe his failed martial law bid.

A ceasefire in the Gaza war will begin Sunday morning at 0630 GMT, mediator Qatar said on Saturday after Israel's cabinet voted to approve the truce and hostage-prisoner release deal.

Iga Swiatek demolished Emma Raducanu on Saturday to sweep into the last 16 of the Australian Open as 38-year-old Frenchman Gael Monfils stunned fourth seed Taylor Fritz.

Israel's cabinet voted to approve a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal on Saturday, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, ending days of uncertainty about whether the truce would go into effect this weekend.

The United States offered to extend its signature African investment project into the troubled east of the Democratic Republic of Congo as an incentive for a peace deal, but Rwanda has backed away, a senior US diplomat said.

Russia and Iran signed a new treaty on Friday underpinning their economic and military cooperation, in what both sides cast as a major milestone in their relations.

Russia on Friday sentenced three lawyers who had defended Alexei Navalny to several years in prison for bringing messages from the late opposition leader from prison to the outside world.

France's President Emmanuel Macron was in Lebanon on Friday, where he was due to meet his newly-elected counterpart and offer support to leaders seeking to open a new chapter in their country's turbulent history.

A "hot-headed" Novak Djokovic sent an Australian Open warning to join Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev in the last 16 on Friday, but Naomi Osaka's bid for a third Melbourne crown is over with injury.