AFP News

Pope Francis opened the "Holy Door" of St Peter's Basilica on Christmas Eve on Tuesday, launching the Jubilee year of Catholic celebrations set to draw more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome.

Protesters in Panama on Tuesday burned an image of US President-elect Donald Trump following his threat to demand control of the country's interoceanic canal be returned to Washington.

AFP photographer Sameer al-Doumy never dreamed he would be able to return to the hometown in Syria that he escaped through a tunnel seven years ago after it was besieged by Bashar al-Assad's forces.

A rift between Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa and his deputy deepened on Tuesday as his ally-turned-adversary accused the leader of the South American nation of trying to banish her to Turkey.

Syria's new leaders announced Tuesday that they had reached an agreement with the country's rebel groups on their dissolution and integration under the defence ministry.

Hundreds of people gathered at the Church of the Nativity in the holy city of Bethlehem on Tuesday to mark another solemn Christmas overshadowed by the war in Gaza.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Tuesday that the days of France's new government are already numbered, predicting an early presidential election in a few months.

A German flying taxi startup was Tuesday saved from collapse after a consortium of investors swooped in at the 11th hour to take over the ailing firm.

One of the world's most active volcanoes sprang into life again Monday, spewing columns of lava 80 meters (260 feet) above Hawaii, US vulcanologists said.

Nearly 50,000 people in Canada died of an apparent opioid overdose from January 2016 to June 2024, with fentanyl playing an increasingly prominent role in fatalities, the national health agency said Monday.

Guatemalan authorities on Monday recovered several minors taken from a care center by members of an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect under investigation for alleged child sexual abuse.

Greenland on Monday stressed that it was not for sale, after Donald Trump again suggested he wanted the United States to take control of the strategic island that holds major mineral and oil reserves.

Jailed former leaders of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiyah militant group are being considered for parole, a senior counter-terror official said Tuesday, after the network disbanded and members pledged allegiance to the country.

The status of the Panama Canal is non-negotiable, President Jose Raul Mulino said in a statement Monday signed alongside former leaders of the country, after Donald Trump's recent threats to reclaim the man-made waterway.

Finland is consistently ranked as Europe's most media literate country and the skills needed to spot online hoaxes are on the school curriculum, amidst a boom of mis- and disinformation campaigns.

South Korea's opposition said Tuesday it would hold back a decision to impeach acting president Han Duck-soo until later in the week.

Hong Kong police announced bounties on Tuesday of HK$1 million (around $130,000) for information leading to the arrest of six democracy advocates based overseas and accused of national security crimes.

A powerful blast ripped through an explosives plant in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday killing 13 people and injuring four others, officials said.

Asian stocks were mostly higher on Tuesday after a tech rally on Wall Street, but their gains remained modest in thin Christmas Eve trade.

A US government panel failed to reach a consensus on whether US Steel's acquisition by Nippon Steel threatens Washington's national security, shifting the decision to the White House, the Japanese company said late Monday.

A factory turned into a battlefield, riot police armed with tasers and an activist who spent 100 days atop a chimney -- the unrest that inspired Netflix's most successful show ever has all the hallmarks of a TV drama.

The world's deadliest tsunami hit nations around the Indian Ocean two decades ago before social media platforms flourished, but they have since transformed how we understand and respond to disasters -- from finding the missing to swift crowdfunding.

US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to demand control of the Panama Canal be returned to Washington, complaining of "unfair" treatment of American ships and hinting at China's growing influence.

A massacre of more than 200 people in Haiti this month followed a gang-ordered manhunt that saw victims, many of them elderly, pulled from their homes and shot or killed with machetes, the UN said Monday.

President-elect Donald Trump's repeated support for TikTok has sparked speculation about potential solutions to prevent the app's impending ban in the United States, though the path forward remains unclear.

Donald Trump has threatened to seize the Panama Canal, revived calls to buy Greenland and joked about annexing Canada -- leaving the world guessing once again whether he is serious or not.

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa held talks Monday with senior Arab diplomats expressing support for the Syrian people and discussing future cooperation, in the latest high-profile visits since Bashar al-Assad's overthrow.

French President Emmanuel Macron named a new government Monday evening, putting together a team under Francois Bayrou, his fourth prime minister of the year, to drag the second-largest EU economy out of political crisis.

Elisabeth Borne, only the second woman to serve as French prime minister, is making a surprise return to frontline politics as education minister less than a year after losing a job that she never wished to relinquish.