AFP News

Atop rock formations overlooking a vast coastline, groups of Chinese tourists snap pictures and gaze out to sea with binoculars in the direction of Taiwan's main island, just over a hundred kilometres away.

Serbian journalist Radmilo Markovic has gone over every full stop and comma of an article about the powerful mayor of Belgrade that has landed him in court.

For three years, Kala and her family were stranded on a remote British-US military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean, trapped in horrific conditions after fleeing persecution at home.

Meeting Indonesia's pledge to phase out coal power in just 15 years and reach net-zero emissions by mid-century is a "daunting task" that will require immediate and ambitious action, experts warn.

Two suspects daubed anti-Israel graffiti and torched a car in a Sydney suburb on Wednesday, police said, sparking "outrage" from Australia's government days after a Melbourne synagogue was set ablaze.

Multimillion-dollar properties, some owned by Hollywood celebrities, were in the path of the blaze, which exploded late Monday, fanned by powerful winds and tinder-dry brush. Firefighters were unable to get a foothold in the steep canyons that surround the tony enclave near Los Angeles, where towering flames blanketed the air in choking smoke.

US President-elect Donald Trump's proposals to impose sweeping tariffs on imports could counter earlier efforts to cool inflation, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday, warning that consumer prices could rise.

New York state this week appealed the dismissal of a pollution lawsuit against soda giant PepsiCo, accusing its single-use plastic packaging of posing a scourge on waterways and public health.

South Korean police said Wednesday that they raided President Yoon Suk Yeol's office, as the investigation into his declaration of martial law gathers pace.

China has expanded military drills around Taiwan with dozens of warplanes and a huge maritime exercise aimed at drawing "a red line" for the next US president, Taipei authorities said Wednesday.

China's leadership will gather Wednesday to hammer out plans to boost the economy next year, reports said, as they look to address weak domestic demand and the possibility of a deepening trade war with the United States.

Markets diverged on Wednesday ahead of US inflation data that could play a key role in the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision next week, while traders were also keeping tabs on Beijing hoping for more economic support measures.

The war crimes trial of a feared Sudanese militia chief accused of rape, murder, and torture across the Darfur region of Sudan during the country's brutal civil war wraps up this week.

Taiwan said Wednesday it had detected 53 Chinese military aircraft and 19 ships near the island in the past 24 hours, as Beijing holds its biggest maritime mobilisation in years.

An Argentine court on Tuesday dismissed rape charges against two French international rugby players accused of assaulting a woman after playing a match in the country in July.

The United States is moving to grant federal protections to the monarch butterfly -- a once-common species recognizable by its striking black and orange patterns that has faced a dramatic population decline in recent decades.

Mohamed Salah helped maintain Liverpool's perfect record in the Champions League on Tuesday while holders Real Madrid bounced back from their defeat at Anfield to topple in-form Italians Atalanta.

A ferocious fire tore through Malibu, California, on Tuesday, destroying homes and forcing thousands to evacuate one of the most sought-after areas in the United States.

Nippon Steel on Wednesday slammed the "inappropriate" role of politics after Bloomberg News reported that President Joe Biden would block its planned takeover of US Steel.

Two US courts ruled against supermarket giant Kroger's planned $24.6 billion acquisition of rival chain Albertsons on Tuesday, dealing an existential threat to the merger in a win for the Federal Trade Commission, which had argued the deal would harm consumers.

US auto giant General Motors announced Tuesday it will abandon its robotaxi development efforts after a highly publicized incident last year stymied its progress in the autonomous vehicle field.

Outgoing US President Joe Biden on Tuesday branded his successor Donald Trump's economic plans a "disaster," in a speech hailing his own legacy.

For more than a decade, the United States has sought to keep out of Syria's political debacle, seeing no viable partner.

The United States offered a $10 million reward on Tuesday for information leading to the arrest of a Chinese man and co-conspirators wanted for hacking computer firewalls.

A missile strike Tuesday hit a private clinic in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing at least four people and wounding more than a dozen, officials said, as Russia steps up attacks in southern regions partially under its control.

The United States announced Tuesday that it has disbursed a $20 billion loan for Ukraine backed by the interest earned on frozen Russian assets, as part of a $50 billion G7 support package.

Pro-Europe protests showed no sign of abating Tuesday, with thousands taking to the streets as the European Union warned it could punish Tbilisi for its crackdown on demonstrators.

After locking carbon dioxide in its frozen soil for millennia, the Arctic tundra is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by frequent wildfires that are turning it into a net source of carbon dioxide emissions, a US agency said Tuesday.

Israel's bombing of Syrian military assets and its entry into the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights show it fears the worst from the end of the Assad clan's rule, analysts told AFP. "The Israeli government... is operating on a worst-case scenario with little to no nuance," said Yossi Mekelberg, a Middle East specialist at Chatham House in London.