AFP News

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.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels said Israeli air strikes on Thursday killed nine people, after the group fired a missile toward Israel, badly damaging a school.

55 US-bound migrants have died and 180 children have been abandoned this year while crossing the treacherous Darien jungle from Colombia, Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino said Thursday.

The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Thursday asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to assess Israel's obligations to assist Palestinians, amid accusations the Israeli government systematically hinders Gaza aid.

Thousands of Amazon workers on Thursday launched what they called the "largest strike against Amazon in US history" seeking to maximize pressure on the retail behemoth at the height of the holiday shopping season.

Silence fell in the courtroom after a French judge delivered his verdict on Thursday, finding all 51 defendants guilty in the mass rape trial that has horrified the country.

Turkey's Pegasus Airlines said Thursday it would buy 200 Boeing 737 MAX 10 aircraft in its largest-ever order worth some $36 billion.

A European operation has spared revelers a potential food poisoning nightmare before Christmas, seizing 30 tons of mollusks illegally fished in polluted waters and arresting 62 suspects, authorities said on Thursday.

Israel on Thursday faced accusations of "acts of genocide" in Gaza, a charge it denounced as full of "lies", while a medical charity said the devastation caused in the Palestinian territory showed "signs of ethnic cleansing".

Gisele Pelicot's ex-husband was jailed on Thursday for 20 years over her drugging and mass rape by strangers recruited online, in a case that shocked France and resonated around the world.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he needed both Europe and the United States on board to secure a durable peace, as he huddled with EU leaders at their final summit before Donald Trump's inauguration.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was to return to Brasilia on Thursday and his regular duties, after getting the go-ahead from his doctors following emergency head surgery, officials said.

The United States was staring down the barrel of a holiday-period government shutdown Thursday as a late-hour intervention by Donald Trump and Elon Musk threatened efforts in Congress to keep the lights on through the New Year.

A Romanian court on Thursday granted an appeal by controversial influencer Andrew Tate, refusing to put him on trial over human trafficking charges for now, and referring the case back to prosecutors.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that there was a "flame of hope" in Syria following the fall of president Bashar al-Assad's regime but warned of significant challenges ahead.

A court on Thursday convicted a French man of aggravated rape for committing and orchestrating the mass rape of his now former wife Gisele Pelicot with dozens of strangers who he recruited online, after an over three month trial that shocked France.

The deadly tsunami that swamped India's southern coast two decades ago was a one-off disaster, but storms that are growing ever more intense spark panic each time howling gales whip up waves.

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.

The yen weakened against the dollar Thursday after the Bank of Japan kept borrowing costs unchanged, extending a retreat for the currency that came after the Federal Reserve forecast fewer rate cuts.

Asian markets sank Thursday and the dollar held gains following a severe sell-off on Wall Street that came after the Federal Reserve halved its rates outlook and boss Jerome Powell warned officials' focus was back on fighting inflation.

In his first post-election news conference, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to "straighten out" the "corrupt" US press.

Concerns are growing in the UK as tech billionaire Elon Musk takes an increasingly close interest in Britain's political scene, appearing to cosy up to hard-right firebrand lawmaker Nigel Farage.

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.

Foreign rescuers joined a hunt for survivors in the rubble of shattered buildings in earthquake-rocked Vanuatu on Thursday, with officials saying the toll of nine dead is set to rise.

A fire ripped through a karaoke bar in the Vietnamese capital, killing 11 people and injuring two others in a case of suspected arson, police said Thursday.

The French man who has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his heavily-sedated wife on Thursday faces being jailed for up to 20 years as the court issues its verdicts after a three-month trial that shocked France and resonated around the world.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold his annual end-of-year press conference Thursday, almost three years into his Ukraine offensive and two days after a Kyiv-orchestrated killing of a general on the streets of Moscow.

Liverpool moved into the League Cup semi-finals as the holders won 2-1 against managerless Southampton, while Gabriel Jesus ended his goal drought with a hat-trick in Arsenal's 3-2 victory over Crystal Palace on Wednesday.

As the US Supreme Court considers whether to uphold a law that could get TikTok banned in the United States, here is a look at the rise of the video-snippet social app.