BUSINESS

Montenegro announced on Friday that it would extradite South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon to the United States, following a year and a half of dizzying court rulings and subsequent reversals over his removal.

Holidaymakers are returning to Paris for winter holiday magic as the tourism industry rebounds, inspired by the successful Olympic Games and the re-opening of Notre Dame cathedral.

Russia's aviation chief said Friday that an Azerbaijani Airlines plane that eventually crashed in Kazakhstan tried to land in the Chechen city of Grozny as it was being attacked by Ukrainian drones.

China on Friday slapped sanctions on seven US companies after Washington's approval last week of a $571.3 million military aid package to Taiwan, which Beijing said infringed on its "sovereignty and territory".

Oleksandr deserted from the front line in eastern Ukraine after watching his fellow servicemen being pulverised by Russian bombardments for six months.

The growing popularity of Chinese sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks has shaken up Mexico's luxury car market, hitting sales of traditionally dominant brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW. According to industry experts, Mexicans are increasingly switching from traditionally dominant sedans to Chinese vehicles due to a combination of comfort, technology and price.

Japanese stocks rose Friday on a weaker yen after a muted day on Wall Street following the Christmas holiday.

Membership of Britain's upstart anti-immigration Reform UK party has overtaken that of the centre-right Conservative Party for the first time, the party said Thursday, as Tories disputed the numbers.

More people ate at restaurants and shopped for clothes and jewelry, according to a seasonal report.

Syria's new authorities launched an operation in a stronghold of ousted president Bashar al-Assad on Thursday, with a war monitor saying three gunmen affiliated with the former government were killed.

At least 10,457 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea in 2024, an NGO said Thursday, more than 50 percent more than last year and the most since it began keeping a tally in 2007.

A "terrorist act" sank the cargo ship that went down in international waters in the Mediterranean this week, the Russian state-owned company that owns the vessel said Wednesday.

Desi Bouterse, the former dictator of Suriname who was a fugitive from justice for the murder of political opponents four decades ago, has died at 79, the government said Wednesday.

Syria's new authorities torched a large stockpile of drugs on Wednesday, two security officials told AFP, including one million pills of captagon, whose industrial-scale production flourished under ousted president Bashar al-Assad.

An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet with 67 people on board crashed on Wednesday in western Kazakhstan after veering from its scheduled route, officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday denounced an "inhumane" attack from Russia, which launched dozens of missiles and drones on his war-torn country's energy grid on Christmas Day.

New Vietnamese internet rules requiring Facebook and TikTok to verify user identities and hand over data to authorities came into force on Wednesday, in what critics say is the latest attack on freedom of expression.