WORLD

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Friday urged the international community to heap more pressure on President Nicolas Maduro's government to allow her coalition's chosen candidate to take part in July elections.

A French court on Friday jailed a man for 18 years for raping and sexually assaulting several women he had lured on dating apps and social media to take their picture.

Pope Francis pulled out of a key Easter ceremony at the last minute on Friday, reigniting concerns about the 87-year-old's increasingly frail health.

South Africa's former president Jacob Zuma survived a car accident overnight when his vehicle was struck by a drunk driver, but his newly created opposition group accused the ruling ANC party of being involved in the incident.

The recent rise in US inflation hasn't stalled the Federal Reserve's ongoing fight against rising prices, Fed chair Jerome Powell said Friday, shortly after the publication of fresh government data.

Fans and critics alike are lavishing praise on "Cowboy Carter," Beyonce's rhinestone-studded, history-rich honky tonk of an album that's rising in the charts after Friday's hotly anticipated release.

The war in Gaza hung heavy over Good Friday in Jerusalem with fewer Christian pilgrims walking the path through the walled Old City that they believe Christ took to his crucifixion.

The US news outlet Radio Free Asia (RFA) said Friday that it had closed its office in Hong Kong over staff safety concerns after the city enacted a new national security law.

Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of Northern Ireland's main pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and one of its best known politicians, resigned on Friday after police reportedly charged him over historical sex offences.

Xabi Alonso, who was seen by many as Liverpool's top target to replace Jurgen Klopp as their manager, said on Friday he is staying at Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen next season.

Poland's conservative President Andrzej Duda on Friday vetoed a proposal by the pro-EU ruling coalition to restore prescription-free emergency contraception, which was reversed by the previous nationalist government.

One year after American journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia on espionage charges, his family vowed Friday to continue fighting for his release, a pledge echoed by President Joe Biden.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with US counterpart Joe Biden at the White House on May 9, a Turkish official told AFP on Friday.

Years after false posts began circulating on social media purporting Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman, the French first lady remains the target of fake claims with the transphobic disinformation spreading to the United States.

South Africa's former president Jacob Zuma survived a car accident overnight after a vehicle transporting him was hit by a drunk driver, police said on Friday.

Russia faced a mounting backlash Friday after using its veto power to effectively end official UN monitoring of sanctions on North Korea amid a probe into alleged arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Chinese contractors have halted construction on two major dam projects in Pakistan after a suicide bomber killed five Chinese engineers and a Pakistani driver this week, a provincial official told AFP on Friday.

Catholic zealots in the Philippines re-enacting the last moments of Jesus Christ were nailed to wooden crosses while others whipped themselves bloody in extreme displays of religious devotion on Good Friday.

Strumming his acoustic steel string guitar on a busy street in east London, 27-year-old Australian singer-songwriter Dan Tredget is a man on a mission.

His soldier son toured Afghanistan with insurgents in his crosshairs, but American traveller Oscar Wells has a different objective -- sight-seeing promoted by the Taliban's fledgling tourism sector.

Canada's Quebec province is rich with minerals needed for everything from electric cars to cell phones, but residents living atop the potential windfall are worried their backyards will be dug up -- and they won't get a dime.

At least two prisoners were killed and four injured in an overnight revolt in an Ecuador prison, from which one of the country's most feared gang leaders escaped in January, authorities said Thursday.

Millions of Venezuelans who fled economic misery in their country could find themselves unable to vote in key July presidential elections, as complaints mount over hurdles at consulates abroad for those seeking to register.

Russia on Thursday blocked the renewal of a panel of UN experts monitoring international sanctions on North Korea, weeks after the body said it was investigating reports of arms transfers between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Four months after he was freed from captivity in Gaza, Eitan Yahalomi celebrated his bar mitzvah -- but his coming-of-age last week was far from a joyous occasion, his mother told AFP. In her first interview with international media since her son's release last November, Bat-Sheva Yahalomi said the boy still had nightmares and had not been able to resume normal life.

South Africa's electoral officials said on Thursday they had excluded former president Jacob Zuma from May elections, further increasing tensions in the run-up to the polls.

Traveling in New York is already costly, but it just got worse: transit authorities have approved a controversial $15 toll, set to take effect in mid-June, for motorists entering the busiest part of Manhattan.

Two years of talks towards striking a landmark global agreement on pandemic prevention were headed for overtime Thursday, with a breakthrough still elusive.

It's Day 174 of the war in Gaza – a U.S. State Department foreign affairs officer has publicly resigned, saying she made the decision amid rising opposition from within the federal government over the White House's Israel policy.