WORLD

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has contested the US Federal Trade Commission's attempt to modify its 2020 privacy settlement, saying it had voluntarily disclosed issues in its Messenger Kids app and received no complaints from parents.

Paraguayan lawmakers have moved to cripple the cryptocurrency mining industry in the country following incidents of power outages that specifically affected swathes of the Alto Paraná region in recent weeks.

Fruit, flowers and incense paper were laid on a table Friday as authorities prepared a ceremony before demolishing a precariously tilting building that has become a symbol of Taiwan's biggest quake in 25 years.

Foreign minister Winston Peters said after a two-day visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels that a "partnership program" with the alliance would be agreed "in the coming months".

Hundreds of Greeks residing in European countries and the United States last month complained after receiving unsolicited emails from EU lawmaker Anna-Michelle Assimakopoulou, a member of the ruling conservative New Democracy party.

Amid escalating pressure for increased humanitarian aid access to Gaza, Israel's Cabinet has approved the opening of the Erez border crossing in northern Gaza.

The official death toll from Wednesday's magnitude-7.4 quake still stood at 10, but the government in Hualien county, the hardest-hit area, said two more people on a hiking trail were found with "no signs of life", though their deaths could not be immediately verified.

Yellen arrived in the city of Guangzhou on Thursday for four days of talks with Chinese officials on what is her second visit to the world's number two economy in less than a year.

President Javier Milei's government has rekindled debate over Argentina's military dictatorship by questioning the number of its victims, while also seeking a greater role for the armed forces in tackling ongoing security issues.

The staggering suffering, death and destruction of six months of war since Hamas's October 7 attack has widened the gulf between Israelis and Palestinians, leaving both feeling that the prospect of peace is ever more elusive.

The father of US-Canadian citizen Jacob Flickinger, one of seven aid workers killed in an Israeli strike, said Thursday his son was hesitant to go to Gaza but felt a need to help.

Before Musk, the blue check mark was used as a verification system for major accounts including celebrities, institutions and journalists.

President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday that US policy on Israel depends on the protection of civilians in Gaza, in his strongest hint yet of possible conditions to Washington's military aid.

A French court on Wednesday sentenced Audrey Mondjehi to a 30-year jail term for helping an Islamist militant who killed five people in a 2018 attack on a Christmas market in the eastern city of Strasbourg.

Major international aid groups warned Thursday it was now almost impossible to work in Gaza, as one accused countries supplying arms to Israel of being complicit in what "amounts to genocide".

Somalia on Thursday ordered the expulsion of Ethiopia's ambassador and said it was recalling its own envoy to Addis Ababa, accusing its neighbour of "bluntly interfering" in its internal affairs.

President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday condemned Russia's "threatening" tone following rare phone talks between the French and Russian defence ministers that only served to underline the gaping gulf between Moscow and Europe two years into the invasion of Ukraine.

The booming use of electric vehicles in parts of California is reducing CO2 emissions in those areas, a study showed Thursday, bolstering a key pillar of the state's drive towards net zero.

South Africa's former parliament speaker was charged with corruption and money laundering Thursday, piling new pressure on the governing African National Congress (ANC) party ahead of elections in May.

Vote-weary Kuwait heads to the polls for the third time in three years on Thursday, just months into the reign of a new emir but with no end in sight to the major oil exporter's chronic political paralysis.

President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday denounced as "bizarre and threatening" Russia's tone following rare phone talks between the defence ministers of France and Russia, their first contact since 2022.

The Philippines will hold joint naval drills with the United States, Japan and Australia, two diplomatic sources told AFP Thursday, as the four countries deepen military ties to counter China's expanding influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Every evening during Ramadan, members of a motorbike club zip down the streets of Damascus to deliver meals to those in need during the Muslim holy month.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urged the United States to stick together with Europe as the Western military alliance turned 75 on Thursday menaced by an aggressive Russia and the spectre of Donald Trump's return to power.

Relief workers set aside stuffed toys, blankets and baby formula for families sheltering Thursday in an elementary school in Hualien, the epicentre of Taiwan's biggest earthquake in a quarter of a century.

Dozens of residents of the worst-hit city spent a night outdoors rather than in apartments still being shaken by aftershocks, and a massive engineering operation was under way to fix damaged roads and prop up tilting buildings.

James Cameron, the mastermind behind "The Terminator", "Aliens" and "Titanic", has an exhibition opening in Paris Thursday showcasing his lesser-known skills with pencil and paper.

Peering through the window at a bustling crowd outside the Voskepar village council in northeastern Armenia, mayor Ishkhan Aghbalyan said locals are on edge over arch-foe Azerbaijan's claims to their lands.

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are set to speak on Thursday in their first phone call since an Israeli strike on a humanitarian convoy killed seven aid workers in Gaza.