AFP News

Panama on Friday accused Venezuela of blocking a flight carrying former Latin American presidents -- all critics of President Nicolas Maduro -- to observe elections due in two days.

Wrapped in a poncho under torrential rain, Brazilian Lucas Amadeu said he regretted forking out 2,700 euros ($2,930) for a top seat at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday.

Warner Brothers Discovery filed a lawsuit against the NBA on Friday, claiming the US professional basketball league broke a contract by refusing a new media rights deal to accept an offer from Amazon.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has made what could be its most astonishing discovery to date: possible signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.

Weeping families packed homes in a southern remote part of Ethiopia on Friday to bid farewell to relatives killed following a devastating landslide, as authorities announced three days of mourning.

Lady Gaga and French-Malian singer Aya Nakamura joined dancers, an opera diva and even a heavy metal band in an opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics that sought to proudly showcase French culture with a modern twist.

Boeing's safety troubles and the Airbus scramble to ramp up production should have left a gap for smaller rivals to challenge their dominatiion of the commercial airliner market.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sharply criticized his Democratic political rivals and pledged to work for peace in the Middle East if reelected as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida on Friday.

Thousands of spectators faced long queues and ticketing problems as they arrived for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics along the River Seine on Friday.

South African authorities rounded up 95 Libyans in a raid Friday at a farm that appeared to have been converted into an illegal military training base, police said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive Saturday in Laos, where he will meet his Chinese counterpart at a regional conference and work to reinforce Washington's ties with its allies.

G20 finance ministers are expected to take a first step towards international cooperation on taxing the super-rich Friday, with a deal in Brazil likely to call for individual nations to strengthen their own measures, rather than delivering a set of unified regulations.

A Spanish court on Friday sentenced a train driver and a safety director to two-and-a-half years in prison over a 2013 crash that was the nation's deadliest rail disaster in nearly eight decades.

Russia's central bank raised its key interest to 18 percent on Friday, the sixth hike in just over a year as it seeks to tame soaring price rises.

A long-haired sorcerer wearily checked his smartphone as elves and androids bustled past at the digital entertainment expo ChinaJoy on Friday, the crowds a testament to the local gaming industry's tentative recovery after a period on pause.

The US Federal Reserve's favored inflation measure eased further in June, according to government data published Friday, in more good news for policymakers ahead of next week's interest rate decision.

German car parts manufacturer ZF said Friday it would cut a fifth to a quarter of jobs in Germany as it struggled with the switch to electric vehicles and foreign competition.

Arson attacks scrambled France's high-speed rail network for tens of thousands of passengers on Friday, after what officials called premeditated acts of "sabotage" just hours before the Paris Olympics opened.

Former US president Barack Obama endorsed his fellow Democrat Kamala Harris' bid for the White House on Friday, delivering a major boost to her campaign to defeat Donald Trump in November's presidential election.

Arson attacks scrambled France's high-speed rail network for tens of thousands of passengers on Friday, after what officials called premeditated acts of "sabotage" just hours before the Paris Olympics opened.

Record heavy rain forced the evacuation of thousands of people across parts of northern Japan as rivers burst their banks washing away bridges and cars, officials and media reports said Friday.

Taiwanese giant TSMC tumbled with several other leading chip makers Friday as traders returned from a typhoon-imposed two-day break to play catch-up with a global tech rout.

Two rival gang leaders signed a truce to end armed conflict in Haiti's largest shantytown, a community leader said Thursday.

France's high-speed rail network was hit by arson attacks that disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers on Friday, just hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.

China and Russia's foreign ministers met their Southeast Asian counterparts Friday after vowing to counter "extra-regional forces", a day before Washington's top diplomat was due to arrive.

One of the most enduring images of Greece's summer travel brand is the world-famous sunset on Santorini Island, framed by sea-blue church domes on a jagged cliff high above a volcanic caldera.

Indian soldiers and top brass gathered Friday in the remote Himalayan foothills to commemorate a battle fondly remembered among compatriots for imposing a humiliating military defeat on arch-rival Pakistan.

Through a basement door in southeastern Turkey lies a sprawling underground city -- perhaps the country's largest -- which one historian believes dates back to the ninth century before Jesus Christ.

Authorities evacuated nearly 300,000 people and suspended public transport across eastern China on Friday, as Typhoon Gaemi brought torrential rains already responsible for five deaths in nearby Taiwan.