WORLD

The Sudanese army broke a paramilitary siege on one of its key Khartoum-area bases on Friday, paving the way to also freeing the besieged military headquarters, a military source said.

Landing Zones Canada has completed fight testing a high-altitude balloon-launched military drone.

Hamas provided the names of four Israeli women hostages to be freed the following day in the second exchange of a ceasefire agreement.

Yemen's Huthi rebels have detained another group of UN personnel, a United Nations statement said on Friday, after 13 staff were held last June.

With the European economy lagging behind the United States, the head of the International Monetary Fund had a piece advice for the continent on Friday: "Believe in yourself."

Bob Dylan's rich legacy of more than 50 albums is a counterpoint to "narcissistic" modern music focused on "me, me, me", the director of the recently released biopic about the singer told AFP. James Mangold, in Paris ahead of the release of "A Complete Unknown" in French cinemas, said that delving into Dylan's early career in the 1960s involved immersing himself in a different, simpler world.

The DR Congo army and M23 on Friday clashed near the main city in the country's volatile east as the UN warned the raging conflict had displaced over 400,000 people this year and could spark a regional war.

Novak Djokovic retired injured from his Australian Open semi-final against Alexander Zverev on Friday and left the court to boos, with defending champion Jannik Sinner to face the German for the title.

A French mother accused of starving to death her daughter who died of a heart attack aged 13 should be given a life sentence, the prosecutor told her trial Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to talk to US counterpart Donald Trump but is waiting for signals from Washington first, the Kremlin said on Friday, fuelling expectations the two would be in contact.

With painted faces and vivid costumes, 40 young dancers leap through the streets of Shantou in southern China to the sound of gongs and drums as hundreds of spectators watch.

Hundreds of migrants in the United States were arrested Thursday and others flown out of the country on military aircraft as President Donald Trump's promised mass deportation operation got underway, the White House said.

In a block of flats in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe, a turbaned woman cautiously opened the door of her apartment a chink, letting out a waft of incense.

Tourists in Hong Kong are flocking to the 300-year-old village of Kuk Po, whose decaying mansions and reed fields offer a respite from the city's famously frenetic pace.

Afghan taekwondo star Marzieh Hamidi told AFP the death threats she has received, forcing her to live under French police protection, show how effective her stinging criticism of the Taliban has been.

Manchester City have no time to lick their wounds after another bruising Champions League defeat as Chelsea prepare to visit the Etihad, with both clubs battling for a top-four finish.

Air pollution in the Thai capital forced the closure of more than 350 schools on Friday, city authorities said, as Bangkok was ranked the world's seventh-most polluted major city by air quality monitor IQAir.

Helicopter pilot Tim Thomas has fought dozens of wildfires all over the world, but nothing prepared him for the scale and the challenge of the devastating blazes that ripped through Los Angeles.

All signs of life have disappeared from the bombed-out houses and empty streets of the Lebanese border town of Naqura, but despite a fragile Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire that has held since November, no one can return.

In a field in southwest England where his dairy cows graze, Adam Stanbury said he feared the government's new farm tax, coupled with existing economic headwinds, will ruin his family business and many others.

Scheicho Scheifa is haunted by the fear of going blind. "The fear of going blind worries me whenever the pain strikes."

Venezuelan Josnexcy Martinez, who is staying at a shelter in a Texas border city, said she's afraid of getting swept up in a raid targeting migrants even though she entered the country legally.

On a snow-blanketed field in Virginia, a handful of workers were silent but for the groan of a chainsaw chopping through bamboo -- a delicacy for their furry clients down the road in the US capital of Washington.

Spirit Airlines introduced a new dress code banning revealing clothing and offensive tattoos following a viral incident where two women accused the airline of sexism over crop tops

Novak Djokovic throws his ailing 37-year-old body into an Australian Open semi-final against Alexander Zverev on Friday while defending champion Jannik Sinner faces Ben Shelton.

Spirit Airlines introduced a new dress code banning revealing clothing and offensive tattoos following a viral incident where two women accused the airline of sexism over crop tops

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday declassifying files on the 1960s assassinations of president John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. "A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades," Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office of the White House.

President Donald Trump took aim at the Federal Reserve and other global financial institutions in his virtual comments Thursday to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, calling for immediate cuts to interest rates

As Donald Trump appeared on giant screens at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the world's rich and powerful rapturously applauded and snapped photos of the US leader.