A planned international accord on how to limit deaths and coordinate international action during a pandemic is in the balance ahead of talks at the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO's 194 member states are aiming to reach agreement in Geneva from Monday. "It will be difficult," said one negotiator. In the struggle to reach an agreement, the ...

The authorities in Bangladesh have issued another heatwave alert for three more days beginning Sunday as the South Asian country is facing its longest heatwave in 75 years. Bangladesh reported the season's highest temperature at 42.7 degrees Celsius on Friday in the south-western district of Chuadanga. Dhaka's maximum temperature was 38.2 degrees that day, ...

Billionaire businessman Elon Musk, head of Tesla, held talks with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang in Beijing on Sunday after arriving unexpectedly aboard a private flight. During the talks, Li described Tesla's presence in China as "a successful example of Chinese-American economic and trade cooperation." Musk praised the "hard work" of his Chinese team in ...

The largest search operation to date for a 6-year-old boy with autism who went missing in northern Germany nearly a week ago was carried out on Sunday. Police, soldiers, firefighters, members of the THW civil protection agency and hundreds of volunteers banded together to scour an area centered near Bremervrde, a town to the west of Hamburg. In all, about ...

Pope Francis has warned against the excessive commercialization of art and the destructive impact of the market on creativity during a speech to artists at the Venice Art Biennale. "Certainly, the market promotes and canonizes, but there is always the risk that it 'vampirizes' creativity, robs innocence and ends up deciding coldly what is to be done," the ...

Musk -- one of the world's richest people -- arrived in China earlier the same day on his second trip in less than a year to the world's biggest market for electric vehicles.Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said that during their meeting, Li had promised the country would do more to help foreign firms."China's very large-scale market will always be open to ...

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz held out the prospect of postponing a planned offensive in the Gaza city of Rafah in the event of a hostage agreement with the Palestinian Islamist Hamas militia. "The release of the hostages is our top priority," Katz told Israel's Channel 12 on Saturday. Also citing the minister, the Kan channel reported that Israel ...

Russell Bentley, a Texas native better known by his nickname "Donbass Cowboy", died in mysterious circumstances near Donetsk. His death provoked a strong reaction in Russian ultra-nationalist circles, where Bentley had made a name for himself over the past ten years by travelling through the territories occupied by pro-Russian forces in Ukraine.Just a month ...

The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, the world's most famous portrait, could get a room of its own in the Louvre, the museum's president said on Saturday.Such a move would give visitors, many of whom visit the Louvre for the iconic painting alone, a better experience, Laurence des Cars told the France Inter broadcaster."It's always frustrating when you don't ...

The Olympic flame on Saturday began its journey to France on board the Belem leaving the Greek port of Piraeus after spending the night at the French embassy in Athens."The feelings are so exceptional. It's such an emotion for me", Tony Estanguet, Paris Olympics chief organiser, told reporters before the departure of the ship.He hailed the "great ...

A grieving family and a team of medical providers in Rafah, Gaza were desperate this week for a miracle, hoping that newborn Sabreen al-Rouh Jouda would survive after being delivered prematurely moments after her mother died of injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike.On Friday, it became clear that the family's hopes would not be realized as doctors ...

The arrest this week of an aide to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)'s lead candidate for the European parliamentary elections on accusations of spying for China is yet another blow to a party already tarnished by scandals involving alleged payments from sources close to Moscow.Jian Guo, a German citizen of Chinese origin, was arrested in Dresden ...

They can't bring back their children, siblings or partners, but five years on, the families of the 2019 Boeing crash victims want to ensure a similar tragedy never happens again."We've got French people, Canadians, Americans, Irish, British, we're all there together and we're fighting for something together," Naoise Ryan, holding a photo of her late husband ...

"Done!" -- the catchphrase punctuating former rugby player Dennis Ombachi's cooking videos is as famous as the balcony of the Nairobi apartment where he films himself in action.A former Rugby Sevens international, Ombachi reinvented himself to become a social media star with a global fanbase in just a few years.He has 2.3 million followers on TikTok and 1.4 ...

Ministers from four major economies on Thursday called for a 2% wealth tax targeting the world's billionaireswho currently only pay up to 0.5% of their wealth in personal income taxto "invest in public goods such as health, education, the environment, and infrastructure."Fernando Haddad, Brazil's finance minister; Svenja Schulze, Germany's minister for ...

Three Americans and a Honduran were ordered detained on Thursday in a sex trafficking case that shocked the country, following the disappearance of a university student in 2022 while jet-skiing in a popular tourist area."The judge has issued a formal indictment and the precautionary measure of preventive detention for (US citizens) Harold Joseph Green and ...

A centuries-old settlement submerged by the construction of a dam in the northern Philippines in the 1970s has reappeared as water levels drop due to a drought affecting swathes of the country.The ruins in the middle of Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija province are a tourist draw, even as the region swelters in extreme heat.Parts of a church, municipal hall ...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested Wednesday that he was dissatisfied with the arrests of hundreds of U.S. college studentssome of whom were violently detained by large groups of police officersin the last week at a growing number of protests against universities' complicity in Israel's massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.Netanyahu called the ...

French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to "fake" his suicide to scare his partner, who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said Thursday.The 27-year-old former winner of France's version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveller camp in Biscarrosse on France's southwestern ...

The Eiffel Tower was supposed to greet the worlds athletes in a fresh coat of golden shimmer, the River Seine would be swimmable for the first time in 100 years and Paris was going to host the first-ever off-stadium opening ceremony in Olympic history. The hopes and expectations for the 2024 Games were grand and spectacular but with just three months to go ...

France's national library said Thursday it had removed four 19th-century books from its shelves whose emerald green covers were likely laced with highly poisonous arsenic.The library said handling the books -- which were printed in Britain -- would probably cause only minor harm, but it was taking them away for further analysis."We have put these works in ...

The river Seine, the centerpiece of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony in July, starts with a few drops of water in a mossy grotto deep in the woods of central France.And not a day goes by without Jacques and Marie-Jeanne Fournier going to check the source only a few paces from their door."I go there at least three times a day. It's part of me," ...

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai on Thursday condemned Israel and reaffirmed her support for Palestinians in Gaza, after a backlash in her native Pakistan over a Broadway musical she co-produced with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Yousafzai, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, has been condemned by some for partnering with Clinton, ...

Israel's impending military operation in Rafah, the last remaining Hamas stronghold in Gaza, is to begin with an evacuation of civilians that could last up to five weeks, Israel's Kan radio reported on Thursday. In this first phase of the ground operation, civilians in the southern city near the Egyptian border will be moved to safer locations, the report ...

Born in impoverished favelas, Rio de Janeiro funk music has emerged as a global phenomenon, embraced by superstars from Anitta to Beyonce and starring in museum shows -- though it still faces stigma in Brazil.Blending hip-hop and electronic music with Afro-Brazilian beats, funk emerged in the late 1990s in Rio, fueling massive, all-night parties in the ...