A French drag queen chosen to take part in the torch relay for the Paris Olympics has been abused online and criticised by conservatives after being unveiled in a video this week.Minima Geste, 33, has become the latest culture war flashpoint over the Games following rows over the music for the opening ceremony and the official Olympics poster."I reaffirm my ...

Work has begun in a small Japanese town to erect a barrier blocking views of the country's most famous sight, Mount Fuji, after locals complained of bad behavior by photo-hungry tourists.Fujikawaguchiko town began building panels of mesh netting at a spot where unending flows of mostly foreign tourists visit daily to take photos of the majestic mountain ...

The federal judge presiding over a case filed by three Iraqis who were tortured by U.S. military contractors in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison two decades ago declared a mistrial Thursday after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.After eight days of deliberationa longer period than the trial itselfthe eight civil jurors in Alexandria deadlocked ...

The death toll from flood-related incidents in Kenya has crossed 200 since March, the interior ministry said Friday, as a cyclone barrelled towards the Tanzanian coast.Torrential rains have lashed East Africa, triggering flooding and landslides that has destroyed crops, swallowed homes, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.Some 210 people have died ...

Pope Francis is nostalgic for the old days when he could still travel by train, he has revelaed in an interview. "I have always loved travelling by public transport. It's a way to be among people, to feel their warmth and their worries," the 87-year-old head of the Catholic Church told the monthly newspaper Freccia of the Italian state railway. As a ...

One springtime night a decade ago, bearded men wearing flip-flops kidnapped 276 girls from their boarding school dormitories in Chibok, north-eastern Nigeria. They forced the teenagers onto lorries and drove them deep into a vast forest in the savannah. "My captors did a lot of things to me and the other girls," says Glory Mainta, who was abducted that day. ...

Russia state-controlled energy giant Gazprom was in the red last year for the first time in almost a quarter of a century after trade with Europe nosedived in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. Gazprom reported on Thursday a net loss in 2023 of 629 billion roubles (around $6.9 billion), missing analyst estimates. Russian media outlets reported this was ...

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has issued a message of support to Jewish communities around the world in response to a "dramatic resurgence in anti-Semitism" and the "intimidation" of Jewish students on some protest-hit U.S. university campuses.Herzog focused on the unrest, fueled by the war in Gaza, that has rocked universities like Columbia in New York ...

Norwegian King Harald V appeared to be healthy and in good spirits on Thursday during his first official appointment since being fitted with a pacemaker. Harald was shown getting out of the car in the Norwegian town of Kongsberg on crutches, in video broadcast by NRK channel. He was accompanied by his wife, Queen Sonja. Asked how he was doing, Harald said, ...

A French court questioned Carla Bruni, the wife of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, amid investigations into alleged illegal campaign funding from Libya for his election bid in 2007. Sarkozy allegedly received illegal campaign funds from Libyan strongman Moamer Gaddafi and has been charged with illegal campaign financing, embezzlement of public ...

Italy is allowed to confiscate an ancient Greek bronze fished from the Adriatic in the 1960s and now in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday.Representing a nude athlete and known in the United States as "Victorious Youth", the statue vanished following its 1964 discovery until its 1977 purchase by the museum. ...

As millions across Southeast Asia suffer a blistering heatwave that is melting railway tracks, a Thai village resorted to an unusual method to seek rain: parading a Japanese cartoon cat.Thailand has sweltered in recent weeks as the temperature climbs across the region, with experts saying climate change is making heatwaves more frequent, longer and more ...

It has no spire, stained glass windows or nave but the cavernous underground stormwater facility inaugurated on Thursday in the French capital ahead of the Paris Olympics has been compared to Notre Dame Cathedral.The giant new structure, burrowed 30 metrers (100 feet) under the ground next to a train station, is a key part of efforts to clean up the river ...

The French parliament on Thursday agreed to create a commission of inquiry to investigate sexual and gender-based violence in cinema and other cultural sectors after several recent allegations.The National Assembly, or lower house, unanimously agreed to set up the commission demanded by actor Judith Godreche in a speech to the upper house, the Senate, in ...

Daniel Radcliffe has said he is saddened by author J.K. Rowling's stance on transgender rights, telling an interviewer he has not spoken to the "Harry Potter" creator in years.Radcliffe, who played boy wizard Potter in the wildly successful film adaptations of Rowling's best-selling books, has found himself at odds with Rowling on the thorny issue of gender ...

At least 10 people have died in floods caused by heavy rains in Brazil's south, authorities said Wednesday, as rescuers searched for nearly two dozen individuals reported missing.The deluges in the state of Rio Grande do Sul have displaced some 1,400 people in more than 100 municipalities, most of whom have been moved to shelters."We continue to work hard ...

Madonna's long-awaited free concert on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach has upended the neighborhood, with over a million fans expected -- but for retired resident Mario Renato Borges, it's the least the singer deserves."Welcome, Queen," read some posters near the huge stage erected on the Brazilian beach, where Madonna will on Saturday give the biggest ...

The Ukrainian government is increasing its spending on drones by an additional 15.5 billion hryvnia ($392 million), Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday, as the unmanned surveillance and combat aircraft become increasingly important assets for Kiev in its fight against Russia. "With the funds allocated today, 300,000 drones will be delivered to our ...

A new council of experts set up in Russia is leveraging a decade-old law against gay propaganda to censure books. The move marks a new stage in the Kremlins control of information by targeting a broad array of literature, a cultural domain that has long enjoyed a special latitude in the country.What do the novels, A Home at the End of the World by US writer ...

Two men have been charged with criminal damage over the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree, one of the country's most photographed trees that used to stand next to the Hadrian's Wall UNESCO World Heritage site in northeast England, prosecutors said Tuesday.The tree, which stood for more than 200 years in the Northumberland National Park, was found fallen in ...

The European Commission announced an investigation into Meta's handling of political advertising on its Facebook and Instagram platforms on Tuesday ahead of the June 6-9 EU elections. EU officials are concerned that the U.S. technology company's handling of political content risks undermining the democratic process of the European Parliament elections. ...

A French environmental charity said it had turned down the chance to take part in the torch relay ahead of the Paris Olympics over the role of Coca-Cola as a major sponsor."Clean My Calanques", an NGO in Marseille which specializes in beach-cleaning, received funding from the 2024 Paris Olympics organizing committee for its work educating school ...

Indonesia's remote Mount Ruang volcano erupted several times again on Tuesday, the country's volcanology agency said, forcing evacuations, the closure of a nearby international airport and the raising of the alert level to its highest.Authorities had warned the threat from the volcano was not over after it erupted more than half a dozen times this month, ...

French media baron Arnaud Lagardere resigned Tuesday as chief executive of the sprawling group of the same name after being charged with misuse of corporate funds.Lagardere, who sold the firm built by his father to media giant Vivendi in November, plans to appeal a temporary ban on holding management positions resulting from the charges, his company ...

At least 27 Palestinians were killed in fresh Israeli attacks on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the territory's Hamas-controlled Health Ministry said on Monday, as diplomatic efforts intensified with talks in Cairo and Riyadh. Authorities said 20 people in residential buildings in the border city were killed in various attacks during the ...