Although the number of women politicians rose at the last election -- and despite Takaichi becoming the first female prime minister in October -- Japanese politics remains massively male-dominated. This is reflected by there being only one lavatory...

The Lakers' final home game of the year got under way in a festive atmosphere, with the Crypto.com Arena hoping to salute James as he celebrated his birthday. But the Lakers, missing the injured Austin Reaves and Gabe Vincent, were always chasing t...

China launched missiles and deployed dozens of fighter jets, navy ships and coastguard vessels around Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday in live-fire drills aimed at simulating a blockade of the self-ruled island's key ports and assaults on maritime targe...

After the clocks strike midnight, bringing in 2026, Mamdani will take his oath of office at an abandoned subway stop, taking the helm of the United States' largest city. He will be New York's first Muslim mayor. His office says the understated venu...

New Caledonia-based duo Michel Quintin and Yann Rigal claimed victory for BNC in the overall Tattersall Cup, determined by a complicated handicap formula which allows smaller boats to compete with bigger and faster rivals. But a race panel later a...

A decades-old border dispute between the Southeast Asian neighbours erupted into military clashes several times this year, with the latest round of fighting in December killing dozens of people and displacing more than a million. Some of the 18 sol...

Reflecting on his decade at the helm of the UNHCR, Filippo Grandi told AFP that one of the most worrying developments had been how divisions had left the world seemingly incapable of resolving conflicts -- and increasingly unwilling to deal with the...

Globally, the last 12 months are expected to be the third hottest ever recorded after 2024 and 2023, according to the provisional data, which will be confirmed by Copernicus in its annual report in early January. But the average, which includes la...

The new season gets under way on Friday with the mixed-teams United Cup in Perth and Sydney, headlined by women's world number two Iga Swiatek and men's world number three Alexander Zverev. Top-ranked Sabalenka, who is pursuing a third Melbourne Pa...

At midnight (2200 GMT Wednesday), Bulgaria will wave goodbye to both 2025 and its lev currency, which has been in use since the late 19th century. While successive governments in the country of 6.4 million people have advocated joining the euro cur...

Zia, the first woman to serve as prime minister in the South Asian nation of 170 million people, died on Tuesday aged 80. Flags were flown at half-mast and thousands of security officers lined roads as her body was carried through the streets of th...

The 54-year-old, who played 67 Tests between 1992 and 2006 and 208 one-day internationals, was admitted on Boxing Day last week after falling ill while lying down. Australian media said he was being treated for meningitis, which can be deadly. Men...

Doumbouya, 41, faced eight rivals for the presidency but the main opposition leaders were barred from running and had urged a boycott of the vote held over the weekend. In standing, the general reneged on his initial vow not to run for office and t...

Maresca was barraged with chants of "you don't know what you're doing" when Palmer was brought off in the 63rd minute as Chelsea chased a winning goal that would have ended their disappointing spell. The Chelsea manager's move backfired, leaving th...

Wolves secured just their third point of the campaign and snapped a 12-game losing streak as Ladislav Krejci's header cancelled out Joshua Zirkzee's deflected opener in a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. United were missing captain Bruno Fernandes, Mason ...