Since the start of Syria's decade-long conflict, some 1.5 million refugees have fled to neighbouring Lebanon, many of them sheltered in camps along the border. FRANCE 24's reporters travelled to a village in the Bekaa valley, where the population h...

China is poised to ease border restrictions to allow some foreigners -- including from the US, India and Pakistan -- back in, provided they have taken a Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine. The country has been closed to most foreigners since last March ...

Deadly small particle pollution in four of five nations exceeded World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations last year despite Covid lockdowns, according to a report released Tuesday. The partial or complete shutdown of transport and industry f...

A resurgent Englishman, a stuttering Northern Irishman and an American's mind game feature in AFP Sport's golf talking points this week: - Westy's secret weapon - Veteran Lee Westwood's stunning early-season form has put him in the frame for a Ryd...

China's accelerated military modernisation poses a clear and growing threat to Taiwan, and US intervention might only risk intensifying pressure from Beijing, US defence officials say. Washington's top US military officer in Asia-Pacific Admiral Ph...

Japan's Top League is hoping to lure England stars Owen Farrell and Maro Itoje as it pursues its soaring ambition of becoming the world's leading rugby competition, its chairman told AFP. The well-heeled league has swelled its ranks of foreign play...

Residents of a protest flashpoint district in Myanmar's biggest city fled on flatbed trucks and tuk-tuks Tuesday after security forces escalated the use of lethal force against anti-coup protesters, despite international appeals for restraint. Much...

Team New Zealand reached match point in the America's Cup Tuesday but were denied a chance to clinch the trophy when fickle winds forced the day's second race to be abandoned. The hosts staged a come-from-behind win in race nine to extend their lea...

The encrypted messaging app Signal, recommended by Tesla's Elon Musk, appeared to have been blocked in China on Tuesday, closing off one of the last US social media platforms still freely available in the country. Users of the free app, which has s...

Battered by North Atlantic weather and sometimes starved of vital supplies, the tiny Portuguese island of Corvo has a crucial advantage in the fight against the pandemic: its remoteness. Lying hundreds of kilometres from continental Europe, the sma...

NATO members Greece and Turkey meet in Athens Tuesday to try once more to settle their standoff over eastern Mediterranean borders and energy rights. Ankara ratcheted up the pressure a notch on Monday with a diplomatic note to Israel, Greece and th...

Years of setbacks have weakened the once mighty Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda, but the militants are seizing the opportunity to regenerate while the government and Huthi rebels are locked in a fight to the death in the north. Government security offici...

The United States on Tuesday accused Chinese state media of publishing "disinformation" about its diplomats in Hong Kong as it denied its staff invoked immunity to avoid isolating after positive coronavirus tests. Washington temporarily closed its ...

Kibrom Hailu wasn't too worried when his 15-year-old son stepped out to play volleyball one morning last month near their home in Wukro, in Ethiopia's conflict-hit Tigray region. There had been protests in town that week -- young men burning tyres ...

Hawker Saber is one of the survivors of the chemical attack Saddam Hussein ordered on the Kurdish town of Halabja 33 years ago but he needs a respirator to stay alive. Saber, who is hooked to the machine for more than 20 hours a day, was just three...