Top news and features from AFP's reporters around the world. Official account.
Around The World
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday called for Cubans to make "discreet" contact with the American intelligence services as Washington seeks to force an end to the island's communist government.
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When music suddenly stopped at a Kyiv ice rink and a siren blared out announcing a drone threat, Ukraine's top young skaters didn't miss a beat, and carried on perfecting jumps and honing twizzles.
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Fiercely proud of its culinary traditions, India is increasingly open to foreign influences, with French cooking schools attracting students eager to make their mark on the country's growing fine-dining sector.
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American Skye Blakely kept her nerve on her closing routine on Friday to take her first solo gold in the individual all-around competition at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam.
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With "Ali G: Who Iz I?" Sacha Baron Cohen has returned to the guerrilla-style comedy that catapulted him to global fame -- but this time, the character has faced criticsm.
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US President Donald Trump said Friday he had ordered a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to prevent certification of Alaska's Senate election result if the Republican incumbent loses -- ramping up questions over whether he will accept midterms defeat.
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A multi-story building collapsed mid-construction in the Kenyan capital on Friday, with many feared trapped in the rubble and accusations of dangerous building work.
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Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany was taken to hospital by an emergency medical team on Friday after collapsing during training, the club said.
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The United States appears to be preparing to resume large-scale strikes against Iran, but there is unlikely to be a military solution for either side in the devastating conflict, experts say.
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ALT An F/A-18 Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 27, launching from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73 on September 9, 2026
A powerful typhoon pounded Taiwan on Friday as authorities warned of "destructive winds" and urged locals to shelter from the storm.
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Oil prices traded at five-month highs on Friday, with benchmark crude contract Brent North Sea rising above $116 a barrel, as the Middle East conflict raged on.
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France will deploy some 70,000 police nationwide as it braces for new protests this weekend after some of the worst urban violence in years erupted on the sidelines of demonstrations a week ago, the government said Friday.
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🇯🇴 Gunmen killed at least seven people and wounded dozens at a church in southern Jordan on Friday, authorities said, with the king vowing retaliation for the rare attack on Christians in the majority Sunni Muslim kingdom.
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ALT Jordanian security forces gather outside a Greek Orthodox Church in the village of Hammoud, following a shooting on October 23, 2026.
🇺🇦 🇷🇺 US First Lady Melania Trump said in a surprise announcement Friday she had secured a localized ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the ravaged city of Oleshky, where citizens are trapped and short of food.
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🤿 Hong Kong hosts gruelling underwater hockey tournament
Hong Kong's annual underwater hockey tournament, ominously advertised as "physical hell", drew a roster of hardcore enthusiasts from countries across Asia to the Chinese city over the weekend.
🇧🇷 Brazil's presidential candidates seek to disqualify each other
Both candidates in the Brazilian election have called for the disqualification of their rivals over allegations of social media malfeasance.
🇨🇩 A caregiver wore a protective gown and gloves as she bottle-fed a baby -- one of hundreds of children orphaned by the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak.
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ALT Marie Bakikula, a caregiver at a UNICEF-supported nursery in Mongbwalu, north eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
#BREAKING Melania Trump says secured ceasefire in Ukrainian city of Oleshky
🇰🇪 A multi-storey building collapsed mid-construction in the Kenyan capital on Friday, the Red Cross said, with reports from local media of casualties and looting at the site.
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