Cities across the globe are welcoming 2023 with large crowds gathering for fireworks and light displays hoping for an end to the war in Ukraine and a return to post-COVID normality. The year was marked by the conflict in Ukraine, economic stresses and the effects of global warming. But

At the stroke of midnight on Saturday, Croatia switched to the shared European currency, the euro, and removed dozens of border checkpoints to join the world's largest passport-free travel area. It marked a fresh start for the small Balkan nation of 4 million people that captured

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the “exponential” expansion of his country's nuclear arsenal and the development of a new, more powerful intercontinental ballistic missile, state media reported Sunday, after he entered 2023 with another weapons test following a

Two migrants died and another 200 were rescued Saturday when their boat sank off Lebanon’s northern coast, from where increasing numbers make the risky journey to flee a collapsed economy. An AFP correspondent in the impoverished port city of Tripoli said men, women and children

Mudslides killed at least 10 people at two makeshift mines in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after torrential rain, local officials said Saturday. The disasters came after heavy rain overnight Thursday to Friday across the Fizi enclave in South Kivu province, said locals. The

Former Pope Benedict XVI has died at his Vatican residence, aged 95, almost a decade after he stood down because of ailing health. He led the Catholic Church for less than eight years until, in 2013, he became the first Pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415. Benedict spent his

The world's eight billion people on Saturday prepared to usher in 2023 and farewell a turbulent 12 months marked by war in Europe, stinging price rises and Lionel Messi's world cup glory. After a few pandemic-dampened years, many will be looking to cut loose this New Year's

North Korea has fired three short range ballistic missiles towards the sea to the east of the Korean peninsula, South Korea's military says. This latest volley comes five days after North Korea flew drones into South Korea's airspace for the first time since 2017. North

Nearly 1,700 journalists have been killed worldwide over the past 20 years, an average of more than 80 a year, according to an analysis published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The two decades between 2003 and 2022 were “especially deadly decades for those in the service of

A Myanmar junta court sentenced ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to seven years in prison for corruption on Friday, a legal source told AFP, ending the 18-month trial of the Nobel laureate. Suu Kyi was jailed on five counts of corruption related to the hiring, purchase and

The death toll from a fierce winter storm that gripped much of the United States over Christmas rose to at least 61 on Thursday, officials said. Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz said two more deaths had been reported in the western New York region that bore the brunt of the

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother Heeraben Modi, who was admitted to a hospital in Ahmedabad, died ealy this morning, she was 99. "Heeraba Modi passed away on 30/12/2022 at 3.30am (early morning) during treatment," said a statement from UN Mehta Hospital where she was

Controversial online influencer Andrew Tate has reportedly been detained in Romania as part of a human trafficking and rape investigation. Mr Tate - who was detained alongside his brother Tristan - had his house raided in the capital, Bucharest. A lawyer for the brothers confirmed

Sri Lanka on Thursday resumed international flight services from the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport located in the southern district of Hambantota with nearly 400 Russian tourists arriving in the island nation still grappling with the financial crisis. Mattala- dubbed as the

Thousands more flights were canceled across the United States on Wednesday, with no end in sight to days of travel misery as the country digs out from a deadly superstorm. Officials in Erie county in western New York -- the area of the country hardest hit by the massive winter storm --

At least 11 people were injured on Tuesday in Jerusalem as Israeli forces clashed in the north of the city with protesters demanding the release of the bodies of Palestinians who died in custody at Qalandia checkpoint. Soldiers fired bullets and used tear gas to disperse the crowd as

The UN Security Council on Tuesday called on the Taliban to reverse policies targeting women and girls in Afghanistan, expressing alarm at the "increasing erosion" of human rights in the country. In the latest blow to women's rights in Afghanistan since the Taliban

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest the “unacceptable” response to women-led protests in the Islamic republic, his office said Tuesday. Ambassador designate Mohammad Reza Sabouri has been called in to a meeting on

US emergency crews counted the grim costs of a colossal winter storm that brought Christmas chaos to millions, especially in hard-hit western New York, where the death toll reached 25 on Monday in what authorities described as a “war with mother nature.” Blizzard conditions

Six members of Kurdish-led security forces and two militants were killed on Monday in an attack by Daesh aimed at freeing extremists from a jail in northern Syria. The assault targeted a Kurdish security complex in Raqqa, the group’s former de facto capital in Syria, which