WORLD

With her followers watching on TikTok, Mexican beauty influencer Valeria Marquez revealed her fears of being kidnapped or killed.

Delegations from Moscow and Kyiv will be in Istanbul Friday for what could be their first direct meeting on the conflict in Ukraine since 2022, but the absence of Russian President Vladimir Putin leaves little hope for progress in ending the war.

Iran is set to hold talks with Britain, France and Germany in Turkey on Friday, after US President Donald Trump said a nuclear deal with Tehran was "getting close".

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has called for a boycott of May 25 gubernatorial and legislative elections, on Thursday vowed polling stations would be "empty" 10 months after President Nicolas Maduro's disputed reelection.

US President Donald Trump's son Eric on Thursday assured the world's leading crypto conference that Washington would hoard "a tremendous amount of bitcoin," aided by his father's policies of slashing environmental protections to ramp up energy production.

The US government rested its case against Facebook-owner Meta on Thursday, as it tries to persuade a US judge that the tech giant bought Instagram and WhatsApp to neutralize them as rivals.

The United States is on track to lose some $12.5 billion in revenue from foreign tourists this year, a tourism industry group said Thursday, as the Trump administration has led a crackdown in immigrants.

NATO appears headed for a compromise deal at a summit next month to satisfy US President Donald Trump's demand to spend five percent of GDP on defence, as heavyweights Germany and France got on board Thursday.

The election of the first US pope is a godsend to businesses in Rome, as big-spending pilgrims flocking to the Vatican are also expected to spend in the Eternal City.

Shruti Sharma tearfully hugged her family goodbye and fled her home near the contested border in Kashmir with her three children on the first night of India and Pakistan's worst conflict in decades.

A chauffeur faces trial later this year charged with stealing money and baggage from Britain's top diplomat after driving David Lammy and his wife hundreds of kilometres from Italy to an Alpine ski resort in France, a prosecutor said.

Lasting peace in Syria depends on the country building a strong judicial system giving justice to the victims of all crimes committed during the Assad era, a prominent Syrian human rights lawyer told AFP. "We believe that the Syrians who paid the heavy cost to reach this moment will not accept changing one dictatorship into another," Mazen Darwish said in an interview.

Russia's former culture minister and Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky took part in failed talks with Ukraine at the start of Moscow's invasion in 2022 and has built a career promoting an ultra-patriotic version of Russian history.

Israel's participation in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest has drawn protests but its competitor Yuval Raphael -- who escaped the Hamas attack on her country -- is hotly tipped to qualify from Thursday's semifinal.

Filmmaker Sepideh Farsi is still in shock after an Israeli air strike killed her documentary's main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, in Gaza last month.

Next week promises to be a crucial one for the World Health Organization, with member states coming together in Geneva to adopt a landmark pandemic agreement and a slimmed-down budget amid US funding cuts.

War rivals Ukraine and Russia are set to go into their first direct talks in more than three years on Thursday, with Russian President Vladimir Putin not included on the list of attendees.

Sean "Diddy" Combs's former partner Casandra Ventura testified Wednesday that the music mogul raped her near the end of their decade-plus relationship that included routine physical abuse and left her with post-traumatic stress and suicidal thoughts.

A two-year-old Venezuelan girl, whose parents were deported from the United States without her, was flown home on Wednesday to Caracas, earning President Donald Trump rare praise from Venezuela's government.

Palestinians on Wednesday commemorated their displacement during the creation of Israel, saying that history was being repeated today in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

A two-year-old girl separated in the United States from her Venezuelan parents, who were deported without her, arrived in Caracas on Wednesday after her separation from her family caused an outcry.

Robert De Niro told AFP Wednesday that many in Hollywood share his views on US President Donald Trump -- whom he denounced at the Cannes film festival opening -- but the industry is worried about speaking out against him.

Uruguay on Wednesday began bidding farewell to its former leader Jose "Pepe" Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla fighter who won global fame for his humility as the so-called "world's poorest president."

Russia on Wednesday sentenced a high-profile election monitor to five years in prison, part of an intensifying crackdown by the Kremlin against independent critics and opponents.

Adrianzen was the most trusted ally of woefully unpopular President Dina Boluarte, whose government is accused of failing to tackle a wave of killings linked to extortion gangs.

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou on Wednesday faces one of the most delicate moments of his five months in office as he responds to questions from a parliamentary committee investigating claims of sexual abuse at a Catholic school.

Gaza rescuers said at least 29 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday as negotiations took place in Qatar for the release of hostages still held in the war-battered territory.

Pakistan returned a captured border guard to India on Wednesday, in a fresh sign of detente after a ceasefire ended four days of conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Ko Min said he found his son and daughter's bodies in the ruins of a schoolhouse in central Myanmar, moments after a deadly air strike that witnesses said came as a military jet circled the village.