The US conducted its first air strikes against the Taliban since a rare ceasefire between the insurgents and Afghan forces ended more than a week ago, the US military said Friday. The two assaults took place Thursday and Friday in separate provinces in Afghanistan, spokesman Sonny Leggett...

China said Facebook was unfairly targeting its biggest media companies on Friday after the network began attaching disclaimers to pages run by the country's state-controlled news outlets. Pages managed by news agency Xinhua and the fiery nationalist tabloid Global Times are now labelled...

Russia has managed to contain a massive diesel spill into a river in the Arctic, a spokeswoman for the emergencies ministry told AFP on Friday. "We have stopped the spread of the petroleum products," the spokeswoman for the taskforce in charge of the accident clean-up said. "They are...

About 1,300 civilians have died from conflict and violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo in just a matter of months, while over half a million people have fled their homes, the UN said Friday. Some attacks "may amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes," United Nations rights...

France on Friday denied that Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido had been given refuge at its mission in Caracas, after Venezuela's foreign minister claimed he was hiding at the embassy. "Mr Juan Guaido is not at the French residency in Caracas. We have confirmed this to the Venezuelan...

The head of Britain’s spy agency GCHQ said Thursday that hackers from hostile states were trying to steal secret coronavirus vaccine research.       GCHQ Director Jeremy Fleming said the hackers were targeting the UK’s health infrastructure and research labs. ...

As the novel coronavirus continues to ravage Latin America, the death toll in Brazil topped 34,000 on Friday and passed 12,500 in Mexico. In Brazil, 1,473 more fatalities over the past 24 hours raised the death toll to 34,021, according to the Health Ministry. The total case count in...

Australian police on Friday moved to ban a Black Lives Matter protest planned in Sydney, citing the risk of spreading the coronavirus. Around 10,000 people are expected to march in Sydney on Saturday to express solidarity with US protestors and demand an end to frequent Aboriginal deaths in...

State-backed hackers from China have targeted staffers working on the US presidential campaign of Democrat Joe Biden, a senior Google security official said Thursday. The same official said Iranian hackers had recently targeted email accounts belonging to Republican President Donald Trump's...

A top Twitter executive refused Thursday to rule out suspending Donald Trump's account if the US president continued posting incendiary messages such as those about the George Floyd protests. Trump has relied on Twitter to get out his message without submitting himself to questions from...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday warned that coronavirus could further weaken sub-Saharan Africa's ability to adapt to climate change, as measures to contain the pandemic stretch limited resources. A recent study on the impact of rising temperatures and extreme weather...

Rohingya refugees infected with coronavirus are fleeing quarantine in their Bangladesh camps because they fear being transferred to an isolated island in the Bay of Bengal, community leaders said Thursday. At least two infected refugees have gone missing since testing positive for the virus...

Hong Kong marked China's deadly Tiananmen crackdown on Thursday, with candle-light ceremonies planned across the city after authorities banned a mass vigil at a time of seething anger over a planned new security law. The commemorations fell on another febrile day of political tension in the...

Thousands of peaceful demonstrators gathered in Washington, DC for the sixth consecutive day Wednesday to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died last week after being pinned down by a white police officer.    This time, the protestors were not allowed to...

Brazil and Mexico reported record daily coronavirus death tolls as governments in Latin America battled to fortify defenses against the accelerating pandemic with fresh lockdown orders and curfews. European nations are emerging from months of devastation with some borders re-opening, but...

Breaking with President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday he opposes using military forces for law enforcement in containing current street protests. Esper said the Insurrection Act, which would allow Trump to use active-duty military for law enforcement in...

The WHO announced Wednesday the resumption of its hydroxychloroquine trials after The Lancet cast doubt over a large-scale study it published last month that led to temporary suspension of testing of the drug. The medical journal has issued an "expression of concern" over a large-scale...

The UN rights chief on Wednesday decried "structural racism" in the United States, and voiced alarm at the "unprecedented assault" on journalists covering protests across the country after George Floyd's death in custody. Michelle Bachelet insisted that the grievances at the heart of the...

President Donald Trump's administration said Wednesday it will bar Chinese passenger carriers from flying to the United States starting on June 16 as it pressures Beijing to allow US air carriers to resume flights. The move, announced by the US Department of Transportation, penalizes China...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday denied media reports that he was rushed for his safety to the White House bunker while protests raged in the streets outside. "It was a false report," Trump told Fox News radio, before elaborating that he did go into the secure area but only for a "tiny,...