By AFP/Yussel GonzalezAna Maria had to pay to enter Mexico illegally -- or risk being kidnapped by ruthless criminals who have turned the migration crisis into a multibillion-dollar business.As US President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office...

By AFP/Clément VARANGESThe derelict Stilfontein shaft, which became a hell hole for hundreds of trapped miners, is just one of 6,000 that have been abandoned by South Africa's gold extraction companies.The vast Witwatersrand goldfield, where the Stil...

By AFP/Jing Xuan TENGBuilt in just days as Covid-19 cases spiked in Wuhan in early 2020, the Huoshenshan Hospital was once celebrated as a symbol of the Chinese city's fight against the virus that first emerged there.The hospital now stands empty, hi...

By AFPKeen to improve India's abysmal crowd management record at large-scale religious events, organisers of the world's largest human gathering are using artificial intelligence to try to prevent stampedes.Organisers predict up to 400 million pilgri...

By AFPJoe Biden said Friday that the Equal Rights Amendment, designed to ensure equality before the law regardless of one's sex, is already part of the US constitution -- a view disputed by political opponents as well as the National Archives."In kee...

By AFP/Bill McCarthy and Anuj ChopraHer voice tinged with anger, an American mother worried about what the future holds for her teenage daughter, just one of dozens of girls targeted in yet another AI-enabled pornography scandal that has rocked a US...

By AFP/Levi FERNANDESStable hand Catarina Cabaca carefully braided the mane of a Lusitano thoroughbred in the distinctive Portuguese style that's just been added to UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage.She was weaving the mane at the prestig...

By AFPChina said on Friday its population fell for the third year running in 2024, extending a downward streak after more than six decades of growth as the country faces a rapidly ageing population and persistently low birth rates.Once the world's mo...

By AFP/Rémi Banet with Burcin GercekWith 38 people dead in four days and 26 in intensive care after drinking bootleg liquor in Istanbul, the politically charged debate over Turkey's soaring alcohol taxes has swung back into the spotlight.The rising d...

By UN NewsThe world is facing an extraordinary convergence of crises that has left 305 million people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.In response, the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for $1.5 billion through its 2025 Health Emerg...

By AFP/Gonzalo TORRICOBolivian shopkeeper Cristobal Quispe's humble brick home teeters precariously on the slope of an unstable hillside in La Paz, near the edge of a collapsed road.The landscape around him is littered with the debris left behind aft...

By AFP/Dessy SAGITAScrolling on social media, Indonesian moviegoer Jessica Sihotang stumbled across a film depicting a fellow woman in her 30s struggling to make the dream of buying a Jakarta home a reality.Nearly two million like-minded Indonesians...