World

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel will skip an event later this week commemorating the victims of the United States' atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 over the city government's decision not to invite Israel, which is currently waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip.

Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki said the decision not to extend an invitation to Israel was made out of concerns about "possible unforeseen situations" such as protests over the Gaza assault or a potential violent attack at Friday's event.

With Tom Cruise widely predicted to engage in a death-defying stunt on the roof of the Stade de France, Sunday's Paris Olympics closing ceremony promises a memorable passing of the five rings flag to Los Angeles.

Two weeks after the unprecedented complexity of the opening ceremony along the River Seine, there are big expectations for the show to wrap up the Games.

Animal rights activists briefly interrupted Pope Francis' weekly audience at the Vatican Wednesday, holding up signs demanding an end to bullfighting.

Two activists from PETA, an international charity which defends animal rights, shouted slogans just as the audience got underway, before being escorted out by security.

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tuesday that the United States had been in talks with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of drug lord "El Chapo," ahead of his detention alongside a sought-after cartel boss last month.

Mystery has surrounded the detention of Guzman Lopez and the highly wanted co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who had both arrived on a private plane in Texas last month.

A prominent Chinese-born academic and author who feigned being a pro-democracy activist was convicted on Tuesday of acting as a covert Chinese agent, the Justice Department said.

After a one-week trial, a jury convicted Shujun Wang, 75, of four counts of acting and conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government.

Twenty-two years after first picking up a bat, Brazilian amputee table tennis star Bruna Alexandre is finally making her dream come true, warming up for the Paralympics by competing at the Paris Olympic Games.

The 29-year-old, whose right arm was amputated at the age of three months due to thrombosis, is her country's first para-athlete to take part in the Olympics.

The United States said it was working "around the clock" to avert an all-out war in the Middle East, as Israel remained on high alert Tuesday for potential Iranian retaliation for two high-profile killings.

US President Joe Biden, whose country has sent extra warships and fighter jets to the region in support of Israel, held crisis talks on Monday with his national security team.

Halloween may not be for months, but it's already peak haunted house season in Japan, where seeking a bone-chilling fright is a long established summer tradition.

Kimono-clad ghosts with bloody eyes convulse in agony and lurch towards visitors at one spooky establishment in Tokyo, roaming around groaning like zombies.

Spectators poured into Benin's capital for a new festival celebrating traditional masks over the weekend as the West African country seeks to attract visitors and showcase its cultural heritage.

The three-day Porto Novo Mask Festival drew participants from across Benin as well as neighbouring Togo and Burkina Faso.

A jailed Kurdish leader and a Turkish writer on the other side of the bars have used their penpal exchanges to write one of Turkey's highest-selling books.

The crime novel "Duet in Purgatory", which features a retired left-wing lawyer and a bitter ageing general with a tortuous past, has been a roaring success.

A rocket attack on a base in Iraq wounded multiple US personnel on Monday, officials said, adding to already heightened regional tensions over an expected Iranian counterattack on Israel.

The rocket fire is the latest in a series of attacks targeting Ain al-Assad base in western Iraq, which hosts American troops as well as personnel from the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group.

Western powers called Monday for calm in Bangladesh after long-ruling leader Sheikh Hasina fled, with the United States saluting the military for forming an interim government rather than cracking down further on protesters.

Sheikh Hasina, who had particularly close relations with regional power India, enjoyed a mostly cooperative relationship with the West during her 15 years in power but had increasingly drawn criticism for her authoritarian turn.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday praised North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as "very smart" and "a real power."

During an interview with right-wing streamer Adin Ross, Trump reflected on a meeting he had with Kim while he was president.