Donald Trump on Saturday underlined his opposition to a bipartisan immigration plan that President Joe Biden has promised to use to "shut down" the border with Mexico if it becomes overwhelmed, while at the same time criticizing the Democrat for "open borders." With immigration one of the hottest electoral issues in what increasingly looks like a Trump-Biden rematch for the White House this year, the fate of the bill being negotiated by the Senate has become a high-stakes bat

ChatGPT creator OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, has arrived in South Korea to meet with the leaders of chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, reports said Friday. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are the world's two biggest memory chipmakers, and the latter this week said it had returned to profit after four consecutive quarters of losses driven by demand for chips used in artificial intelligence. The two South Korean chip giants are among the few companies worldwide that manufacture

France's data protection agency said Tuesday that it had fined Amazon's French warehouses unit 32 million euros ($34.9 million) for an "excessively intrusive" surveillance system to keep track of staff performance. Amazon France Logistique monitored the work of employees in particular through data from scanners used by the staff to process packages, according to the agency, known by its initials CNIL. Scanners alerted management of inactivity exceeding 10 minutes or the handl

At least 103 people were killed in Iran Wednesday as two bombs in quick succession struck a crowd commemorating slain general Qasem Soleimani on the anniversary of his killing, state media reported. The blasts, which state television called a "terrorist attack," came with tensions running high in the Middle East a day after Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri -- an Iran ally -- was killed in drone attack on a Beirut southern suburb which Lebanese officials blamed on Israel. The blasts st

Tsunami waves over a meter high hit central Japan on Monday after a series of powerful earthquakes that damaged homes, closed highways and prompted authorities to urge people to run to higher ground. A major 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the Noto region in Ishikawa prefecture around 4:10 pm, the US Geological Survey said. Japan's weather agency reported a succession of 21 quakes of 4.0 magnitude or stronger hitting the nation's central region in just over 90 minutes. Tsunami waves as

MOSCOW -- Russia has redirected its oil exports from Europe to China and India, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Wednesday, almost two years after Moscow was hit by Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict. After President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries hit Russia with a slew of sanctions including a European Union embargo on its seaborne oil deliveries. "We previously supplied a total of 40 to 45 percent of oil and oil products to Eur

The head of the WHO said Tuesday the world needs to properly prepare for future pandemics after finally ending three years of COVID-19 "crisis, pain and loss," In his end-of-year message, World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 2023 had marked a turning point in fighting major health challenges but had also brought "immense and avoidable suffering." Tedros called for ramped-up relief efforts for the Gaza Strip and urged nations to seal a &qu

The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said Tuesday at least 20,915 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the war with Israel broke out on Oct. 7. The ministry said another 54,918 people have been wounded in more than 11 weeks of fighting. (AFP)

Palestinians said they felt "no joy" this Christmas as Israel bombed the besieged Palestinian territory on Monday, with no end in sight to the war that Hamas says has claimed more than 20,000 lives. Festivities were effectively scrapped in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, revered as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, with few worshippers or tourists on the usually packed streets. In the Gaza Strip, the Hamas militant group reported 50 strikes in central areas early on Monday, inc

The toll from China's deadliest earthquake in years rose to 148 on Friday, state media reported, as authorities turned their attention to resettling thousands of people displaced by the disaster. The quake, which struck northwest China just before midnight on Monday, has killed at least 117 people in Gansu province and 31 in neighboring Qinghai, the official Xinhua News Agency said. More than 139,000 people have been moved to emergency shelters across the two provinces, according to state b

GAZA STRIP (AFP) -- Israel carried out fresh strikes on Gaza Sunday as its leaders came under growing pressure to secure the release of hostages still held in the Hamas-run territory more than two months after the Oct. 7 attacks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced protests Saturday by relatives of hostages who called for an urgent deal to secure their freedom after the army admitted mistakenly killing three captives in Gaza. The trio were among an estimated 250 people taken hostage during H

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel's army on Sunday dismissed outcry over footage showing scores of stripped Palestinians in Gaza, saying it was part of routine searches, while Hamas insisted the men were "unarmed civilians." Footage of the men stripped down to their underwear, with some of them appearing to hand over weapons, was aired by Israeli media on Thursday, reporting the alleged surrender of Hamas militants. Israel launched an intense military campaign targeting Hamas in the Gaza S

The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip said Saturday that 240 people had been killed in the Palestinian territory since a pause in the fighting expired on Friday. Another 650 people had been injured in "hundreds of air strikes, artillery and navy bombardments, everywhere in the Gaza Strip," it said in a statement, adding that Israeli forces had "particularly targeted Khan Yunis, where dozens of houses were destroyed with their inhabitants inside." (AFP)

More than 20 countries called for the tripling of world nuclear energy capacity at UN climate talks on Saturday as part of efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. A declaration endorsed by nations ranging from the United States to Ghana to Japan and several European countries said nuclear energy plays a "key role" in reaching the goal of carbon neutrality. The use of nuclear energy as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels is controversial as environmental groups are concerned ab

South Korean powerhouse T1 swept aside China's Weibo Gaming on Sunday to clinch a record fourth League of Legends world championship, widely considered the Super Bowl of e-sports. T1 won three straight games in the best-of-five final at the Gocheok Sky Dome stadium in the South Korean capital, roared on by a capacity crowd of 18,000. Legions of fans descended on Seoul for the final of the League of Legends world championship, which has rapidly grown since the first edition in 2011 into one