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Elections scheduled in military-ruled Myanmar next month could never be free or fair, the United Nations insisted Friday, warning that the junta could unleash mass-electronic surveillance on polling stations.

Pope Leo XIV called for unity among Christians on Friday at an ecumenical gathering on the shores of Lake Iznik to celebrate 1,700 years since one of the early Church's most important gatherings.

Palestinian student Razan Shawar has travelled for 24 hours to showcase her team's AI-powered invention at World Robot Olympiad in Singapore, telling AFP innovation -- not war -- should be why people hear about her country.

Sri Lankan troops were racing to rescue hundreds of people marooned by rising floodwaters on Friday as weather-related deaths rose to 69, with another 34 people declared missing.

Uzbek Muslims held mass prayers for rain Friday as the Central Asian country suffers severe droughts associated with climate change.

Cole Palmer is fit to start Chelsea's Premier League summit meeting against Arsenal this weekend after more than two months on the sidelines, manager Enzo Maresca said Friday.

President Emmanuel Macron called on Friday for changes to French legislation that would allow "false information" online to be urgently blocked.

A NASA rover has recorded evidence of lightning on Mars for the first time, its microphone picking up the sounds of tiny "zaps" whipped up by the dust storms constantly sweeping across the planet.

UK football chiefs on Friday unveiled details of their unopposed joint bid to host the Women's World Cup in 2035, with 22 proposed stadiums listed in the official submission.

Hungary's Viktor Orban defied the EU Friday by promising Vladimir Putin he will keep buying Russian oil, as he attended a Kremlin meeting held in the midst of a diplomatic push to end Moscow's Ukraine offensive.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier honoured Nazi war victims in Guernica on Friday, becoming the first German leader to visit the Spanish town where hundreds of civilians were killed in 1937.

The International Criminal Court on Friday rejected a request by former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte to be released from detention ahead of his trial on crimes against humanity during his war on drugs.

India's economy grew faster than expected in the last quarter, official data showed Friday, but the impact from US tariffs is expected to bite in the rest of the financial year.

Three rebel nuns in their 80s who made headlines after fleeing their care home to take back their Austrian convent are being allowed to stay in the nunnery "until further notice", church officials said Friday.

France superstar Antoine Dupont will make his long-awaited return to action on Saturday when his league-leading Toulouse side host Racing 92 in the French Top 14.

Ukraine's anti-corruption authorities on Friday raided the home of President Volodymyr Zelensky's powerful chief of staff and top negotiator, Andriy Yermak, searches that come as a massive graft scandal embroils Kyiv.

Days of devastating flooding across Southeast Asia have killed more than 300 people in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, authorities said on Friday.

France on Friday caught one of two detainees who used bed sheets to escape from prison a day earlier after sawing through the bars of their cell, a prosecutor said.

Stock markets were little changed Friday, capping a solid week driven by expectations of more US rate cuts, with trading thinned by the Thanksgiving holiday and a data centre outage.

The scheduled launch of rugby's proposed rebel R360 competition targeting the game's top stars has been pushed back by two years to 2028, organisers announced on Friday.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would suspend migration from what he called "third world countries", a day after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard soldiers in Washington, killing one.

Israeli forces killed 13 people on Friday in an operation in southern Syria, the deadliest since Bashar al-Assad's fall from power nearly a year ago, which they said was targeting an Islamist group.

Sri Lanka deployed the military for relief and rescue operations on Friday as the death toll from floods and landslides across the island rose to 56, with another 21 people missing.

History-making Eritrean Biniam Girmay will leave Intermarche-Wanty before next season, the Belgian cycling team announced on Friday.

Shoes squeaking in perfect unison, dozens of Japanese students move in formation through a Yokohama sports hall in training for a synchronised walking performance expected to draw thousands.

Organisers are confident they can avoid the calamities of last time when India hosts the Commonwealth Games but there are many challenges for a country that also has Olympic ambitions.

Star rookie Isack Hadjar told AFP he would relish "the incredible opportunity" of becoming Max Verstappen's teammate at Red Bull next season.

Iran is to boycott next week's World Cup finals draw in Washington because the United States refused to grant visas to several members of the delegation, the Iranian football federation announced on Friday.

New Zealand's Kazuma Kobori fired a stunning eight-under-par 63 to take a one-stroke lead at the Australian PGA Championship on Friday as breakout DP World Tour star Marco Penge and PGA Tour winner Min Woo Lee charged up the leaderboard.

The death toll from Hong Kong's worst blaze in decades rose to 128 on Friday, with dozens still missing, as authorities said fire alarms in the residential estate buildings had been malfunctioning.

Days of devastating flooding across Southeast Asia have killed more than 250 people across Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, authorities said on Friday.

Sweeping legal reforms and regional conflict have consolidated the Pakistani military's grip on power in the past year, diluting the role of the civilian government while offering an unprecedented legal shield to the army chief, experts say.