The United Nations warned Wednesday that weather-related disasters have skyrocketed over the past half-century, causing far more damage even as better warning systems have meant fewer deaths. A report from the UN's World Meteorological Organization...

Visitors got a sneak peek at Universal Studios' first theme park in China on Wednesday as the Beijing attraction had a soft opening, drawing queues from dawn. The park hosts rides inspired by blockbuster film franchises including Harry Potter and J...

The 93-year-old founder of France's main far-right party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, goes on trial Wednesday over allegations of once again inciting racial hatred, this time with comments targeting a Jewish pop singer.

The leader of K-pop sensation BTS has turned an out-of-print book into a bestseller in South Korea in just days, as fans flocked to get a copy after he was seen reading it. The trailblazing septet have reached global superstardom, with their single...

Chinese Olympic snowboarders Liu Jiayu and Cai Xuetong had a plan: compete against the world's best and peak for the Beijing Winter Games, going for gold at home. Then the pandemic happened. Prevented by China sports authorities from competing abro...

Tokyo is the first city to host the Paralympics twice, and Hideo Kondo says taking part in the 1964 Games was a life-changing experience that inspired him to pioneer accessibility improvements. Tokyo's first Paralympics helped break down barriers t...

Paris Saint-Germain got Lionel Messi but that has somehow turned out not to be the most remarkable moment of the transfer window for them. There can hardly be a bigger statement from the Qatar-owned club than turning their noses up at an offer unde...

With a joystick in one hand, a Braille device under the other and a mask over his eyes, BlindWarriorSven efficiently disposes of yet another opponent. "I put this mask on because sometimes people tell me I'm not really blind," he says with a smile,...

From agriculture to housing to transportation, economic growth has historically depended on burning through finite natural resources and rearranging natural landscapes. As the IUCN World Conservation Congress kicks off in France on Friday, an urgen...

Nigerian farmer Nwale Nchimaonwi celebrated when he learnt that an oil law to overhaul the industry and improve the plight of communities living on crude-producing land had passed after two decades wait. His Niger Delta region has long seethed with...

Paris Saint-Germain got Lionel Messi but that has somehow turned out not to be the most remarkable moment of the transfer window for them.

With the world's biggest biodiversity summit set to kick off Friday in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, experts are sounding the alarm over a long-overlooked seagrass increasingly threatened by human activity. Named posidonia oceanica -- or "Ne...

Last year when France moved to protect Mediterranean seagrass beds by barring larger boats from dropping anchor near them, Yves-Marie Loudoux found himself adrift. Captain of the 41-metre (135-foot) Ocean Sapphire, Loudoux remembers suddenly being ...

California is declaring war on "ghost guns" -- weapons kits sold on the internet without any system of control -- with Los Angeles on Tuesday becoming the latest city to move to outlaw them. City councilors in the metropolis -- the second largest i...

A German long jumper who leaps further than his Olympic counterparts and a US swimmer who survived a bomb detonated by her parents are among the stars competing at the Tokyo Paralympics on Wednesday. Markus Rehm, known as the "Blade Jumper", is eye...