Paris Soir - News from Paris, France, Europe and the world – 24/7

The yen fell and Tokyo stocks rose Friday after the Bank of Japan deferred a plan to cut back its bond purchases as it cautiously moves away from its ultra-loose monetary policy.

Debt-laden tech group Atos said Friday the French state has made a 700-million-euro bid for its most sensitive businesses, including cybersecurity and supercomputers used for the country's nuclear deterrent.

China has organised seminars and training courses for officials in African and Latin American countries, aimed at promoting its single-party system and President Xi Jinping's worldview, a report said this week.

Every day, Magda Miloseska dons a white, protective suit and enters the domain of the honeybees in the backyard of her small weekend house in North Macedonia.

It looks like the lair of a Bond villain: behind armoured doors, buried underground below the Louvre in Paris, lies one of the most high-tech art labs in the world.

In the icy waters of the Arctic, NATO scientists are dissecting sound waves to improve the West's ability to track Russian submarines, as global warming alters acoustics underwater.

Switzerland is undertaking a major security operation around this weekend's summit on Ukraine, aiming to ward off not only physical threats but also cyberattacks and misinformation.

R.E.M. performed onstage together for the first time in well over a decade Thursday, reuniting to play their classic "Losing My Religion" as they were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

After cyclone gales tore down his home in 2007, Bangladeshi fisherman Abdul Aziz packed up what was left of his belongings and moved about half a kilometre inland, further away from storm surge waves.

Italy kick off their European Championship title defence against Albania on Saturday as a new-look team tries to rebuild the reputation of one of the world's most important football nations.

Singapore's veteran goalkeeper Hassan Sunny says Chinese football fans have been sending him money to say thank you for his unlikely role in keeping their World Cup dreams alive.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived in New Zealand's northern hub of Auckland on Friday, stirring up hope of new trade avenues among the country's business leaders.

Indonesian speed climber Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi checks her harness, her brow dripping with sweat and her breaths laboured, gripping the hold and swinging her body upwards to scale a wall in mere seconds.

The Florida Panthers scored three rapid-fire goals to take control then held off the Edmonton Oilers for a 4-3 victory Thursday that put them one win away from a first NHL Stanley Cup title.

Afghanistan underlined their growing status as the dark horses of the 2024 T20 World Cup with a seven-wicket victory over Papua New Guinea on Thursday to advance to the Super Eight phase of the competition and send New Zealand crashing out.

When Iranians worry about life's big questions, many seek answers in the works and wisdoms of Persia's most revered poet, Hafez -- sometimes with the help of a parakeet.

The Bank of Japan on Friday said it would reduce its vast hoard of government bonds as it cautiously steps away from its long-running ultra-loose monetary policy.

With internet-connected sleep monitors, robotic arms and calorie-counting cafeteria plates, China's elder care industry is hoping automation will provide the solution to an ageing population and a shrinking workforce.

Afghanistan underlined their growing status as the dark horses of the 2024 T20 World Cup with a seven-wicket victory over Papua New Guinea on Thursday to advance to the Super Eight phase of the competition and send New Zealand crashing out.

Pat Cummins ruled out Thursday the prospect of Australia underperforming against Scotland in a bid to oust rivals England from the Twenty20 World Cup, saying it would be against the "spirit of cricket."

More than a million Muslim pilgrims were in Mecca Friday for the start of a hajj pilgrimage held against the grim backdrop of the Gaza war and in exhausting summer heat.

At weddings, football matches and other special events, some Iraqi men like to fire salvos of celebratory gunfire into the sky, worrying little about where the bullets might fall.

Rows and rows of partially inhabited high-rises sprawl into the suburbs of the northern Chinese metropolis of Tianjin, their empty balconies emblematic of a slowing economy that has not kept pace with the country's ambitions.

Thousands of Brazilians on Thursday rallied against a bill under debate in Congress that would equate abortion with homicide and impose sentences of up to 20 years for terminating a pregnancy after 22 weeks, even in cases of rape.

G7 leaders turn their attention to China on Friday on the second day of an Italy summit, with a focus on how to protect their industries while avoiding an outright trade war with Beijing.

Asian markets and the yen weakened against the dollar Friday ahead of a policy decision by the Bank of Japan, while the euro remained under pressure as critical French parliamentary elections approach.

Former South Africa captain Siya Kolisi said his Racing 92 side have to be "on point" in Sunday's French Top 14 play off at an equally star-studded Bordeaux-Begles.

The IMF executive board voted Thursday to approve a payout of almost $800 million for Argentina as it continues a program of drastic economic reforms under its libertarian president, Javier Milei.

In the hottest year on record, with scorching conditions claiming lives from India to Mexico and Greece sweltering in its earliest-ever heatwave, experts are sounding the alarm over heat stress.

Grenoble's Wales fly-half Sam Davies said he has experienced a "rollercoaster" season before Sunday's French Top 14 promotion play-off having left the "mess" of Welsh rugby.

Spain's Euro 2024 hopes have been bolstered by Pedri Gonzalez's return to form and the Barcelona playmaker could prove crucial in their stern opening battle against Luka Modric's dangerous Croatia.

South Africa's newly-elected parliament meets Friday and is expected to re-elect President Cyril Ramaphosa to form an unprecedented coalition government after his ruling ANC cobbled together a coalition deal.