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Series leader Oscar Piastri outpaced defending champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull to top the times for McLaren in Friday's opening free practice at the Belgian Grand Prix.

In the leafy grounds of a Buddhist pagoda, hundreds of Cambodians fleeing deadly clashes with Thailand take refuge in the open air, most sitting on the ground while a lucky few doze in hammocks.

A car dealer has been charged over failures that led to a driver being injured when a faulty Takata airbag sprayed him with metal fragments, a source said Friday, the first criminal charges in France in a massive recall scandal.

Iranian diplomats met counterparts from Germany, Britain and France on Friday for renewed nuclear talks, amid warnings that the three European powers could trigger "snapback" sanctions outlined under the 2015 deal.

Meta on Friday said it will be forced to ban political advertising on its platforms in the European Union from October because of rules the Facebook and Instagram owner called "unworkable".

The United Nationd rights chief on Friday slammed Britain's ban on activist group Palestine Action as a "disturbing" misuse of UK counter-terrorism legislation and urged the government to rescind its move.

Stock markets mostly fell Friday as the latest trade-related rally lost momentum, with investors also digesting a mixed batch of corporate earnings.

US President Donald Trump was due to arrive in Scotland on Friday for a mix of diplomacy, business and leisure, with a huge security operation swinging into place and protests planned near his family-owned golf resorts.

Special prayers were held across Bangladesh on Friday, as the death toll from a fighter jet crash into a school building in Dhaka rose to 32.

When the first salvo of Cambodian artillery screamed across her village, Thai seamstress Pornpan Sooksai's thoughts turned to her five beloved cats: Peng, Kung Fu, Cherry, Taro and Batman.

The Easter period usually offers a rare respite in Gedeb, in Ethiopia's deeply troubled north, but on April 17 death rained from the skies in this sleepy town caught up in a war between rebels and the army.

Russia could be turning to a new cryptocurrency called A7A5 to allow money to flow in and out of the country and avoid Western sanctions, experts have told AFP.

A student-initiated petition against a chemical deadly to bees has sparked a grass-roots movement in France that commentators say might be a sign of people's growing frustration with political elites.

The Philippines' top court blocked the impending Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on Friday, saying it violated a constitutional provision against multiple impeachment proceedings within a single year.

Aid groups warned of surging numbers of malnourished children in war-ravaged Gaza as a trio of European powers prepared to hold an "emergency call" Friday on the deepening humanitarian crisis.

Stock markets fell Friday as their latest rally ran out of legs, with sentiment weighed by strong US jobs data that saw investors row back their expectations for interest rate cuts.

French drinks group Remy Cointreau lifted Friday its outlook for the year after a deal between the EU and China on cognac imports, but now expects a stiffer impact from US levies and the strong euro.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's future is uncertain but an unlikely campaign for him to stay was growing online this week, including from people who are his natural political opponents.

A pep talk by Martin Johnson has fired up the British and Irish Lions ahead of the second Australia Test, with the England great stressing the importance of fundamentals and staying calm in big games.

Britain and Australia said Friday they will sign a 50-year commitment to their nuclear-powered submarine pact with the United States, seeking to bolster a deal that Washington has thrown into doubt.

Small business owners used the festive backdrop of Comic-Con on Thursday to discuss a sobering topic: the negative impact that US President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs are having on the toy industry.

Rescuers in the northern Philippines used boats to pick up residents stranded by flooding Friday as Typhoon Co-May was downgraded to a tropical storm and the death toll from a week of monsoon rains edged higher.

German auto giant Volkswagen said Friday that tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump had cost it 1.3 billion euros in the first half of the year as it reported falling profit.

On a quiet November night in 2022, DJ Sumbody -- a rising star in South Africa's music scene -- was gunned down in a hail of bullets while heading home.

Thailand's acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai warned Friday that cross-border clashes with Cambodia that have uprooted more than 130,000 people "could develop into war", as the countries traded deadly strikes for a second day.

Hong Kong police announced bounties Friday for information leading to the arrest of 19 overseas activists, accusing them of national security crimes.

US President Donald Trump travels to Scotland on Friday for a mix of diplomacy, business and leisure, as he stays at family-owned golf resorts.

Nearly 14 years after presenting the first newscast of Al Jazeera Balkans, Sasa Delic, like his 250 colleagues, learned of the channel's closure in a shock announcement.

Pensioner Chris Stanley became so incensed by water companies dumping wastewater into the sea near his home that four years ago he stopped paying his bills.

One of France's longest-held inmates, the pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, was released from prison and is due to be deported on Friday, after more than 40 years behind bars for the killings of two diplomats.

France's highest court is to decide Friday whether to uphold an arrest warrant against Syria's ex-president Bashar al-Assad as part of a probe into deadly 2013 chemical attacks during the country's civil war.

Sitting on plastic mats in a sports hall, desperate evacuees told AFP of fleeing in terror from thunderous artillery bombardments as Thailand and Cambodia clash.