LOS ANGELES (AFP) -- US actress Zoe Kravitz will play Catwoman in the new "Batman" film starring Robert Pattinson, a Warner Bros. source told AFP on Monday.Kravitz, who recently starred in HBO's hit TV drama "Big Little Lies" and is the daughter of rock musician Lenny Kravitz, will portray the whip-wielding cat burglar who is both Batman's foe and love interest in the comics. She follows A-listers such as Halle Berry, Anne Hathaway and Michelle Pfeiffer in portraying Catwoman

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- A white policeman who shot dead a black Texas woman as she played video games at home with her young nephew has been charged with murder, police said Monday.Aaron Dean gunned down 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson from outside her Fort Worth property in the early hours of Saturday as she approached a window to investigate noises outside.The incident, less than two weeks after a white policewoman was jailed for killing a black man in his apartment in nearby Dallas, has spark

STOCKHOLM (AFP) -- A trio of Americans on Monday won the Nobel Economics Prize for their work in the fight against poverty, including Esther Duflo, the youngest-ever economics laureate and only the second woman to win the prize.Duflo -- a 46-year-old French-American professor who has served as an advisor to ex-US president Barack Obama -- shared the Nobel with her husband, Indian-born Abhijit Banerjee and fellow American Michael Kremer "for their experimental approach to alleviating global

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The United States slapped sanctions on Turkey Tuesday as it demanded an end to its deadly incursion against Syrian Kurdish fighters, accusing its NATO partner of putting civilians at risk and allowing the release of Islamic State extremists.The actions came hours after regime troops returned for the first time in years to parts of northeastern Syria, invited by Kurdish fighters desperate for protection as the United States pulls out.President Donald Trump took extraordinary m

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The Pentagon said Sunday President Donald Trump had ordered the withdrawal of up to 1,000 troops from northern Syria -- almost the entire ground force in the war-torn country -- amid an intensifying Turkish assault on Kurdish forces.Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the move came after the US learned that Turkey was pressing further into Syria than had been expected.The Kurds -- with whom the US partnered to combat the Islamic State group -- later announced they had reached a

TOKYO (AFP) -- At least 26 people were killed by powerful Typhoon Hagibis, local media reported Sunday, a day after the ferocious storm slammed into Japan, unleashing unprecedented rain and catastrophic flooding.More than 100,000 rescuers, including 31,000 troops, were working into the night to reach people trapped after torrential rain caused landslides and filled rivers until they burst their banks.The destruction forced the Rugby World Cup to cancel a third tournament match, though a key

MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russia will work with Saudi Arabia against any "attempt to destabilise" the oil market, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview broadcast Sunday, on the eve of a visit to Riyadh.Tensions in the region are high following attacks on oil installations in Saudi Arabia, which sent prices surging, and the seizure of tankers in the Gulf. "If anyone believes that acts such as the seizing of tankers or strikes against oil infrastructure could in any way affect the coo

BUSAN (AFP) -- Acclaimed director David Michod's epic "The King" was one of four major Netflix productions screened at Asia's largest film festival this week, underlining how streaming services are increasingly challenging Hollywood and traditional media for the attention of artists -- and viewers.Asia is seen as an important part of the global streaming industry's growth plan. In conjunction with the main event, Busan International Film Festival also hosted its first Asia Contents Awa

North and South Korea face each other in a World Cup qualifier this week for their first ever competitive men's match in Pyongyang, while talks on the North's nuclear arsenal remain deadlocked.The teams -- with Tottenham's star striker Son Heung-min included in the South Korean squad -- are expected to step out onto Kim Il-sung Stadium turf on Tuesday.It comes in the wake of a series of North Korean missile tests and after talks with the US over its weapons programmes broke down, with Pyongyang

TOKYO (AFP) -- Powerful Typhoon Hagibis barrelled through Japan Saturday, killing at least two people and lashing large parts of the country with "unprecedented" rain that caused floods, landslides and emergency disaster warnings.Around 7.3 million people were given non-compulsory evacuation orders, 90 were injured -- four seriously -- and several others reported missing as flooding hit many towns and cities.Even before making landfall, Hagibis wrought havoc on two major sporting event

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- President Donald Trump on Saturday touted his partial, unsigned trade deal with China as a major achievement and the best deal US farmers have ever secured."WOW, the Farmers really hit pay dirt," Trump tweeted.Friday's initial agreement, which marks a halt in the 18-month trade war, calls for a huge increase in China's purchases of US farm products.It also covers intellectual property, financial services and currencies. Trump said Friday evening the deal calls

NEW YORK (AFP) -- At least four people died and three were wounded in a shooting at an unlicensed private social club in New York early Saturday, police said.No one has been arrested over the early morning shooting in Brooklyn, and the motive and exact circumstances are not known, a New York police official told AFP.The shooting on the borough's major artery Utica Avenue took place at the Triple A Aces Private & Social Rental Place, what NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea called "an i

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) -- An anti-Semitic attack that killed at least two people in the German city of Halle Wednesday was streamed live for 35 minutes, and eventually seen by some 2,200 people, the online platform Twitch said."The account owner streamed this horrific act live on Twitch for 35 minutes, during which time it was viewed by approximately five people," the livestream gaming platform posted on Twitter."A recording of the stream, which was automatically generated based

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A bipartisan set of US lawmakers urged the NBA on Wednesday to suspend all activities in China until Chinese firms and broadcasters end their boycott of the league and the Houston Rockets.The open letter to NBA commissioner Adam Silver came from eight US lawmakers as politically diverse as Ted Cruz of Texas and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York, both from states with multiple NBA teams."You have more power to take a stand than most of the Chinese government's targets

SHANGHAI (AFP) -- China on Wednesday slammed NBA commissioner Adam Silver's defence of free speech, cancelling a basketball fan event and lashing him in the state-run press, as Apple was warned it could be the next Western firm punished for supporting democracy protesters in Hong Kong. The NBA had been looking to cement its already huge popularity in the lucrative China market this week with a pair of annual pre-season exhibition games, but those plans were thrown into disarray by a tweet from H

RAS AL-AIN (AFP) -- Turkey launched a broad assault on Kurdish-controlled areas in northeastern Syria on Wednesday, with intensive bombardment followed by a ground offensive made possible by the withdrawal of US troops.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the start of the attack on Twitter and soon after jets and artillery targeted Kurdish positions along the full width of the border, sending thousands of civilians fleeing their homes.That was followed late in the evening by the beginning of

STOCKHOLM (AFP) -- Three researchers from the United States and Britain on Monday shared the Nobel Medicine Prize for research into how human cells sense and adapt to changing oxygen levels, opening up new strategies to fight such diseases as cancer and anaemia.Americans William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza, and Britain's Peter Ratcliffe, split the nine million Swedish kronor ($914,000, 833,000 euros) award.While the fact that humans need oxygen to survive has been understood for centuries, how

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- President Donald Trump said Monday he would prefer to strike a comprehensive trade bargain with China, in comments days before top US and Chinese officials are due to resume trade talks in Washington.But with little sign the two sides have made progress in bridging the distance between them, speculation has mounted in recent months they may reach a deal which addresses only some of Washington's extensive grievances."I think it's not what we prefer at all. My inclination

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) -- North Korea warned Monday it would not "sit idle" if any attempt is made at the UN Security Council to raise the subject of its "self-defensive measures," an apparent reference to its recent missile tests.Three European countries -- Britain, France and Germany -- called for a closed door Security Council meeting Tuesday to discuss North Korea's test last week of a sea-launched missile, saying it was a "serious violation" of UN resolutions.Nor

TOKYO (AFP) -- Around 60 members of a North Korean fishing boat were rescued Monday after it sank following a collision with a Japanese patrol vessel, local media said.The North Korean ship -- believed to illegally fishing in Japanese waters -- capsized after the collision, the coast guard said.Satoshi Kuwahara, a Japanese fisheries agency official, told reporters the patrol boat Okuni had earlier warned the North Korean vessel to leave the area.All of the estimated 60 crew members aboard the No