Orban supporters gathered in Hungary's second largest city Debrecen

The first Hong Kong Sevens took place in front of a few thousand curious spectators, and some of the players wore gym shoes in the mud instead of rugby boots.

Fast forward 50 years and the event has grown into a sold-out three-day festival of global repute, mixing sport with socialising, schmoozing and big business.

The runaway success of the Hong Kong Sevens played a key part in rugby returning to the Olympics at Rio 2016 after a 92-year absence.

France's thrilling men's sevens gold, inspired by home hero Antoine Dupont, was one of the standout moments of the Paris Games two years ago.

The Hong Kong extravaganza -- where legends such as Jonah Lomu and David Campese played in the past -- also had a central role in developing the rugby across Asia.

Speaking to AFP on Friday as Hong Kong's biggest party kicked off, World Rugby chair Brett Robinson said there was nothing quite like it.

"It's the pinnacle," he said.

"Firstly, it's sort of one of the pinnacle events in global sports, let alone rugby.

"It's the jewel in the crown of our Sevens series."

- 'Really special' -

Packed crowds with many flying in from overseas for the weekend are a far cry from when a group of club enthusiasts launched the event in 1976.

Now there are men's and women's sides from all over the globe, but then it was mostly teams from Asia and the Pacific in a one-day men's tournament.

"It started as a bit of a jolly," former Hong Kong Rugby Football Union president Brian Stevenson, who was involved at the start, once reflected.

A few of the Hong Kong players did not even have the proper footwear, and one of them was a policeman.

A 3,000 crowd packed Hong Kong Football Club to see New Zealand's Cantabrians win the first Hong Kong Sevens.

"It was a kaleidoscope of colour, full of the pace and grace, thrills and spills and the glorious uncertainty that make seven-a-side rugby arguably the fastest and best ball game in sport," local newspaper the South China Morning Post purred in its report at the time.

The seed was sown, and the tournament grew as a commercial and sporting success in tandem with Hong Kong's development as a global financial centre.

The 40,000-capacity Hong Kong Stadium became the tournament's home, with the South Stand in particular providing a raucous backdrop of well-oiled party-goers decked out in outrageous fancy dress.

After the Covid pandemic put a temporary spoiler on things, the tournament last year moved to the new $3.85 billion Kai Tak stadium.

The 50,000-seat arena, which boasts a futuristic purplish facade and retractable roof, is purpose-built for rugby sevens with 24 separate changing rooms.

It is on the site of the old Kai Tak airport, famed for its hair-raising approach over the top of nearby housing estates.

Robinson said that when rugby was applying to become an Olympic sport again, delegations were shown Hong Kong to help stake its case for inclusion.

"It's just really special in terms of the scale of it, the attendance rates, the momentum and the history of the tournament," he said.

pst/fox

French actor Gerard Depardieu on Friday dropped a lawsuit against broadcaster France Televisions over a 2023 television report that portrayed him as making sexual comments about a young girl.

Depardieu, whose prolific film and television career includes 1990 comedy "Green Card" and Netflix series "Marseille", is the highest-profile figure caught up in France's response to the #MeToo movement.

The 77-year-old actor's decision to withdraw the lawsuit was announced by his new attorney, Delphine Meillet, at the start of a hearing before the Paris Criminal Court.

The court case focuses on a dispute between Depardieu and a television show that in December 2023 aired a report that dented his public image and sparked an uproar in France.

The episode, titled "The Fall of the Ogre", included footage of him repeatedly making sexual comments about women during a trip to North Korea in 2018.

In one section, he appears to make an obscene comment about a young girl riding a horse.

Outrage at the actor's behaviour peaked after the release of the previously unseen footage.

The actor argued he had never spoken in such a way about the girl.

The withdrawal of the lawsuit also applies to France Televisions President Delphine Ernotte-Cunci, the authors of the report, and the production company Hikari.

"France Televisions welcomes this withdrawal, which brings to an end two years of legal proceedings, controversy, and misinformation," the broadcaster said. 

"Two expert analyses concluded that the actor had indeed made remarks of a sexual nature toward a young girl and ruled out any fraudulent manipulation of the footage," France Televisions added. 

- 'Utterly disloyal' - 

Speaking in court in October, Depardieu's previous lawyer, Jeremie Assous, had denounced the editing of the report as "utterly disloyal."

He had asserted that the lewd comments heard while a child was visible on screen actually referred to an adult woman who was not shown.

In 2023, President Emmanuel Macron said Depardieu was the target of a "manhunt."

"Everyone is ganging up on the same person, saying the worst possible things based on a news report, without even giving him a chance to defend himself," he said at the time.

He suggested that the footage might have been doctored. "I saw the footage. I also heard there was controversy over the audio not matching the images."

Macron's intervention at the time sparked controversy.

At the October hearing, Depardieu's defence team cited Macron's support.

"The president is, after all, better informed than others," said Assous, who has since been removed from the actor's defence team.

The tarnished film icon has been accused of sexual assault or rape by around 20 women.

A Paris court last year handed Depardieu an 18-month suspended sentence after convicting him of sexually assaulting two women on a film set in 2021.

The court also ordered that the actor register as a sex offender.

Depardieu has filed an appeal. 

"I'm vulgar, rude, foul-mouthed, I'll accept that," he has told the court.

But he added that he did not "touch."

ng-as/yad

Thousands of displaced Lebanese civilians took to the road on Friday, hoping that a 10-day ceasefire with Israel would allow them to return to their homes in southern Beirut and the country's war-torn south.

The Lebanese army had warned the residents not to go back to the areas, which have been pounded by Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah, and the Iran-backed movement said its finger remained "on the trigger" in the event of any violations.

But at the bombed Qasmiyeh bridge near the southern city of Tyre, AFP reporters found long queues of families waiting for bulldozers to restore the crossing so they could head home. 

For some returnees, the short truce between Israel and the Lebanese government, brokered under pressure from US President Donald Trump, was a new source of hope.

"Our feelings are indescribable, pride and victory," 37-year-old Amani Atrash told AFP from her car seat, adding she hoped the truce would be extended. 

Across the border in Israel, the military's home front command had not yet removed restrictions on civilian movements in vulnerable border areas.

Still, some civilians there were daring to hope for a return to a more normal life.

"I've got a three-year-old girl and a two-month-old baby, and the whole time we've just not left the house because you never know when there'll be a rocket attack," 31-year-old Ofir Ben Aris Lev told AFP.

"It's been crazy, but I think things will be quiet now and I'll be able to take my daughter to the park", he added.

- 'High alert' -

Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has been pummelled by Israeli strikes and engaged its forces on the ground in the south, has indicated it will respect the truce unless Lebanon is attacked again.

"The fighters will keep their finger on the trigger because they are wary of the enemy's treachery," the movement said in a statement.

The ceasefire represents a key step in Washington's efforts to reach a deal to end its war with Iran, after Tehran insisted that halting the Lebanon fighting must be part of any agreement.

Pakistan has been leading a diplomatic push to restart face-to-face talks between Tehran and Washington, and Trump said they were "very close" to striking an agreement.

The fighting broke out in Lebanon on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel a few days after the start of the Middle East war in retribution for the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

As the ceasefire came into effect, Israel's military said it had struck over 380 "Hezbollah terror organisation targets in southern Lebanon" and was on "high alert" to resume strikes.

Trump said he had spoken to both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun ahead of the truce, which he said they had agreed "in order to achieve PEACE between their Countries".

He later said he expected Netanyahu and Aoun to visit the White House "over the next four or five days". 

- 'Very happy' -

A top-level face-to-face meeting between the Lebanese and Israeli leadership would be a watershed moment for the region. But it remained to be seen whether it would take place.

Netanyahu said the ceasefire with Lebanon offered an opportunity for a "historic peace agreement" with Beirut -- but insisted that the disarmament of Hezbollah remained a precondition.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed Trump's announcement, saying a truce was a "key Lebanese demand that we have pursued since the very first day of the war". 

But the Lebanese president had rejected Trump's request for a direct call with Netanyahu, an official source told AFP.

Trump called the developments "very exciting", in response to a question from an AFP reporter as he left the White House. 

"Today they're going to be having a ceasefire, and that'll include Hezbollah," he said.

Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi told AFP it would "cautiously adhere" to the truce if Israeli attacks stopped, thanking Iran for having applied pressure in Lebanon's favour.

Iranian state television portrayed the ceasefire as the result of Tehran's "insistence" alongside Hezbollah's "resistance".

Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the truce but would maintain a 10-kilometre (six-mile) "security zone" along the border in southern Lebanon.

Violence continued right up until shortly before the truce began, with Lebanon's health ministry saying at least seven people were killed and more than 30 wounded in an Israeli strike on the town of Ghazieh on Thursday.

burs/dc/smw

An old Smith Corona typewriter, letters from literary contemporaries and photographs are part of the items spanning the life of renowned Mexican writer and journalist Elena Poniatowska to go on display this week in Mexico City.

Poniatowska, winner of the 2013 Cervantes Prize -- the most prestigious award in Spanish-language literature -- and still active at the age of 93, was not at all pleased with the idea of an exhibition about her life.

"But what I've done my whole life is give a voice to others!" the writer protested when organizers proposed the project to her, according to Alejandro Brito, director of the Museo del Estanquillo in the historic center of the Mexican capital.

The exhibition, which explores her career in journalism and literature, opens on Saturday at the museum founded by Carlos Monsivais, Poniatowska's close friend and literary partner who died in 2010.

On display is a 1955 essay on photography by Mexican painter Diego Rivera, a letter from author Fernando del Paso and photographs from Poniatowska's interviews with figures who have shaped Mexico's artistic, political and social life over the past seven decades.

The writer, born in Paris in 1932 and distantly related to the last Polish king, arrived in Mexico aged 10 and developed an interest in journalism and literature early on. 

- 'Massacre in Mexico' -

Photographs show her reporting from a prison, where she interviewed students who were political prisoners following a massacre against student demonstrators in 1968.

Those interviews inspired her to write one of her most courageous and well-known books "Massacre in Mexico."

At the time, the work was hailed for raising awareness about the brutal military repression that had been kept under wraps.

According to her son Felipe Haro, director of the Elena Poniatowska Amor Foundation, his mother wrote the book because "she felt comfortable in the prison; she liked the stories" she found there.

"Elena is a great storyteller," he told AFP during a media tour of the exhibition.

The author, who continues to write and publish, recently visited President Claudia Sheinbaum at Mexico's National Palace.

Sheinbaum asked if Poniatowska needed help getting from the parking lot to the presidential office.

"She almost took offense when we asked her (...) she walked in perfectly fine, completely lucid," the president said at a press conference this week.

During the press tour, Haro said the family had received offers from abroad to display the archives, but that his mother wanted the collection to remain in Mexico.

"Taking the archive away is like taking away the memory" of a country, Haro said.

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The International Cricket Council said Friday it is investigating Cricket Canada over allegations of match corruption, including the team's loss to New Zealand at the recent T20 World Cup hosted by India and Sri Lanka.

The game in Chennai -- which Canada lost by eight wickets -- is under scrutiny following allegations of corruption highlighted in a documentary aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) on Thursday.

"The ACU (anti-corruption unit) is aware of the programme broadcast by CBC," Andrew Ephgrave, interim general manager of the ICC's Integrity Unit, said in a statement.

The documentary by the public broadcaster made wide-ranging accusations of corruption and poor governance against Canada Cricket.

In the Chennai game, suspicion is focused on the fifth over bowled by captain Dilpreet Bajwa during New Zealand's chase, according to the ESPN Cricinfo website.

He started with a no-ball, bowled a wide, and ended up conceding 15 runs in the over.

Canada scored 173 for four wickets in 20 overs, while New Zealand replied with 176 for two off 15.1 overs.

The ICC, the game's world governing body, is also investigating a telephone call involving then Canada coach Khurram Chohan in which he claims that senior Cricket Canada board members put pressure on him to select certain players, it said.

"Governance matters in relation to ICC Members are considered by the ICC, where they fall under its jurisdiction, in accordance with the ICC's standard constitutional processes," Ephgrave said.

Cricket Canada said it was treating the matter with "utmost importance".

"Recent promotional material alludes to allegations related to organized crime and match-fixing -- issues that Cricket Canada takes extremely seriously," the organisation said on its website.

"Where matters are raised, we are committed to reviewing them responsibly and taking appropriate steps as needed."

abh/fox

Blistering temperatures rising to 40C and above will now be branded "cruelly hot" or "kokusho-bi" in Japan, the weather agency said Friday, as heatwave days become increasingly frequent in the region.

By using this designation, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) "will more effectively call for vigilance against extremely high temperatures", it said.

Last year, Japan sweltered through its hottest summer since records began in 1989 -- with warmer days on the rise globally due to climate change. 

To come up with the new category, JMA conducted a survey with the public and received responses from 478,000 people before adopting "cruelly hot", which was deemed the most popular. 

Coming in second was "super-extremely hot day" or "cho-mosho-bi" while "sauna day", "stay-at-home day" and "boiling day" were also among the choices, JMA said.

The new category joins terms already used by JMA for temperatures rising to 25C and higher (summer day), 30C and higher (midsummer day), and 35C and higher (extremely hot day).

kh/ane/abs

French actor Gerard Depardieu on Friday dropped a lawsuit against broadcaster France Televisions over a 2023 television report that portrayed him as making sexual comments about a young girl.

Depardieu, whose prolific film and television career includes 1990 comedy "Green Card" and Netflix series "Marseille", is the highest-profile figure caught up in France's response to the #MeToo movement.

The 77-year-old actor's decision to withdraw the lawsuit was announced by his attorney, Delphine Meillet, at the start of a hearing before the Paris Criminal Court.

The court case focuses on a dispute between Depardieu and a television show that in December 2023 aired a report that dented his public image and sparked an uproar in France.

The episode, titled "The Fall of the Ogre", included footage of him repeatedly making sexual comments about women during a trip to North Korea in 2018.

In one section, he appears to make an obscene comment about a young girl riding a horse.

The withdrawal of the lawsuit also applies to France Televisions President Delphine Ernotte-Cunci, the authors of the report, and the production company Hikari.

"France Televisions welcomes this withdrawal, which brings to an end two years of legal proceedings, controversy, and misinformation," the broadcaster said. 

"Two expert analyses concluded that the actor had indeed made remarks of a sexual nature toward a young girl and ruled out any fraudulent manipulation of the footage," France Televisions added. 

A Paris court last year handed Depardieu an 18-month suspended sentence after convicting him of sexually assaulting two women on a film set in 2021.

The court also ordered that the actor register as a sex offender.

ng-as/giv

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced mounting pressure to quit on Friday over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as envoy to Washington, after it emerged the veteran politician had failed security vetting.

The affair has haunted Starmer for months amid growing anger over Mandelson's 2024 nomination to the top diplomatic post despite his close ties to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Mandelson, a longtime insider with Starmer's ruling Labour party, has held multiple ministerial posts since the late 1990s -- but has been dogged by repeated scandals throughout his career.

The government has blamed foreign ministry officials for the latest debacle, saying neither Starmer nor his foreign minister were told about Mandelson's failed security check until this week.

The top civil servant in the foreign ministry, Olly Robbins, has now quit after Starmer "lost confidence in him" over the failure to tell him "about this decision", senior minister Darren Jones said on Friday.

Foreign ministry officials made the decision to allow Mandelson's appointment to proceed "against the recommendation of UK Security Vetting", the government said on Thursday.

Calls by opposition politicians for the prime minister to resign intensified Thursday as the government confirmed an initial report by the Guardian newspaper that had been appointed even after failing the background security check. 

The ambassador to Washington is seen as Britain's most prestigious and most important diplomatic post, in charge of nurturing the so-called "special relationship" with President Donald Trump. 

- 'Furious' -

Earlier in the year, two of Starmer's top political aides resigned over the scandal amid the growing political storm. 

Starmer has faced repeated questions about his judgment in selecting Mandelson, who he sacked in September last year only months after the former minister took up the post.

Opposition right-wing Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch wrote on X that "Starmer has betrayed our national security. He should go".

The prime minister has accused Mandelson of lying about the extent of his ties to Epstein during the vetting process.

Jones said Friday it was "unacceptable" that the foreign ministry had overruled the vetting process, and denied the premier had misled parliament, calling the error-strewn process "a failure of the state".

"You can imagine he (the PM) was furious as you would expect that he was only told about this on Tuesday evening," Jones told Sky News, adding Starmer would address parliament on Monday.

He also denied that Starmer's position was at risk. The "public can see in Keir Starmer that they have a strong, credible leader who has influence on the world stage," he insisted.

- Police investigation -

Starmer fired Mandelson as ambassador after documents released by a US Congressional committee revealed new details about the depth of his ties to Epstein. 

Police have now opened an investigation into allegations of misconduct in office by Mandelson, who was arrested and released on bail in February.

He has not been charged and denies criminal wrongdoing.

The force is investigating Mandelson over allegations he leaked sensitive documents to Epstein when he was a government minister, including during the 2008 financial crash.

The due diligence advice submitted to Starmer in December 2024 noted a series of reports detailing Mandelson's links with Epstein, who was convicted of sex crimes in Florida in 2008, including soliciting a minor.

It said their relationship "continued across 2009-2011", beginning when Mandelson was a government minister and continuing after the end of the UK's last Labour government in 2010.

It also noted that Mandelson "reportedly stayed in Epstein's house while he was in jail in June 2009".

Lawmakers earlier this year ordered the Labour government to release tens of thousands of emails, messages and documents detailing how Mandelson was vetted for the role.

The second tranche of documents is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

jkb/jj/pdw

The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Lebanese return -

AFP images showed packed cars heading southwards along Lebanon's coastal highway before dawn, and crossing at sunrise what was left of a bridge bombed by Israel during the war.

The returns came despite Lebanese army warnings that advised residents of southern Lebanon not to return.

- Ceasefire 'violations' - 

Lebanon's army reported "several Israeli acts of aggression" that it said violated the ceasefire, in a post on X.

- Ceasefire takes effect -

A 10-day ceasefire agreed between neighbouring states Israel and Lebanon took effect at midnight local time (2100 GMT Thursday). Israel has been fighting Hezbollah since the militant group launched rocket attacks in support of Iran last month. 

Hezbollah has not officially said if it will recognise the ceasefire but one of its lawmakers told AFP on Thursday that the group would respect it if Israel stopped its attacks on its militants.

- Trump hopes Hezbollah 'acts nicely' -

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he hoped Hezbollah "acts nicely and well" during the 10-day ceasefire reached hours earlier between Lebanon and Israel. 

"I hope Hezbollah acts nicely and well during this important period of time," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, saying it would be a "GREAT moment for them if they do. No more killing. Must finally have PEACE!"

- Iranian FM 'welcomed' Israel-Lebanon ceasefire -

Iran's foreign ministry welcomed the Israel-Lebanon truce, calling it part of the earlier two-week ceasefire deal struck between the Islamic republic and the United States to pause the Middle East war, state media reported. 

Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei "welcomed the announcement of the ceasefire in Lebanon and noted that the cessation of the war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire understanding between Iran and the United States, mediated by Pakistan", state news agency IRNA posted on Telegram.

- Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire before truce starts -

Israel's emergency service, Magen David Adom, said two people were wounded, one of them seriously, in Karmiel and Nahariya after rocket fire in northern Israel as the army and Iran-backed Hezbollah exchanged new cross-border fire shortly before the truce was due to take effect.

- Netanyahu hails truce -

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the 10-day ceasefire with Lebanon offered an opportunity for a "historic peace agreement" with Beirut, but insisted that the disarmament of militant group Hezbollah remained a precondition.

Trump earlier said Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun had agreed to the truce starting at 2100 GMT on Thursday evening.

- Iran to hand over enriched uranium? -

Trump said that Iran had agreed to hand over its store of enriched uranium and that the two sides were "close" to a peace deal ending six weeks of conflict.

"They've agreed to give us back the nuclear dust," Trump told reporters at the White House, using his name for the enriched uranium stockpile that the United States says could be used to build nuclear weapons.

- Hezbollah in ceasefire -

Trump said the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon would include Iran-backed Hezbollah.

"Today they're going to be having a ceasefire, and that'll include Hezbollah," Trump told reporters.

- Israeli strike kills seven -

An Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Ghazieh has killed at least seven people and wounded 33, the health ministry said, hours before the ceasefire between the two countries went into effect.

Lebanese state media reported a "massacre against civilians" in the town, noting that rubble removal operations were ongoing, while the health ministry said its toll was "preliminary and not final".

- Lebanese PM welcomes ceasefire -

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he "welcomes" Trump's announcement of the 10-day ceasefire with Israel.

A Hezbollah MP told AFP the Iran-backed militant group would respect the ceasefire if Israel stops its attacks on its fighters.

- Trump invites Israel, Lebanon to White House -

Trump said he would invite the leaders of Israel and Lebanon to the White House after the two countries agreed a ceasefire. 

"I will be inviting the Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, and the President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, to the White House," Trump posted on Truth Social.

burs/yad/js

The Wikimedia Foundation said Friday it will hold talks with the Indonesian government after Jakarta threatened to block Wikipedia over registration rules the firm says "departs from international human rights norms".

A meeting will take place next week to discuss Indonesia's demands for Wikimedia to register as an "electronic system provider" (PSE), the Wikipedia parent company said in a statement sent to AFP.

Under a 2020 regulation, all PSE companies, including those based outside the country, are required to register for what the government says are for legal and user protection purposes.

Critics have pointed to a provision that requires registered PSEs to take down content deemed as "causing public unrest and disturbing public order" as a free speech restriction.

The government on Wednesday gave the foundation seven days to register or face its services, including Wikipedia Indonesia, being blocked in the country of 284 million people.

"We intend to explain the Foundation's unique position as a nonprofit technology host for Wikipedia... and the significant ways that registration under Indonesia's MR5 regulation departs from international human rights norms and threatens the privacy and security of Wikipedia editors," the foundation's statement said.

It added "we will resist inappropriate orders, and we push back on laws that require very rapid and guaranteed disclosure of user data without the ability to raise appropriate legal objections".

A blockage of Wikipedia in Indonesia will "deny the fourth most populous country in the world access to the largest free knowledge repository", the statement said.

The Communication and Digital Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier in the week, the ministry said the Wikimedia Foundation had repeatedly sought extensions to registration.

Last October, Indonesia briefly suspended TikTok's local operating licence after the social media platform refused to share information sought by Jakarta about violent anti-government protests earlier in the year.

mrc/mlr/abs