March 12, 2010 4:41 PM

ALMATY (AFP) - At least 25 people have died after two dams burst in southern Kazakhstan causing massive flooding, Almaty regional government spokesman Ilyas Biyakhmetov told AFP on Friday.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's bloc has a slender lead over its rivals in the mainly Shiite southern Iraqi province of Muthanna, partial election results showed on Friday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama, will delay leaving on his trip to Indonesia and Australia until Sunday March 21, his spokesman said Friday, as the White House battles for health care reform.

LONDON (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy criticised the United States on Friday over bidding rules for a tanker jet contract, saying it was "not the way" for Washington to treat its European allies.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US retail sales unexpectedly rose 0.3 percent in February, despite severe winter storms that hammered large regions of the country, official data showed Friday.

About AFP:

About AFP

AFP delivers fast, accurate, in-depth news from every corner of the world, 24 hours/day.

An independent news agency

The world’s first news agency

AFP traces its history back to the 1835 creation of Agence Havas, the world’s first international news agency.

Reborn as Agence France-Presse

Journalists in the resistance seized the Paris headquarters in August 1944 as France was liberated from Nazi occupation, renaming the agency Agence France-Presse.

The 1957 statute

It defines the fundamental principles that guarantee the independence of AFP and the freedom of its journalists.

Article 2

"Agence France-Presse may not under any circumstances take account of influences or considerations that would compromise the accuracy or objectivity of the news; it must not under any circumstances pass under legal or de facto control of an ideological, political or economic group.”