French cooperative news agency .
Based in Paris, it has roots in the Bureau Havas, created in 1832, which in 1835 became the Agence Havas, the world's first true news agency. The Agence Havas was active until the German occupation of France in 1940, when many of its personnel went underground. After the liberation of Paris in 1944, underground journalists emerged to form AFP. The French government assigned the assets of Agence Havas to AFP, which quickly became one of the world's leading wire news services. AFP operates bureaus in Africa, Asia-Pacific countries, Latin America, the Middle East, North America, and Europe.