AFP news

Some of Ukraine's allies have started wondering whether the counteroffensive against Russia is getting bogged down, to the irritation of Kyiv which says it needs more weapons, not criticism.

Makar and Nadiya Mikhailyuk chatter excitedly as they get ready for their first day back at school in Ukraine, after they and their mother moved back from Poland.

NASA has spotted a small new crater on the Moon that was likely caused by a Russian probe crash landing on the surface around two weeks ago.

Niger braced Friday for a weekend of planned anti-French rallies as tensions mount between the country's new military rulers and its traditional ally.

African policymakers will kick off a landmark climate summit in Kenya on Monday aimed at reframing the continent as a budding renewable energy powerhouse and calling for international financial help to unlock its potential.

Kenya next week hosts a flagship climate conference designed to showcase Africa as a potential powerhouse for green energy, in the first of a flurry of big meetings ahead of crunch UN talks.

Ukraine's military intelligence said Friday that a recent drone attack on an airport in northwestern Russia which damaged several transport planes was carried out from within Russian territory.

Search dogs looked for bodies on Friday in a Johannesburg building that went up in flames killing dozens and forcing South Africa to confront an illegal housing "crisis".

Kyiv police reported bomb threats to the Ukrainian capital's schools on Friday as children returned to classrooms for a second academic year since Russia's all-out invasion.

Tens of millions of people across southern China hunkered down Friday as Super Typhoon Saola swept towards the megacities of Hong Kong and Shenzhen, forcing the cancellations of hundreds of flights, shutting business and closing schools.

Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Sudan's war have crossed into Chad to find themselves in overcrowded camps, sweltering in plastic huts and awaiting healthcare that never comes.

At least 48 people have been killed in a crackdown on an anti-UN protest in eastern DR Congo, according to sources and official documentation reviewed by AFP on Thursday, raising a previously reported death toll.

The United Nations Security Council on Thursday renewed the mandate for its peacekeeping force in Lebanon for another year after tense debate around the troops' freedom of movement.

US envoy Amos Hochstein who oversaw a maritime border deal between Lebanon and Israel, countries technically still at war, said Thursday it was time to delineate their land border also.

Moody's further downgraded the credit ratings of Chinese property developer Country Garden on Thursday as the heavily indebted firm negotiates with creditors to avoid defaulting on a bond repayment.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Thursday floated the idea of a transition back to democracy in neighbouring Niger similar to the nine-month period his country underwent in the late 1990s.

The national anthem of Ukraine is broadcast at a bus stop in the pro-Russian separatist stronghold of Lugansk as locals go about their daily business.

The war triggered a patriotic impulse, but some Ukrainians are refusing to fight despite societal pressures, and warnings from authorities cracking down on draft evaders amid a difficult counteroffensive.

A key US inflation measure used by the Federal Reserve to set interest rates rose in July, due largely to another jump in the cost of services, according to government data published Thursday.

Blankets and sheets still hang from the blackened windows, used by the desperate to reach safety as flames turned the five-storey building in downtown Johannesburg into a death trap.

Eurozone inflation remained unchanged in August, official data showed Thursday, leaving the European Central Bank faced with a conundrum over whether to continue hiking interest rates amid fears of a deepening economic downturn.

The social media platform X will begin offering video and audio calling, owner Elon Musk announced on Thursday, a step towards turning the former Twitter into an "everything app."

Britain's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who last month announced he would step down in the next UK government cabinet reshuffle, has resigned, the prime minister's office said Thursday.

Chinese tech giant Baidu rolled out its ChatGPT-like ERNIE Bot to the public on Thursday.

A fire that engulfed a five-storey building killed more than 60 people including children in central Johannesburg on Thursday, the South African city's emergency services said.

More than 50 people have died in a fire that engulfed a five-storey building in central Johannesburg on Thursday, the South African city's emergency services said.

General Brice Oligui Nguema, named Gabon's new leader following a coup, loyally served the central African country's longtime strongman before turning on his son in Wednesday's military takeover.

North Korea said it fired two short-range ballistic missiles as part of a "tactical nuclear strike drill" prompted by US-South Korean military exercises, state media reported Thursday.

The Kremlin said Wednesday that investigators were probing all possible scenarios surrounding the death last week of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash, including premeditated murder.