AFP news

Pope Francis on Saturday hammered home his message that European governments must do more to care for migrants crossing the Mediterranean, saying "those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome".

Ireland moved to the brink of the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals by beating reigning champions South Africa 13-8 in a low-scoring but thoroughly absorbing match at the Stade de France on Saturday.

The standoff between gunmen and Kosovo authorities at a monastery near the border with Serbia ended Sunday night, authorities in Pristina said, following a police operation to regain control of the area.

Pope Francis on Saturday led tens of thousands of worshippers for a mass in Marseille after earlier striding into a politically loaded debate in the French Mediterranean city by urging European states not to treat migrants as invaders.

With the production of plastic on the rise worldwide and creating ever more pollution, the UN environment chief warned that humanity cannot just recycle its way out of the mess, and she called for a total rethink about the way we use plastics.

Investors were hoping to hear central banks finally signal this week that they were close to being done raising interest rates in their battle against inflation.

A seven-year space voyage came to its climactic end Sunday when a NASA capsule landed in the desert in the US state of Utah, carrying to Earth the largest asteroid samples ever collected.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday warned Iran at the United Nations of a "nuclear threat" in what his office quickly walked back as a slip of the tongue.

Libya's flood-devastated port city of Derna will host an international conference next month to aid reconstruction efforts, authorities in the east of the divided country said Friday.

President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced that France would withdraw its ambassador from Niger, followed by the French military contingent in the coming months, a move welcomed by Niger's military leaders as a "step towards sovereignty".

President Joe Biden is set to host leaders of Pacific island nations with an aim of countering China's ever-growing influence, proffering goodies ranging from an American football experience to shiny new embassies.

The United States and China on Friday announced two new working groups on economic and financial policy, in the latest effort to stabilize fraught relations between the world's biggest economies.

Every little detail counts in an isicathamiya competition: the harmony, the choreography, the costumes, the entrance on stage, the exit and, of course, the singing.

Libya's devastating flood has transformed Derna from a busy port welcoming fishing boats and ships loaded with goods and passengers into a dump brimming with rubble, car wrecks and dead bodies.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a "strategic partnership" with Syria on Friday during talks with President Bashar al-Assad, who is seeking financial support to help rebuild his devastated country.

In the sandy courtyard of a school turned shelter in northern Sudan, two children idly pass a football back and forth.

Somalia's national security adviser wrote to the United Nations requesting a 90-day delay in the second phase of a pullout that provides for the departure of 3,000 troops by the end of September, according to the letter.

Armenia and Azerbaijan clashed Thursday at the United Nations on the heels of a swift military victory in Nagorno-Karabakh by Baku, which heard calls from Western nations led by France to provide safety guarantees.

Sudan's army chief warned Thursday at the United Nations that months of war could spill over in the region as he urged international pressure on the paramilitary unit he is fighting.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said Thursday there could be no peace in the Middle East without a two-state solution, sending a warning as Saudi Arabia considers recognizing Israel.

A US government contractor who worked at the State and Justice departments has been arrested on charges of spying, reportedly for Ethiopia.

Kenyan President William Ruto on Thursday urged the United Nations to quickly authorize an international security mission to Haiti, which it has agreed to lead, as the impoverished Caribbean nation suffers from devastating gang violence.

The head of the Central African Republic on Thursday accused the West of triggering a migration crisis by pillaging Africa's natural resources through slavery and colonization.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, who once enjoyed enthusiastic support from his allies in the defence of Ukraine, is encountering more diplomatic setbacks than at any point since Russia's 2022 invasion.

A diplomatic crisis bogging down Ottawa and New Delhi highlights Canada's lack of "seriousness" on national security as foreign countries interfere on the North American nation's soil, according to several experts.

Kenyan police said Thursday they had learned from their "mistakes" as the nation commemorated the 10th anniversary of a bloody siege at an upmarket shopping centre in the capital Nairobi.

Senegalese President Macky Sall said Thursday a diplomatic solution in Niger was "still possible" nearly two months after a military coup toppled its democratically elected president.

King Charles III on Thursday said France and the UK should team up on a new pact to battle the climate emergency, as he hailed the "indispensable" cross-Channel partnership in a rapturously received speech at the French Senate.

Ukraine on Thursday warned that difficult winter months lay ahead after a massive Russian missile barrage targeted civilian infrastructure, killing three in the south and wounding many across the country.