AFP news

Jubilant lawmakers in Lusaka sang Zambia's national anthem on Friday after foreign lenders agreed to restructure part of the country's debt, a move that entrepreneurs said brought hope for the crippled economy.

Kenyan President William Ruto does not hold back when describing the global lending system: it is "unfair, it's punitive, it doesn't give everybody a fair chance".

British military spies on Friday said Russia appears to be training combat dolphins in the annexed Crimean peninsula to counter Ukrainian forces.

"My whole life was in this house. Maybe in the future, it will be possible to either sell the house or make repairs.

If world leaders and the heads of multilateral development banks gathered at a Paris summit recognise that climate goals depend on revamping the architecture of global finance, it would be a "historic" development, a top development economist said Thursday.

All five people aboard a submersible missing near the wreck of the Titanic died -- likely in an instant -- after their vessel suffered what the US Coast Guard said Thursday was a "catastrophic implosion" in the ocean depths.

A "catastrophic implosion," such as that believed to have destroyed the Titan submersible, would have happened with incredible force and speed given the crushing water pressure on the floor of the ocean.

A Dutch court has ruled that Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola's late former president, illegally diverted 52 million euros from the southwestern African nation's state oil company.

The Titanic inspired a tear-jerking blockbuster and expeditions to its watery gravesite -- including a fatal one this week -- but viral TikTok videos peddle a stunning conspiracy theory: the ship never sank.

The United Nations has put Russian military forces and proxy armed groups on its "list of shame" over the killing and maiming of hundreds of children in its war against Ukraine, according to a document seen by AFP Thursday.

Foreign donors have pledged 60 billion euros ($66 billion) of new financial support for Ukraine, the UK said Thursday, as an international conference aimed at funding the war-ravaged country's reconstruction closed.

Copper-rich Zambia, the first African country to default on its debt during the Covid pandemic, on Thursday secured a deal from creditors to restructure its debt at a global finance summit in Paris.

The death of at least 23 migrants during an attempt to cross into Spain's North African enclave of Melilla from Morocco one year ago prompted an outcry over police actions, but advocates say no-one has been held responsible.

Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko has filed a criminal complaint in France for "crimes against humanity" against President Macky Sall, his lawyer said, as well as requesting a probe by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank officials are joining dozens of economic leaders for a two-day summit in Paris, aiming to tackle the interlinked challenges of poverty alleviation and climate change.

The United States has granted its first ever approvals to two companies to sell chicken grown directly from animal cells, becoming only the second country to allow lab-grown meat to be offered to consumers.

The 2024 Paris Olympics are coming in significantly over budget because of an "incomprehensible lack of understanding of the complexity of the IOC's specifications", France's Court of Audit has found.

Heatwaves across Asia and beyond have already broken records this year, while the arrival of the El Nino climate phenomenon will mean even more extreme temperatures.

Dozens of global leaders will gather in Paris Thursday for a summit to tease out a new consensus on international economic reforms to help debt-burdened developing countries face a growing onslaught of challenges, particularly climate change.

At least 31 people were killed when an explosion caused by a gas leak ripped through a restaurant in the northwestern Chinese city of Yinchuan, state media said Thursday.

The trial of Guinea's former dictator Moussa Dadis Camara for a 2009 massacre was on Wednesday once again adjourned after several weeks of delays, an AFP correspondent saw.

Making coffee for a soldier outside a shopping centre in eastern Ukraine, 24-year-old Nina said she gets news on the war with Russia that has rocked her country from social media.

Kenya's trade minister is at the centre of a firestorm over a series of derogatory remarks against a leading media outlet, including calling its journalists "prostitutes".

The African Union's mission in Somalia said Wednesday it had begun reducing troop numbers in line with plans to eventually hand over security to the troubled country's national army.

Renewed artillery exchanges rocked greater Khartoum early Wednesday as Sudan's warring generals resumed fighting just minutes after the latest US and Saudi-brokered ceasefire expired.

Brussels on Tuesday asked EU member states to back a 50-billion-euro ($55 billion) package to support Ukraine over the next four years, as part of a boost to the bloc's budget.

More than a week into Ukraine's counter-offensive, Kyiv has reported modest gains, liberating eight settlements in the first cautious steps of a daunting fight back against entrenched Russian positions.

More than 2.5 million people have been uprooted by Sudan's conflict, the UN said Tuesday, but in the western Darfur region the bodies of those who couldn't escape lie face down in the dirt.

Leaders and representatives from more than 60 countries are expected in London from Wednesday for a two-day conference to secure funding to help Ukraine recover from the ravages of war.