AFP news

A high-level delegation of Chinese officials will visit North Korea this week to attend celebrations for a key national holiday, state media reported Thursday.

The United States will provide depleted uranium tank ammunition to Ukraine as part of more than $1 billion in military and humanitarian aid announced by Washington on Wednesday.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken stopped at a McDonald's with his counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv Wednesday, as part of a trip to shore up US support for Ukraine.

United States-backed Kurdish-led fighters in northern Syria on Wednesday fought a deadly battle with Turkish-supported forces who said they intervened after clashes killed dozens in an Arab-majority province further east.

Conservationists and the fishing and tourism industries must take pre-emptive measures to protect wildlife and livelihoods as the El Nino phenomenon amplifies marine heatwaves already made more intense and frequent by climate change, scientists said on Wednesday.

Statements by G20 ministers ahead of a key summit are "woefully inadequate" about addressing the climate emergency, the UN's climate change chief told AFP in an interview Wednesday, calling for stronger action from the nations responsible for most planet-heating pollution.

The UK government said on Wednesday it would ban Russian mercenary outfit the Wagner Group by listing it as a terrorist organisation.

The United States slapped sanctions on top officials of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces Wednesday for a range of alleged murders and rights abuses, including the killing of the governor of West Darfur.

Ukraine's newly appointed Defence Minister Rustem Umerov vowed on Wednesday to recapture all territory under Russian military control, in his first comments in the new role.

Massive demand for diabetes and weight loss drugs made by Danish pharmaceutical group Novo Nordisk have turned it into Europe's most valuable company, giving Denmark's economy a major makeover.

Storms that unleashed torrential flooding in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria have killed at least 11 people, authorities said Wednesday, as extreme heat gave way to heavy rain.

Rustem Umerov, confirmed by parliament as Ukraine's new defence minister Wednesday, is known as a skilful and pragmatic negotiator with excellent connections in the Muslim world.

Climate change is driving more intense and more frequent heatwaves, which in turn generate a "witch's brew" of pollutants, threatening the health of humans and all living things, the UN warned Wednesday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv Wednesday after another night of Russian strikes on Ukraine, with Washington set to unveil more than $1 billion in fresh aid to battle Russia.

2023 is likely to be the hottest year in human history, and global temperatures during the Northern Hemisphere summer were the warmest on record, the EU climate monitor said on Wednesday.

Landmark African climate talks are set to wrap up Wednesday with leaders seeking a united voice to highlight the continent's green growth potential provided the world steps up help for funding and debt.

A Nigerian appeals court on Wednesday will rule on an opposition challenge to overturn President Bola Tinubu's election victory in an eagerly awaited decision.

US President Joe Biden heads to India for the G20 summit this weekend aiming to capitalise on the glaring absence of China's and Russia's leaders to bolster alliances in the sharply divided bloc.

Southeast Asian leaders meet with top US, Chinese and Japanese officials at a series of summits in Indonesia on Wednesday, where big power rivalries and regional issues from the South China Sea to North Korean missiles will be on the table.

With no cell service or phone calls, people in Sudan's war-ravaged western region of Darfur are resorting to a bygone means of communication: handwritten letters, carried by taxi drivers.

On a tiny Caribbean island, hundreds of people are preparing to pack up and move to escape the rising waters threatening to engulf their already precarious homes.

Some six billion tonnes of sand and other sediment is extracted from the world's seas and oceans every year, the UN said Tuesday, warning of the devastating toll on biodiversity and coastal communities.

Elon Musk, the owner of social media platform X, formerly Twitter, said he is considering suing a leading anti-defamation group, arguing that its accusations of anti-Semitism have led the company to lose revenue.

French schools sent dozens of girls home for refusing to remove their abayas -- an over-garment from the shoulders to the feet worn by Muslim women -- on the first day of the school year, a government minister said Tuesday.

Fifty-three members of the security forces have been killed in an attack by suspected jihadists in northern Burkina Faso, the army said on Tuesday.

At a dusty construction site on the bank of the Dnipro river in Kyiv, workers busily prepared the heating system for the upcoming winter while it was still warm.

A Swedish oil company allegedly knew that Sudanese armed forces would use violence to secure areas in which it wanted to operate, prosecutors said Tuesday as two former executives faced war crimes charges.

Gabon's new strongman on Tuesday met central Africa's mediator for the country and started to amnesty dissidents following a coup last week that brought the curtain down on the 55-year Bongo dynasty.

UN chief Antonio Guterres joined African leaders on Tuesday in demanding urgent reforms to the "outdated and unfair" global financial system, speaking at a landmark climate summit in Kenya aimed at showcasing the continent's green potential.