AFP news

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.

President Joe Biden's administration has for the first time approved direct US military aid to Taiwan under an assistance program aimed at foreign governments, officials said Wednesday, as worries grow over China.

More than four months into Sudan's devastating war, arms dealers are struggling to keep up with demand for a trade that is booming, at a deadly cost.

France condemned the toppling of Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba on Wednesday which could represent another setback for Paris in Africa where friendly governments have been falling in an "epidemic" of coups.

Russia on Wednesday vetoed an attempt to keep inside military-run Mali a team of UN experts who had charged that foreign forces -- a veiled reference to Moscow-linked Wagner mercenaries -- were involved in widespread abuses.

The graft-tainted former secretary-general of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) launched a new leftwing party on Wednesday ahead of general elections next year.

Rebel officers in the oil-rich central African state of Gabon announced on Wednesday they had seized power following disputed elections in which President Ali Bongo Ondimba, in power since 2009, had been declared victor.

Prior to Wednesday's dramatic announcement, Bongo's spell in office was marked by disputed elections and a stroke that spurred rumours about his fitness for office and fuelled a minor attempted coup.

The Global Fund announced Wednesday a deal with generic pharmaceutical manufacturers to significantly slash the price of a cutting-edge HIV drug, in a move it said would save lives.

There is growing evidence of women across Africa facing online disinformation campaigns aimed at discrediting their ambitions and forcing them out of politics, experts say.

A group of Gabonese military officers appeared on television Wednesday announcing they were "putting an end to the current regime" and cancelling an election that, according to official results, President Ali Bongo Ondimba won.

Kyiv was targeted early Wednesday by the "most powerful" barrage of missiles and drones since the spring, authorities said, with two people reported dead, as Russia claimed it destroyed four Ukrainian boats in the Black Sea carrying up to 50 soldiers.

Oil companies are paying popular influencers to pump their gas on social media, sparking a backlash from some climate-conscious fans for promoting planet-warming fossil fuels among young people.

The United States wants to work with China to ensure a more "predictable" environment for American businesses in Shanghai, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told officials in the economic hub on Wednesday.

Sixty years ago, a crisis hotline for the first time sent a message between the world's superpowers.

Welcoming back potentially misleading political messages at X came less than a week after former president Donald Trump posted there for the first time since January 2021.

Former Algerian defence minister Khaled Nezzar has been indicted in Switzerland on charges of committing crimes against humanity in the 1990s during the civil war, state prosecutors said Tuesday.

Algeria's foreign minister on Tuesday proposed a six-month transitional plan for neighbouring Niger, whose coup leader seeks a far longer timeline back to democracy.

Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash two months after staging a short-lived mutiny, was on Tuesday laid to rest in a secret ceremony in his native Saint Petersburg.

The cap of a Ukrainian fighter pilot known as "Juice" sat atop his flag-draped casket Tuesday as mourners gathered to pay homage to the 29-year-old considered legendary by the country's air force.

The United States is racing to improve its messaging to the developing world as the BRICS group grows, although few in Washington view an immediate threat from the Chinese-backed club.

Google on Tuesday said it was weaving artificial intelligence (AI) deeper into its cloud offerings as it vies for the business of firms keen to capitalize on the technology.

Cyprus police said Tuesday they have arrested 21 people after violent clashes between Cypriots and migrants near the resort city of Paphos, where authorities have started removing Syrians from a condemned apartment complex.

Kenya's struggling national carrier Kenya Airways on Tuesday reported a surge in losses in the first half of the financial year due to increased foreign exchange and borrowing costs.

Meta on Tuesday said it purged thousands of Facebook accounts that were part of a widespread online Chinese spam operation trying to covertly boost China and criticize the West.