AFP news

NASA's distant Voyager 2 probe has sent a "heartbeat" signal to Earth after mission control mistakenly cut contact, the US space agency said Tuesday.

Senegalese opposition figure Ousmane Sonko's presidential plans have been blighted by a fresh barrage of criminal charges and the dissolution of his party ahead of next February's elections.

Anton Moiseyev sat for the third day in the cabin of his lorry, parked by a roadside cafe in Ukraine's southern Odesa region, in a bottleneck triggered by Russia's scrapping of a grain shipping deal.

The military coup in Niger last week raises the question of Europe's dependency on uranium mined in the West African nation for its nuclear power plants.

From BP to ExxonMobil to TotalEnergies, none of the oil and gas majors have repeated the exceptional profits posted in 2022 when prices surged in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but they nevertheless remain comfortably profitable this year.

One person was reportedly killed and hundreds of thousands were without electricity in southern Japan on Wednesday as a typhoon appproached packing powerful winds and lashing rain.

Chinese controls on exports of two metals critical to making semiconductors came into force on Tuesday, a day after Beijing imposed curbs on the foreign sales of some drones.

Niger's new junta on Monday accused France of seeking to "intervene militarily" to reinstate deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, as tensions soared with the former colonial power and its neighbours.

A missile strike on a residential building killed six and wounded dozens in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown on Monday, as Russia said it stepped up strikes against military facilities in response to attacks on its territory, including Moscow.

Two men set the Koran alight outside parliament in Stockholm on Monday, an AFP reporter saw, at a protest similar to previous ones that have sparked tensions between Sweden and Muslim nations.

Sonko, a fierce critic of President Macky Sall, "was charged and placed in custody" after appearing before a judge, lawyer Ousseynou Ngom told AFP.

After bust-ups with Mali and Burkina Faso, France is now watching its relationship with Niger spiral downwards following the Sahel's third military takeover in as many years.

The king, known as the Kabaka, occupies a largely ceremonial role, but has previously had run-ins with the government of President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled over Uganda with an iron fist.

A Ukrainian drone downed by Russia on Tuesday struck a Moscow office tower that was also hit over the weekend, as multiple other drones were downed, Russian officials said.

Two people were killed Monday during protests in southern Senegal after the indictment and detention of opposition figure Ousmane Sonko, a presidential candidate for the 2024 election, the interior ministry said.

The company formerly known as Twitter removed a towering, blinking X from atop its San Francisco headquarters Monday after the rebranded tech firm tangled with city officials over the controversial sign.

The Euclid space telescope, launched July 1 on a mission to shed more light on elusive dark matter and dark energy, has reached its destination orbit and on Monday its European operators revealed its first test images.

Panama announced on Monday that more migrants have crossed the Darien Gap, the hazardous jungle area separating Central and South America, so far this year than in all of 2022.

At least four people were killed including a 10-year-old child after a Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rig on Monday, officials said.

Nigerien participants in the Francophone Games, which have kicked off in DR Congo's capital, have been left struggling after a putsch in their home country last week.

Firebrand Senegalese opposition politician Ousmane Sonko said Sunday he had started a hunger strike from custody after being arrested this week, as his lawyers condemned his arrest.

Kenyan President William Ruto said Sunday he would "not negotiate about the safety of our country" with his rival after agreeing to dialogue to end violent protests against his government.

African leaders on Sunday gave the junta in Niger one week to cede power or face the possible use of force, and slapped financial sanctions on the putschists, after the latest coup in the jihadist-plagued Sahel region raised alarm on the continent and in the West.

The coup in Niger, the third in as many years to topple an elected leader in Africa's troubled Sahel, threatens to further hamper efforts against jihadist groups in the region, analysts say.

Nouhaila Benzina became the first player to wear a hijab during a Women's World Cup game when she sported the Muslim headscarf in Morocco's match against South Korea on Sunday.

Niger's junta said ECOWAS could stage an imminent military intervention in the capital Niamey as the regional bloc was due to hold an "extraordinary summit" on Sunday over the coup in the Sahel state.

The Central African Republic voted on Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that would allow President Faustin-Archange Touadera to seek a third term in a country which has endured several coups.

Russia said on Sunday it had downed Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow and the Crimea peninsula in attacks that damaged two office towers in the capital and briefly shut an international airport.

The African Union asked Niger's new junta to return to their bases and restore constitutional order in 15 days as the EU and former colonial ruler France Saturday suspended security cooperation and financial aid to the jihadist-hit country.