AFP news

The UK's controversial plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will cost GBP169,000 ($210,000) per person, according to an impact assessment published Tuesday, although the government insisted it would recoup most of the costs.

Russia prepared Tuesday to take possession of heavy military hardware held by Wagner as Moscow moved to bring the mercenary group under its control after its aborted mutiny.

India will host Pakistan's cricket team for the first time in seven years in the 50-over World Cup in October, the International Cricket Council said Tuesday.

Common standards unveiled Monday for companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions could curb misleading climate claims in the corporate world, the chair of the body that wrote the norms told AFP. Currently, most large companies report how many tonnes of carbon they emit into the atmosphere each year, but the data is often not reliable.

The revolt by the Wagner mercenary group has exposed glaring weaknesses in the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin, raising questions over his capacity to weather the growing threats to his political survival, analysts say.

Global energy sector carbon dioxide emissions hit a record peak last year counter to Paris commitments, a key study warned Monday, and highlighted the "worst ever" impacts of climate change.

Sudan's army on Monday faced a multi-front challenge after losing Khartoum's main police base to paramilitaries in a battle that killed at least 14 civilians, while rebels attacked troops near Ethiopia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday accused Ukraine and its Western allies of wanting Russians to "kill each other" during a revolt by mercenaries of the Wagner group, which stunned the country with an aborted march on Moscow over the weekend.

With nearly constant surveillance, gruelling isolation and limited family access, the treatment of the last 30 Guantanamo detainees is "cruel, inhuman and degrading," UN rights experts said Monday as they reported on their first visit to the US military prison.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims crowded Saudi Arabia's Mount Arafat on Tuesday, the climax of a potentially record-breaking hajj pilgrimage held in fierce summer heat.

Russian mercenary group Wagner has been seen for years as an armed extension of Moscow's influence in Syria and Africa -- a status now called into question by its leader's aborted revolt.

Kenyan President William Ruto on Monday signed into law a bill that raises taxes on a wide range of items, the presidency said, defying criticism that it will pile more economic hardship on citizens.

Moscow was striving Monday to portray a return to business as usual after a weekend mutiny by mercenary troops threatened Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin's grip on power.

Malian voters overwhelmingly approved changes to the constitution in a referendum, marking a key step in the ruling junta's declared plans to restore civilian rule, provisional results showed Friday.

Artillery fire, air strikes and gun battles rocked Sudan's capital on Saturday, witnesses told AFP, as the UN urged a stop to "wanton killings" that have left decomposing bodies in Darfur.

Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko scored a propaganda victory by brokering the deal which staved off the threat of an internal armed conflict in Russia but he may live to regret an accord that will see his country host the Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, observers say.

Vast crowds of robed Muslim faithful walked solemn circles around the Kaaba, the black cube at Mecca's Grand Mosque on Sunday to begin the biggest hajj pilgrimage in several years, in the heat of the Saudi summer.

The Wagner mercenary group's mutiny has weakened President Vladimir Putin and could affect the course of the war in Ukraine, analysts say.

Russia's bid to build a new embassy near Australia's parliament suffered a legal blow on Monday, with a top court backing the government's effort to seize the land.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis embarked Monday on his second term as Greece's prime minister with a vow to accelerate institutional and economic reforms, after voters handed him a huge election victory for the second time in five weeks.

Russia might be going through its largest political crisis in decades, but the mood in Moscow was calm on Saturday, with cafes busy and few visible signs of panic on a warm summer day.

Fighting on Sunday between rival Sudanese generals in Darfur killed at least a dozen civilians, said a doctor in the devastated region.

Al-Shabaab jihadists have killed five civilians, some by beheading, in eastern Kenya, a witness and a police source told AFP on Sunday.

The amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism draws its name from the Zulu word for dung beetle -- a diligent species that fulfils a crucial role.

Defence firms are racing to meet demand for systems to protect against attacks using tricky-to-intercept hypersonic missiles, with several on display at this week's Paris Air Show.

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.