AFP news

The United Nations Environment Programme, in its annual Emissions Gap report, found that updated national promises since last year's COP26 summit in Glasgow would only shave less than one percent off global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

"We are excited to announce the remarkably personal and emotionally powerful story of Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex," Penguin Random House said on Twitter.

"It's horror over there. The ground is black like asphalt. Everything is destroyed," 38-year-old serviceman Yevgen told AFP.

The agreement, hailed by US President Joe Biden as a "historic breakthrough", comes as Western powers clamour to open up new gas production and reduce vulnerability to supply cuts from Russia.

The bloody attack in the southern city of Shiraz came as thousands of mourners paid tribute to Amini on Wednesday in her western hometown, 40 days after her death in police custody.

With thick concrete walls, steel-reinforced doors and an air purification system, Lee says his shelter, buried under a metre (three feet) of earth, could keep him safe from a nuclear disaster and withstand a direct hit from a conventional missile.

"Central Asia and Europe are coming closer together and becoming more and more connected," Michel said at a press conference with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in the capital Astana.

He also criticised the "more or less veiled military threats" towards Greece made repeatedly by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his senior officials in recent months.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military coup in February last year, but despite its expressions of concern, efforts by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have yet to bear any fruit.

City authorities are eager for the international finance get-together to show Hong Kong is open for business, having been previously isolated by China's zero-Covid policy.

Born in 1958 in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, then part of the Soviet Union, to a coal miner and a construction worker, Zelensky, a namesake of the Ukrainian leader, served as a driver in the Soviet army and then worked in construction.

China and the United States have butted heads in recent years on issues ranging from Beijing's aggression towards self-governing Taiwan to its crackdown in Hong Kong and alleged rights abuses in Xinjiang.

The attack carried out by an armed "terrorist" during evening prayers at the Shah Cheragh mausoleum in the city of Shiraz also wounded at least 19 people, state television said.

Football Australia said the reported exploitation of migrant workers during stadium construction "cannot be ignored", and urged Qatar to legalise same-sex marriage in one of the most significant tournament protests to date.

Religion plays an increasingly big role in politics in Brazil, where 59 percent of people say it is an important factor in how they vote, according to polling firm Datafolha.

The ECB's 25-member governing council is likely to lift its key interest rates by 75 basis points for the second consecutive time, economists say.

Musk signaled the deal was on track Wednesday by changing his Twitter profile to "Chief Twit" and posting a video of himself walking into the company's California headquarters carrying a sink.

Brittany Higgins, 27, alleged that former conservative staffer Bruce Lehrmann, 27, raped her on a couch inside the parliamentary office of a government minister following a night of heavy drinking in March 2019.

West -- known formally as Ye -- has made headlines in recent weeks for racist and anti-Semitic statements that have cost him several lucrative fashion collaborations.

Only last year the IEA said there was "no clear peak in sight" in energy emissions, but the new higher investment in wind and solar is setting up demand for all fossil fuels to peak or plateau, leading to a drop in emissions.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said government has decided to give Eskom 225 billion rand ($12.4 billion) towards debt for the period 2019 to 2026.

Led by the African Union (AU), the negotiations in Pretoria follow a surge in fierce fighting in recent weeks that has alarmed the international community and triggered fears for civilians caught in the crossfire.

"The federal cabinet today agreed the key points for the controlled distribution of cannabis to adults for recreational use," Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said at a news conference.

The combined climate pledges of more than 190 nations that signed up to the 2015 Paris climate deal put Earth on track to warm around 2.5C (36 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels by the century's end, the UN said.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- less than three months after Scholz took office last December -- pitched their countries into crisis mode and decisions taken under the pressure of the war and its knock-on effects have raised hackles on both sides.

A scandal over millions of dollars allegedly found stashed at his luxury farmhouse has stained the image of Ramaphosa, who in 2018 had been trumpeted as a clean pair of hands after the graft-tainted era of Jacob Zuma.

Following a meeting of his new-look cabinet, Sunak was set to engage in his first parliamentary joust against opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer, who is demanding a snap general election.

China is the last major economy welded to a zero-Covid strategy, persisting with snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines in a bid to keep infections to a minimum.

Under the compromise reached by Scholz's cabinet, Chinese shipping giant Cosco will be allowed to buy a stake "below 25 percent" in a container terminal owned by HHLA, the economy ministry said in a statement.