WORLD

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday his plan to stop migrants arriving in small boats had reduced crossings by 20%, an update he hopes will ease criticism from his party and in the country over immigration policy.

Moscow said on Monday it had thwarted a major Ukrainian offensive in the south of Ukraine's Donetsk region but Russia's main mercenary leader said Russian forces had lost ground around Bakhmut further north.

Elhaji Cisse was busy on Friday, the day he was killed, tweeting hundreds of times as riots erupted beyond the walls of his compound in a busy suburb of Senegal's capital Dakar.

The children of the Triplets Ghetto Kids troupe have already wowed the Britain's Got Talent judges and viewers alike with their energetic dance medley, colourful costumes and beaming smiles.

Prigozhin, a 62-year-old former restauranteur who founded the Wagner mercenary group and is a member of President Vladimir Putin's wider circle, has gained widespread notoriety during the 15-month war in Ukraine.

Suspicions of a plot against Sonko seemed confirmed for some when the verdict against him was announced on Thursday.

Tensions remained high in Senegal Saturday after clashes brought the death toll to 15 since a court convicted opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. Sonko's ongoing legal woes have prompted rare flare-ups of violence in Senegal, typically a bastion of stability in West Africa, and foreign allies have urged a return to calm. Disturbances were reported on Saturday in the suburbs of the capital Dakar.

Shebekino, a town of 40,000 people in the western Belgorod region, has been intensely shelled for days.

Polls closed in Guinea-Bissau's parliamentary elections on Sunday as voters sought some stability more than a year after President Umaro Sissoco Embalo dissolved parliament over accusations of corruption.

The meeting of the 13-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) headed by Saudi Arabia and its 10 partners, led by Russia, saw some tough negotiations.

The veteran leader was speaking during a meeting with members of his governing National Resistance Movement party, the presidency told AFP on Sunday.

Kyiv has for months said it is preparing a major counteroffensive, hoping to reclaim territory lost since Russia launched its military operation in February 2022.

At least 275 people were killed on Friday when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, went off the tracks and hit another passenger train passing in the opposite direction in the eastern state of Odisha.

She is one of several thousand people from border homes who fled to the regional hub of Belgorod as attacks intensified on Shebekino and nearby villages.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed a $30 billion railway infrastructure modernisation in a bid to boost India's economy and connectivity, with trains the preferred and cheapest mode of long-distance travel for both people and goods.

Multiple ceasefires have been agreed and broken, and Washington slapped sanctions on the two warring generals last week, blaming both sides for the "appalling" bloodshed.

Novak Djokovic swept into the French Open quarter-finals for the 14th straight year on Sunday as world number one Carlos Alcaraz breezed past Lorenzo Musetti to stay on a collision course with the 22-time Grand Slam champion.

It was not immediately clear whether or not the reported attack represented the start of a Ukrainian counteroffensive which Kyiv has been promising for months to recapture territory taken by Russian forces after the invasion of February 2022.

Senior officials from over a dozen countries including Saudi Arabia and Iran were in talks on closer links with the BRICS bloc of major emerging economies on Friday as it met to deepen ties and position itself as a counterweight to the West.

Two civilians were killed on Friday in shelling on Russia's Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, while Kyiv was hit by Russian strikes overnight for a sixth day in a row.

The Chinese envoy who toured European capitals last month seeking to promote Ukraine peace talks said on Friday that Beijing is considering another mission, after acknowledging that his trip may not produce immediate results.

Witnesses reported artillery fire around the state television building in the capital's sister city of Omdurman, just across the Nile.

Generations of travellers have stood before the "ksars" of Djado, wondering at their crenelated walls, watchtowers, secretive passages and wells, all of them testifying to a skilled but unknown hand.

Russia has launched about 20 missile and drone attacks on Kyiv since the beginning of May, a surge in strikes that the government says appears aimed at derailing Ukraine's preparations for a major counter-offensive.

On his first day in office, Tinubu kept to his campaign promise and announced an end to the long-running arrangement, which has given Nigerians access to cheap petrol.

As the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues, the foreign ministers of BRICS have called for strengthening the weapons control system to maintain peace and security across the globe. Following the first BRICS Ministerial Meeting held on Thursday, the ministers, including China Qin Gang, Brazil's Mauro Vieira, South Africa's Naledi Pandor, Russia's Sergey Lavrov and India's S. Jaishankar, shared a joint statement, titled "The Cape of Good Hope."

Ahead of an expected Ukrainian counter-offensive in the 15-month war, Russia has come under repeated attack in recent days, including a major cross-border incursion and the biggest ever drone attack on Moscow.

A conviction for "corrupting youth" may disqualify Sonko, President Macky Sall's fiercest opponent, from contesting next year's presidential election.

The incoming head of the U.N. migration agency said on Thursday that she has talked to companies like Microsoft to see how they can build partnerships to manage migration.