WORLD

US President Joe Biden said Wednesday that "pariah" Vladimir Putin is "losing" the war in Ukraine, but it is too early to tell whether the Russian president has been weakened by the mercenary Wagner group's aborted rebellion.

Nigerians marked the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha on Wednesday with prayers, celebrations and family dinners as many navigated high inflation, a steep currency devaluation and growing transport costs.

Madonna is recovering after falling ill with a "serious bacterial infection" that landed her in an intensive care unit for several days, her manager Guy Oseary said in a statement Wednesday.

Experts have recovered presumed human remains from what is left of the Titan sub that imploded during a dive to the Titanic wreck, with the death of five people, the US Coast Guard said Wednesday.

With the imminent end of the UN's Mali peacekeeping mission seemingly no longer in doubt, negotiations at the UN are still foundering over the timetable for their departure, which Bamako wants "without delay", according to diplomatic sources.

Norway's government gave the green light Wednesday to 19 oil and gas projects worth more than 200 billion kroner ($18.6 billion), a decision that outraged climate activists.

Swedish police said they have granted a permit for a protest where the organiser plans to burn a Koran outside Stockholm's main mosque on Wednesday, the start of the Muslim three-day Eid al-Adha holiday.

Soldiers in eastern Ukraine swiftly unpacked a large grey drone and launched it to check the cloud level and survey the area, just kilometres from Russian positions.

As part of the mission, several African heads had traveled to Russia and Ukraine to seek peace, and end conflict between the two countries.

Outside a bustling fruit market in Senegal's Dakar region, three trucks are blocking the road while a dozen men sweat to unload the precious cargo.

Twenty-six Ugandans on Tuesday sued French oil giant TotalEnergies in Paris for reparations over alleged human rights violations at its massive megaprojects in the country, as climate protesters targeted its UK headquarters.

Fighting raged in the Sudanese capital on Tuesday, the eve of the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, after paramilitaries seized Khartoum's main police base.

Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio was re-elected to serve a second term with 56.17 percent of the vote, the head of the electoral commission said Tuesday, prompting the runner-up to "categorically reject" the result.

The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions aimed at disrupting gold mining activities that fund the Wagner Group in Africa, vowing to hold the mercenaries accountable for abuses days after they staged a mutiny in Russia.

At least four people were killed and more than 40 wounded in a Russian missile strike that hit a restaurant in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, authorities said Tuesday.

Massive crowds of robed Muslims gathered for the "stoning of the devil" ritual in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday as the biggest hajj pilgrimage since the pandemic draws to a close.

Co-hosts Australia will play their opening game of next month's Women's World Cup in front of a full house, a senior FIFA official told AFP Tuesday.

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.

"South Africa can leverage its weight to help bring an end to Russia's aggression in Ukraine and to preserve the UN Charter," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.

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.