WORLD

The UK on Thursday announced its backing for an expanded UN Security Council, including a permanent spot for Africa, to reflect the current and future state of the world.

Mykyta lay in a hospital bed with cuts from shrapnel on his face and body after a Russian missile hit the restaurant where he was having dinner in Ukraine's eastern city of Kramatorsk.

The European Union warned Thursday that Russia has become more dangerous after a brief mutiny by its Wagner mercenaries that the bloc said exposed President Vladimir Putin as weaker than previously thought.

A burned district office, another pelted with stones, "lots of looting": in Lille, in the north of France, a game of cat and mouse played out into the wee hours of Friday morning between authorities and protesters.

The UK government said it would challenge a court ruling issued Thursday that blocks its plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, a set-back to its controversial bid to cut migrant numbers.

Kyiv said Thursday its forces were gaining ground in Donbas, as Moscow claimed it had killed two generals in a missile strike earlier this week -- the same day strikes on a restaurant in east Ukraine killed at least 12 people.

Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations on Thursday condemned the burning of the Koran by an Iraqi living in Sweden, warning such acts "inflame" the feelings of Muslims around the world.

France's civil air authority said Thursday it had ordered airlines to cancel flights to and from three airports because of a strike by air traffic controllers.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday are to look at ways to press aid on Tunisia in a bid to stem migrant boat departures for Europe.

Saudi authorities were investigating Thursday after an assailant and a security guard were killed in an exchange of gunfire outside the US consulate in Jeddah, the gateway city for the massive hajj pilgrimage taking place in Mecca.

"The two leaders discussed bilateral relations between the two countries. The meeting also touched on the crisis in Sudan and regional matters of concern," South Sudan government's official Twitter handle wrote.

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on a restaurant in eastern Ukraine rose to 11 on Wednesday, including children, as the Kremlin insisted Russian forces only hit military-linked targets.

Hundreds gathered in the Sudanese capital Khartoum Wednesday to pray for peace on the first day of the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, but gunfire shattered the brief respite, residents said.

African painted dogs, a species thought to have become extinct in Uganda four decades ago, have been spotted in the far northeast of the country, the wildlife authority said.

The streets of Sierra Leone's capital were quiet on Wednesday, a day after President Julius Maada Bio was sworn in for a second term following an election his main rival slammed as "not credible."

Unrest erupted in France for a second night in a row as balaclava-clad protesters burning rubbish and shooting fireworks clashed with security forces in violent demonstrations over the fatal shooting of a teenager by police.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that no new nuclear agreement was on the table with Iran, after quiet new diplomacy between the adversaries.

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.