AFP news

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.

The hajj, a major earner for the largely oil-reliant Saudi economy, follows the lunar calendar, meaning it does not always take place during the summer. This year's gathering could be the biggest on record, according to officials, after Covid-era caps on numbers were removed. A maximum age limit has also been scrapped, opening the door to large numbers of elderly people who may be more vulnerable to the heat.

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.

More than 100 people are being tried in Pakistan military courts over violence that erupted after former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested last month, the army said Monday, adding that three officers had been dismissed.

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.

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.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims walked or rode buses Monday to a giant tented city near Mecca for the climax of the annual hajj that Saudi officials say could break attendance records.

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.

The hajj pilgrimage has given Sudanese faithful Kamal Kabashi a brief respite from his country's bloody conflict.

Laser-focused on countering China, US President Joe Biden has embraced Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he has few other world leaders, casting aside any concerns about the Hindu nationalist's authoritarian streak.

Bangladesh police have arrested the leader of an Islamist organisation at his hideout in Dhaka, officers said Saturday, months after the launch of a crackdown against the group.

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.

The United States and its allies held close consultations but publicly stayed on the sidelines Saturday as officials waited to see how the armed revolt by longtime Kremlin insider Yevgeny Prigozhin and his private Wagner army would play out.

Tesla's electric charging network has long pleased electric car mavens.

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.

Russia's crisis involving a mercenary group's aborted revolt against the Kremlin exposed "real cracks" in President Vladimir Putin's rule, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday.

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

Knackered after covering a stunning march on Moscow by a small army of mercenaries?

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

Asian markets fluctuated Monday as traders kept an eye on Russia following an aborted mutiny at the weekend that stoked concerns about stability in the nuclear-armed country.

Russian air strikes killed at least 13 people in rebel-held northwest Syria on Sunday, the deadliest attack on the country this year, a war monitor said. At least nine civilians, including two children, were among the dead, with most killed at a fruit and vegetable market in Jisr al-Shugur in the Idlib region.

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.

Residents of a Russian city at the heart of a brief rebellion against army top brass expressed relief on Sunday but also voiced some sympathy for the mutiny and questions about what exactly happened.

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.