AFP news

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's influential partner in his ruling coalition warned Tuesday the government needs to take "painful" economic recovery measures that include interest rate hikes.

The United States, on behalf of 27 countries, condemned Tuesday the open-ended nature of the UN investigation into alleged human rights violations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the "disproportionate" attention on Israel.

Rescue teams are scrambling to find five people on a tourist submersible that went missing near the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic on Sunday.

Rescuers trying to find the orca-sized submersible that vanished on its way to visit the wreck of the Titanic are facing a gargantuan task that will test the limits of technical know-how -- with only a very slight chance of success, experts say.

Renewed artillery exchanges rocked greater Khartoum early Wednesday as Sudan's warring generals resumed fighting just minutes after the latest US and Saudi-brokered ceasefire expired.

More than 2.5 million people have been uprooted by Sudan's conflict, the UN said Tuesday, but in the western Darfur region the bodies of those who couldn't escape lie face down in the dirt.

The UK will back Ukraine's economy to the tune of $3 billion over the next three years while it fights back against Russian forces, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on Tuesday.

Since the start of the year, Iran has intensified its diplomatic activity, engaging with friends and foes alike as it seeks to reduce its isolation, improve its economy and project strength. Iran's ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi has led the way, swinging through China, Syria and Venezuela, hosting Saudi Arabia's top diplomat, and reaching out to other long-time regional rivals such as Egypt.

A new, young generation of Moroccan filmmakers last month stepped into the limelight to make its debut at France's Cannes Film Festival -- snatching three prestigious awards.

US President Joe Biden equated his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping with "dictators" on Tuesday as he addressed a Democratic Party donors reception in the presence of journalists.

Asian markets mostly dipped Wednesday, following a downbeat lead from Wall Street as investors braced for Fed boss Jerome Powell's testimony to the US Congress.

Chinese imports of Russian oil last month hit their highest level since Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Beijing's customs data showed Tuesday.

Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank killed five Palestinians including a militant on Monday, in a raid that saw seven Israeli security personnel wounded and rare helicopter fire.

The leaders of Palestinian militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas held talks Monday with top Iranian officials in Tehran as deadly violence flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

China's central bank on Tuesday cut two benchmark interest rates, following several similar measures in recent days in a bid to counter the post-Covid growth slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

In the kitchen of his Kabul restaurant, one of the last cooks to master the Afghan culinary art of "chainaki" stuffs chunks of lamb and fat into about 200 tiny teapots to simmer for hours atop a clay stove.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to the United States on Tuesday to meet with President Joe Biden and address Congress, with military and technological ties on the agenda as his hosts seek a regional counter to China.

The United States and China looked to set up a safety net for their intensifying rivalry during a visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but the trip achieved only general promises and no breakthroughs on hoped-for military talks and flashpoint issues.

The UN's top expert on rights in Afghanistan urged countries Monday to consider making "gender apartheid" an international crime, helping hold the Taliban accountable for its grave and systematic abuses against Afghan women.

Pakistan authorities arrested 10 alleged human traffickers on Sunday, days after hundreds of migrants were feared drowned off the Greek coast.

Iraq unveiled on Sunday a 2,800-year-old stone tablet returned by Italy, as the war-ravaged country works to recover from abroad antiquities looted from its territory.

Before 21-year-old Pakistani Muhammad Akash boarded a rickety fishing trawler in Libya on a journey he hoped would take him to a brighter future in Europe, he contacted his family one last time.

The world's first international treaty to protect the high seas is due to be adopted Monday at the United Nations, a historic environmental accord designed to protect remote ecosystems vital to mankind.

World leaders will gather in Paris this week with ambitions to reimagine global financing for a new era shaped by climate change, as a cascade of crises swamps debt-burdened countries.

International donors led by the EU on Thursday pledged 5.6 billion euros ($6.1 billion) for Syrian refugees, but Brussels stressed it will not ease its stance on President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Hosting his counterpart Ebrahim Raisi in Havana, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said both nations "have had to face heroically, with tenacious resistance, the sanctions, the pressures, the threats, the blockades and the indifference of US imperialism and its allies."

Under current policies, the planet will warm nearly twice that much by 2100, according to the UN's climate science advisory panel.

In Washington they paused; in Frankfurt they hiked; and in Beijing, they cut.

Nissan top executive Ashwani Gupta is leaving the company, the Japanese automaker said Friday, in a surprise departure that will revive concerns about the stability of the firm's leadership.