WORLD

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday voiced hope for the "best possible result" from an upcoming NATO summit where Kyiv is hoping for a clear signal that it could one day join the alliance.

Conflict-torn Sudan is on the brink of a "full-scale civil war" that could destabilise the entire region, the United Nations warned Sunday, after an air strike on a residential area killed around two dozen civilians.

Saudi Arabia should review its goals for lowering carbon emissions and consider adopting targets to be met as soon as 2030, France's energy transition minister told AFP in the kingdom. Agnes Pannier-Runacher left the world's biggest oil exporter early Sunday morning after meeting with her Saudi counterpart and French and Saudi business people. Emissions reduction targets can be more credible "when we give ourselves objectives in a short period -- 2030-2035 -- and therefore do not postpone the subject to 2050," Pannier-Runacher said in an interview late Saturday.

To the sound of club beats, hundreds of young Ukrainians swarmed over the ruins of bombed-out homes in several villages in the north of the country this weekend.

US President Joe Biden was in Britain on Monday for a brief visit to his key ally during which he will meet King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before going on to a NATO summit in Lithuania.

Sweden's prime minister will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday in a last-gasp attempt to bridge a diplomatic impasse over his Nordic state's stalled NATO membership drive.

Pakistani mountaineer Shehroze Kashif faces sub-zero temperatures and biting winds in his race to scale the world's highest peaks, but his biggest challenge is finding the money.

Top Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi's efforts to overturn his expulsion from parliament were again blocked Friday when a court refused to stay his jail sentence for defamation.

Human Rights Watch on Friday urged Tunisia to put an end to what it called the "collective expulsions" of Black African migrants to a desert area near the Libyan border.

Iraq has opened an investigation into the suspected kidnapping of an Israeli-Russian academic after her disappearance in Baghdad, a government spokesman said.

At least 50 people, including eight children, have been killed by floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains that have lashed Pakistan since last month, officials said Friday.

The mind-blowing growth of artificial intelligence poses many questions that have no answers yet, the United Nations admitted Thursday at its AI summit, attended by some exceptionally life-like humanoid robots.

The company that operated the sub which imploded during a dive to the Titanic wreck, killing all five people aboard, said Thursday it had halted all activities indefinitely.

In the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, couples stroll in a popular park and parents push their children on swings on a hot summer day.

Stocks tumbled again Friday in Asia after another round of strong US data reinforced expectations the Federal Reserve will resume its interest rate hikes as officials wrestle with stubbornly high inflation.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen begins a full day of meetings in Beijing including with Premier Li Qiang on Friday, as Washington seeks to steady the tense relationship between the world's top two economies.

It has been five years since Jawhara al-Wabili became one of Saudi Arabia's first women drivers -- a reform she saw as revolutionary, even as some activists dismissed it as window-dressing.

Britain on Thursday announced plans for a tougher sanctions regime against Iran over alleged human rights violations and hostile actions against its opponents on UK soil. The new sanctions regime will expand existing penalties imposed by creating new criteria under which individuals and entities can be hit.They include any Iranian activities "undermining peace, stability and security in the Middle East and internationally", and the "use and spread of weapons technologies from Iran".

The Emirati oil executive chairing this year's UN climate summit, Sultan Al Jaber, told private and national oil and gas companies on Thursday they must slash their planet-warming emissions. Jaber said the entire industry "should be aligned" to help the world meet the target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This includes not only international oil companies but also national state-controlled ones, Jaber told an OPEC seminar in Vienna.

The Israeli army said Thursday it was conducting strikes on southern Lebanon after a mortar launched from its northern neighbour exploded in the border area between the two foes.

The world saw its hottest June on record last month, the EU's climate monitoring service said Thursday, as climate change and the El Nino weather pattern looked likely to drive another scorching northern summer.

Saudi Arabia is continuing its multi-billion-dollar entry into all aspects of global culture, hitting a new milestone on Thursday with the first Saudi designer presenting at Paris Fashion Week.

Britain's defence minister on Wednesday said allegations of unlawful killings in Afghanistan being examined by an independent inquiry relate to UK special forces.

Clothes, sofas and kitchen furniture still lie strewn around Nadiya Yefremova's garden a month after her home was flooded by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine.

Canada, Britain, Sweden and Ukraine have taken Iran to the UN's top court to seek damages for families of passengers on a jetliner downed by Tehran in 2020, they said Wednesday.

Sporting a white cap and apron, Rachid Ibersiene bustles around vats at his dairy in Algeria's Atlas Mountains where he has brought the tradition of artisanal cheesemaking back from Switzerland.

The US military said Wednesday it had blocked two attempts by the Iranian navy to seize commercial tankers in international waters off Oman, including one case in which the Iranians fired on the tanker.

Russian investigators on Wednesday said they had launched a criminal investigation after award-winning journalist Elena Milashina was badly beaten in Chechnya.

UN observers appealed on Wednesday for greater access to Europe's largest nuclear plant, after Moscow and Kyiv traded accusations over a possible "catastrophic" act of sabotage at the Russian-controlled facility in Ukraine.