WORLD

More than 50 world sites hope for inclusion on the UN's coveted heritage list at a meeting opening in Riyadh Sunday, while some incumbents, including Venice and Kyiv, face the risk of a downgrade.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has stripped Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas of the French capital's highest honour after he made remarks about the Holocaust that echoed anti-Semitic tropes, her office said on Friday.

Ukraine denounced what it called "fake elections" being held by Moscow on its occupied territory Friday, while Russian air strikes across the country killed four people and wounded dozens more.

Ukraine on Friday said four people were killed and dozens injured as Russia launched a new wave of air strikes in the centre and east of the country.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has said that he prevented a Ukrainian attack on a Russian Navy base last year by declining Kyiv's request to activate internet access in the Black Sea near Moscow-annexed Crimea.

G20 leaders began to descend on New Delhi Friday, hoping to make progress on trade, climate and a host of other global problems despite the Chinese and Russian presidents skipping the summit.

A policeman waves reporters away from a desert prison in Xinjiang, part of a network of detention facilities transformed by China's shifting policies in the northwestern region.

Homes of people who went missing in China's crackdown on its Muslim minorities stand locked and silent in Xinjiang's rural heartland.

Russia "must stop" its blockade of Ukrainian seaports after pulling out of a United Nations and Turkey-mediated deal to ensure grain shipments, European Council president Charles Michel said Friday.

G20 leaders meet this weekend during what is likely the hottest year in human history, but hopes are slim that the divided grouping can agree ambitious action on the crisis.

President Joe Biden arrives in Vietnam on Sunday on a mission to bolster US influence, but the heavy emphasis on countering rival China will likely confine human rights concerns to the margins.

"We both want to make COP28 a success and I look forward to our continued cooperation. We will work across the board to reinforce UAE-EU relations," European (EU) Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen said.

North Korea on Friday announced it had built a "tactical nuclear attack submarine" as part of its effort to strengthen its naval force, the state news agency KCNA reported.

Divided G20 leaders will descend on New Delhi from Friday, with host Prime Minister Narendra Modi seizing a chance to occupy the geopolitical centre stage and hammer home India's growing diplomatic clout.

Astronomers have discovered the first "bubble of galaxies," an almost unimaginably huge cosmic structure thought to be a fossilised remnant from just after the Big Bang sitting in our galactic backyard.

France's top administrative court on Thursday upheld a government ban on traditional over-garments worn by some Muslim women in schools and rejected complaints it was discriminatory and could incite hatred.

US President Joe Biden headed for the G20 in India on Thursday promising that the summit would "deliver" despite the absence of the Chinese and Russian leaders.

Armenia on Thursday accused arch-foe Azerbaijan of preparing a "fresh military provocation" by massing troops on their border and near the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Renewables funding, global finance reform and carbon taxes head the demands formulated by African nations at a summit in Nairobi this week as the world heads towards annual climate negotiations.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised what he called Ukraine's "extraordinary resilience" against Russian aggression during a visit to Chernigiv region Thursday as he concluded a surprise two-day trip.

Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met Qatar's emir on Thursday during his third trip abroad since war broke out in April, after also visiting Egypt and South Sudan in recent days.

France's highest administrative court is to rule on Thursday whether a school ban on abayas, traditional over-garments worn by some Muslim women, is legal.

Turkey's new Wall Street-trained finance chief will kick off a global investment roadshow at the G20 summit in New Delhi on Friday to drum up support for his rescue plan for the troubled emerging economy.

Hundreds of articles praising Bangladeshi government policies apparently by independent experts have appeared in national and international media but the authors have questionable credentials, fake photos, and may not even exist, an AFP investigation has found.

Traditional mud-brick houses that the people of northern Syria have built for thousands of years risk disappearing, as 12 years of war have emptied villages and left the buildings crumbling.

Asian investors took fright Thursday at a forecast-busting reading on the US services sector that revived speculation the Federal Reserve could lift interest rates again, compounding a spike in oil prices that has fanned fresh inflation fears.

For two and a half decades, it has been a top and consistent goal for the United States across very different presidencies -- encouraging the rise of India.

US Vice President Kamala Harris, China's premier and Russia's foreign minister will gather at an East Asia summit in Indonesia on Thursday, offering a rare chance of direct, top-level diplomacy between their sparring nations.

Google on Wednesday said it will mandate that political advertisements on its platforms disclose when images and audio have been altered or created using tools such as artificial intelligence (AI).