WORLD

After spending weeks in Libya trying to reach Europe illegally, Muhammad Naeem Butt turned back -- abandoning a journey that has already cost hundreds of Pakistani lives this summer.

Russia hosts African leaders this week for a summit aimed at boosting ties despite concerns in Africa over the conflict in Ukraine and the suspension of a deal on Ukrainian grain exports.

During the visit, Minister Sheikh Shakhboot bin Nahyan discussed regional issues of common interest and the prospects of collaboration between the UAE and Zambia with President Hichilema.

Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban government has barred girls and women from high schools and universities, banned them from parks, funfairs and gyms, and ordered them to cover up in public. An order issued last month forces the closure of thousands of salons nationwide run by women.

Karina, a seven-year-old war orphan who lives in Kyiv with her aunt, has vivid memories of life before her parents were killed fleeing invading Russian forces.

A three-day United Nations summit opened in Rome on Monday aimed at tackling a "broken" global food system where millions are starving, two billion are overweight or obese and the planet is suffering.

The armoured evacuation vehicle screeched to a halt to the sound of artillery fire and unloaded a group of reconnaissance soldiers whose mission went bad in Bakhmut.

Eurozone economic activity shrank at its fastest rate in eight months in July, as a contraction gathered pace on the back of cuts in manufacturing, a key survey said Monday.

Pyongyang conducted twin missile launches late Monday, ahead of Korean War anniversary celebrations that will be attended by Chinese dignitaries in the first foreign delegation visit to the country since its 2020 pandemic border closure.

Wildfires raging across Algeria during a blistering heatwave have killed more than 30 people and forced mass evacuations, the government said on Monday.

Ukrainian drones hit two buildings in Moscow and an ammunition depot in Russian-annexed Crimea on Monday, Russian officials said, as Ukraine reported another Russian strike on a grain facility.

Eleven people died after the roof of a school gym collapsed in northeastern China, state media reported Monday.

Israel's hard-right government was planning Monday to push through parliament a key element of its controversial judicial revamp.

Like other Iranian Kurds who fled into exile during last year's women-led mass protests, 17-year-old Sarina tries to keep a low profile in her new home in northern Iraq.

A baby monkey caused chaos in a Pakistan court after escaping from a troop presented as evidence in a case of wildlife smuggling, officials said.

A Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea Saturday blew up an ammunition depot, sparking evacuations on the Moscow-annexed peninsula just five days after drones damaged Russia's symbolic bridge across the Kerch Strait.

Iraqi security forces on Saturday dispersed about 1,000 supporters of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr who tried to march to Baghdad's Green Zone housing foreign embassies, believing a Koran had been desecrated in Denmark.

Last-ditch efforts to reach a compromise dragged into the night as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to put a key plank of his government's controversial judicial reforms to the vote Monday after undergoing surgery to fit a pacemaker.

Russia's latest strike on Odesa on Sunday killed two people and severely damaged a historic Orthodox cathedral, drawing a vow of retaliation from Ukraine's leader.

A library in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem offers a rare glimpse into Palestinian history with its treasure trove of manuscripts dating back hundreds of years before the creation of Israel.

Protesters took to the streets of the Iraqi and Iranian capitals Friday to denounce Sweden's permission for protests that desecrate the Koran, as Stockholm withdrew staff from its Baghdad embassy.

Former separatist commander and nationalist blogger Igor Girkin, better known by his alias Igor Strelkov, has been detained after sharply criticising Russian President Vladimir Putin, his lawyer said on Friday.

It took three tries for the group of Ukrainian soldiers to fire a huge shell from a Soviet-era howitzer at a Russian position in Bakhmut.

Middle East powerhouses Saudi Arabia and Iran have summoned Swedish diplomats to denounce Stockholm's permission for protests that desecrate the Koran on free speech grounds.

The old priest painted a warning on the cracked walls of his shack: "Twelve children were born here!

The world's biggest rice exporter India has banned some overseas sales of the grain "with immediate effect", the government said, in a move that could drive international prices even higher.

Tall, chimney-like towers rise from centuries-old adobe houses in Iran's desert city of Yazd, drawing in a pleasant breeze for residents of one of the hottest cities on earth.

The Russian high-explosive bombs started falling around the frontline Ukrainian chemical plant about three months ago.

Smoke was rising from the blackened ruins of a residential building in Mykolaiv on Thursday after a Russian missile hit the centre of the southern Ukrainian city, killing at least two and injuring 19 including several children.