WORLD

"My whole life was in this house. Maybe in the future, it will be possible to either sell the house or make repairs.

The family of the British-Pakistani father and son among the five people who died on the Titanic tourist submersible expressed "profound grief" at their loss Friday.

With the Israeli-occupied West Bank once again in turmoil after the latest bloodshed this week, uncertainty has deepened over the position of 87-year-old Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with a negotiated peace looking as unlikely as ever.

Residents of the city of Kadugli in southwest Sudan began fleeing the city on Thursday as tensions escalated between the army and a powerful rebel group, threatening to open another area of conflict in the country's ongoing war, witnesses said.

Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin added fuel to his feud with the top brass on Thursday, accusing them of lying to President Vladimir Putin and the Russian people about the scale of Russian losses and setbacks in Ukraine.

If world leaders and the heads of multilateral development banks gathered at a Paris summit recognise that climate goals depend on revamping the architecture of global finance, it would be a "historic" development, a top development economist said Thursday.

Enormous crowds of worshippers thronged Mecca, Islam's holiest city, on Friday for the biggest hajj pilgrimage in years, with more than two million expected to brave the scorching Saudi Arabian heat.

AD Ports Group of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed an agreement Thursday to take over the running of part of Pakistan's main Karachi docking facility in a deal worth an immediate $220 million, the company said. AD Ports Group has formed a joint venture with another UAE company, Kaheel Terminals, to take over berths from Karachi Port Trust (KPT), the state-owned handling agency.

President Joe Biden aims to herald the start of a stronger U.S.-Indian relationship on Thursday by announcing a series of defense and trade agreements with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Washington attempts to counter China's global influence.

President Joe Biden on Thursday called religious freedom a "core principle" for India and the United States, in a gentle nudge as he welcomed India's Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narenda Modi.

All five people aboard a submersible missing near the wreck of the Titanic died -- likely in an instant -- after their vessel suffered what the US Coast Guard said Thursday was a "catastrophic implosion" in the ocean depths.

The head of the Red Cross federation, the world's largest humanitarian network, is stepping down, a spokesman confirmed Thursday, following a row in Italy surrounding the Rome Pride event.

The United Nations has put Russian military forces and proxy armed groups on its "list of shame" over the killing and maiming of hundreds of children in its war against Ukraine, according to a document seen by AFP Thursday.

Foreign donors have pledged 60 billion euros ($66 billion) of new financial support for Ukraine, the UK said Thursday, as an international conference aimed at funding the war-ravaged country's reconstruction closed.

A "catastrophic implosion," such as that believed to have destroyed the Titan submersible, would have happened with incredible force and speed given the crushing water pressure on the floor of the ocean.

The Titanic inspired a tear-jerking blockbuster and expeditions to its watery gravesite -- including a fatal one this week -- but viral TikTok videos peddle a stunning conspiracy theory: the ship never sank.

Equity markets sank Friday and oil extended a sharp selloff after a string of interest rate hikes by central banks revived worries about the global economy.

U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich lost his latest appeal in a Moscow court on Thursday against his pre-trial detention on charges of espionage.

At loggerheads over who should fill a vacant presidency, Lebanon's fractious politicians are waiting for foreign powers to resolve their crisis, leaving the country adrift as its failing state teeters on the brink of collapse.

The death of at least 23 migrants during an attempt to cross into Spain's North African enclave of Melilla from Morocco one year ago prompted an outcry over police actions, but advocates say no-one has been held responsible.

Turkey on Thursday pivoted away from years of unconventional economics promoted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the central bank nearly doubled its key interest rate to fight inflation and steady the troubled lira.

Russia is 99.9% certain to quit a U.N.-brokered deal on the safe wartime passage of Black Sea grain next month because it no longer needs Ukrainian ports to export ammonia, a senior Ukrainian diplomat said.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthi authorities controlling north Yemen have exchanged 64 fighters' bodies in the third such recent deal, Houthi media said on Wednesday, the latest sign of progress in talks to end their eight-year conflict.

The appointment of additional royals to Kuwait's new cabinet, including a convicted defence minister, looks like a push by the ruling family to show unity and reassert power as it wrestles with an opposition-controlled parliament.

Swathes of northern China sweltered in 40-degree heat on Thursday, weather data showed, as parts of Beijing and the nearby megacity of Tianjin recorded their highest temperatures for years.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank officials are joining dozens of economic leaders for a two-day summit in Paris, aiming to tackle the interlinked challenges of poverty alleviation and climate change.

Ukrainian missiles struck the Chonhar road bridge connecting Crimea with Russian-held parts of the southern Kherson region overnight, forcing traffic to be diverted to a different route, Russian-appointed officials said on Thursday.

A multinational search team crisscrossed the sea and skies above the century-old wreck of the Titanic for a fifth day on Thursday, seeking a tourist submersible that went missing with five people aboard and was just hours away from the presumed end of its air supply.

Hundreds of mourners on Wednesday laid to rest an Israeli teenager shot dead a day earlier by Palestinian gunmen near a Jewish settlement, as months of tensions in the occupied West Bank again exploded into violence.