WORLD

A Ukrainian drone downed by Russia on Tuesday struck a Moscow office tower that was also hit over the weekend, as multiple other drones were downed, Russian officials said.

China deployed military helicopters on Tuesday to deliver supplies to stranded train passengers in Beijing, state media reported, after deadly rainstorms wreaked havoc in the capital.

Panama announced on Monday that more migrants have crossed the Darien Gap, the hazardous jungle area separating Central and South America, so far this year than in all of 2022.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has defended the choice of Hungary's capital Budapest to host this month's world championships and also said the sport's latest doping case was actually a reason to celebrate.

US officials met with Taliban representatives in Doha, where they denounced the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan -- particularly for women and girls, according to a statement from the State Department on Monday.

Leading Senegalese opposition figure Ousmane Sonko on Monday was charged with fomenting insurrection and his party dissolved, stoking concerns about further unrest two months after fatal clashes.

The UN's cultural agency UNESCO on Monday recommended that Venice be added to its list of world heritage in danger, saying the Italian authorities needed to step up efforts to secure the historic city and its surrounding lagoon.

After bust-ups with Mali and Burkina Faso, France is now watching its relationship with Niger spiral downwards following the Sahel's third military takeover in as many years.

Clashes in south Lebanon's Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp killed at least two people Monday, medics told AFP, bringing the death toll to eight since fighting erupted over the weekend.

Myanmar's junta extended the country's state of emergency by six months on Monday, signalling a delay to elections they had pledged to hold as the military battles anti-coup fighters across the country.

Two men set the Koran alight outside parliament in Stockholm on Monday, an AFP reporter saw, at a protest similar to previous ones that have sparked tensions between Sweden and Muslim nations.

A missile strike on a residential building in Ukraine killed five and wounded dozens on Monday, as Russia said it stepped up strikes against Ukrainian military facilities in response to attacks on its territory, including Moscow.

Niger's new junta on Monday accused France of seeking to "intervene militarily" to reinstate deposed President Mohamed Bazoum as tension mounted with the former colonial power and neighbours.

Hong Kong's economy expanded by 1.5 percent in the second quarter, data released Monday showed, indicating slowing growth after a robust start to the year.

At least four people were killed including a 10-year-old child after a Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rig on Monday, officials said.

Blood-stained chairs, scattered ball bearings and shoes shed by the dead, wounded and panicked bore testimony Monday to the carnage caused by a suicide bombing at a Pakistan political event.

The United States will rely on allies rather than a major expansion of its own forces to counter any Chinese military risk in the Pacific, a US general has told AFP. Beijing enjoys "very clear" advantages in the region, said Major General Joseph Ryan, commander of the 12,000-strong 25th Infantry Division on Oahu, Hawaii.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. made efforts to ease maritime tensions between Manila and Beijing during his state visit to China earlier this year.

"The issue today is: how to walk back (from the BRI) without damaging relations [with Beijing]. Because it is true that China is a competitor, but it is also a partner," Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said.

Pakistan police on Monday combed through the bloody wreckage of a suicide blast that killed at least 44 people at an Islamist party's political gathering ahead of elections due later this year.

Authorities have lost hope of finding survivors after a military helicopter plunged into the sea during war games over the weekend, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said Monday.

Iraq, which borders with Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, has long been a transit country for the region's ballooning trade in the amphetamine-type drug and other narcotics.

Bolivia has mobilized more than 2,250 security agents in a massive operation closing in on an alleged cocaine trafficker who has ricocheted around the world to elude capture, a senior official said on Sunday.

Nigerien participants in the Francophone Games, which have kicked off in DR Congo's capital, have been left struggling after a putsch in their home country last week.

An eye for an eye, and a hurled microphone for a thrown drink. Visibly shocked but only for a second, the New York-born rapper turned and hurled her microphone at the person while cursing her out, as members of her security team jumped into the audience.

Firebrand Senegalese opposition politician Ousmane Sonko said Sunday he had started a hunger strike from custody after being arrested this week, as his lawyers condemned his arrest.

Kenyan President William Ruto said Sunday he would "not negotiate about the safety of our country" with his rival after agreeing to dialogue to end violent protests against his government.

At least 39 people were killed and dozens more wounded Sunday in a suicide bombing at a political gathering of a leading Islamic party in northwest Pakistan, officials said.

West African leaders were to meet on Sunday for a crisis summit on the coup in Niger, where protesters tried to storm the French embassy after the junta warned of an "imminent military intervention".