WORLD

Beijing's top diplomat Wang Yi has urged Washington to "work with China" to improve ties during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.

Deadly fires have raged for a century in mines in India's Jharkhand state, where Savitri Mahto is one of 100,000 people risking their lives shovelling coal to supply insatiable demand.

Singapore's powerful anti-graft body issued an arrest notice for one of the city-state's richest people, his company said Friday, widening a probe into rare high-level corruption.

Trade ties between France and Gulf Arab states, namely Qatar and the UAE, are expanding year-on-year, France's trade minister told AFP on Thursday, praising the deepening partnership as "good news".

The International Criminal Court has opened a new probe into alleged war crimes in Sudan, its chief prosecutor said Thursday, expressing major concern over escalating violence.

Syria will let humanitarian aid flow through its main border crossing into rebel-held areas, reopening a conduit that had closed after a Security Council stalemate, the country's UN ambassador said Thursday.

The IEA trimmed its forecast for 2023 oil demand for the first time this year as macroeconomic headwinds including higher interest rates bite, but still sees it reaching a record level thanks to China's thirst for fuel.

As much of the world swelters in record temperatures, spare a thought for Issam Genedi, who ekes out a living washing cars in one of the planet's hottest regions, the Gulf.

Mohammed Hamid Nour is only 23, but he is already nostalgic for how Iraq's Mesopotamian marshes once were before drought dried them up, decimating his herd of water buffaloes.

The top US and Chinese diplomats will hold their second meeting in as many months on Thursday in Jakarta, seeking to manage tensions that risk flaring anew over alleged Chinese hacking.

Chinese exports tumbled more than expected in June, official data showed Thursday, putting fresh pressure on Beijing to unveil more stimulus measures to kickstart the flagging recovery.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins a two-day visit to France on Thursday where he will attend the traditional Bastille Day military parade as guest of honour and discuss major new defence deals.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally oversaw the successful test of the country's newest intercontinental ballistic missile, state media reported Thursday, days after Pyongyang threatened to down any US spy planes that enter its airspace.

More than 600 migrants forced out of Tunisia's port of Sfax to the desert borderlands with Libya are being sheltered and given humanitarian aid, the Red Crescent said on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, India's Ministry of external affairs stated that the Prime Minister of India will be visiting Abu Dhabi and meeting the President of UAE, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to strengthen the partnership between both countries. This visit will be an opportunity to identify various ways of taking the India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership forward in several domains including energy, education, healthcare, food security, fintech, defense, and culture.

Joe Biden already had his work cut out to prevent Turkey from spoiling the NATO summit.

The UN Human Rights Council voted Wednesday to condemn recent Koran burning incidents, but many countries declined to back the resolution, fearing it encroached on free speech.

World hunger stopped rising in 2022 after growing for seven years but remains above pre-pandemic levels and far off track to be eradicated by 2030, UN agencies said Wednesday.

Carlos Alcaraz saw off Holger Rune in straight sets on Wednesday to stay on course for a Wimbledon title showdown against defending champion Novak Djokovic.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas vowed to rebuild the Jenin refugee camp during a rare and brief visit Wednesday, a week after a deadly Israeli raid destroyed much of the camp in the occupied West Bank.

US President Joe Biden hailed Ukraine's "astounding" courage Wednesday in talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who set aside earlier frustrations with NATO to profusely thank the United States for its help.

Chinese-based hackers seeking intelligence information breached the email accounts of a number of US government agencies, computer giant Microsoft said.

At a training ground on the edge of Kyiv, a group of women ran through an obstacle course and fired Kalashnikovs, putting the new uniforms finally designed for them through a stress test.

UN chief Antonio Guterres denounced Wednesday a global financial system where nearly half the world's people live in countries whose governments spend more on debt than education or health.

The United Nations on Wednesday said nearly three months of war in Sudan have uprooted more than three million people, and called for the warring sides to face "accountability".

Israeli fire wounded three members of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement on Wednesday near the border with Israel, a security source in southern Lebanon said. The incident comes amid tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border area, a stronghold of the Shiite movement and the site of sporadic skirmishes. The Israeli army said in a statement that "a number of suspects approached the northern security fence with Lebanon and attempted to sabotage the security fence in the area".

On Ukraine's eastern front, soldiers welcomed a controversial US decision to send cluster munitions to Kyiv that will give them an "advantage on the battlefield".

The UN Security Council failed Tuesday to reach consensus on extending a key Syria aid route, throwing into doubt a vital mechanism that provides life-saving support to millions of people.

US President Joe Biden thanked his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday for his "courage" in dropping opposition to Sweden's entry to NATO. At a meeting during the NATO summit in Vilnius, Biden celebrated the conclusion of a major diplomatic push to get Erdogan to stop blocking Sweden's application.