WORLD

Landmark African climate talks are set to wrap up Wednesday with leaders seeking a united voice to highlight the continent's potential as a green powerhouse, provided the world steps up funding and eases debt.

2023 is likely to be the hottest year in human history, and global temperatures during the Northern Hemisphere summer were the warmest on record, the EU climate monitor said on Wednesday.

"This initiative builds on the UAE's track record of commercially driven, innovative blended finance solutions that can be deployed to promote the adoption of clean energy in emerging and developing nations," COP28 President-Designate, Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber said.

Most Asian markets fell Wednesday as a jump in oil prices to 10-month highs rekindled worries of another US Federal Reserve interest rate hike.

US President Joe Biden heads to India for the G20 summit this weekend aiming to capitalise on the glaring absence of China's and Russia's leaders to bolster alliances in the sharply divided bloc.

Southeast Asian leaders meet with top US, Chinese and Japanese officials at a series of summits in Indonesia on Wednesday, where big power rivalries and regional issues from the South China Sea to North Korean missiles will be on the table.

With no cell service or phone calls, people in Sudan's war-ravaged western region of Darfur are resorting to a bygone means of communication: handwritten letters, carried by taxi drivers.

On a tiny Caribbean island, hundreds of people are preparing to pack up and move to escape the rising waters threatening to engulf their already precarious homes.

Some six billion tonnes of sand and other sediment is extracted from the world's seas and oceans every year, the UN said Tuesday, warning of the devastating toll on biodiversity and coastal communities.

Elon Musk, the owner of social media platform X, formerly Twitter, said he is considering suing a leading anti-defamation group, arguing that its accusations of anti-Semitism have led the company to lose revenue.

French schools sent dozens of girls home for refusing to remove their abayas -- an over-garment from the shoulders to the feet worn by Muslim women -- on the first day of the school year, a government minister said Tuesday.

Fifty-three members of the security forces have been killed in an attack by suspected jihadists in northern Burkina Faso, the army said on Tuesday.

At a dusty construction site on the bank of the Dnipro river in Kyiv, workers busily prepared the heating system for the upcoming winter while it was still warm.

A Swedish oil company allegedly knew that Sudanese armed forces would use violence to secure areas in which it wanted to operate, prosecutors said Tuesday as two former executives faced war crimes charges.

Gabon's new strongman on Tuesday met central Africa's mediator for the country and started to amnesty dissidents following a coup last week that brought the curtain down on the 55-year Bongo dynasty.

UN chief Antonio Guterres joined African leaders on Tuesday in demanding urgent reforms to the "outdated and unfair" global financial system, speaking at a landmark climate summit in Kenya aimed at showcasing the continent's green potential.

Saudi Arabia and Russia said on Tuesday they would extend voluntary oil cuts until the end of the year, sending the price of Brent crude to a 10-month high.

The UK's second biggest city on Tuesday admitted that it cannot balance its books, blaming Conservative governments for years of under-funding.

Over 900 people were killed or injured by cluster munitions in Ukraine last year amid broad Russian use of the widely-banned weapons, propelling global casualty figures to record levels, a report showed Tuesday.

Southeast Asian leaders met in Indonesia on Tuesday to seek a united voice on the years-long Myanmar crisis as the Philippines said it was ready to replace the country's junta rulers as chair of the bloc in 2026.

The UAE pledged $4.5 billion in clean energy investments in Africa on Tuesday at a landmark climate summit aimed to showcase the continent's potential as a green powerhouse.

The risk of bombing has made it virtually impossible to insure ships leaving Ukraine via the Black Sea, leaving the sector to find an alternative route, especially for grain.

G20 per capita coal emissions continue to rise despite climate pledges and transition efforts by some members of the group of major economies, new research showed Tuesday.

Qantas' veteran chief executive Alan Joyce announced his early retirement Tuesday, as Australia's once-loved national carrier faced searing criticism over price gouging and poor service.

Southeast Asian leaders will gather Tuesday in Indonesia for talks set to be dominated by the crisis in Myanmar and China's growing assertiveness in the South China Sea.

French authorities were on Monday imposing a newly-announced ban on the abaya Muslim dress for women in schools, with over 500 establishments under scrutiny as children across the country returned to class.

Russia damaged a grain export hub in a massive drone attack, Ukrainian officials said Monday, as Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Moscow hoping to revive the deal allowing Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea.

Premier Li Qiang will lead China's delegation to the G20 summit in India this weekend, Beijing said Monday, all but confirming President Xi Jinping will snub the meeting of the world's biggest economies.

France on Monday was due to receive five Afghan women "threatened by the Taliban" after repeated requests it create a humanitarian corridor for women shut out of public life, an official said.