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From Covid-19 to the war in Ukraine, external crises have put pressure on African economies, but many on the continent see opportunities to undertake radical reforms.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is set to travel to Tehran on Friday for a surprise visit that could breathe new life into stalled talks on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

American artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez said she was "shocked" when she saw the "beautiful" AFP photographs showing her sinking unconscious to the bottom of the pool and being rescued by her coach at the World Swimming Championships.

Stocks rose in Asia on Friday following another rally on Wall Street as investors try to process central bank moves to fight soaring inflation and the growing possibility that those measures will induce a recession.

Ukrainian forces will retreat from Severodonetsk in the face of a brutal Russian offensive that is reducing the battleground city to rubble, a senior Ukrainian official said Friday.

For Maria Goncharova, a 93-year-old survivor of the devastating famine that hit Ukraine in the 1930s, Russia's invasion has awoken fears that the nightmare of starvation could happen again.

Many survivors of Afghanistan's deadliest earthquake in more than two decades were on Friday without food, shelter and water as they waited in devastated villages for relief workers to reach them, with rain compounding their misery.

Police in Ecuador's capital fired tear gas on Thursday to disperse Indigenous protesters who tried to storm congress, as the country's crippling cost-of-living demonstrations left another three dead, according to a rights group.

Thailand has dropped rules requiring people to wear masks from Friday, the government says, as Covid-19 cases fall and the tourism-dependent kingdom seeks to lure back foreign visitors.

Migrant workers in Singapore no longer need special permission to leave their dormitories from Friday, after two years of coronavirus curbs, but campaigners criticised the decision to maintain some "discriminatory" restrictions.

Mystery over the fate of Hong Kong's Jumbo Floating Restaurant deepened Friday after its owner stirred confusion over whether the financially struggling tourist attraction had actually sunk while being towed away from the city last week.

As a seven-year-old boy in Baghdad, Mohamed Ali dreamt of becoming a goalkeeper -- until a car bomb in the central Tahrir Square ripped away his left arm.

EU leaders granted "candidate status" to Ukraine in its bid to join the bloc, as tensions deepened over Russian gas supplies and Moscow's forces closed in on key cities.

Beleaguered British Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered two crushing parliamentary by-election defeats on Friday, including in a southwest English seat previously held by his ruling Conservatives for over a century.

Dozens of turtles, dolphins and other marine species have been found dead on Guatemala's Pacific coast, prompting an official investigation, authorities said Thursday.

Stocks rose in Asia on Friday following another rally on Wall Street as investors try to process central bank moves to fight soaring inflation with the growing possibility that those measures will induce a recession.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce continued her blistering start to the season at the Jamaican National Championships on Thursday, scorching through her opening 100m heat in 10.70sec.

Sha'Carri Richardson crashed out of the 100m heats at the US athletics World Championship trials on Thursday as Olympic silver medallist Fred Kerley made a statement in the men's first round.

US senators advanced a bipartisan bill late Thursday addressing the epidemic of gun violence convulsing the country, approving a narrow package of new firearms restrictions and billions of dollars in mental health and school security funding.

A gun battle left four police officers and nine suspected gang members dead in Mexico's western state of Jalisco, authorities said Thursday.

A woman born in France to a Christian family was not an obvious candidate to become a trailblazing Orthodox rabbi in Israel, but 40-year-old former journalist Eliora Peretz has done just that.

As Indonesian President Joko Widodo led Anthony Albanese around the lush gardens of a presidential palace south of Jakarta earlier this month, he presented the new Australian prime minister with an unusual gift: a bamboo bike.

Palestinians in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip are rediscovering the pleasures of the Mediterranean Sea, after authorities declared the end of a long period of hazardous marine pollution.

World leaders including US President Joe Biden will seek to close ranks at back-to-back summits from Sunday on offering emphatic support to help Ukraine repel Russian invaders as the relentless war puts international unity to the test.

A summit of Commonwealth leaders opens Friday in Rwanda as the host nation comes under scrutiny over its rights record and a migrant deal with Britain threatens to overshadow the meeting.

The last time Germany hosted a G7 summit, then-chancellor Angela Merkel produced a series of viral images with Barack Obama, clinking giant mugs in a traditional Bavarian beer garden and communing against a verdant Alpine backdrop.

Romelu Lukaku arrived at Chelsea heralding his move as a dream come true, but less than a year later the Belgian striker is set to rejoin Inter Milan as one of the most expensive flops in Premier League history.

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva maintains a comfortable lead over incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, and could possibly win in the first round of voting this October, according to a poll published Thursday.

A boat meanders between the sheet metal roofs of houses in Baling Sula, one of numerous villages in central Suriname hit by devastating flooding.

The murders of two priests this week in Mexico have put President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on the defensive over his government's failure to significantly reduce violent crime.

Paolo Banchero was the surprise top pick at the NBA Draft on Thursday as the Orlando Magic confounded expectations by swooping for the towering teenager from Duke University.

Adil Rashid is set to miss England's white-ball series against India after being given clearance by cricket chiefs to make a holy pilgrimage to Mecca.