Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Russia struck Ukraine's Kyiv region with ballistic missiles and drones on Monday, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens, authorities said, on the eve of a NATO summit in Turkey.

[...]

An AFP journalist in Kyiv heard more than 10 explosions during a ballistic missile alert early Monday. Around 30 minutes later, AFP journalists saw several flashes in the sky as another series of blasts rang out.

Authorities said 10 people were killed in Kyiv and one in the Bucha district northwest of the capital. At least 46 people were wounded in the capital and 15 others in surrounding areas.

Russia's defence ministry said it had carried out a "massive strike" using missiles and drones against what it described as "military-industrial enterprises," fuel and energy complex facilities in several Ukrainian regions.

The attack caused four fires to break out, all in residential buildings, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the Kyiv region's military administration, wrote on Telegram.

"Places where people were simply sleeping tonight," he added.

[...]

Suva (Fiji) (AFP) – Australia and Fiji signed a major defence treaty on Monday, bolstering ties as Canberra seeks to outmanoeuvre China in the South Pacific.

The Ocean of Peace pact elevates Fiji to one of Australia's few treaty allies and binds each nation to come to the other's "mutual defence".

China sent waves through the region in 2022 when it signed a secretive security pact with the Solomon Islands, stoking fears it could one day lead to a permanent military presence.

Australia has greatly upped its diplomatic efforts in response, securing deals with the likes of Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Tuvalu.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed the pact with his Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka during a trip to capital Suva.

The pair also signed a second comprehensive treaty covering everything from climate action to economic cooperation.

"When it comes to security issues the Pacific family need to look after our own security," Albanese told reporters.

"The significance of these agreements cannot be underestimated."

Photos showed Albanese sipping Fiji's traditional kava drink at a welcome ceremony before the pact was signed.

Fiji joins the United States, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea as Australia's fourth treaty-bound ally.

Under the deal, the two nations agree to consult each other over any "security-related development" that threatens their sovereignty.

Rabuka tried to quell concerns that China could see the treaty as a snub.

"I do not expect China to have any severe pushback," he told reporters.

"I believe that they will welcome the understanding that it is between Australia and Fiji.

"It does not threaten Fiji's relationship with China."

....

Maiquetía (Venezuela) (AFP) – Sisu tackles her missions in the rubble left by Venezuela's two earthquakes with the same determination and energy she uses to chase her favorite toy, an orange and blue ball.

Wearing her blue harness, this restless brown Labrador retriever ventures into the debris of buildings that collapsed in the earthquakes of June 24.

She searches for survivors with nothing but her sense of smell.

The work of dogs like Sisu, a member of the US rescue team Florida Task Force 2, has proven crucial in finding people alive in a race against time.

Eleven days after one of Latin America’s worst earthquake disasters killed nearly 3,000 people, international teams are winding up their missions with little hope of finding more people alive.

But the dogs played a key role.

The animals are the first to act when teams arrive at a location where survivors are believed to be buried in the rubble. The twin quakes toppled dozens of residential complexes mostly in the coastal La Guaira area.

"Their work is based on detecting where there are humans" by identifying the temperature, body odor, and carbon dioxide exhaled by the victims, Alexander Parada, also of Florida Task Force 2, told AFP, alongside Piper, a Labrador retriever, who rescued two people in Venezuela, her first mission.

"They do a job we can't do."

When a dog alerts to something, rescuers send a second animal to confirm the finding, said Sylvia Arango, a canine handler since 1998 who manages Sisu.

From there, radar or cameras refine the coordinates of where the victims might be.

With their sense of smell, search dogs expedite rescue efforts by quickly inspecting large areas, Parada said, which is crucial given that the chances of finding people alive decrease as the initial 72-hour window passes.

Sisu was one of more than 120 four-legged rescuers from a dozen countries deployed to expedite rescue efforts in several communities in La Guaira, the area most affected by the powerful 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes.

Some, like Tsunami, a local border collie with one blue eye and one brown eye, touched Venezuelans with stories of overcoming adversity: in Tsunami's case, from being an animal rescued from abuse to saving the lives of others.

Like their human companions, they worked in 12-hour shifts on dangerous missions.

The animals operated in the high temperatures of La Guaira, exposing themselves to dehydration and abrasions to their fur, something visible on Sisu's neck.

They also made their way through the rubble, even through narrow tunnels formed in the jumble of broken walls, columns, and beams, searching for survivors.

The operations caused some of them injuries and fractures.

But risk is part of the job.

"The minute that we walk onto those rubble piles, there's no guarantee that we're going to be safe," Arango said. "We have to trust our training."

But what qualities must a dog have to become a rescuer? Lots of energy, but also the ability to move fearlessly in unstable environments.

Arango said it is generally strength of character and a desire to investigate.

Although the dogs on this American team are mostly Labrador Retrievers, there are also Border Collies, Golden Retrievers, Belgian Malinois, and German Shepherds.

On Saturday, ten days after the earthquakes that have left 2,954 dead and thousands still missing, Brazilian and Spanish missions continued inspecting destroyed areas alongside their dogs.

But for Sisu and Piper, it was time to pack up their toys and prepare to go home.

At the close of operations, Arango emphasized that what moved her most about Sisu's first mission was seeing her bring joy in a sea of sadness.

"It's been a devastating situation," Arango said.

"When someone comes up whose heart is hurting, we can get them to smile, and children are able to come up to our dogs and pet them," she said.

"It's also that opportunity to connect with other people, to try to maybe, for that really one moment, not think about what's happening in the horrors that are happening, and just maybe be loved by a happy puppy."

More than 17 million people across nine conflict-hit states in northern Nigeria face severe hunger, the UN's food agency (WFP) has said, warning that violence and funding ‌cuts are driving food insecurity to its worst level in nearly a decade. Stripped of their livelihoods, some people are fleeing across the border into neighbouring Benin.

The latest food security analysis showed the number of people facing crisis, ​emergency or catastrophic hunger had risen by almost two ​million from previous projections, the World Food Programme (WFP) said ⁠in a statement published Thursday.

The findings underline the deepening humanitarian cost ​of insecurity in Africa’s most populous country, where Islamist insurgents in ​the northeast and armed gangs in parts of the north have displaced communities, kept farmers from their fields and restricted aid access.

The crisis is ​worsening during the lean season, when households typically exhaust food ​stocks before the next harvest.

...

Caracas (AFP) – Venezuela's devastating twin earthquakes have killed nearly 3,000, official figures showed on Saturday, as international rescue teams began winding down search operations for survivors in the rubble.

Fatalities jumped by more than 300 from Friday to 2,954, following the June 24 disaster that left thousands homeless in the streets and shelter camps.

Tens of thousands more are still missing.

One of Latin America's worst earthquake disasters hit hardest in the coastal La Guaira area north of the capital Caracas, where scores of residential complexes were flattened.

Ten days after the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude double shocks, rescue teams are starting to wrap up searches for survivors while families still try to recover bodies of loved ones from the rubble.

The critical window for rescues in disasters like earthquakes usually ends after 72 hours, though a few people have been found alive this week.

In an apparent sign that rescue missions were closing up, interim President Delcy Rodriquez held a ceremony to hand out medals to international teams, including some to their dogs.

Venezuela is experiencing "a profound grief gripping our people, where families still hold out hope of finding loved ones alive, people who have lost everything," Rodriquez said.

International disaster teams, including some US squads, and some South American teams were starting to finish up rescue operations, their members said on Saturday.

The Los Angeles County fire department rescue team is closing up its operations after latest searches showed no signs of life, and teams from Florida and Virginia were packing up to leave this weekend, their teams said.

Many Venezuelans have expressed anger at what they see as their government's slow response to the disaster, saying families spent initial hours digging out loved ones themselves before international teams arrived.

Rodriguez has defended her government's response, saying thousands of troops and officials had been dispatched.

In La Guaira, workers with heavy machinery on Saturday were starting to knock down collapsed structures while in others families were still trying to remove bodies of loved ones for funerals.

"We're still working, still searching for bodies. We're still going. It hasn't been easy," said Venezuelan volunteer Francisco Sasquia helping dig out a collapsed residence.

"We found two bodies that have already been released to their families."

Many are now homeless; more than 16,000 Venezuelans have lost their residences in the quakes. Hospitals are stretched, with experts warning of the risk of disease outbreaks.

For Víctor Colivert, the most important thing is staying by the side of his nephew's body, recovered from a building's wreckage and now in a black body bag.

He fears losing it in the chaos. His family prevented forensic workers from taking the body away.

"If I have to go to China, to wherever, but I’m not leaving him alone," he said. "I'm going with him."

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukraine's army on Saturday dismissed Russian claims to have seized the eastern stronghold of Kostyantynivka, saying the situation was "difficult" but that troops were defending the town.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called the Russian claim a "lie", a day after Russia's President Vladimir Putin appeared in military uniform on television thanking his forces for seizing the town.

"Ukrainian defenders continue to hold their positions along the designated defensive lines. The situation remains difficult but is under the control of the Ukrainian Defense Forces," army spokesman Andriy Kovalyov said.

He acknowledged that Russian troops have tried to seize the town and had infiltrated it in small groups.

"There have been instances of small infantry groups (1–3 personnel) infiltrating deep into the battle formations of Ukrainian forces. Counter-sabotage operations by the Defense Forces are ongoing in the town. Occupying forces are being detected and eliminated," Kovalyov said.

He said Russian carried out "11 assault attempts" on Friday -- when Moscow announced the seizure -- but said they "failed to achieve any success".

"The enemy has resorted to the dissemination of blatant disinformation and fake claims by its highest-ranking officials," he said.

Zelensky -- who said he briefed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on the battle -- declared that Putin had "chosen to lie to the world" about the front.

"He claims that Russian forces have supposedly captured Kostyantynivka in the Donbas. Of course, that is not true. It is just another Russian lie," Zelensky said on social media.

"If Kostyantynivka were under Russian control, then perhaps Putin would have no problem meeting me there to find a diplomatic way to finally end this war," he added.

Putin has repeatedly turned down talks with Zelensky to end more than four years of war.

Russia has been trying to seize Kostyantynivka -- which had some 78,000 people before the 2022 invasion -- for months.

Bamako (AFP) – Jihadists and their separatist Tuareg allies hit Mali with fresh coordinated attacks Saturday, striking multiple towns and a prison just months after hobbling the country's military junta with a similar wave of assaults.

The fighting, which started around 5:00 am (0500 GMT), comes after the Al-Qaeda-linked JNIM jihadists and Tuareg FLA separatists in late April captured the strategic northern town of Kidal and killed Mali's defence minister.

On Saturday, they carried out their latest offensive in the northern towns of Gao, Anefis and Aguelhok, plus the central town of Sevare and at a prison in Kenieroba near the west African nation's capital.

Since coups in 2020 and 2021, Mali has been led by the military, which promised to restore calm in the vast desert nation that has been grappling with a security crisis since 2012.

The Mali military, backed by Africa Corps, the Moscow-controlled paramilitary group, has intensified operations following the large-scale April 25-26 attacks.

The Tuareg FLA (Azawad Liberation Front) teamed up with JNIM (the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims) approximately a year ago, stepping up pressure on their joint nemesis, the country's military leaders.

"All these operations, which are intermediate steps pending a more spectacular assault, contribute to weakening and isolating the regime", Bakary Sambe, director of the Dakar-based Timbuktu Institute, told AFP.

...

Tehran (AFP) – The body of Iran's supreme leader, killed in US-Israeli strikes that triggered the Middle East war, arrived at Tehran's Grand Mosalla on Friday ahead of his funeral, state media reported.

Millions of people and a coterie of foreign dignitaries were expected to attend Saturday's official ceremony for Ali Khamenei, with Tehran's chief negotiator calling for a massive turnout to avenge his death.

Photos showed mourners carrying Khamenei's coffin, emblazoned with Iran's tricolour flag, into the Grand Mosalla, one of the Islamic republic's most important ceremonial venues.

Others show crowds at a pre-funeral ceremony clad in black, as the coffin was set down against a backdrop of red flowers and white butterflies hanging in the air.

Ahmad Vahidi, head of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the military, made his first appearance since the start of the war in February, paying his respects at the coffin, Iranian media footage showed.

Preparations for Khamenei's public funeral, initially delayed at the height of the war, are taking place as Iran and the United States observe a fragile ceasefire after signing a preliminary deal to halt the conflict.

Pakistan, a key mediator in the US-Iran talks, said its Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would attend the ceremony.

China, Afghanistan and Iran's neighbours in the Caucasus region said they would also be sending representatives.

Workers were readying the Grand Mosalla on Thursday, while security teams stopped passing cars and curious bystanders looked on.

"We are planting flowers and watering the shrubs for the farewell ceremony of our martyred guide," said worker Hossein Moghadassi, clad in a hat and a scarf to cover his face as the temperature soared.

"People will come from all over Iran. There will be huge crowds."

Tehran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had called on Thursday for "all the Iranian people... to write a glorious page in the history of Islamic Iran through your presence".

"The nation's call for vengeance must ring in the ears of the whole world," Ghalibaf, who is Iran's speaker of parliament, added in a statement.

Khamenei, a spiritual figure for many Shias, was killed at the age of 86 in strikes on his compound in the centre of the Iranian capital.

He will lie in state for three days at the colossal Grand Mosalla, which has been draped in banners featuring images and quotes of Khamenei.

The bodies of his slain relatives will also be present.

...

Vlkolínec (Slovakia) (AFP) – "Private property. No entry", "No photography" read the signs on a gate set up in front of a traditional log house in Vlkolinec, a UNESCO-listed Slovak village visited by tens of thousands of tourists a year.

"Are we in a zoo or something?" 68-year-old pensioner Anton Sabucha protested to AFP, nodding to the signs outside his house.

Tourists are "going wherever they want, taking pictures and peering around" every day, he complained.

He said he and other villagers felt like extras on a film set and he wanted Vlkolinec's UNESCO World Heritage status removed.

Sabucha, the oldest resident, is one of just 17 people who live year-round in the village, struggling to preserve its authenticity and its inhabitants' privacy in the face of the tourism boom.

Vlkolinec, which comprises some 45 wooden houses, attracts around 100,000 tourists a year according to official estimates.

They wander among the houses -- painted mostly in shades of white, yellow or brown -- and go biking or hiking in the surrounding hills of central Slovakia. Doctor Zhivago

UNESCO recognised Vlkolinec in 1993. Two other sites with traditional log houses also have heritage status in neighbouring Hungary and Czech Republic.

For the tourists' benefit, Vlkolinec puts on traditional craft demonstrations, from sewing folk costumes and gingerbread decorating to mowing and haymaking.

It also stages harvest festivals and reenactments of traditional weddings.

But Sabucha said several of these customs were never genuinely even part of Vlkolinec's past and others were no longer practiced.

"They're showing them something that's no longer here," he grumbled.

While most residents are not lobbying for the UNESCO label to go, however, they do want their grievances addressed, according to Jan Ondrik, chairman of the Vlkolinec civic association.

"Locals feel the municipality is doing more for the tourists than for residents," he told AFP.

Vloklinec doesn't have adequate access roads, parking areas or public toilets needed to cater for the crowds that descend on it.

So some visitors may actually "relieve themselves in someone's garden", said Ondrik, who occasionally finds a tourist wandering into his own house.

Miroslav Parobek, 62, head of the cultural and tourism department of Ruzomberok city, which administers the site, rebuffed complaints that the village has lost the qualities for which it gained UNESCO status.

"This is not an open-air museum. It is a living village," he insisted.

He said there were no plans to seek a UNESCO delisting and Ruzomberok was trying to address residents' complaints.

Villagers get an annual 400-euro ($450) "animation contribution" to compensate for the disruption engendered by tourism, he added.

Vlkolinec's population has shrunk by more than 300 people over the past 150 years.

But two families have chosen to move to the village in the last decade, despite the excess tourism.

"It didn't matter. We were captivated by the countryside, the silence, the mountains," said 42‑year‑old billing specialist Lucia Hudecova.

Ruzomberok is currently seeking international funds to repair and restore the church and other buildings, and to upgrade facilities such as adding more public toilets.

The money could also be used to set up a park-and-ride facility outside of the village.

Two coachloads of visitors arrived while AFP was visiting the village -- one of primary school children, the other of Polish tourists.

Peter Gries, whose green house is across the street from Sabucha's, said he also favoured having Vlkolinec removed from UNESCO.

The 63-year-old retiree said life in the village was now like dwelling in "a sewer".

Even some tourists agree the overcrowding is unpleasant.

"I find it difficult because there are too many (tourists)", said Kristina Ziahlhofstetter, a 52-year-old from Germany, picturing people constantly wandering around her own home and garden.

United Nations (United States) (AFP) – A man died after setting himself on fire outside the UN's headquarters in New York on Thursday, police said, with activists and reports identifying him as a pro-Tibet campaigner.

The New York Police Department told AFP that "at 1832 (2232 GMT) NYPD received a call... a male set himself on fire at First Avenue and 42nd Street. He was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital. Investigations ongoing." No motive was given.

A spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement to AFP: "We are saddened by this tragic and horrific incident, and offer our condolences to his family."

US media and a pro-Tibet activist said the individual was a pro-Tibet campaigner, though investigators did not confirm this claim.

Tencho Gyatso, President of the International Campaign for Tibet, named the deceased man as Lobga Rangzen.

"Lobga was a tireless advocate for Tibet who devoted himself to peacefully raising awareness of the human rights crisis in Tibet," Gyatso said in a statement to AFP.

Gyatso said Rangzen had railed against China's new "Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress" that Beijing said aims to forge a "shared" national identity among ethnic groups.

Overseas campaigners have argued it will further degrade the rights of ethnic minorities, like Uyghurs and Tibetans, that Beijing is accused of persecuting.

The UN did not return a request for comment.

Beijing in 1950 sent troops to Tibet, the vast high-altitude plateau it describes as an integral part of China.

The 90-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has been based in India since fleeing the Tibetan capital Lhasa after Chinese troops crushed an uprising in 1959.

The Dalai Lama's long-standing "Middle Way" policy seeks autonomy and a "resolution to the Sino-Tibet conflict through non-violence, dialog and mutual benefit".

Bangkok (AFP) – The number of monks killed has risen to 10 after an 11-year-old boy drove a pickup truck into a Buddhist procession in Thailand, officials said Friday.

Ten other people were still hospitalised after Thursday's crash -- two in critical condition and eight with injuries -- according to the latest update from Mukdahan Hospital, in the northeast of the country.

A group of 35 monks and five lay followers were walking along a roadside in Mukdahan province during a pilgrimage when a truck ploughed into them.

Police said it was driven by an 11-year-old who had taken his parents' vehicle without permission.

Five monks died at the scene, and another five died later in hospital.

Prayut Ruanthongkam, chief of Mukdahan City Police, told AFP on Friday the boy was unable to give a statement to police.

He had been referred to child welfare authorities for assessment, accompanied by his mother.

In Thailand, children under the age of 12 have no criminal liability.

Police were also taking witness testimony from surviving monks as part of the investigation, Prayut said.

Buddhist monks are highly venerated in Thailand, entrusted with preserving and passing on the Buddha's teachings.

They often hold public processions and are widely seen receiving alms of goodwill from ordinary Thais.

A representative of Wat Roi Phra Phutthabat Phu Manorom, a hilltop temple in Mukdahan, told AFP the temple had taken in surviving and recovering monks, along with other followers involved in the procession.

Tirana (Albania) (AFP) – Violent clashes erupted between police and demonstrators outside Albania's parliament on Thursday, as protests sparked by a resort development linked to US President Donald Trump's family threatened to escalate.

Protests began in late May against the planned construction of a luxury hotel linked to Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner in a nature reserve in Zvernec, on Albania's southwestern coast.

For the second time this week, crowds gathered outside parliament to confront lawmakers and block entry to the building.

Lines of riot police pushed them back, leading to clashes and arrests, according to AFP journalists at the scene.

Police used tear gas, pepper spray and water cannon to break up the crowd, and some protesters tried to push through lines of officers.

Nine officers were injured by objects thrown by protesters, police said, but did not confirm arrest numbers.

Local media reported that as many as 20 had been detained.

People were also seen smashing the windows of an empty police car in a nearby street as the crowd was pushed away from area.

On Tuesday, six people were arrested when demonstrators threw eggs at lawmakers' cars.

The violence is a marked contrast to the overwhelmingly peaceful daily gatherings that have drawn thousands to the streets since the movement began.

The planned resort was first unveiled in 2024, but the latest wave of protests began after barbed-wire fencing and bulldozers appeared on beaches in late May.

Opposition to the project has become a flashpoint for anger over perceived corruption, with protesters calling for Prime Minister Edi Rama to step down over what they describe as a lack of transparency.