The number of migrants arriving by sea in Spain has plunged with Morocco stopping boat departures since signing lucrative agreements with Madrid and Brussels, experts say.

North Korea is pressing ahead with its nuclear weapons programme while evading sanctions, a United Nations report said, following a series of recent test-launches that have been downplayed by US President Donald Trump.

China on Friday hit back at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who accused Beijing of using "arbitrary detentions" to achieve political goals, as relations between the two countries continue to sour.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday the rights and freedoms of people in Hong Kong "must be guaranteed" after meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing, her spokesman said.

The High Court in London on Friday rejected a legal challenge against Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision to order the suspension of parliament from next week.

Two staff members with Action Against Hunger have been shot dead by unidentified "armed individuals" in western Ethiopia, the aid group said.

Taliban loyalists are cheering the prospect of a deal with the US that after 18 years of gruelling conflict will see "defeated" American "invaders" finally go home.

Robert Mugabe, who led Zimbabwe with an iron fist from 1980 to 2017, has died aged 95, the country's president announced Friday.

North Carolina braced for a "long night" of strong winds and driving rain as Hurricane Dorian closed in on the coast Thursday after devastating the northern Bahamas, where it left at least 30 people dead and thousands homeless.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government said Thursday it would make a second attempt next week to call an early general election, to try to break the political deadlock over Brexit.