
-
Hundreds of thousands join Istanbul protest rally
-
Australian sprinting prodigy Gout Gout upstaged in 200m
-
'We need aid': rescuers in quake-hit Myanmar city plead for help
-
Protesters flock to mass opposition rally in Istanbul
-
Are women allowed their own dreams, wonders Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
-
Deadly earthquake forces Thai patients into sports hall
-
'Everyone was screaming': quake shocks Thailand tourists
-
Rallies grow in South Korea as court weighs president's fate
-
Scientists explain why Myanmar quake was so deadly
-
Turkey opposition calls mass rally in Istanbul
-
Chapman blasts ton as New Zealand win first Pakistan ODI by 73 runs
-
French chefs quake as Michelin prepares new guide
-
Mike Leigh on the 'hard truths' of film, happiness and World War III
-
Myanmar quake toll passes 1,000 as rescuers dig for survivors
-
Lights out: Bali guards protect island's day of silence
-
Myanmar-Thailand quake toll passes 700 as rescuers dig for survivors
-
UK gallery to return Nazi-looted painting to heirs of Jewish collector
-
UK dreams of US trade deal before Trump tariffs
-
'Blink of an eye': survivor tells of Bangkok skyscraper collapse horror
-
The hand of GOAT, Mensik wins with Messi touch
-
Partial solar eclipse to cross swathe of Northern Hemisphere
-
Tunisian startup turns olive waste into clean energy
-
Guinea ex-dictator sentenced for 2009 massacre pardoned: junta
-
Chapman ton lifts New Zealand to 344-9 in first Pakistan ODI
-
Myanmar quake: what we know
-
Vu fires 64 to seize lead at LPGA Ford Championship
-
Resurgent Liu wins women's figure skating world title
-
Djokovic to face Mensik with 100th title within reach
-
Rescuers dig for survivors after huge quake hits Myanmar, Thailand
-
South Korea firefighters deploy helicopters as wildfires reignite
-
'Defiant' Canada autoworkers vow to fight tariff layoffs
-
Performance, museums, history: Trump's cultural power grab
-
Russian-born 12-ranked Kasatkina says to play for Australia tennis
-
Wallabies back Jorgensen suffers serious ankle injury
-
Academy apologizes after stars say it 'failed to defend' Palestinian filmmaker
-
UN rights chief demands end to 'horrific suffering' in Ukraine
-
Djokovic oozing confidence ahead of century bid
-
US regulators to investigate Disney diversity efforts
-
Elon Musk says xAI startup buying X platform
-
'Jail or death': migrants expelled by Trump fear for their fate
-
Djokovic closing in on 100th title after Dimitrov downed in Miami
-
Leverkusen beat Bochum to stay hot on Bayern's heels
-
Global markets slide as fears over US tariffs intensify
-
Dorival Junior sacked as Brazil coach after Argentina humiliation
-
Djokovic cruises past Dimitrov into Miami Open final
-
No.1 Scheffler ties Houston Open record with 62 to grab lead
-
Trump auto tariffs strike at heart of North American trade
-
Vance says Denmark has 'under invested' in Greenland
-
Green light for Winter Olympics bobsleigh slope
-
Musk's DOGE team emerges from the shadows

Sudan army retakes Khartoum airport from paramilitaries
The Sudanese army said it recaptured Khartoum airport from the Rapid Support Forces and surrounded the paramilitaries south of the capital on Wednesday, marking its latest battlefield gains.
The army, battling the RSF since April 2023, had "fully secured" the airport from the paramilitary fighters who had been stationed inside, its spokesman Nabil Abdallah told AFP.
The takeover comes a day after the army was accused of one of the war's deadliest air strikes, killing at least 270 people in a market in the western Darfur region, according to eyewitnesses.
Following their recapture of the presidential palace in a key victory on Friday, the army has surged through central Khartoum, seizing state institutions captured early in the war by the RSF.
"In the south of the capital, our forces have surrounded the strategic Jebel Awliya area from three directions: north, south and east," a military source told AFP, adding that "all axes are advancing steadily".
"The remnants of the RSF militia are fleeing" across the White Nile at the Jebel Awliya bridge, he said, requesting anonymity because he is not authorised to brief the media.
The bridge is the paramilitaries only crossing out of the area, linking it to its positions west of the city and then to its strongholds in Darfur.
Across Khartoum, eyewitnesses and activists reported this week RSF fighters retreating southwards, ostensibly towards Jebel Awliya.
The RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
- Civilians celebrate -
Since April 2023, the war has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.
It has also divided the country in two, with the army holding the east and north and the RSF controlling nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.
Following a year and a half of defeats, the army turned the tide late last year, pushing through central Sudan to Khartoum.
The RSF had so far maintained its position in Jebel Awliya, as well as the western and southern outskirts of Omdurman -- central Khartoum's twin city just across the Nile.
After replenishing its ranks and rebuilding its arsenal, the army appears close to securing the capital, from which its government was forced to flee to the Red Sea town of Port Sudan early in the war.
According to the United Nations, more than 3.5 million people were forced to flee the war-ravaged capital.
Millions more, unable or unwilling to leave, were left to face hunger, rights abuses and indiscriminate shelling of their homes by both sides.
Footage shared on social media appeared to show residents of central Khartoum celebrating the RSF's retreat.
"You have endured so much," one young fighter can be heard saying while embracing civilians, in a video which AFP was unable to immediately verify.
"The area has been completely empty of the RSF since last night," Osama Abdel Qader, a resident of central Khartoum's Sahafa neighbourhood, told AFP on Wednesday.
- Rights abuses -
Abdel Qader and other eyewitnesses said RSF fighters had abandoned the homes they previously occupied, in some areas taking furniture with them.
Since the war began, the RSF has been accused of looting and taking over civilian homes, with rights groups documenting systematic sexual violence and other abuses.
The United States has placed sanctions on both army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, accusing the latter specifically of genocide in Darfur.
The United Nations on Tuesday expressed grave alarm at "the continued attacks on civilians" across the country, including Monday's air strike on the town of Tora in North Darfur and an RSF artillery attack on a Khartoum mosque on Sunday.
Analysts have warned of the RSF's pattern of revenge attacks on civilians, while the army has been accused of allowing its allied groups to persecute civilians thought to have collaborated with the RSF.
P.Martin--AMWN