AFP UK

Dhaka (AFP) – Surviving victims are being treated in Bangladesh after a fire killed at least 46 people. Flames broke out in a popular biryani restaurant and quickly engulfed a seven-floor commercial building in an upscale neighbourhood of Dhaka on Thursday.

Port-au-Prince (AFP) – Gangs aiming to oust Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry wreaked havoc in the capital, as gun attacks near the international airport and a prison marked a second day of extreme violence. At least four police officers were killed on Thursday, and dozens have been wounded since the latest spate of brutality began.

London (AFP) – Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak makes a rare Downing Street statement to the media in which he strongly criticises “Islamist extremists and far-right groups” who he says are “spreading a poison” of extremism. His statement comes after the issue of the Gaza war upended a by-election in Rochdale, with the Labour candidate withdrawing due to anti-Israel comments and the winning politician, leftwing firebrand George Galloway, pledging full support for the Palestinian people.

Campbeltown (AFP) – In the remote town of Campbeltown on the West Coast of Scotland, a one-woman vegan chocolate-making company is providing chocolates for the Oscars goodie bags. Fiona McArthur, who has created six chocolates based on the most tipped films, says “it’s mindblowing” that her chocolates will be going to the nominees for the main categories at this year’s awards.

Geneva (AFP) – A famine in the Gaza Strip “is almost inevitable” unless the Israel-Hamas war changes, the United Nations says. “The production of foodstuff within Gaza itself is almost impossible,” says Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA at a press briefing in Geneva.

Moscow (AFP) – “I’m shaking. I feel sad and hurt. People like him shouldn’t die.” Thousands queue amid heavy police presence to pay their respects to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny outside the church where his funeral is being held. The ceremony comes two weeks after Navalny’s death in an Arctic prison, for which his supporters blame the Kremlin.

Rochdale (United Kingdom) (AFP) – “Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza,” says George Galloway from the Workers Party of Britain after winning the Rochdale by-election, beating the Conservative and Labour parties with 12,335 votes. The controversial left-wing firebrand was elected to the UK parliament after tapping into anger over the Israel-Hamas war in a chaotic by-election.

Paris (AFP) – “A small lightning operation before Paris wakes up (…) simply to show that we’re still here and we’re fed up with being taken for fools”: French farmers’ union carries out a surprise protest in front of Paris’ famed Arc de Triomphe, blocking the top of the Champs-Elysées with bales of straw and tractors.

Dhaka (AFP) – Firefighters battle a fire that blazed through a seven-storey building in an upscale neighbourhood in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka that killed at least 44 people and injured dozens, according to authorities.

Philadelphia (AFP) – “It’s devastating to know how much he’s missed, how much time he’s lost,” says Danielle Gershkovich, whose brother Evan, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal, is being detained in Russia on espionage charges that he categorically denies.

Grünheide (Germany) (AFP) – Environmental activists build a camp, occupying a forest outside Berlin to stop the expansion of a Tesla car factory.