Washington, United States | AFP | Apple overtook Samsung in the fourth quarter as the largest smartphone producer in a declining global market for handsets, research firm IDC said Friday. A survey by IDC showed Apple — which reported its quarterly data Thursday — led all vendors with 77.3 million …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | The UN imposed sanctions on a Congolese general on Friday for supporting the massacre of civilians by a suspected militia in eastern DR Congo. General Muhindo Akili Mundos, an ally of President Joseph Kabila, is one of four names to be added on to …

Rabat, Morocco | AFP | Thousands of people staged a protest Friday in an impoverished Moroccan city over the latest fatality in the region’s “mines of death”, the third such victim since December, witnesses said. The protest was staged outside the morgue of the hospital in the northeastern town of …

Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudanese security agents have arrested the deputy head of the country’s main opposition Umma Party after it held anti-government rallies to protest rising food prices, the party said on Friday. Sporadic demonstrations have hit Khartoum and some other parts of Sudan since early January after …

Tripoli, Libya | AFP | The United Nations expressed “grave concern” Friday over the breakdown in a deal to allow thousands of displaced to return to a town that backed Libya’s leader Moamer Kadhafi in its 2011 revolution. “For too many people displacement becomes more protracted every day, as insecurity …

Theunissen, South Africa | AFP | All 955 gold miners trapped underground for more than a day in South Africa after a power cut were rescued unharmed on Friday, to the joy of waiting relatives. “Everybody’s out,” mine spokesman James Wellsted told AFP, adding that there were no deaths or …

Casablanca, Morocco | AFP | A controversial former minister who coordinates armed groups in conflict-hit Central African Republic was on Friday elected to the governing board of Africa’s top footballing body. Patrice Edouard Ngaissona, who is Central Africa’s football chief, was elected following a vote in Casablanca among delegates at …

Dakar, Senegal | AFP | Megastar Rihanna vowed she would “never stop fighting” to get millions of children back in school on Friday as French President Emmanuel Macron promised a major boost in foreign aid for education in developing nations. Macron co-hosted a conference in Dakar organised by the Global …

Manchester, United Kingdom | AFP | Jose Mourinho effectively conceded the Premier League title to Manchester City on Friday, admitting that his Manchester United side are competing to be “first of the last” in the table. United lost in midweek at Tottenham, allowing their local rivals to open up a …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Chelsea boss Antonio Conte insisted he remains the best man to lead the Londoners despite an alarming dip in form from the Premier League champions in his second season in charge. Wednesday’s shock 3-0 home defeat to Bournemouth left Chelsea down in fourth, 18 …