BBC News with Debby Russ.

The United States military says it's dropped its most powerful non-nuclear bomb for the first time, using it to target hideouts of the Islamic State group in the Afghan province of Nangarhar. The Pentagon said the strike was designed to hit IS caves, while minimizing the risk to Afghan and U.S. forces conducting clearing operations. The weapon, the GBU-43, is known colloquially as the Mother of All Bombs.

The Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, has denied reports that his forces carried out a chemical weapons attack earlier this month. It killed a large number of civilians and prompted a U.S. airstrike on a government air base in return. In his first interview since the attack, Mr. Assad called the reports 100% fabrication.

The Libyan Coast Guard says more than 90 migrants, including women and children, are feared drowned, after their boat sank off the coast of Libya. 23 have been rescued. Most of the people in the inflatable boat were from Sub-Saharan Africa and heading for Europe.

The American space agency, NASA, says one of Saturn's moons, known as Enceladus, may now be the single best place to look for life beyond earth. Samples of the waters erupting from the moon's surface suggest it has all the conditions needed for life.

Police in Pakistan say a university student has been murdered on the campus by a group of fellow students, who accused him of blasphemy. Reports said the student posted a material offensive to Muslims.

Zambia's main opposition party has called for the immediate release of its leader. Hakainde Hichilema, was charged with treason on Wednesday, after his convoy allegedly refused to give way to President Edgar Lungu's motorcade.

An Angolan super model has become the first African woman this century to feature on the cover of the American edition of Elle. Maria Borges said that when she was a child, she never saw people like herself in fashion magazines, and she was proud to pose with her natural Afro hair.

BBC News.