International News

Israel’s military aid agency COGAT said on Thursday preparations are ongoing with Egypt to open the major Rafah border crossing with Gaza for the movement of people, with the date to be announced at a later stage.

Russia launched a barrage of more than 300 drones and 37 missiles to target infrastructure across Ukraine in overnight attacks on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu survived the first of two no-confidence votes in parliament on Thursday, after winning crucial backing from the Socialist Party thanks to his pledge to suspend President Emmanuel Macron’s contested pension reform.

US President Donald Trump has confirmed that he authorised the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert operations in Venezuela, marking a sharp escalation in US efforts to pressure President Nicolas Maduro's government.

Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to a 'temporary ceasefire' on Wednesday, Islamabad said, after an airstrike and ground fighting sent tensions between the South Asian neighbours soaring, killing more than a dozen civilians.

US President Donald Trump signed an order on Wednesday directing the Pentagon to ensure military personnel are paid despite the federal government shutdown, the White House said.

The detonation of explosive devices on two bridges in Ecuador early on Wednesday was retaliation for a major military operation against illegal miners, the country's interior minister said.

Five days after historic floods that killed at least 66 people and affected 100,000 homes, Mexico is still scrambling to get help to the worst-hit communities and locate 75 missing people amid criticism of the government’s handling of the crisis.

Aid trucks rolled into the Gaza border on Wednesday awaiting entry as Israel resumed preparations to open the main Rafah crossing, with an official announcing that 600 aid trucks would be allowed inside after Hamas handed over more bodies of dead hostages.

Fresh fighting broke out on Wednesday along the volatile Pakistan-Afghanistan border, killing more than a dozen civilians and troops to shatter a fragile peace after weekend clashes that killed dozens.

Toxic gas and a locked door that barred access to a roof were responsible for most of the deaths in a devastating fire in a Bangladesh garment factory and an adjoining chemical warehouse, a fire official said on Wednesday.

Kenya's veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who was imprisoned while fighting one-party autocracy and ran five times unsuccessfully for the presidency, has died at the age of 80, sources close to him said on Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on Wednesday with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who on a working visit to Moscow, the Kremlin said.

A vehicle exploded outside a shopping mall in Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil, killing one person and injuring several others, the country's prosecutor's office said on Tuesday.

Israel restricted aid into Gaza and kept the enclave's border shut on Tuesday while re-emergent Hamas fighters demonstrated their grip by executing men in the street, darkening the outlook for US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war.

An explosion at a farmhouse in northern Italy during a police raid killed three Carabinieri officers and injured 12 others, Italy's fire service said on X on Tuesday.

A fire broke out at a garment factory in Bangladesh and a chemical warehouse adjacent to it on Tuesday, killing at least 16 people and wounding one, with the death toll expected to rise as rescue efforts continued, officials said.

Israel's military said it opened fire on Tuesday to remove a threat posed by suspects who approached its forces in the northern Gaza Strip, and health authorities in the enclave said at least six Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire.

An army commander who led a mutiny in Madagascar said on Tuesday the military had taken power after President Andry Rajoelina was impeached by lawmakers and forced to flee the country following weeks of youth-led protests.

The Arab Parliament has welcomed the signing of the Gaza Ceasefire Agreement at the Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit, calling it a historic step towards ending the two-year war and bringing peace to the region.

Greek ships remained in port and train services were halted as workers walked off the job on Tuesday to protest against planned labour reforms that include the extension of working hours in the private sector.

Around 6,000 students in Malaysia have been infected with influenza and some schools have been closed for the safety of children and staff, an education ministry official said.

At least 14 people were killed after a gold mine collapsed in El Callao municipality in southern Venezuela following heavy rains in the area, emergency officials said on Monday.

Mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkey signed on Monday with US President Donald Trump a document on the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Hamas freed the last living Israeli hostages from Gaza on Monday under a ceasefire deal and Israel sent home busloads of Palestinian detainees, as US President Donald Trump told Israel's parliament that peace had arrived in the Holy Land.

Two trains collided in eastern Slovakia on Monday, derailing an engine and a carriage and injuring at least 66 people, emergency medical services and police said.

Hamas forces have killed 32 members of "a gang" in Gaza City in a security campaign launched after a ceasefire came into effect on Friday, while six of its personnel were also killed in the violence, a Palestinian security source said on Monday.

Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt won the 2025 Nobel economics prize for their work on how innovation and the forces of "creative destruction" can drive economic growth, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Monday.

US President Donald Trump will say in a speech before Israel’s parliament that countries working together toward peace under the Gaza agreement represents an "incredible triumph for Israel and the world".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not attend Monday's summit on ending the Gaza war in Egypt, his office said, after Cairo had earlier announced he would take part.

Pakistani troops were on high alert on the country's border with Afghanistan on Monday after fierce weekend fighting between the two sides left dozens dead and drew the attention of US President Donald Trump, who said he could help end the conflict.

India's financial crime-fighting agency is searching seven sites on suspicion of money-laundering by Sresan Pharma, the cough syrup maker linked to the deaths of several children over the last month, a source told Reuters on Monday.

At least 42 people were killed in a bus crash in a mountainous region of northern South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement on Monday.

Alphabet-owned Google on Monday said it would be "extremely difficult" for Australia to enforce a law prohibiting people younger than 16 from using social media, warning that the government's initiative would not make children safer online.

At least 44 people were killed in Mexico after days of heavy rains and flooding, the government said on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump will address Israel's parliament on Monday as a fragile Gaza ceasefire he helped to broker enters a fourth day before heading to Egypt for the 'peace summit'.

Dozens of fighters were killed in overnight border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, both sides said on Sunday, in the most serious fighting between the neighbours since the Taliban came to power in Kabul.

European Union member countries began rolling out a new entry and exit system on Sunday at the bloc’s external borders, electronically registering non-EU nationals' data.

Egypt has announced that a peace summit will take place this Monday in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El Sheikh.

Thousands of Palestinians streamed north along the coast of Gaza on Saturday, trekking by foot, car and cart back to their abandoned homes as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be holding.

The UN children's charity UNICEF has called for all crossings for food aid into war-shattered Gaza to be opened, saying children in the territory were especially vulnerable because they have gone without proper food for long periods.

President Donald Trump has blamed Democrats for his decision to lay off thousands of workers across the US government as he followed through on his threat to cut the federal workforce during the government shutdown.

Heavy rainfall in Mexico has left at least 27 people dead and more missing, authorities said on Friday, as downpours triggered several landslides, cut off power in some municipalities and caused rivers to burst their banks.

Multiple people are dead and several others are unaccounted for after a blast in Tennessee at a military explosives company, US media outlets reported on Friday, citing local officials.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for fighting dictatorship in the country and dedicated the award in part to US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly insisted he deserved it.

Israeli troops began pulling back from some parts of Gaza on Friday under a ceasefire deal with Hamas, and some residents returned to shattered neighbourhoods amid confusion over when hostilities will be suspended after two years of warfare.

Two powerful offshore earthquakes struck off the southern Philippines on Friday, killing at least seven people, while towns near the epicentre suffered structural damage and authorities warned of strong aftershocks.

The White House on Friday criticised the Nobel Prize committee's decision to award the peace prize to a Venezuelan opposition leader instead of US President Donald Trump.

Large parts of Kyiv were plunged into darkness in the early hours of Friday after Russian drones and missiles struck Ukrainian energy facilities, cutting power and water to homes and halting a key metro link across the Dnipro river.

India on Friday upgraded ties with Afghanistan's Taliban administration, giving a boost to the diplomatically isolated group, by announcing it would reopen its embassy in Kabul that was shut after the Taliban seized power in 2021.

The United States will deploy up to 200 troops to Israel to establish a task force to support stabilization efforts in Gaza, but no Americans are expected to be deployed into the Palestinian enclave, officials said on Thursday.

The United States' closest European and Arab partners met in Paris on Thursday to work out how to shape Gaza's post-war future, hours after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and prisoner-hostage swap proposed by US President Donald Trump.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the Gaza hostages should be released on Monday or Tuesday and that he hopes to attend a signing ceremony in Egypt.

Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature, the award-giving body said on Thursday, "for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art".

The foreign minister of European Union member state Malta said on Thursday that he had nominated US President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Israelis and Palestinians rejoiced on Thursday after a ceasefire and hostage deal was announced under the first phase of US President Donald Trump's initiative to end the war in Gaza.

Palestinians and the families of Israeli hostages broke into wild celebrations on Thursday after news of a pact between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza.

Indian police have arrested the owner of Sresan Pharmaceutical Manufacturer, the cough syrup company linked to the deaths of at least 17 children in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

French President Emmanuel Macron will appoint a new prime minister in the next 48 hours, his office said on Wednesday, adding that a majority of lawmakers were against holding a snap parliamentary election amid France's worst crisis in decades.

Hamas said on Wednesday it had exchanged a list of the names of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be released under a swap deal and that it was optimistic about talks in Egypt on US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has officially inaugurated the Navi Mumbai International Airport — a state-of-the-art greenfield airport.

Scientists Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi won the 2025 Nobel chemistry prize for developing a new form of molecular architecture, yielding materials that can help tackle challenges such as climate change and lack of fresh water.

Some Indian pharmaceutical firms failed to follow rules that every batch of medicinal ingredients is tested, the country's drug regulator said on Wednesday, after deaths in the past month of 17 children linked to toxic cough syrups.

At least 15 were killed from a landslide that struck a private bus in India's mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh, with one child missing, officials and police said on Wednesday.

Air traffic control staffing issues delayed more than 3,000 flights for a second straight day at numerous US airports as the government shutdown reaches its seventh day, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a notice on Tuesday.

Rescuers guided all of the remaining trekkers near the east face of Everest in Tibet to safety on Tuesday, including hundreds of local guides and yak herders, authorities said, ending one of the largest search-and-rescue operations in the region.

Two years after the Gaza conflict erupted, President Donald Trump on Tuesday pledged US support for Gaza security guarantees and said he believes a deal is close to being completed for the remaining hostages.

Israeli tanks pounded parts of Gaza on Tuesday, giving Palestinians no respite on the two-year anniversary of the Hamas attack, and underlining the challenges at talks on US President Donald Trump's plan to halt the conflict.

India's civil aviation minister denied on Tuesday there was any "manipulation" in an official investigation into the crash of an Air India Dreamliner in June, after the father of the flight's captain complained about the actions of investigators.

London police said they have broken up a criminal gang suspected of smuggling 40,000 stolen mobile phones to China in their largest operation against phone theft to date, resulting in 46 arrests over the last two weeks.

US-based scientists John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for "experiments that revealed quantum physics in action", the award-giving body said on Tuesday.

Efforts to evacuate more than 200 trekkers still stranded near the eastern face of Mount Everest in Tibet are expected to wrap up on Tuesday, a source familiar with the situation said, after snowstorms tore across western China.

Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg arrived in Greece to a cheering crowd on Monday after she and hundreds of other activists captured by Israel on the high seas were deported following an attempt to bring aid to Gaza.

Indonesian rescuers wrapped up the search on Tuesday for victims trapped under the rubble of a collapsed boarding school in the province of East Java, after retrieving 61 bodies, disaster authorities said.

Bangladesh’s dengue outbreak is worsening rapidly with over 50,689 dengue cases and 215 deaths reported nationwide this year, heath experts warning the disease could spiral if urgent and coordinated mosquito control efforts are not launched.

Nine more United Nations personnel have been detained by Yemen's Houthi authorities, bringing the total number of arbitrarily held UN staff to 53 since 2021, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday.

Israel said it deported on Monday campaigner Greta Thunberg and another 170 activists from an international flotilla it prevented last week from delivering aid to Gaza, sending them to Greece and Slovakia.

Delegations from Israel and Hamas began indirect negotiations in Egypt on Monday that the US hopes will bring a halt to the war in Gaza, facing contentious issues such as demands that Israel pull out of the enclave and Hamas to disarm.

Floods and landslides unleashed by unrelenting rain in India's eastern hill region of Darjeeling and neighbouring Nepal killed more than 70 people after washing away homes, roads and bridges, authorities said.

Scientists Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance", the award-giving body said on Monday.

France's new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu and his government resigned on Monday, hours after Lecornu announced his cabinet line-up, making it the shortest-lived in modern French history, driving stocks and the euro sharply lower.

A hospital blaze caused by a suspected short-circuit killed at least six patients in a trauma centre at the largest state-run hospital in India's northwestern city of Jaipur, and injured five, officials said on Monday.

Police in India have launched criminal action against a maker of cough syrup whose product was found to contain dangerous levels of a toxic chemical, after the deaths of 14 children suspected to have consumed contaminated medicine.

The US will start mass layoffs of federal workers if President Donald Trump decides negotiations with congressional Democrats to end a partial government shutdown are "absolutely going nowhere," a senior White House official said.

Hundreds of trekkers stranded by a blizzard near the eastern face of Mount Everest in Tibet have been guided to safety by rescuers, Chinese state media reported, as unusually heavy snow and rainfall pummelled the Himalayas.

All seven workers who went missing after a mud-flow disaster at Indonesia's Grasberg copper and gold mine have been confirmed dead, Miner Freeport announced on Sunday.

The death toll from the collapse of a school in Indonesia last week has climbed to at least 50 people as rescuers have cleared nearly all of the debris, rescue authorities said on Monday, in the country's deadliest disaster this year.

GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi has welcomed the steps taken by Hamas in response to US President Donald Trump's Gaza proposal while stressing on the importance of strengthening Gulf integration to confront accelerating global changes.

Israeli planes and tanks pounded areas across the Gaza Strip overnight and on Sunday, destroying several residential buildings, witnesses said, as Palestinians desperately awaited implementation of a US plan to end the war.

The number of students confirmed dead after the collapse of a boarding school building in Indonesia rose to 36, from 16 a day earlier, the country's disaster mitigation agency said on Sunday.

Russia rained missiles and drones on Ukraine in a mass overnight attack, officials said on Sunday, killing at least five people and damaging civilian infrastructure including energy facilities across numerous regions.

Heavy rains triggered landslides and flash floods blocking roads, washing away bridges and killing at least 47 people since Friday in Nepal, officials said on Sunday.

A Russian drone strike hit a passenger train at a station in Ukraine's northern Sumy region, injuring dozens of people, officials said on Saturday.

President Donald Trump told Israel on Friday to immediately stop bombing Gaza after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, but issues like disarmament appeared unresolved.

Japan's ruling party picked hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi as its head on Saturday, putting her on course to become the country's first female prime minister in a move set to jolt investors and neighbours.

China has activated a Level-IV emergency flood and typhoon response in the southern provinces of Guangdong and Hainan as Typhoon Matmo, the 21st named storm of the 2025 Pacific typhoon season, approaches, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

US President Donald Trump gave Hamas until Sunday evening to reach a last-chance agreement on his plan for Gaza's future or have "all Hell" break out against the Palestinian group.

The Israeli military intercepted the last boat in an aid flotilla attempting to reach blockaded Gaza on Friday, a day after stopping most of the vessels and detaining some 450 activists including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg.

British police said on Friday they may have accidentally shot two victims, including one who died, in their attempts to bring under control an attack on a Manchester synagogue during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Sarah Mullally was appointed as the new Archbishop of Canterbury on Friday, becoming the first woman to lead the Church of England in the 1,400-year history of the role.

The death toll in Vietnam from Typhoon Bualoi and the floods it triggered has risen to 51, according to a Friday government report, as the central bank urged banks to support affected businesses.

Philippine authorities said on Thursday that search and rescue operations in quake-hit Cebu province have ended, as the current death toll of 72 was not expected to go much higher and missing people had been accounted for.

The number of students confirmed dead after the collapse of a school building in Indonesia's East Java province rose to nine on Friday, the country's disaster mitigation agency said, as the search for survivors continued.

Apple announced on Thursday that it had removed ICEBlock, the most popular Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tracking app, and other similar apps from its App Store after it was contacted by President Donald Trump's administration.

A Texas woman has been sentenced to five years in prison for attempting to drown a 3-year-old Palestinian-American Muslim girl in a May 2024 incident that local police said was motivated by racial bias.

Germany's Munich airport reopened on Friday after shutting overnight due to drone sightings that forced the cancellation or diversion of dozens of flights on the eve of a national holiday and heightened concerns about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure in Europe.

Israeli forces have intercepted 39 boats carrying aid and foreign activists, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, to Gaza, leaving only one vessel still sailing towards the Palestinian enclave, the flotilla organisers said on Thursday.

Two people were killed on Thursday when a man drove a car into pedestrians and stabbed a security guard in an attack at a synagogue in England where worshippers were marking Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

US President Donald Trump's administration froze $26 billion for Democratic-leaning states on Wednesday, following through on a threat to use the government shutdown to target Democratic priorities.

The death toll from a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck off the central Philippines late on Tuesday has risen to 72, the civil defence agency said.

Rescuers were racing against time on Thursday to extricate some 60 teenagers trapped under the remains of a boarding school that collapsed earlier this week due to foundation failure, disaster authorities said.

Cell phone and internet services has been restored in Afghanistan, local residents said, some 48 hours after diplomatic and industry sources said connectivity was abruptly cut on the orders of the Taliban administration.

At least 27 people have been killed from a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake in the central Philippine, as the government mobilised agencies to search for survivors and restore power and water supplies.

Hamas' review of US President Donald Trump's Gaza plan stretched into a third day on Wednesday, a source close to the group said, as other Palestinian factions rejected the proposal and as Israel again bombed Gaza City.

Flash floods in Ukraine's southern city of Odesa killed nine people including a family of five, who were swept away from their flat, emergency services said on Wednesday, after a day of torrential rain.

The US government shut down much of its operations on Wednesday as deep partisan divisions prevented Congress and the White House from reaching a funding deal, setting off what could be a long, grueling standoff that could lead to the loss of thousands of federal jobs.

Greek trains, ferries and taxis were halted and protests were expected in the capital Athens on Wednesday during a one-day general strike against extended working hours.

Britain's Princess Anne, the late Queen Elizabeth's only daughter, has visited Ukraine to express her solidarity with children and families enduring the impact of the war, Buckingham Palace said on Wednesday.

Houthis will target US oil majors including ExxonMobil and Chevron with sanctions, a body affiliated with the rebels said on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump warned congressional Democrats on Tuesday that allowing the federal government to shut down at midnight would allow his administration to take "irreversible" actions including shutting down programmes important to them.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.9 struck in waters about 100 km (62 miles) from Cebu City in the Philippines late on Tuesday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

South Africa's ambassador to France, who was found dead at the foot of the Hyatt Regency hotel in Paris on Tuesday, had left a note to his wife, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

A US-sponsored ceasefire proposal for Gaza on Tuesday was hinging on Hamas's response to the 20-point plan which President Donald Trump has said was "beyond very close" to ending the two-year-old conflict in the enclave.

More than 150,000 federal employees will leave the US government payroll this week after accepting buyouts - the largest single-year exodus of civil servants in nearly 80 years, triggering what unions and governance experts warn is a damaging loss of institutional expertise.

A massive explosion outside the headquarters of a paramilitary force in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta has left at least 10 people dead.

President Donald Trump secured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's backing for a US-sponsored peace proposal to end a nearly two-year-old war in Gaza on Monday.

Indonesian rescuers were racing on Tuesday to find 38 people feared trapped beneath the rubble of an boarding school that collapsed in East Java during afternoon prayers, killing three, according to disaster officials.

Vietnam's most devastating storm this year brought heavy rains that triggered floods across its north, disrupting flights and train services with the capital, Hanoi, where schools were closed and many homes inundated, authorities said on Tuesday.

A heavy security presence on Monday evening thwarted for a straight third day youth-led protests across several Moroccan cities, where demonstrators have sought to rally for improvements to the public health and education systems.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed regret for an Israeli attack in Doha to Qatar's Prime Minister on Monday in a three-way call with US President Donald Trump.

Israeli tanks thrust closer to the heart of Gaza City on Monday in the hours before Donald Trump was due to host Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, where the US president has promised "something special" in his latest bid to end the war.

Typhoon Bualoi tore through Vietnam's coast on Monday, killing at least 13 people and injuring 46, the government said, while accompanying strong winds and rains damaged homes, snapped power links and flooded roads.

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban released another US citizen from custody on Sunday after a visit by Washington's hostage envoy Adam Boehler, the US government said.

A French appeals court will begin a new trial on Monday of Air France and Airbus, 16 years after a jetliner plunged into the Atlantic killing all 228 people on board.

Indonesia's main press council has called for press freedom and urged President Prabowo Subianto's palace to restore reporting access for a CNN Indonesia journalist who had her credentials revoked after asking him about a troubled free meal programme.

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui has met with China's top diplomat Wang Yi in Beijing on Sunday during her second visit to the Chinese capital in just one month, both countries' official news agencies reported.

A man drove his vehicle through the front doors of a church and shot at least 10 people, killing at least four people and wounding at least eight others before dying in a shootout with police, officials said.

The United Nations has reinstated an arms embargo and other sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme following a process triggered by European powers.

Israeli tanks moved deeper into Gaza City's residential districts on Sunday, as local health authorities said they have been unable to respond to dozens of desperate calls, expressing concern about the fate of residents in the targeted areas.

Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine early on Sunday, killing at least four people and injuring dozens, in one of the most sustained attacks on the capital since the full-scale war began.

Vietnam closed airports and evacuated thousands of people in potentially effected areas on Sunday as intensifying Typhoon Bualoi barrelled towards the country, days after causing at least 10 deaths and widespread flooding in the Philippines.

Police in India registered a criminal case against leaders of Tamil actor Vijay's political party after a stampede at his rally killed 39 people, a senior police official said on Sunday.

The relentless Israeli offensive in Gaza City has forced Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to suspend its vital medical activities due to continued airstrikes and advancing tanks less than half a mile from their health care facilities, the organisation said on Friday.

United Nations sanctions on Iran are set to be reimposed on Saturday, Britain's UN envoy said on Friday after a Russian and Chinese Security Council resolution to delay them failed, prompting Tehran to warn that the West bore responsibility for any consequences.

The United States said it would revoke Colombian President Gustavo Petro's visa after he took to New York's streets on Friday in a pro-Palestinian demonstration and urged US soldiers to disobey President Donald Trump's orders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply denounced Western countries on Friday for embracing Palestinian statehood.

A fire at South Korea's data infrastructure centre on Friday interrupted dozens of online government services including websites and email, according to media reports.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, rejecting calls from some far-right politicians in Israel who want to extend sovereignty over the area and snuff out hopes for a Palestinian state.

Indian police arrested Ladakh activist Sonam Wangchuk on Friday, two days after New Delhi blamed him for violent protests demanding statehood for the Himalayan federal territory in which four people died, and suspended mobile internet services in its main city of Leh.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his talks with US leader Donald Trump on Thursday yielded "meaningful progress" in many areas, with discussions on steps to improve defence cooperation and boost trade.

Rescue workers in Taiwan battled through thick mud on Friday, looking for 11 people still missing after Super Typhoon Ragasa this week sent a wall of water into a small town on the east coast.

Britain on Friday said it would introduce a mandatory digital ID scheme for British citizens and residents starting a new job as a measure to deter illegal immigration.

Microsoft said it has disabled some services used by an Israeli military unit on Thursday after preliminary evidence supported a media investigation that reported mass surveillance of Palestinian phone calls.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged at the 80th session of the UN General Assembly on Thursday to work with US President Donald Trump, Saudi Arabia, France and the UN on a peace plan for Gaza backed by the world body.

Qantas Airways said a fire alert that triggered the pilot of a flight from Sydney to make an emergency call before landing safely at Auckland airport on Friday was likely a false alarm.

Slovenia on Thursday imposed a travel ban on Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a government statement, after last year officially recognising Palestine and in July banning two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers.

The Israeli military said it struck military targets linked to Yemen's Houthis in Sanaa on Thursday, a day after the group claimed a drone attack on a hotel in Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat.

Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, will be boarding Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity and blasting off to space on Sunday.

Singapore is reviewing penalties for violent offences following an outcry over a 12-day prison sentence for a student who strangled his girlfriend until she blacked out.