International News

US President Donald Trump has stated that he does not think he will need China's help to end the war with Iran, even as hopes for a lasting peace deal dwindled and Tehran tightened its grip over the Strait of Hormuz.

Britain will bring back 10 people from remote island territories, including cruise ship passengers and medical staff who had contact with confirmed cases in the hantavirus outbreak, for precautionary isolation.

The United States' war in Iran has ​cost $29 billion so far, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday, an increase of $4 billion from an estimate provided late last month.

Chinese emperors once prayed for bumper crops under the blue-tiled, triple-eaved roof of Beijing's Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, in sacred rites affirming their mandate to rule.

Hopes for a peace deal on Iran faded on Tuesday after Donald Trump said a ceasefire with Iran was "on life support" as Tehran rejected a US proposal to end the conflict.

Dozens of members of the student wings of Indian opposition parties protested in New Delhi on Tuesday against the cancellation of a key undergraduate college entrance test after authorities discovered its questions had been leaked.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer defied calls to resign on Tuesday, telling ministers he would "get on with governing" despite a "destabilising" 48 hours of growing calls to set out a timetable for his departure after an election drubbing.

Israel's parliament passed a law late on Monday establishing a military tribunal to try hundreds of Palestinians who took part in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, a step lawmakers said would help heal national trauma.

Russia launched more than 200 drones at Ukraine overnight, hours after a US-mediated ceasefire expired, dimming hopes it would be extended.

A Dutch hospital quarantined 12 staff members in a preventive measure after blood and urine from a hantavirus patient were handled without observing strict protocols.

Brazilian activist Thiago Avila has returned to Sao Paulo on Monday following his detention and deportation from Israel, where he alleged he was tortured and witnessed abuses of Palestinian prisoners during 10 days in custody.

A massive explosion at a crowded market in northwestern Pakistan killed 10 people and wounded dozens more on Tuesday, police and rescue officials said, the latest incident in the region that threatens to reignite fighting with neighbouring Afghanistan.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a five-nation tour taking in the UAE and Europe from May 15-20, India's foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Malaysia's maritime agency has launched a search and rescue operation for 14 people missing after a boat believed to be carrying undocumented Indonesian migrants sank off its western coast on Monday.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that a ceasefire with Iran was 'on life support' after he rejected Tehran's response to a US peace proposal, fuelling concerns of a resumption of hostilities in the 10-week-old conflict that has killed thousands and halted vital energy flows.

Hospitals in Haiti's Cite Soleil have evacuated their patients, and aid group MSF suspended its activities there on Monday as fighting between armed groups operating in the area that began a fortnight ago deteriorated over the weekend.

European Union foreign ministers reached an agreement on Monday on new sanctions targeting violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, as well as leading Hamas figures, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.

The last six passengers and some crew members of the hantavirus-hit MV Hondius left the ship on the Spanish island of Tenerife on Monday as its captain praised their patience and discipline during an 'extremely challenging' few weeks.

The man accused of attempting to assassinate US President Donald Trump at a White House reporters' gala last month pleaded not guilty to all charges on Monday.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised to be bolder to turn around Britain's fortunes, making an impassioned plea to both his Labour Party and voters on Monday to stick with him and avoid a leadership contest he said would only bring chaos.

Lawmakers in the Philippines are set to vote on Monday on whether to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte, in what could create a major hurdle for her bid to run for the presidency in 2028.

Six bodies were found on Sunday in a train boxcar in Laredo, Texas, according to police, with an investigation ongoing to determine the cause of death.

A tyre of a Turkish Airlines plane caught fire after it landed on Monday in Nepal's capital of Kathmandu, authorities said, forcing the closure of the airport for an hour.

Thailand's influential former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been released from prison on Monday, after about eight months behind bars following a court ruling that deemed he had wrongfully stayed in hospital to avoid jail time.

Iran has sent its response to a US proposal for peace talks to end the war, Iranian state media reported on Sunday, as two ships were allowed to pass through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

A US-mediated ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine appeared under serious strain on Sunday, with both sides trading blame for weekend attacks.

Groups of passengers and crew disembarked from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak on Sunday to be evacuated to their home countries where they will isolate according to national protocols to prevent further spread of the disease.

Israeli strikes killed at least three Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday, including two members of the Hamas-run police force, health officials said, in violence that underscored the fragility of a US-brokered ceasefire.

A car bombing at a police post in northwestern Pakistan followed by an ambush on police personnel rushing to the scene to provide backup has killed at least 12 officers, police said on Sunday.

Qatar's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has reported that a commercial cargo vessel in the country's territorial waters was targeted by a drone on Sunday morning.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to fight on and said his government was a "10-year project" despite calls to quit after his party's drubbing in local elections earlier this week.

An Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Saksakiyeh killed at least seven people, including a child, and wounded 15 on Saturday, Lebanon's health ministry said.

Centre-right leader Peter Magyar was sworn in as Hungary's prime minister on Saturday, propelled into office on promises of change after years of economic stagnation and strained ties with key allies under his predecessor Viktor Orban.

Security authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo announced that at least 69 people were killed in an attack by gunmen in the northeast of the country.

Russia held its most scaled-back Victory Day parade in years on Saturday due to the threat of attack from Ukraine, where victory for Moscow's forces has proven elusive more than four years into the deadliest European conflict since World War II.

Bahrain’s interior ministry said on Saturday it had arrested 41 people it said were linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

US President Donald Trump on Friday announced on social media that there would be a three-day ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine from May 9 until May 11.

Health experts raced to contain a potential spread of hantavirus as two suspected cases emerged far from the luxury cruise liner where the outbreak started.

Two Singaporean nationals missing following the eruption of Mount Dukono on Indonesia's Halmahera island were confirmed dead on Sunday, the local rescue agency said.

The United States said it expected an Iranian response as soon as later in the day on Friday to its latest proposal to end the war, even as US and Iranian forces clashed in the Gulf.

US President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday released dozens of previously classified files on alleged UFO sightings and alien and extraterrestrial life to provide what they called "unprecedented transparency" to the American people.

At least one suspect is at large after taking hostages and then fleeing the scene at a savings bank branch in the western German town of Sinzig, police said on Friday.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Friday to fight on to deliver on his promise to bring "change" to Britain after his Labour Party suffered heavy losses in local elections that deepened doubts over his ability to govern.

Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Friday of violating a unilateral two-day ceasefire announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin to cover the anniversary celebrations of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany.

The death toll has risen to 37 from 26 and one person remains missing after a fireworks factory explosion in the southern Chinese province of Hunan, state news agency Xinhua said on Friday, in the deadliest blast reported in China since 2019.

Indonesian authorities are still trying to locate three missing hikers after rescuing 17 people trapped by the volcanic eruption of Mount Dukono on Halmahera island on Friday, a local rescue agency official told Reuters.

Singapore has isolated and is testing two residents who were onboard a cruise ship linked to a deadly outbreak of hantavirus, the Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) said on Thursday.

Representatives of Israel and Lebanon will hold their third round of talks in Washington on May 14 and 15, a US State Department official said on Thursday.

At least five people died in a fire at a fairground in the southeastern Mexican city of Villahermosa on Thursday, after the massive blaze broke out during a concert attended by thousands.

The United States and Iran are edging toward a limited, temporary agreement to halt their war, sources and officials said on Thursday, with a draft framework that would stop the fighting but leave the most contentious issues unresolved.

Two men, including a British immigration officer, were found guilty in a London court of spying on behalf of Hong Kong and ultimately China, targeting prominent pro-democracy dissidents now based in Britain.

Israel said on Thursday it had killed a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in an airstrike on Beirut a day earlier, the first Israeli attack on the Lebanese capital since a ceasefire agreed last month.

Countries worldwide scrambled on Thursday to trace people who had left the cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak before it got marooned off the coast of Cape Verde, in an effort to prevent further spread of the disease.

Israel has launched air strikes that killed at least five people across the Gaza Strip and critically wounded the son of Hamas’s top negotiator on Wednesday, according to medics and Hamas sources.

Israel struck Beirut on Wednesday for the first time since agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah last month, saying it targeted a commander of the group's elite Radwan force in the city's southern suburbs.

The United States and Iran are closing in on an agreement on a one-page memorandum to end the war in the Gulf, a source from mediator Pakistan and another source briefed on the mediation said.

US President Donald Trump defended the rising cost estimates for his planned ballroom on Wednesday, saying the cost of the massive building on the White House complex would still be less than $400 million.

US President Donald Trump has announced on Tuesday that he would briefly pause the operation to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, dubbed "Project Freedom", citing "great progress" towards an agreement with Iran, while the blockade remains in force.

Ukraine accused Russia of violating a ceasefire initiated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at midnight on Wednesday, with officials reporting one person killed and three wounded in frontline areas in the north and east of the country.

A luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak and marooned since Sunday off the coast of Cape Verde left for Spain on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said, after three people, two of them seriously ill, were evacuated.

Russian attacks throughout eastern Ukraine have killed at least 27 people on Tuesday, including 12 in one of the worst strikes so far this year, hours before a midnight deadline ushering in an open-ended ceasefire proposed by Kyiv.

At least eight people died and 36 were hurt after a fire broke out in a shopping centre west of Tehran on Tuesday, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed Iran's military capability and said Tehran "should wave the white flag of surrender" but is too proud to do so.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that the ceasefire with Iran was not over, even as the US and Iran exchanged fire in the Gulf as they wrestled for control of the Strait of Hormuz.

The US military said on Monday it destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted Iranian cruise missiles and drones as Tehran sought to thwart a new US naval effort to open shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Israeli strikes killed at least two Palestinians and wounded several others in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said.

A blast at a fireworks factory in China has killed at least 26 people and injured 61, flattening buildings and sending towering clouds of smoke into the sky, and prompting President Xi Jinping to order a thorough investigation, state media reported on Tuesday.

A Russian overnight missile and drone attack on Ukrainian gas production facilities killed five people, including two rescue workers, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday, as Kyiv and Moscow exchanged rival ceasefire proposals.

Two cases of the deadly hantavirus have been confirmed, and five more are suspected among people who were on a luxury cruise ship now held in the Atlantic near Cape Verde, the World Health Organisation said in its most detailed update on the outbreak.

President Vladimir Putin has declared on Monday a two-day ceasefire in the conflict with Ukraine on May 8-9 to mark Russia’s World War Two victory, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy countered with his own proposed pause in fighting starting earlier, on the night of May 5‑6.

A small airplane with five occupants crashed into a building on Monday in the city of Belo Horizonte in southeastern Brazil, killing three people, local officials and firefighters said.

Two people were killed and three others were seriously injured on Monday when a car drove into a central pedestrian zone of the eastern German city of Leipzig, Mayor Burkhard Jung said, the latest in a spate of such incidents in recent years in Germany.

A midmorning Russian missile attack on the town of Merefa, in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, killed seven people and wounded more than 30, including a 2-year-old boy, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

Medics were working on Monday to evacuate two people with symptoms of the deadly hantavirus after a suspected outbreak on a luxury cruise ship held off West Africa carrying mostly British, American and Spanish passengers, officials said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party was on course to win two of four crucial state elections on Monday, expanding its influence and weakening its key rival half-way into his third term in office.

Iran's military warned US forces on Monday not to enter the Strait of Hormuz after President Donald Trump said the US would start helping to free ships stranded in the Gulf by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The tally of injured from a shooting at a party at a lake near Oklahoma City is expected to rise beyond the 10 taken to hospital by rescuers, police said on Monday, as others among the victims make their own way to seek treatment.

A United Airlines aircraft struck a light pole and a trailer on Sunday during its final approach to Newark Liberty International Airport, the New Jersey State Police said.

Iran said on Sunday it had received a US response to its latest offer for peace talks, a day after President Donald Trump said he would probably reject the Iranian proposal because "they have not paid a big enough price".

The Israeli military issued an urgent warning on Sunday to residents of 11 towns and villages in southern Lebanon, urging them to evacuate their homes and move at least 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) away to open areas.

Ukrainian drones attacked Russia's Baltic Sea port of Primorsk on Sunday, temporarily setting it on fire, local governor Alexander Drozdenko said on the Telegram messaging app, as Kyiv launched a wave of strikes on targets across the country.

An Israeli court has extended by two days the detention of two activists arrested aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla that was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters near Greece, their lawyer said on Sunday.

Heavy rains that hit northeastern Brazil over the last 48 hours have killed at least six people and displaced thousands in the states of Pernambuco and Paraiba, the federal government said in a statement on Saturday.

Austrian police have arrested a 39-year-old suspect on Saturday in connection with a case in which rat poison was placed in jars of baby food in what their German manufacturer called an attempt to extort it.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he was not satisfied with the latest Iranian proposal for talks on the war, while Iran's foreign minister said Tehran was ready for diplomacy if the United States changes its approach.

Tehran has submitted its latest proposal for negotiations with the United States, Iranian state media and a Pakistani official said on Friday, a move that could offer hope for breaking a deadlock in efforts to end the Iran war.

At least 10 people have died across Kenya after heavy rains triggered flooding and landslides in several regions, police said, as authorities warned rising river levels could threaten communities downstream from a major hydropower dam system.

Iran said on Thursday it would respond with "long and painful strikes" on US positions if Washington renewed attacks and restated its claim to the Strait of Hormuz, complicating US plans for a coalition to reopen the waterway.

President Donald Trump said on Friday the US Navy was acting "like pirates" in carrying out Washington's naval blockade of Iranian ports during the US and Israel's war against Iran.

A planned drawdown of US troops from Germany should spur Europeans to strengthen their own defences further, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Saturday, following the latest salvo from Washington against transatlantic ties.

A holiday Labor Day weekend turned tragic on Friday as at least 11 people died and 31 others were injured when a tourist bus crashed in Mexico's western state of Nayarit.

A fresh Ukrainian drone strike on Russia’s Black Sea port of Tuapse, the fourth in the past week, sparked a fire at the sea terminal but caused no injuries, local officials said early on Friday.

The legal team of Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi plans to meet the detained former leader this weekend after she was transferred to house arrest in the capital by the military-backed government, a representative said on Friday.

British police charged a 45-year-old man with two counts of attempted murder on Friday following an attack during which two men were stabbed in Golders Green, north London, in what officers have called a suspected terrorist incident.

Hundreds of protesters clashed with Australian emergency services workers in a remote town following the alleged murder of a five-year-old Indigenous girl, police said on Friday.

A Palestinian teen has been shot dead during an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Some 287 candidates will be considered for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, the secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Thursday, with US President Donald Trump likely to be among the nominees.

At least 17 migrants have died, and nine are missing after their boat broke down and drifted for eight days in the Mediterranean Sea, Libya's Red Crescent and Libyan security sources said on Wednesday.

Israel has begun taking control of aid ships bound for Gaza far from Israeli shores, Israeli army radio cited an Israeli source as saying on Wednesday.

Donald Trump discussed how to mitigate the impact of a possible months-long US blockade of Iran's ports with US oil companies, a White House official said on Wednesday, as the US president urged Tehran to 'get smart soon' and sign a deal.

Seven people have died after a 2.5 metre wall at a hospital complex collapsed in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, a state official said on Wednesday.

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump held a phone call on Wednesday in which the Russian leader put forward ideas on resolving the conflict over Iran's nuclear programme, a Kremlin aide said.

British police arrested a man after two people were stabbed in an area of north London with a large Jewish population, a community organisation said on Wednesday.

The UAE and Azerbaijan held the second meeting of their Strategic Partnership Cooperation Committee in Baku on Wednesday, with both sides reviewing progress in bilateral relations and plans to expand cooperation across key sectors.

Two successive Israeli strikes on a building in a southern Lebanese town have killed five people on Tuesday, including three rescuers who went to help those wounded in the initial attack, Lebanon's health ministry said.

The Philippine House justice committee on Wednesday found probable cause to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte, moving a step closer to a process that could derail her bid to become the next president.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Ukraine would keep increasing the range of its strikes in Russia, posting footage of what he said was an attack on a target at a distance of more than 1,500 km.

The leader of Mali's military government, Assimi Goita, has made his first public appearance on Tuesday since insurgents launched coordinated attacks over the weekend, vowing in a televised address to "neutralise" those responsible.

US President Donald Trump has instructed aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing US officials.

Britain's King Charles told the US Congress on Tuesday that despite an age of uncertainty and conflict in Europe and the Middle East, the UK and the US will always be staunch allies united in defending democracy, at a time of deep divisions between the two long-time allies over the war with Iran.

Israeli strikes killed five Palestinians, including a nine-year-old boy, in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said.

The death toll from a train collision near the Indonesian capital Jakarta has risen to 15 with another 88 injured, a senior minister said on Tuesday, as emergency teams completed work to rescue passengers trapped in the wreckage.

Sweden has given notice of a potential shortage of jet fuel stemming from the war in the Middle East, Energy Minister Ebba Busch said on Tuesday.

Police arrested an 89-year-old suspected of wounding five people in two separate gun attacks in Athens on Tuesday, the Greek citizens' protection ministry said.

Russia said on Tuesday it was important to quickly restore peace and stability in Mali where its forces are helping the military-led government battle insurgents who launched a series of weekend attacks near the capital Bamako and across the country.

 A US official said on Monday that President Donald Trump is unhappy with an Iranian proposal because it did not address Iran's nuclear program.

The US and Iran have clashed at the United Nations on Monday over Tehran's nuclear program and its selection to be one of dozens of vice presidents at a month-long conference to review the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles will meet with law enforcement and homeland security early this week to review security protocols after Saturday's shooting in a Washington hotel where President Donald Trump and top officials were attending a dinner, a senior White House official told Reuters.

Work has not halted to bridge gaps between the United States and Iran, sources from mediator Pakistan said, despite the failure of face-to-face diplomacy after Donald Trump called off a trip by his envoys and said Iran should phone when it wants a deal.

President Donald Trump's administration has terminated the entire National Science Board of more than 20 members, two fired members of the board said on Monday.

US President Donald Trump said Iran could telephone if it wants to negotiate an end to their two-month war, as Tehran's foreign minister landed in Russia on Monday to seek support from President Vladimir Putin.

At least four people were killed when two trains collided in the city of Bekasi, adjoining the Indonesian capital Jakarta, late on Monday, officials said.

Gunmen killed at least 29 people in an attack on a community in Nigeria's Adamawa state, the state governor said on Monday.

The Israeli military began carrying out strikes in eastern Lebanon on Monday, expanding the scope of its bombing campaign during a ceasefire that has failed to fully halt hostilities with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party strengthened its position in parliament’s upper house after seven opposition lawmakers joined it, a parliamentary list showed on Monday, a shift that could ease the government’s passage of legislation.

Israeli strikes have killed 14 people and wounded 37 on Sunday, Lebanon's health ministry said, as the Israeli military warned residents to leave seven towns beyond the "buffer zone" it occupied before a ceasefire that has failed to fully halt hostilities.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Iran could call if it wanted to negotiate an end to the war launched by the US and Israel, as Iran's foreign minister returned to Pakistan for talks despite the absence of US counterparts.

Mali Defence Minister Sadio Camara has been killed in an attack on his residence, the government said on Sunday, a high-profile fatality during coordinated assaults staged the previous day by fighters, including the West Africa al Qaeda affiliate.

Ukraine commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster on Sunday, amid fears that Russia's four-year war could spark a repeat of the world's worst nuclear accident that led to thousands of deaths and devastating environmental consequences.

President Donald Trump and officials in his administration were the likely targets of a suspect who fired on a security agent guarding the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, US Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday.

Israel issued new evacuation orders for southern Lebanon on Sunday after one of its soldiers was killed, warning residents to leave seven towns beyond the "buffer zone" it occupied before a ceasefire that has failed to fully halt hostilities.

Japan has deployed 1,400 firefighters and 100 Self-Defence Force personnel to battle mountain blazes in the northern part of the country, with the fires, now burning on Sunday for a fifth straight day, continuing to threaten a picturesque coastal town.

Israeli military attacks killed at least four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, health officials in the enclave said.

Swiss International said that a flight from Delhi to Zurich had to abort its takeoff early on Sunday after an engine issue, adding that four passengers and one crew member were injured.

President Donald Trump cancelled a trip to Islamabad by two US envoys to meet Iran war mediator Pakistan on Saturday after Iran's foreign minister flew out of the Pakistani capital following talks, dealing a new setback to peace prospects.

Israel said on Saturday it would attack Hezbollah targets forcefully, further testing a fragile ceasefire with Lebanon that US President Donald Trump recently said had been extended by three weeks.

Russian forces pounded the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Saturday in waves of attacks with drones and missiles that also hit other regions, killing 10 people and injuring dozens.

Insurgents launched attacks in Mali's capital and other locations across the country on Saturday, with the army urging people to remain calm as the military-led government faced one of the biggest operations yet in a long campaign against it.

The US military has announced that it struck a vessel in the Eastern Pacific on Friday, killing two people, in the latest such attack, condemned by rights groups as "extrajudicial killings" and described by Washington as targeting "narco-terrorists".

More than 1,000 firefighters in northern Japan battled to contain two wildfires for a fourth straight day on Saturday, as the blazes pushed closer to residential areas and forced more than 3,000 residents to evacuate.

Israel and Lebanon extended their ceasefire for three weeks at a meeting at the White House brokered by President Donald Trump, who said he was prepared to wait for "the best deal" to end his conflict with Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that he had received successful treatment for early-stage prostate cancer, without specifying when the treatment took place.

For nearly a week, Pakistan's capital has been waiting for peace talks between the US and Iran to take place there, and although there is no sign the two sides will meet, large parts of the city remain sealed off by authorities.

Israeli fire killed at least 12 people including six police officers across Gaza on Friday, Palestinian health officials said.

Kuwait has reopened its airspace at Kuwait International Airport on Thursday evening, following a two-month suspension of air traffic since February 28 due to regional developments.

Norway said on Friday it would present a bill in parliament by year-end to ban children from using social media until they turn 16, making technology companies responsible for the task of age verification.

United States President Donald Trump on Thursday said he had ordered the US Navy "to shoot and kill any boat" that is laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, and that US minesweepers were working "at a tripled up level" to clear any mines from the waters.

South Korean prosecutors have sought a 30-year jail term for former President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday, in a case alleging he ordered a drone operation over Pyongyang to help create a pretext for his December 2024 declaration of martial law, Yonhap news agency said.

Iran seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz as it tightened its grip on the strategic waterway after US President Donald Trump announced he was indefinitely calling off attacks, with no sign of peace talks restarting.

Britain's Prince Harry made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Thursday and called on Russia's President Vladimir Putin to end the war - a week after a massive Russian aerial attack on the country - and on U.S. President Donald Trump to show leadership to help resolve the conflict.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least four Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday, while soldiers shot and killed a 15-year-old child during an army raid in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said.

Bangladesh has confirmed 30 deaths in a measles outbreak that has spread rapidly across the country, with most of the victims aged under two, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

Britain's King Charles heads to the United States next week for the most high-profile trip of his reign so far, on a mission to shore up the future of the two allies' "special relationship" which the Iran war has plunged to its lowest point in 70 years.

Judges at the International Criminal Court confirmed murder charges against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as crimes against humanity on Thursday, paving the way for a trial.

Two local trains collided head-on in Denmark on Thursday, injuring at least 17 people, four of whom were in a critical condition, the emergency service told Reuters.

Israeli strikes on Wednesday have killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and wounded a photographer accompanying her in southern Lebanon, according to a senior Lebanese military official and Khalil's employer, the Al-Akhbar newspaper.

Iran seized two container ships seeking to exit the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday after firing on them and another vessel, in its first seizures since war with the United States and Israel began in February.

An Israeli airstrike has killed five Palestinians, including three children, in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, health officials said.

Two people have been killed in the Russian city of Syzran after a Ukrainian drone attack caused their apartment building to partially collapse, and 12 people were injured, the regional governor said on Wednesday.

Libya's eastern-based coast guard of the Libyan National Army has rescued at least 404 migrants on board 10 boats after they had "faced harsh conditions at sea," the Tobruk Red Crescent said on Wednesday.

Mexico's ancient Teotihuacan archaeological site has reopened on Wednesday under heavy security and with fewer tourists than usual, two days after a gunman killed a Canadian woman and wounded 13 others at the Pyramid of the Moon in a rare attack at a major tourist destination.

At least four people were killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, Lebanon's state news agency reported, and Hezbollah said it launched an attack drone at Israeli forces in the south, straining a ceasefire between the Iran-backed group and Israel.

The Trump administration is in talks with the Democratic Republic of Congo to resettle 1,100 Afghans who have been stranded in Qatar awaiting US visas, according to an advocacy organisation that works on their behalf.

The Iran war has caused a shortage of Diet Coke in India, where it is sold only in aluminium cans that have run short because of delayed shipments from the Gulf caused by the Iran war.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that a second French soldier had died following an attack on United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon last week, which he said was carried out by Iran‑backed Hezbollah.

Australia's internet regulator on Wednesday asked online gaming platforms including Roblox and Microsoft's Minecraft to spell out how they protect children from predators and shield young users from radicalisation.

Ukraine has asked Turkey to host a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, its top diplomat said, as Kyiv seeks to reinvigorate stalling peace talks.

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.