International

At least three container ships were hit by gunfire in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, maritime security sources and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said.

US President Donald Trump said he would indefinitely extend the ceasefire with Iran to allow for further peace talks, although it was not clear on Wednesday if Iran or Israel, the US ally in the two-month war, would agree.

Military planners from more than 30 countries will hold two-day talks in London from Wednesday to advance a mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and draw up detailed plans, the British government said.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has announced that the state was launching a criminal probe into OpenAI and its artificial intelligence app ChatGPT on Tuesday over a deadly shooting last year that killed two people at Florida State University.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he did not want to extend a rapidly expiring ceasefire in the US-Israeli war on Iran and that the US military was "raring to go" if negotiations were not successful.

At least 13 people have been killed in a powerful explosion at a fireworks unit in the southern Indian state of Kerala, in Thrissur district.

British counter-terrorism police said on Tuesday they had arrested eight people in an investigation into a series of suspected arson attacks in London, including an alleged plot targeting a venue linked to the Jewish community.

The United States expressed confidence that peace talks with Iran would go ahead in Pakistan and a senior Iranian official said Tehran was considering joining, but significant hurdles and uncertainty remained as the end of a ceasefire loomed.

A gunman shot one dead as he opened fire at Mexico's Teotihuacan pyramids on Monday before taking his own life, authorities said, in a rare attack at a major tourist attraction.

Iran is considering attending peace talks with the United States in Pakistan, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday, following moves by Islamabad to end a US blockade of Iran's ports, a major hurdle for Iran to rejoin peace efforts.

Israeli strikes have killed at least five Palestinians in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Monday, Palestinian health officials said, while fighters from Hamas clashed with gunmen from an Israeli-backed militia, witnesses said.

President Donald Trump said on Monday he believed a nuclear deal the US is currently negotiating with Iran will be better than a 2015 international agreement to curb Tehran's nuclear programme.

A man hit in a Kyiv shooting on Saturday has died in hospital, bringing to toll of those killed in the incident to seven, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said on Monday.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer put the blame firmly on foreign ministry officials on Monday over the appointment of a US ambassador, saying they had withheld information about Labour veteran Peter Mandelson that would have halted his employment.

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Japan on Monday, prompting authorities to urge residents to stay away from coastal areas where tsunami waves of up to 3 metres were expected.

Indian drug regulators seized more than 260 suspected counterfeit pens of Eli obesity and diabetes drug Mounjaro and said the main accused had ordered raw materials from vendors on Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba.

A ceasefire between the United States and Iran appeared in jeopardy on Monday after the US said it had seized an Iranian cargo ship that tried to run its blockade and Tehran vowed to retaliate, refusing for now to join new peace talks.

US President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday that representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan, "tomorrow night" for Iran negotiations.

A gunman killed seven of his children and an eighth minor in a domestic violence incident on Sunday in Shreveport, Louisiana, before police fatally shot him during a vehicle chase, authorities said.

India's federal crime fighting agency said it has arrested an official from the country's aviation regulator and a Reliance Industries executive on allegations of bribery related to securing regulatory approvals to import drones.

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz was at a standstill on Sunday after Iran reasserted control over the strategic waterway that is key to global energy supply, days before a fragile ceasefire with the United States was set to expire.

US forces killed three men whom the military described as illicit drug smugglers in a strike on a boat in the Caribbean, US Southern Command said on Sunday.

British police said they had arrested seven people on Sunday over what they said was a national coordinated plan by activists who want to tax the super rich to damage and steal from high-end stores.

US President Donald Trump has no justification to deprive Iran of its nuclear rights, the Iranian Student News Agency quoted Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian as saying on Sunday, as Washington and Tehran continue to face disagreements over nuclear issues.

Thousands of people have been displaced after a fire destroyed around 1,000 homes in a coastal village in Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo island on Sunday, the fire department said.

Eight people remain hospitalised in Kyiv after being wounded in a shooting that killed six people, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Sunday.

Pope Leo sought to downplay his feud with US President Donald Trump on Saturday, saying reporting about comments he has made so far during his Africa tour "has not been accurate in all its aspects".

Two Indian-flagged vessels carrying crude oil were attacked on Saturday while attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz, India's Ministry of External Affairs confirmed in a statement.

Ukrainian police have killed a man alleged to have opened fire on Saturday at passersby in a Kyiv district before barricading himself into a supermarket with hostages and refusing to negotiate in an incident that killed six people.

The Iranian military command said the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state of 'strict management' due to the US’s continuing blockade of Iranian ports.

 A French soldier was killed and three others wounded while clearing a road in southern Lebanon in an attack that UNIFIL peacekeepers and French officials said on Saturday was likely carried out by Hezbollah.

US President Donald Trump said there had been "some pretty good news" about Iran, suggesting optimism about peace talks to end the war in the Middle East, but he said a ceasefire in the conflict may not be extended without a deal by Wednesday.

One person has been killed and another seriously injured today after a speeding vehicle struck a group of people near a comic exhibition in Melbourne, south-east Australia on Saturday.

An Indian government bill to expand assemblies that would have brought forward plans to reserve a third of the seats for women did not get enough votes to get through parliament on Friday, in a rare defeat for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States has banned Israel from further bombing in Lebanon, using an atypically harsher tone than usual with the longtime ally.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Friday the Strait of Hormuz was open following a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, while US President Donald Trump said talks could take place this weekend and he believed a deal to end the Iran war would come "soon".

The United Nations children's agency UNICEF said on Friday it was "outraged" after two truck drivers it contracted to deliver clean water to families in the Gaza Strip were killed by Israeli fire.

People uprooted by the war in Lebanon began returning to devastated towns and neighbourhoods on Friday, with many finding their homes destroyed or uninhabitable and hesitant to stay for fear a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel could unravel.

Myanmar has reduced the sentence of imprisoned ex-leader Aung San Suu Kyi, her lawyer told Reuters on Friday, as part of an amnesty by a new president who ousted her government in a coup five years ago.

The US naval blockade of Iran is just an example of 'polite' behaviour during the ongoing ceasefire and US forces are ready to strike Iran's power plants and energy industry if ordered, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said on Thursday.

Speakers of the legislative councils of the Gulf Cooperation Council have stressed the importance of adopting a unified Gulf position and working toward resolutions at the Inter-Parliamentary Union condemning recent Iranian attacks on GCC states.

France and Britain will chair a meeting on Friday of around 40 countries aimed at signalling to the United States that some of its closest allies are ready to play a role in restoring freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz once conditions allow.

Optimism grew on Thursday that the Iran war may be near an end, with a key Pakistani mediator having made a breakthrough on "sticky issues", a source said, although Iran warned the fate of its nuclear programme had not been resolved.

All eight people on board a helicopter were killed when it crashed in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province, authorities said on Friday as search teams tried to retrieve the bodies and wreckage.

Pope Leo blasted leaders who spend billions on wars and said the world was "being ravaged by a handful of tyrants", in unusually forceful remarks in Cameroon on Thursday after US President Donald Trump attacked him again on social media.

US press secretary Karoline Leavitt has stated that reports that the White House has requested a ceasefire in the Iran war are wrong in a brief on Wednesday, but added that discussions about a second round of talks with the Iranians were ongoing and productive.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said on Wednesday the Israeli military continued to strike at Hezbollah and was about to overcome what he described as the militia's stronghold of Bint Jbeil, as pressure mounted for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

The United States and Iran made progress in talks on Tuesday and are moving closer to a framework agreement to end the war, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing two US officials.

The US military said on Wednesday it struck a vessel in the Eastern Pacific, killing three people, in the Trump administration's latest strikes that have been condemned by human rights advocates.

Russia unleashed its deadliest attack so far this year on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other cities overnight, killing 16 people, and wounding scores, in drone and missile strikes, officials said on Thursday.

A fire at the largest of Australia's two oil refineries has hit petrol production, company and government officials said on Thursday, just as the nation faces pressure to shore up fuel security with the Iran war disrupting global supply.

Days of torrential rainfall over northwest Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic have killed some 16 people, according to civil protection and local media reports on Wednesday.

Israel's security cabinet will convene on Wednesday to discuss a possible Lebanon ceasefire, a senior Israeli official said, more than five weeks into a war with Hezbollah.

US President Donald Trump said the war with Iran was close to over, telling the world to brace for an "amazing two days", as the army chief of mediator Pakistan arrived in Tehran in a bid to prevent a renewed conflict.

A 14-year-old student has shot at least nine people dead, including eight of his fellow pupils, and wounded 13 others at a middle school in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday, officials said, in the country's second school shooting in two days.

At least 17 people died and 36 others were injured following a suspected boiler explosion at a power plant operated by India's Vedanta Ltd in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, a government official said on Wednesday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted a rare meeting between Israeli and Lebanese envoys in Washington on Tuesday, saying he hoped the two countries would agree to a framework for a peace process, even as Israel pressed its war on Hezbollah.

Negotiating teams from the US and Iran could return to Islamabad this week to resume talks to end the war, sources told Reuters on Tuesday, after the collapse of weekend negotiations prompted Washington to impose a blockade on Iranian ports.

The EU's age verification app for online platforms is ready and will soon be available to use, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday, as member states push ahead with plans to limit children's access to social media.

Around 250 people were missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals capsized in the Andaman Sea, the United Nations' refugee and migration agencies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with hundreds of drones and three ballistic missiles, targeting port infrastructure in the south and wounding at least seven people, Ukrainian officials said.

Canada, the UK, Australia, Japan and six other countries condemned the killings of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon on Tuesday while calling "for an urgent end to hostilities" in the country where Israeli attacks have killed over 2,000 people since March.

The US military said on Tuesday it carried out a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing four men involved a suspected drug smuggling operation.

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday her government had suspended a defence cooperation deal with Israel, reflecting frayed ties between previously close allies as the conflicts in the Middle East continue.

A third Iran-linked tanker was entering the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday on the first full day of the US blockade on vessels calling at Iranian ports, shipping data showed.

A teenager opened fire at a high school in Turkey's southeastern province of Sanliurfa on Tuesday, wounding at least 16 people, including students and teachers, before taking his own life, Governor Hasan Sildak said.

The US military began a blockade of Iran's ports, angering Tehran and adding uncertainty around the crucial waterway, although hopes for dialogue to end the war provided some relief to oil markets where benchmark prices fell below $100 on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump warned on Monday that any Iranian "fast-attack" ships that go near a US maritime blockade on Iran would be eliminated.

A new trial over the death of Argentine football legend Diego Maradona will begin on Tuesday, with seven members of his medical team charged with negligent homicide nearly a year after a previous case collapsed in a mistrial.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin at the chancellery on Tuesday as part of German-Ukrainian government consultations, a spokesperson for the German government said on Tuesday.

Dozens of protesters were detained by police in New York City on Monday during demonstrations calling for the blocking of arms sales to Israel and an end to US military support for its ally.

The US military began a blockade of ships leaving Iran's ports on Monday, President Donald Trump said, and Tehran threatened to retaliate after weekend talks in Islamabad on ending the war broke down.

Former Brazilian intelligence chief Alexandre Ramagem has been detained by ICE in the United States, the agency reported on its website on Monday, after he fled Brazil in September following his conviction for plotting a coup with President Jair Bolsonaro.

Israeli troops launched an attack to seize a key south Lebanon town from Hezbollah fighters holed up inside on Monday, pressing the war on the group on the eve of historic talks between Israeli and Lebanese government envoys.

Hungarian election winner Peter Magyar vowed on Monday to change the constitution in a drive to restore democratic standards, following a landslide victory he said showed that Hungary wanted to be fully anchored in Europe after years of fighting Brussels.

A Russian drone attack has killed one person in Ukraine's frontline eastern Donetsk region on Sunday, Ukrainian police said on Monday, before the expiry of a ceasefire to mark Orthodox Easter.

Haiti has declared three days of national mourning on Sunday, a day after a deadly stampede killed 25 people during an annual celebration thronged by students and visitors at its Laferriere Citadel tourist attraction.

Australia has announced on Monday that a woman would lead its army for the first time in history, as part of a reshuffle of the country's defence force leadership.

Hungary's veteran nationalist leader Viktor Orban lost power to the upstart centre-right Tisza party in Sunday's national election after 16 years in office, marking a setback for his allies in Russia and US President Donald Trump's White House.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday the US Navy would immediately start blockading the Strait of Hormuz, raising the stakes after marathon talks with Iran failed to reach a deal to end the war, jeopardising a fragile two-week ceasefire.

At least 200 people are feared dead after Nigerian military jets struck a village market while pursuing rebels in the northeast of the country on Saturday night, a councillor for the area and residents said on Sunday.

Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Sunday of breaching the 32-hour ceasefire in their four-year war, reporting more than a thousand drone and shelling attacks just hours after the truce began on Saturday to mark Orthodox Easter.

At least 30 people were killed on Saturday in a stampede at the Laferriere Citadel in the northern countryside of Haiti, authorities said, warning that the death toll could rise.

A cyclone battered New Zealand's North Island on Sunday, cutting power to thousands of residents and forcing hundreds to evacuate, as officials warned conditions would worsen through the day.

Negotiations between the United States and Iran appeared to have concluded for now, Iran's government has announced early on Sunday, after a series of talks in Pakistan to end the six-week war between Washington and Tehran.

Costa Rica on Saturday has received the first group of migrants from other countries deported from the United States under an agreement signed in March between the two countries, local authorities said.

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior has announced on Saturday that it foiled a plot aimed at undermining national security and financing terrorist entities, with 24 citizens arrested by its State Security Service.

The Iraqi parliament on Saturday elected Kurdish politician Nizar Amedi as the country's new president, a largely ceremonial role, following a parliamentary election last November.

The Artemis II capsule and its four-member crew streaked through Earth's atmosphere and safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday after nearly 10 days in space, capping the first voyage by humans to the vicinity of the moon in over half a century.

Two Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza on Saturday, killing at least seven people and injuring several others, officials from Gaza's health ministry said.

Iran said on Friday that blocked Iranian assets must be released and that a ceasefire must take hold in Lebanon before peace talks can proceed, throwing last-minute doubt over negotiations scheduled for Saturday in Pakistan.

New Zealand authorities on Saturday declared a state of emergency in several areas of the North Island and ordered thousands of residents to evacuate their homes in preparation for the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Vaiano, which is expected to reach its peak impact on Sunday.

British police have arrested a Sudanese man on suspicion of endangering life after four migrants died while attempting to cross the Channel from France to Britain on a small boat this week, authorities said.

Former US Vice President Kamala Harris, who was the Democratic Party's nominee for the presidency in 2024, said on Friday that she was considering running for president again in 2028.

The Strait of Hormuz remained shut on Friday and Israel traded fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the United States and Iran each described as violations of their ceasefire deal on the eve of their first peace talks of the war.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani welcomed the US-Iran ceasefire and emphasised the importance of de-escalating tensions and enhancing regional stability during talks in Doha.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday announced a 32-hour ceasefire over a two-day period for Orthodox Easter and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would abide by the measure.

Kuwait condemned what it described as drone attacks by Iran and its proxies targeting vital facilities in the country on Thursday evening, calling the strikes a violation of its sovereignty and airspace, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he has given an instruction for Israel to begin peace talks with Lebanon that would also include the disarming of Hezbollah.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the spring and summer months would be difficult for Ukraine as it would face pressure on the battlefield and also diplomatically to end the war.

Pakistan announced on Friday it would issue visas on arrival for diplomats, journalists and international delegates travelling to Islamabad for Saturday's Iran–US talks.

The four Artemis II astronauts, returning from the world's first crewed moon voyage in over half a century, hurtled back toward Earth on Friday aboard their gumdrop-shaped Orion spacecraft, headed for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California.

US first lady Melania Trump on Thursday denied having any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, reviving a highly sensitive issue that her husband has repeatedly sought to downplay.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' personal envoy Jean Arnault met Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi in Tehran on Thursday as part of the United Nations' efforts to bring about an end to the Iran war.

Iran's lead negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammed Bager Qalibaf, has suggested it would be "unreasonable" to proceed with talks to forge a permanent peace deal with the US after Israel pounded Lebanon with its heaviest strikes yet on Wednesday, killing hundreds.

Four people died after a group of migrants attempted to board an inflatable dinghy and cross the Channel from France to Britain, prompting a rescue operation off the coast of Calais, authorities said on Thursday.

Israel bombed more targets in Lebanon on Thursday, putting the Middle East ceasefire in further jeopardy after its biggest attacks of the war on its neighbour killed more than 250 people and threatened to torpedo Donald Trump's truce from the outset.

Israeli forces shot and killed a young female student on Thursday while she was attending a class held in a tent in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, health and education officials said.

Afghanistan is set to face further rough conditions on Thursday, the country's weather authorities warned, following floods, earthquakes, and landslides that have killed 148 people over the past two weeks.

US President Donald Trump is dispatching his Iran negotiating team, led by Vice President JD Vance, to Pakistan for talks, the White House told reporters on Wednesday, adding that the first round of negotiations would take place on Saturday.

US President Donald Trump vented his frustration with NATO during a private meeting with its secretary-general, Mark Rutte, on Wednesday as relations in the military alliance reached a crisis point over the Iran war.

The operator of Bahrain International Airport, Bahrain Airport Company, has confirmed the gradual resumption of flights following the reopening of the Kingdom’s airspace.

Israel has carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah broke out last month, killing more than 250 people on Wednesday, as the group resumed rocket attacks on northern Israel after a brief pause under the two-week US-Iran ceasefire.

The United States will work closely with Iran and the two countries are discussing tariff and sanctions relief, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire.

The United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan, suspending a six-week-old war that has killed thousands, spread across the Middle East and caused unprecedented disruption to the world's energy supplies.

Israel's military has issued repeated urgent warnings to residents of the city of Tyre on Wednesday to evacuate their homes immediately and move north of the Zahrani River, saying it will strike the area.

Turkish authorities have detained 10 people in connection with Tuesday's gun attack near the Israeli consulate in Istanbul as the investigation widened, Turkish media reported on Wednesday.

Greece will ban access to social media for children under the age of 15 from January 1, 2027, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday, citing rising anxiety, sleep problems and the addictive design of online platforms.

Israel has supported US President Donald Trump's decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks, but said the ceasefire does not include Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Wednesday.

Bahrain's Ministry of Interior has reported that several houses were damaged due to fallen debris from a drone interception in its Sitra area on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump has agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday, less than two hours before his deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face devastating attacks on its civilian infrastructure.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday has welcomed a ceasefire in the Middle East struck between the US, Israel and Iran, while criticising the rhetoric of President Donald Trump.

The Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah has released abducted American journalist Shelly Kittleson, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday.

China and Russia on Tuesday vetoed a UN resolution encouraging states to coordinate efforts to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, calling the measure biased against Iran, while Washington's ambassador to the world body called on "responsible nations" to join the US in securing the waterway.

US strikes on Iran's Kharg Island do not represent a change in American strategy, US Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday as a US official separately told Reuters the additional strikes on military targets did not impact oil infrastructure.

One attacker was killed and two others were wounded in an extended gun battle with police outside the building housing the Israeli consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday, according to authorities and Reuters witnesses.

US Vice President JD Vance lashed out on Tuesday at what he called "disgraceful" interference from the European Union in an election in Hungary, as he lauded Prime Minister Viktor Orban as an ally of Donald Trump in the defence of Western civilisation.

A French high-speed train has crashed into a truck carrying military equipment at a level crossing near Calais on Tuesday morning, killing the train driver, a spokesperson for the local prefecture said.

The Israeli military on Tuesday has told people in Iran not to use trains or go near railway lines.

A Russian drone strike on a city bus has killed three people and injured 12 more on Tuesday in the city of Nikopol in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukrainian officials said.

A Malaysian vessel has secured safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz and is currently proceeding to its final destination, Malaysia's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters that Iran could be taken out in one night, "and that night might be tomorrow night," warning Tehran it had to make a deal by Tuesday night or face wider bombing raids.

The four astronauts of NASA's Artemis II mission flew deeper into space on Monday than any humans before them, as they cruised through a rare flyby of the shadowed far side of the moon that revealed a lunar surface under cosmic bombardment.

Iran said on Monday it wanted a lasting end to the war with the US and Israel, and pushed back against pressure to swiftly reopen the Strait of Hormuz under a temporary ceasefire.

The United Nations has renewed its call for all parties to the conflict in the Middle East to comply with international law regarding the conduct of hostilities, emphasising that civilian infrastructure must not be targeted.

The Public Prosecution in Bahrain ordered the detention of several individuals on Monday, arrested on charges of espionage for Iranian intelligence agencies and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people and wounded several others outside a school housing displaced Palestinians on Monday, health officials said, the latest violence to overshadow the fragile US-backed Gaza ceasefire deal.

The head of the intelligence organisation of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed on Monday in an "attack by the... enemy", Iranian media said, citing a statement by the Guards.

Indian refiners have postponed maintenance shutdowns of their units to meet local fuel demand, a government official said on Monday.

Spain's ruling Socialist Party has gained voter support amid Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's staunch opposition to the US-Israeli war on Iran, while far-right Vox, which supports the offensive, has seen a decline, two surveys published on Monday showed.

Kuwait's Ministry of Health has reported that six people were injured early on Monday due to falling projectiles and debris in a residential area in the northern part of the country.

Russia has launched a drone attack on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa overnight on Monday, killing three people, and damaging infrastructure, residential and administrative buildings, the regional governor said.

US special forces rescued a downed airman in Iran in a complex operation that averted a potential crisis for President Donald Trump, as the war entered its sixth week with little sign of progress in diplomatic efforts for a resolution.

Two merchant vessels near the Italian coast recovered the bodies of two migrants and rescued 32 survivors from a boat trying to cross to Europe from Libya on Easter weekend, rescue charities said, citing the survivors as saying 71 others were lost at sea.

Nigeria's army said on Sunday that it had rescued 31 civilians who were taken hostage during an attack on a church in northwest Kaduna state, while five people were found dead at the scene.

An Israeli airstrike on Kfarhata, a village in south Lebanon, killed seven people on Sunday, including a 4-year-old child, while another attack on the Jnah neighbourhood in Beirut killed four people and injured 39 others, Lebanon's health ministry said in a statement.

Iranian drone attacks hit various targets in Kuwait on Sunday, with state energy company Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) reporting fires and "severe material damage" at some operating units.

Bahrain's Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company said a fire at its operating units after an Iranian drone attack was brought under control, the state news agency reported on Sunday.

Oman and Iran have held talks at the deputy foreign minister level to discuss options for ensuring the smooth transit of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, Oman's Foreign Ministry wrote on X on Sunday.

An Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health authorities said, in the latest violence to overshadow a fragile ceasefire amid a new push by mediators to bolster the agreement.

At least 77 people have been killed and 137 more injured in Afghanistan over 10 days after torrential rain triggered widespread flooding in the country.

At least 15 people were injured on Saturday, some critically, after a car slammed into a crowd near a community event in New Iberia, Louisiana, law enforcement officials said.

Satellite imaging firm Planet Labs has announced on Saturday that it will indefinitely withhold visuals of Iran and the region of conflict in the Middle East to comply with a request from the US government.

At least four people were killed on Saturday after a passenger vehicle plunged off a road near Sojha in India's northern state of Himachal Pradesh, ANI reported, citing district officials.

The Arab Parliament and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have strongly condemned the attack targeting the premises of the UAE embassy and the residence of the Head of Mission in the Syrian capital Damascus.

Iranian and US forces were searching for a missing American pilot on Saturday from one of two warplanes downed over Iran and the Gulf, while President Donald Trump warned Tehran time was running out on his latest deadline for a deal to end the war.

US federal agents have detained the niece and grand-niece of late Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their lawful permanent resident status, the State Department said on Saturday.

Five people were killed and 19 others wounded by a Russian drone strike on a market in the frontline Ukrainian city of Nikopol on Saturday morning, Ukraine's prosecutor general's office said.

The UN Security Council is now expected to vote next week on a Bahraini resolution to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, diplomats said on Friday, but veto-wielding China has made clear its opposition to authorising any use of force.

Bahrain said four citizens were injured and a number of homes damaged from falling debris from drone interceptions early Saturday.

Eight people were killed and one child was injured on Friday when a house collapsed in Kabul following an earthquake in Afghanistan, the National Disaster Management Authority said.

Iran shot down a US warplane on Friday in the first such known incident of the five-week war, officials from both nations said, with one of the crew members rescued after ejecting and the other still missing, according to a US source.

A large-scale daytime Russian strike killed at least two people in Ukraine on Friday, officials said, in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced as an "Easter escalation", as Moscow shifts tactics to avoid Ukrainian air defences.

Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity, Water, and Renewable Energy has reported material damage to a power and water desalination plant due to an Iranian attack on Friday.

US President Donald Trump has warned late on Thursday about striking and destroying bridges and electric power plants in Iran in his latest threat to hit the country's infrastructure.

The Kuwaiti Petroleum Corporation (KPC) has reported a drone attack that targeted its Mina al-Ahmadi refinery early on Friday, which resulted in a fire breaking out at its operating units, with no injuries reported.

Bangladesh has launched fresh measures to curb energy consumption, cutting office hours and trimming public spending as conflict in the Middle East disrupts global fuel markets and strains power supply in the South Asian nation.

The UN Security Council is to vote on a Bahraini resolution to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, diplomats said on Friday, but veto-wielding China made clear its opposition to authorising any use of force.

US Army Chief of Staff Randy George was fired on Thursday by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, two defence officials and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters, in the latest purge among the Pentagon's most senior ranks.

US President Donald Trump has removed Attorney General Pam Bondi from her post, a White House official said on Thursday, following mounting frustration with her performance, including her handling of investigative files related to the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Cuba announced on Thursday that it would free more than 2,000 prisoners from the island's jails, according to state-run media, the second time this year its government has announced a prisoner amnesty amid talks with the administration of US President Donald Trump.

The United Nations Security Council has reaffirmed its strong commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Gulf Cooperation Council member states, while praising their role in supporting regional and international peace.

Around 40 countries are discussing joint action to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Britain said on Thursday, after US President Donald Trump said securing the waterway was a problem for other nations to resolve.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Thursday there was no end in sight to a war that had already displaced a million people over the last month, as families fleeing Israeli strikes said they were exhausted by repeated rounds of conflict.

US President Donald Trump has discussed firing Attorney General Pam Bondi amid his frustration with her leadership, including what he sees as a lack of aggression in targeting his enemies and over her handling of the Epstein files, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The United States will carry out aggressive strikes on Iran over the next two to three weeks and is nearing completion of its main strategic objectives in the war, President Donald Trump said in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday.

An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 has struck in Indonesia's Northern Molucca Sea on Thursday, killing one person, damaging some buildings, and triggering tsunami waves, authorities and witnesses said.

The vice mayor of Coral Springs, Florida, has been shot and killed on Wednesday, with her husband taken into custody as the lone suspect in what police called a case of domestic violence, officials said.

Four astronauts have blasted off from Florida on NASA's Artemis II mission, a high‑stakes 10-day trip around the moon that marks the United States' boldest step yet towards returning humans to the lunar surface this decade before China's first crewed landing.

An earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck the Northern Molucca Sea off Indonesia's historic spice island of Ternate on Thursday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, triggering a tsunami warning for neighbouring Southeast Asian nations.

The United States will end its war on Iran fairly soon and could return for "spot hits" if needed, President Donald Trump told Reuters on Wednesday, hours before he was scheduled to make a primetime address to the nation.

Italy's coast guard recovered the bodies of 19 migrants and rescued 58 survivors from a boat that broke down while trying to cross to Europe from Libya, rescue officials and migrant rescue charities said on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump made a historic visit to the Supreme Court on Wednesday to attend arguments over the legality of a policy he considers crucial to his hardline approach toward immigration - a directive he signed last year on his first day back in office that would limit birthright citizenship.

They've never known their parents, and they've never known Gaza, born prematurely two years ago and evacuated to Egypt as Israeli forces drew dangerously close to their neonatal care unit.

A measles outbreak in Bangladesh has led to 15 confirmed deaths, officials said on Wednesday, as the government readies to launch an emergency immunisation programme as part of efforts to try to contain the disease.

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.