International

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he had told his representatives not to rush into any deal with Iran, as his administration played down hopes of an imminent breakthrough in the three-month-old war that had been raised a day earlier.

A potential deal between Iran and the United States stipulates that the number of ships able to transit the Strait of Hormuz would return to the pre-war level within 30 days, according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Donald Trump Israel would remain free to act against threats in Lebanon during a phone call about an emerging agreement between Washington and Iran on Saturday, an Israeli source said.

Turkish riot police fired tear gas and forced their way into the main opposition party's headquarters to evict its ousted leadership on Sunday, a Reuters witness said, further inflaming a political crisis.

A bomb blast hit a shuttle train carrying Pakistani security personnel and their families in the southwestern province of Balochistan on Sunday, officials said, in the latest major attack claimed by separatist fighters.

Russia pounded Kyiv and surrounding areas with hundreds of drones and missiles on Sunday in one of the heaviest bombardments of the city since the start of the four-year war, firing an Oreshnik hypersonic missile near the capital.

At least one person was confirmed dead after a building under construction collapsed in the Philippines on Sunday, authorities said, as rescuers scoured the rubble for 21 people listed as missing.

The chaos in the aftermath of China's worst mine disaster in 17 years led to a revision in the death toll to 82 killed, local officials said at a press conference late on Saturday.

Officers shot a suspect who fired at a White House checkpoint on Saturday evening, who then died after being taken to the hospital, the Secret Service said.

At least 90 people have been killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine in China's northern province of Shanxi, the country's deadliest mining accident since at least 2009.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed trade and energy with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday on a visit aimed at shoring up relations battered by Washington's tariffs and engagement with New Delhi's rivals Pakistan and China.

An Israeli air strike targeting a Palestinian police post in northern Gaza has killed at least five officers on Saturday and wounded others, Gaza police said.

Uganda has confirmed three new cases of Ebola, bringing the total number of infections in the current outbreak there to five, the health ministry said on Saturday, as authorities stepped up contact tracing to contain the spread.

Six Lebanese paramedics have been killed in two Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon in the span of 24 hours, Lebanon's health ministry said on Friday, condemning the attacks as violations of international law.

The death toll from a drone strike on a student dorm in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine has risen to 18, with many of the victims young women, Russian officials said on Saturday, after a heated UN debate on the incident

Foreigners seeking to adjust their immigration status in the United States to secure green cards will have to do so from outside the country via the State Department, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services said on Friday, in a move criticized by aid groups.

Senegal President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has dismissed Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and dissolved the government on Friday, a move that risks deepening uncertainty in a country already grappling with a debt crisis and drawn-out talks with the International Monetary Fund.

Tulsi Gabbard said on Friday she is resigning from her job as President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence, saying her husband had been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and that she was stepping away from her role to help him.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered his military to prepare options to retaliate against Ukraine for what he described as a drone attack on a student dorm that killed six people and wounded dozens, with 15 still unaccounted for.

Israel must halt the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and curb growing settler violence, seven major Western nations said on Friday, accusing the Israeli government of aggravating tensions in the West Bank.

Iran's foreign minister met Pakistan's interior minister on Friday to discuss proposals to end the US-Israeli war, Iranian media reported, with Tehran and Washington still at odds over Tehran's uranium stockpile and controls on the Strait of Hormuz.

At least 20 people were killed in a Thursday shooting at a palm plantation in northern Honduras, regional police said, in one of the deadliest attacks in the country this year.

Some parts of India are grappling with power cuts as record-breaking heat has pushed electricity demand to an all-time high in excess of 270 gigawatts, spurring a government call for consumers to limit use.

The US and Iran stuck on Thursday to directly opposing stances over Tehran's uranium stockpile and controls on the Strait of Hormuz, providing little fodder for hope in Pakistani-led efforts to end the conflict.

Kenya's President William Ruto said on Friday the government would cut the price of diesel in the East African country to provide relief to consumers after protests over soaring energy costs caused by the Iran war.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet NATO allies on Friday for the first time since President Donald Trump called the alliance into question due to divisions over the Iran war and Washington announced plans to pull 5,000 troops from Europe.

Airbus and Air France were found guilty on Thursday of corporate manslaughter by a Paris appeals court over the 2009 Rio-Paris plane crash that killed 228 passengers and crew, three years after being acquitted in a lower court.

At least nine people were killed and others injured when a four-storey building collapsed overnight in the Moroccan city of Fez, the city's prosecutor said on Thursday.

Pakistan stepped up diplomatic efforts on Thursday to hasten US and Iran peace talks, as Tehran said it was reviewing Washington's latest responses and President Donald Trump suggested he could wait a few days for "the right answers".

The Philippine justice minister on Thursday ordered law enforcement to apprehend a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court and said authorities had leads on his whereabouts, a day after a court denied his bid to prevent his arrest.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned Israel's decision to establish military facilities in one of the UN's compounds in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem.

Israel's treatment of detained Gaza flotilla activists is "abominable", Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday, following the release of a video showing Israeli police forcing activists to kneel on the ground in rows with their hands tied behind their backs.

Two Chinese tankers laden with oil exited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, shipping data showed, brightening hopes that the US-Israeli conflict with Iran may soon be resolved after positive comments from president Donald Trump and his deputy.

SpaceX aims to reach 10,000 launches annually within five years, but government officials will need to see improved reliability before approving such an expansion, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday.

Former Cuban President Raul Castro has been indicted in the United States on murder charges, court records showed on Wednesday, in a major escalation in Washington's pressure campaign against the island's communist government.

The World Health Organisation said on Wednesday there were 600 suspected cases of Ebola and 139 suspected deaths and numbers are expected to rise given the time the virus circulated before the outbreak in Congo and Uganda was detected.

China and Russia's leaders lauded on Wednesday progress in their strategic ties at a summit in Beijing, but despite the warm exchanges the talks did not appear to signal a breakthrough in a gas deal that has been under negotiation for more than a decade.

Two people were killed and 19 injured in Russia attacks on Ukraine overnight, local officials said on Wednesday, while Ukraine sent drones to strike industrial areas in central Russia.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US may need to strike Iran again and that he had been an hour away from ordering an attack before postponing it.

Ukraine blamed Russia on Tuesday for steering one of its drones into Estonian airspace where a NATO jet shot it down, the latest cross-border drone incident that has caused a political uproar in the Baltic states.

Israeli forces opened fire on at least two vessels in an aid flotilla sailing towards Gaza on Tuesday, according to video footage and flotilla organisers, but Israel said no live ammunition was used and there were no casualties.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he had paused a planned attack against Iran to allow for negotiations to take place on a deal to end the US-Israeli war, after Iran sent a new peace proposal to Washington.

Torrential rain continued across southern and central China on Tuesday with at least 18 people killed in widespread flooding that also closed schools and businesses, and disrupted transport and power supplies, authorities said.

Twenty-six more suspected Ebola deaths were recorded in 24 hours in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, authorities said on Tuesday, and the head of the World Health Organisation expressed deep concern about the outbreak's spread.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is set to host his "old friend" Vladimir Putin less than a week after Donald Trump's high-profile visit, as Beijing seeks to project itself as a stable and predictable power in a world shaken by trade tensions, wars and an energy crisis.

Britain has received supplies of the antiviral drug favipiravir from Japan as part of its response to a deadly hantavirus outbreak linked to the Hondius cruise liner, the UK Health Security Agency said on Monday.

Two teenage gunmen have opened fire on Monday at the Islamic Center of San Diego, California, killing a security guard and two other men outside the mosque before the suspects were found dead, reportedly from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, police said.

Four people have been killed in protests against fuel price hikes prompted by the Iran war in several Kenyan towns on Monday, its interior minister said, after a nationwide public transport strike stranded commuters.

Iran sent a new peace proposal to the United States with terms that appeared similar to offers Washington has previously rejected, although a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday that the US had softened positions on some issues.

Protests over fuel price hikes prompted by the Iran war erupted in several Kenyan towns on Monday, including a nationwide public transport strike that stranded commuters and forced many people to walk to work.

The Philippine Senate, sitting as an impeachment court on Monday, opened the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, who if convicted faces a ban from holding public office that could derail her ambitions to become president in 2028.

At least nine people died after a pickup truck carrying 15 passengers fell into a flooded river in China's southwestern region of Guangxi amid heavy rain, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Monday.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is under intense pressure to quit from within his Labour Party after a set of poor local election results, said on Monday he remained focused on doing his job.

US President Donald Trump has issued a fresh warning to Iran, saying “the clock is ticking” as tensions continue to rise between Washington and Tehran.

Russia launched drones, airstrikes and shelling at Ukraine on Sunday night, targeting cities such as Odesa in the south and Dnipro in the southeast, killing one person and injuring more than 30, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused the US on Sunday of fabricating a "fraudulent case" to justify economic sanctions and potential military intervention.

Israeli strikes have killed at least eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, health officials said, as ceasefire efforts meant to end fighting between Israel and Hamas falter.

A luxury liner at the centre of an outbreak of hantavirus reached the Dutch port of Rotterdam on Monday, marine tracking sites said, where authorities prepared quarantine arrangements for the 23 crew and two medical staff remaining on board.

An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organisation, after 80 suspected deaths and nine laboratory-confirmed cases.

At least four people were killed, including three in the Moscow region, after Ukraine launched its biggest overnight drone attack on the Russian capital in more than a year, local officials said on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, was killed in an operation conducted by US and Nigerian forces.

Tens of thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday in two separate protests - one against high levels of immigration and a perceived Islamic threat to British identity, and another in support of Palestinians.

Eight people were injured on Saturday when a car drove into pedestrians in the centre of the northern Italian city of Modena, police and the city's mayor said.

At least eight people were killed and 32 others were injured in Thailand on Saturday after a freight train struck a bus at a rail crossing in Bangkok, igniting a fire that engulfed the vehicle, rescue officials and a deputy transport minister said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi said, on Saturday, his new government will focus on security, stability and protecting Iraq’s sovereignty, while strengthening regional and international ties.

A senior Hamas official told Reuters on Saturday that the chief of the group's military wing had died, a day after Israel said that it had carried out airstrikes targeting him.

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 45-day extension of a ceasefire US President Donald Trump declared on April 16, the US State Department said on Friday.

Eighty people have died in a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern Ituri province, the country's health ministry said late on Friday.

Israel said it had targeted the head of Hamas' armed wing with a strike in Gaza on Friday, describing him as an architect of the October 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated Israel's two-year assault on the Palestinian territory.

Africa's top public health agency said on Friday that there was a confirmed Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri province, with 65 deaths out of 246 suspected cases so far.

US President Donald Trump departed China on Friday touting business deals that gave markets little to cheer, while Beijing warned Washington about mishandling Taiwan and said its war with Iran should never have started.

US President Donald Trump has said he would not be much more patient with Iran as he urged Tehran to reach a deal with Washington while also suggesting that the quest to retrieve Iran's enriched uranium was more about perception than about security.

India's state-run fuel retailers have raised petrol and diesel prices for the first time in four years by 3 rupees ($0.03) per litre, or more than 3 per cent, according to dealers, to recoup some of the losses incurred due to higher global crude oil prices.

A Ukrainian drone attack has killed three people in the central Russian city of Ryazan, damaged high-rise apartment buildings and hit an industrial enterprise, Regional Governor Pavel Malkov said early on Friday.

Ships from the Global Sumud Flotilla set sail for a third time on Thursday from southern Turkey, after earlier attempts to deliver aid to Gaza were intercepted by Israel in international waters.

The US has cast Israel-Lebanon talks held in Washington on Thursday as "productive and positive" and a State Department official said more discussions aimed at ending their conflict will continue on Friday.

Five Italian nationals have died following a scuba diving accident in the Maldives, Italy's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

China's Xi Jinping told US President Donald Trump that trade talks were making progress at the start of a two-day summit on Thursday but warned that disagreement over Taiwan could send relations down a dangerous path.

Labour's Wes Streeting resigned as health minister on Thursday to call for a leadership contest to oust Keir Starmer, accusing the British prime minister of overseeing political drift and forcing others to take the blame for his government's failings.

Ukraine's anti-corruption court on Thursday ordered the arrest of Andriy Yermak, a close ally of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former head of his administration, on money-laundering charges.

The Philippine Senate will convene as an impeachment court on May 18 ahead of the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, its president said on Thursday, with tensions flaring as the country's most powerful political clans face off.

Almost 90 people were killed in a violent storm that pounded India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh with rain and hail, a state official said on Thursday.

Russia pummeled the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and several other regions in a massive aerial attack, officials said on Thursday, killing at least one person and wounding dozens.

Interior ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have held an emergency ministerial meeting in Riyadh, chaired by the Kingdom of Bahrain, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

Gunshots broke out in chaotic scenes at the Philippine Senate on Wednesday where troops had been deployed after a politician wanted by the International Criminal Court urged supporters to mobilise and thwart his imminent arrest.

US President Donald Trump and an entourage that included Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Elon Musk were greeted with a lavish welcome in Beijing on Wednesday as he prepared to ask China's Xi Jinping to "open up" to US business at the start of their two-day summit.

Israeli airstrikes killed eight people on a highway south of Beirut on Wednesday, Lebanon's health ministry said, as conflict between Hezbollah and Israel continued on the eve of a third round of US-mediated talks between Lebanon and Israel.

The chief enforcer in former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody "war on drugs" said on Wednesday his arrest was imminent and urged people to mobilise to prevent his handover to the International Criminal Court.

Keir Starmer faced his biggest challenge yet on Wednesday when his health minister was reported to be readying his resignation to try to trigger a contest to replace a British prime minister who had sought some respite to set out his government's agenda.

Israel has escalated its attacks in Gaza in the five weeks since halting its joint bombing with the US in Iran, redirecting its fire back on the ruined Palestinian enclave where the military believes Hamas fighters are tightening their grip.

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.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "significantly" cut the size of his motorcade to save fuel, a government source said on Wednesday, days after he urged citizens to tighten their belts amid a surge in energy prices triggered by the Iran war.

A series of nine small earthquakes struck the Pardis area east of Tehran overnight, Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday, renewing fears among experts and residents that the Iranian capital could face a major seismic disaster.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of possible waves of Russian drone attacks throughout Wednesday, saying that more than a hundred drones were in Ukraine's airspace, as Moscow has shifted tactics to strike increasingly during daylight hours.

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.

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.