International News

Thirty Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long armed conflict against Turkey.

The UN rights office said on Friday it had recorded at least 798 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and near convoys run by other relief groups.

A Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Friday damaged a maternity hospital, authorities said, terrifying patients as windows shattered and shards of glass fell on to the beds, leaving families rushing to shelter their babies.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that a new deal to secure the release of more Israeli hostages held by Hamas could be reached within days, indicating that a 60-day ceasefire is likely.

Six Secret Service agents on duty during 2024 assassination attempt against US President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally received suspensions ranging from 10 to 42 days, the agency said on Thursday.

Authorities retrieved from Pakistan's mountains the bullet-ridden bodies of nine passengers kidnapped by armed men in a spate of bus attacks in the troubled southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said on Friday.

An Israeli strike hit Palestinians near a medical centre in Gaza on Thursday, killing 16 including children and wounding more people, local health authorities said, as ceasefire talks dragged on with no result expected soon.

Russian drones and missiles bore down on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early on Thursday, with officials reporting two deaths, 13 injured and fires in apartment and non-residential buildings as Washington resumed weapons delivery to the war-torn country.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron will announce tougher migration controls on Thursday, capping a state visit when they agreed to deeper defence and nuclear cooperation in a more volatile world.

Rescuers pulled three more crew members and a security guard alive from the Red Sea on Thursday, maritime security sources said, a day after Houthi rebels sank the Greek ship Eternity C and said they were holding some of the crew still missing.

The US said on Wednesday it was imposing sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, who has been outspoken about Israel's war on Gaza.

All 31 workers escaped without injuries from a collapsed industrial tunnel in Los Angeles' Wilmington area, after scrambling over a tall pile of loose underground soil, city officials said late on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump met for a second time in two days with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss Gaza as Trump's Middle East envoy said Israel and Hamas were closing their differences on a ceasefire deal.

The death toll from the July 4th flash flood that ravaged a swath of central Texas Hill Country rose on Tuesday to at least 109, many of them children, as search teams pressed on through mounds of mud-encrusted debris looking for scores of people still missing.

A fast-moving wildfire reached the outskirts of Marseille, France's second-largest city, on Tuesday, leading its airport to be shut down, with residents told to stay indoors and shut all openings to be safe from the smoke.

Gaps in Gaza ceasefire talks under way in Qatar between Israel and Hamas can be bridged but it may take more than a few days to reach a deal, Israeli officials said on Tuesday.

King Charles welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron to Britain on Tuesday for the first state visit by a European leader since Brexit, their warm greeting symbolising the return of closer ties between the two countries.

Ukraine asked the global chemical weapons watchdog in The Hague on Tuesday to investigate the alleged use of banned toxic munitions by Russia against its forces.

US President Donald Trump held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, while Israeli officials continued indirect negotiations with Hamas aimed at securing a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal.

Search teams plodded through muddy riverbanks and flew aircraft over flood-ravaged central Texas as hopes dimmed of finding survivors from a disaster that has claimed at least 96 lives, many of them children.

Four workers were killed and at least 22 others were injured in a fire that broke out on Monday at a key data centre in Cairo, Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the spokesperson at Egypt's Health Ministry, told Reuters on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump said on Monday the US would send more weapons to Ukraine, primarily defensive ones, to help the war-torn country defend itself against intensifying Russian advances.

Tropical Storm Danas headed for China's eastern seaboard on Tuesday morning, as Zhejiang province braced for landfall after the storm tore through Taiwan with record winds and torrential rain, leaving two dead and over 600 injured.

Israel and Hamas are set to hold indirect talks in Qatar for a second day on Monday, aimed at securing a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, ahead of a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump.

An Australian woman has been convicted of murdering three relatives of her estranged husband with a meal laced with poisonous mushrooms.

Search teams plodded through mud-laden riverbanks and flew aircraft over the flood-stricken landscape of central Texas for a fourth day on Monday, looking for dozens of people still missing from a disaster that has claimed at least 78 lives.

Typhoon Danas lashed southern Taiwan with record winds and strong rain early on Monday, killing two people and injuring more than 500 in a rare hit to the island's densely populated west coast.

Israel has attacked Houthi targets in three Yemeni ports and a power plant, the Israeli military said early on Monday, marking the first Israeli attack on Yemen in almost a month.

Leaders of the BRICS group of developing nations on Sunday condemned attacks on Gaza and Iran, called for reforms of global institutions and presented the bloc as a haven for multilateral diplomacy amid violent conflicts and trade wars.

An Israeli delegation left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to head to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump.

At least 50 people have been confirmed dead following flash floods in central Texas, authorities said as rescuers continued a frantic search for dozens more campers, vacationers and residents who were still missing.

The dispute between US President Donald Trump and his main campaign financier Elon Musk has taken another fractious turn when the billionaire announced the formation of a new political party, saying Trump's "big, beautiful" tax bill would bankrupt America.

Leaders of the growing BRICS group of developing nations were set to gather in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, calling for reform of traditional Western institutions while presenting the bloc as a defender of multilateralism in an increasingly fractured world.

Torrential rains unleashed flash floods along the Guadalupe River in Texas on Friday, killing at least 24 people as rescue teams scrambled to save dozens of victims trapped by high water or reported missing in the disaster, local officials said.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said on Saturday that two American aid workers had suffered non-life-threatening injuries in a targeted attack at a food distribution site in Gaza.

Hamas said it had responded on Friday in "a positive spirit" to a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire proposal and was prepared to enter into talks on implementing the deal, which envisages a release of hostages and negotiations on ending the conflict.

Russia pummelled Kyiv with the largest drone attack of the war, injuring at least 23 people and damaging buildings across the capital only hours after US President Donald Trump spoke with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday it would probably be known in 24 hours whether Hamas has agreed to accept what he has called a "final proposal" for a ceasefire in Gaza.

At least 27 people, including 10 police officers and a firefighter, were injured on Friday in a huge explosion at a petrol station in an eastern district of Rome, Italian authorities said.

Indonesian rescuers are battling strong currents on Friday as they resume the search for 30 people still missing at sea about 35 hours after a ferry sank killing at least six people, officials said.

US President Donald Trump celebrated the passage of his massive tax-cut and border security bill among supporters at the Iowa State Fairground on Thursday.

Four people were stabbed near a shopping centre in Tampere, Finland's third-largest city, on Thursday and one person has been arrested, the police said.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has strongly condemned ongoing Israeli aggression and forced displacement in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem.

Hamas is seeking guarantees that a new US ceasefire proposal for Gaza would lead to the war's end, a source close to the group said on Thursday, as medics said Israeli strikes across the territory had killed scores more people.

The Pentagon said on Wednesday that US strikes 10 days ago had degraded Iran's nuclear programme by up to two years, suggesting the US military operation likely achieved its goals despite a far more cautious initial assessment that leaked to the public.

Hundreds of firefighters battled a blaze Thursday on Crete island, which burnt swathes of forest and olive groves and forced the evacuation of over 1,000 people, officials said, underscoring the region's vulnerability to destructive wildfires.

Five people were injured, including a seven-year-old boy and a nine-year-old girl, in a Russian attack on the southern Ukraine port of Odesa overnight, Ukrainian authorities said on Thursday.

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.5 hit a remote island in southwestern Japan on Thursday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Indonesian rescuers raced to find victims in rough seas on Thursday after five people died and dozens were left missing when a ferry carrying 65 people sank near the island of Bali, according to search and rescue agencies.

The Arab League, which includes the UAE, has condemned statements made by Israel’s Justice Minister Yariv Levin calling for the annexation of the occupied West Bank.

A fire that shut London's Heathrow airport in March, stranding thousands of people, was caused by the UK power grid's failure to maintain an electricity substation, an official report said on Wednesday, prompting the energy watchdog to open a probe.

US President Donald Trump urged Hamas on Tuesday to agree to what he called a "final proposal" for a 60-day ceasefire with Israel in Gaza that will be delivered by mediating officials from Qatar and Egypt.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian put into effect on Wednesday a law passed by parliament last week to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, Iranian state media reported.

Wildfires have killed two people in Spain and two others have died in France because of a heatwave that has gripped Europe and forced the closure of a nuclear reactor at a Swiss power plant.

CBS parent company Paramount has settled a lawsuit filed by US President Donald Trump over an interview broadcast in October, the latest concession by a media company to a president who has targeted outlets over what he describes as false or misleading coverage.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a "substantial" phone call with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on the Iran-Israel conflict and Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, the first such exchange between the two leaders since September 2022.

The Republican-controlled US Senate passed President Donald Trump's tax and spending bill on Tuesday, signing off on a massive package that would enshrine many of his top domestic priorities into law while adding $3.3 trillion to the national debt.

More than a thousand schools were closed in France on Tuesday and the top floor of the Eiffel Tower was shut to tourists as a severe heatwave continued to grip Europe, triggering health alerts across the region.

Thailand's Constitutional Court on Tuesday suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from duty pending a case seeking her dismissal, in a major setback for a government under fire on multiple fronts and fighting for its survival.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order terminating a US sanctions programme on Syria, allowing an end to the country's isolation from the international financial system and building on Washington's pledge to help it rebuild after a devastating civil war.

Former criminology graduate student Bryan Kohberger has agreed to plead guilty to killing four Idaho college students in 2022, a move that would spare him the death penalty under a deal with prosecutors, according to the family of one of the victims.

US President Donald Trump plans to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on July 7, a US official said, as the American leader pressed for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and the return of remaining hostages.

Strong winds and heavy rain led airlines to cancel many domestic flights from Sydney on Tuesday as Australia's weather bureau warned an intense low-pressure weather system offshore could result in flash flooding in parts of the country's southeast.

The Israeli military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians were harmed at aid distribution centres in the Gaza Strip, saying that new instructions had been issued to Israeli forces following "lessons learned".

Palestinians in northern Gaza reported one of the worst nights of Israeli bombardment in weeks after the military issued mass evacuation orders on Monday, while Israeli officials were due in Washington for a new ceasefire push by the Trump administration.

A Ukrainian F-16 fighter pilot died in a crash while repelling a Russian air attack that involved hundreds of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles, authorities said on Sunday, as Moscow intensifies night-time air barrages in the fourth year of war.

Firefighters in Turkey are battling wildfires for a second day raging in the western province of Izmir fanned by strong winds, the forestry minister and local media said on Monday.

Two firefighters were shot dead while responding to a fire in northern Idaho and the body of a man was later found with a gun nearby, the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office said on Sunday, as it lifted a shelter-in-place order.

Iran could be producing enriched uranium in a few months, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog Rafael Grossi was quoted as saying on Sunday, raising doubts about how effective US strikes to destroy Tehran's nuclear programme have been.

The Jerusalem District Court has cancelled this week's hearings in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long-running corruption trial, accepting a request the Israeli leader made citing classified diplomatic and security grounds.

The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against Hamas, as US President Donald Trump called for an end to the war amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire.

Russia used hundreds of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles to attack western, southern and central Ukraine overnight, damaging homes and infrastructure and injuring at least six people, local authorities said on Sunday.

At least seven Palestinians were killed and several others injured early Sunday in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting Gaza City and Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian News & Information Agency (WAFA) reported.

Three people were killed and six injured in a stampede during a festival in eastern India on Sunday, officials said.

The Republican-controlled US Senate narrowly advanced President Donald Trump's, sweeping tax-cut and spending bill on Saturday, during a marathon weekend session marked by political drama, division and lengthy delays as Democrats sought to slow the legislation's path to passage.

An explosive-laden car rammed into a Pakistani military convoy on Saturday in a town near the Afghan border, killing at least 13 soldiers, sources said.

Radiation levels in the Gulf region remain normal after the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict severely damaged several nuclear facilities in Iran, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo signed a US-brokered peace agreement on Friday, raising hopes for an end to fighting that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more this year.

The US Supreme Court on the last day of rulings for its current term gave Donald Trump his latest in a series of victories at the nation's top judicial body, one that may make it easier for him to implement contentious elements of his sweeping agenda as he tests the limits of presidential power.

Polish President Andrzej Duda arrived in Kyiv on Saturday for a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Duda's office said, as Kyiv aims to build support among allies at a critical juncture in its grinding war with Russia.

Israel has stopped aid from entering northern Gaza but is still allowing it to enter from the south, two officials said after images circulated of masked men on aid trucks who clan leaders said were protecting aid, not Hamas stealing it.

More than a dozen Israeli air strikes battered a row of hilltops in southern Lebanon on Friday, security sources said, with the Israeli military saying it had attacked a damaged military site that armed group Hezbollah was seeking to restore.

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told his Chinese counterpart that the two countries should seek a "permanent solution" to their decades-old border dispute, in a new push for a conclusive outcome.

South Korean police have detained six US citizens who were attempting to deliver around 1,300 plastic bottles filled with rice and dollar notes to North Korea, a police official said on Friday.

At least 7 people were killed with 39 others injured in multiple rain-related incidents as Punjab was battered by heavy monsoon showers on Thursday, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA).

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for Israel to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or cancel his corruption trial, saying the US would save him like it did his country.

Efforts are underway to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the Air India plane crash this month that killed 260 people, and identify contributing factors, India's civil aviation ministry said on Thursday.

Israeli gunfire and airstrikes killed at least 21 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, local health authorities said, as mediators reached out to Israel and Hamas to seek a resumption of ceasefire talks to end the war.

Dozens of Israeli settlers attacked Kafr Malik in West Bank on Wednesday, sparking a confrontation that ended with Israeli forces killing three Palestinians and wounding seven more.

Sixteen people died during nationwide anti-government protests in Kenya on Wednesday, most of them killed by police, the head of Amnesty Kenya said, a year after deadly demonstrations against a tax bill culminated in the storming of parliament.

North Korea has completed construction of a massive tourist zone on its east coast, state media reported on Thursday, a key project driven by leader Kim Jong Un for years to promote tourism.

Towns and villages by a major river in China's Guangxi lay half-submerged as floodwaters from a province upstream roared into the mountainous region, with the expected landfall of a tropical cyclone later on Thursday compounding disaster risk.

The Pentagon will create two new military zones along the border with Mexico, US officials said, a move that allows troops to temporarily detain migrants or trespassers.

US President Donald Trump hailed the swift end to war between Iran and Israel and said Washington would likely seek a commitment from Tehran to end its nuclear ambitions at talks with Iranian officials next week.

NATO leaders on Wednesday backed the big increase in defence spending that US President Donald Trump had demanded, and restated their commitment to defend each other from attack after a brief summit in the Netherlands.

The ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump between Iran and Israel appeared to be holding on Wednesday a day after both countries signalled that their air war had ended, at least for now.

Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old state lawmaker and self-described democratic socialist, looks set to win New York City's Democratic mayoral primary in a surprising upset over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The Ministerial Council of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has denounced the Iranian missile attacks on the Al Udeid air base in Qatar, describing it as a "blatant violation of Qatar’s sovereignty", during an "extraordinary meeting" in Doha.

Astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary have embarked on a two-week science research mission early Wednesday, marking a return to human spaceflight after more than 40 years and the first mission to the International Space Station.

Tens of millions of people in major cities across the US Northeast are facing record high temperatures on what was expected to be the worst day of an oppressive heat wave that has spread over much of the country since late last week.

Kenyans are expected to take to the streets in large numbers on Wednesday to mark the one-year anniversary of anti-government protests that culminated in the storming of parliament and several deaths as police opened fire on demonstrators.

A preliminary US intelligence assessment has determined that US strikes over the weekend on Iranian nuclear facilities have only set back Tehran’s programme by a matter of months, three sources told Reuters.

US President Donald Trump accused both Israel and Iran of violating a ceasefire on Tuesday hours after he announced it, expressing particular frustration with Israel which had announced major new strikes on Tehran.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday he had ordered the military to strike Tehran after Iran fired missiles in violation of a ceasefire after 12 days of war.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday a ceasefire between Israel and Iran was now in place and asked both countries not to violate it, only hours after Iran launched waves of missiles, which Israel's ambulance service said killed four people.

Israel has agreed to US President Donald Trump's proposal for a ceasefire with Iran after it achieved its goal of removing Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missile threat, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Tuesday.

Hundreds of firefighters were battling to contain wildfires at different locations on the Greek island of Chios for a third day on Tuesday after the island declared a state of emergency.

The UN human rights office said on Tuesday that the "weaponisation" of food for civilians in Gaza constitutes a war crime, in its strongest remarks yet on a new model of aid distribution run by an Israeli-backed organisation.

Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain have reopened their airspace following a precautionary suspension triggered by Iran's attack on a US air base near Doha.

Qatar has strongly condemned the Iranian attack that targeted Al Udeid Air Base on Monday.

The Qatari Ministry of Interior has affirmed that the security situation in the country remains stable, and there is no cause for concern.

Several Arab nations strongly condemned Iran's attack on Qatar's Al Udeid air base on Monday calling it a blatant violation of Qatari sovereignty, international law and regional stability.

Bahrain has announced the temporary suspension of air navigation within the Kingdom's airspace.

Iran has launched missiles at US airbases in Qatar and Iraq in response to strikes on its nuclear sites.

Qatar has shut down its airspace temporarily as a precautionary measure amid regional developments, a statement by the Qatari foreign ministry said on X.

Israel targeted Evin prison in Tehran on Monday, in what Israel called the most intense bombing yet of the Iranian capital, a day after the US joined the war by blasting nuclear sites.

Iran and Israel traded air and missile strikes as the world braced on Monday for Tehran's response to the US attack on its nuclear sites and US President Donald Trump raised the idea of regime change in the country.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday raised the question of regime change in Iran following US strikes against key military sites over the weekend, as senior officials in his administration warned Tehran against retaliation.

Waves of Russian drones and missiles in and around Kyiv overnight killed eight people, lit up the night sky with fires in residential areas and damaged the entrance to a metro station bomb shelter, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

Greece will send more than 170 more firefighters on Monday to reinforce teams battling wildfires on the Greek island of Chios for a second day, as winds further whipped up the blaze, bringing power cuts and spurring the evacuation of residents.

At least 20 people were killed and dozens injured when at an explosion at the Mar Elias Church in the Dweila neighbourhood of Syria's capital Damascus on Sunday, health authorities and security sources said.

US forces struck Iran's three main nuclear sites, President Donald Trump said late on Saturday, and he warned Tehran it would face more devastating attacks if it does not agree to peace.

No radioactive traces have been detected in the environment of Saudi Arabia or other Arab Gulf states following the US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, Saudi Arabia's nuclear regulator said in a post on X on Sunday.

Israel faced a missile attack on Sunday as Iran said it reserved all options to defend itself after unprecedented US strikes that President Donald Trump said had "obliterated" its key nuclear facilities.

Around 10,000 Russian soldiers are fighting in Russia's Kursk region, about 90 square km of which is controlled by Ukraine, Ukraine's top military commander said.

Pakistan said on Saturday it would recommend US President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, an accolade that he has said he craves, for his work in helping to resolve the recent conflict between India and Pakistan.

Iran and Israel exchanged fresh attacks early on Saturday, a day after Tehran said it would not negotiate over its nuclear programme while under threat and Europe tried to keep peace talks alive.

India's aviation watchdog has issued a warning to Air India for "repeated and serious violations" related to pilot duty scheduling and oversight, according to government directives reviewed by Reuters on Saturday.

ഇന്ത്യ സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യത്തിന്റെ 75-ആം വാർഷികം ആഘോഷിക്കുന്നു

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.