AFP news

In Kyiv, officials also sought to allay fears that Russian forces destroyed a US-supplied Patriot air defence system, saying the powerful weapon was in operation.

Secular leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu huddled with the other five heads of his alliance on Wednesday to plot a harder-edged strategy for ending Erdogan's two-decade domination of Turkey.

The team of European researchers behind the study previously theorised the existence of supermassive stars in 2018 in an attempt to explain one of the great mysteries of astronomy.

A dissident expelled from a far-right group, Sinan Ogan had spent most of his career on the periphery of Turkish politics before his unexpected score in Sunday's presidential ballot thrust him into the limelight.

The state-owned hydrocarbon giant said the contract was for the engineering, procurement and construction of the North Field South (NFS) project.

The lawsuit filed in a US federal court in San Francisco, which named powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a conspirator, seeks a jury trial to determine damages. Abdulrahman al-Sadhan was working for the Red Crescent in Riyadh when he was taken away from the office in 2018 and later handed a 20-year jail sentence. Al-Sadhan, who had studied in the United States, had set up an anonymous Twitter account through which he critiqued the ultra-conservative monarchy and retweeted dissident voices.

Regional traders were provided a tepid lead from Wall Street, where disappointing retail sales data and weak earnings from Home Depot indicated softening consumer demand.

The United Nations' health agency released new guidelines on Monday advising against using so-called non-sugar sweeteners or NSS.

The wave of strikes came just over a week after Kyiv announced it had shot down a Kinzhal missile for the first time, using US-supplied Patriot systems.

According to the UN, more than 760,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in 1948.

Erdogan, 69, had already overcome jail, mass protests and a bloody 2016 coup attempt to emerge as Turkey's most important leader in generations, but this year's election seemed one hurdle too many even for him.

The US warheads are on 662 intercontinental ballistic missiles and other deployed delivery systems, down from 686 a year earlier and within the New START limit of 700.

As of late Monday, there was no official word as to whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would take part in the summit.

The three-day summit of leading developed democracies will cover everything from energy to AI, but a key focus will be targeting those who have helped Moscow blunt the impact of Western-led sanctions.

Beijing says trade with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan reached $70 billion in 2022 and expanded 22 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023.

Asian markets wobble as US struggles to reach In early trade, Asian markets struggled to extend Monday's strong performance.

Traders reacted also to a mixed inflation picture out of Europe and weekend elections in Thailand and Turkey.

They met at the Elysee Palace before both head to Versailles for the latest edition of the president's Choose France conference where Macron seeks to drum up investment in the country.

The unwieldy coalition now faces a challenging task to regroup for the runoff, with Erdogan seemingly possessing the momentum.

Khan was arrested on graft charges on Tuesday, prompting supporters to rampage through cities across Pakistan before the Supreme Court declared his detention illegal three days later.

The 30-year-old student is stranded in Metema, a border town in northwestern Ethiopia, joining thousands of people fleeing clashes between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces.

The Swiss complainant, who says she has faced threats and therefore wishes to be known under the assumed name of "Brigitte" during the trial, was in her 40s at the time of the alleged attack, which dates back almost 15 years.

Iranians are accustomed to using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to evade restrictions and access prohibited websites or apps, including the US-owned Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Semra Karakas and her 23-year-old daughter Aylin endured a 14-hour bus ride to return to Antakya for the vote, after the quake forced them to leave and settle in the southern coastal city of Antalya.

Kohler, a teacher, and her partner Paris, remain in prison in the Iranian capital's Evin prison accused of espionage charges their family deny.

The fighting broke out Tuesday with Israeli strikes on the Islamic Jihad militant group. It ceased late Saturday following days of truce talks led by Egypt.

The EU officials assured, at the end of the meetings, that the two leaders "shared a common willingness for a south Caucasus at peace," describing their exchanges as "frank, open and result oriented".

Polling had suggested that the secular opposition figurehead Kemal Kilicdaroglu had a chance of crossing the 50-percent threshold required to win Turkey's momentous presidential ballot without contesting a May 28 runoff.

On his latest stop in a tour of European allies, Zelensky dined with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace on Sunday night and held discussions that included building up Ukraine's arsenal.