Reuters

Iran tested a suicide drone against a practice vessel in the Gulf and fired one other missile or drone without warning ships in the area, a U.S. official in the region said.

War-weary Syrians are in such dire straits that they require "way more than what is possible today," the International Committee of the Red Cross's regional chief said on Thursday as a fundraiser raked in only half the targeted amount.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani arrived in Baghdad on Thursday on an official visit to discuss regional political matters and enhance bilateral relations, the government said in a statement.

The willingness to restart discussions illustrates the rising sense of urgency in Western capitals about Iran's programme.

The United Arab Emirates in the coming days will lift a temporary restriction on issuing visas to Lebanese nationals due to security concerns, a UAE official told Reuters on Thursday. "Temporary restrictions are in place in response to security concerns. Temporary restrictions continuously undergo review and are subject to be lifted for specific categories of visas in the coming days," the UAE official said, without giving further details.

The defence ministry's initial clearance for the procurement comes just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves for a state visit to the U.S. next week.

NATO members are racing to complete a plan to provide long-term support to Ukraine, but are wrestling with how best to assure the country's security until it can join the military alliance, according to U.S.

After a week of heavy fighting, the real tests of Kyiv's counteroffensive lie ahead, with Ukrainian troops some distance from Russia's main defensive line and the bulk of forces prepared for the push still on standby.

Parliament delivered a surprise blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition on Wednesday by electing an opposition member to sit on a committee that appoints judges, a panel at the heart of a political battle over Israel's justice system.

A lawyer for Russia on Wednesday dismissed Ukraine's account of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 in World Court hearings earlier this week as "fiction".

Sweden should not expect a green light from Ankara on its NATO membership bid at the Western alliance's summit next month unless it prevents anti-Turkey protests in Stockholm, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Grossi delayed a trip to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station on Wednesday for security reasons as Moscow and Kyiv reported heavy fighting in southern Ukraine.

Authorities in India's western state of Gujarat evacuated more than 75,000 people from vulnerable coastal communities as cyclone Biparjoy was expected whirl in from the Arabian Sea to make landfall by Thursday evening.

The powerful Hezbollah group and its allies thwarted a bid by their rivals to elect a top IMF official as Lebanon's president on Wednesday, sharpening sectarian tensions and further dimming prospects for preventing a collapse of the state.

Reuters journalists gained access to the newly liberated Ukrainian village of Neskuchne on Tuesday, confirming that Ukraine's forces have been advancing in the early phase of a counteroffensive against Russia's invasion.

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian passerby during a raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday that set off a two-hour gunfight with armed fighters, witnesses and the Palestinian health ministry said.

Sudan's warring factions are not taking advantage of talks initiated by the United States and Saudi Arabia meant to yield a permanent ceasefire as they originally agreed, a senior U.S.

But the arrest the same day of a Serb identified by the Kosovo Albanian interior minister as an organiser of assaults on NATO peacekeepers during Serb unrest last month stirred fresh anger in the volatile region.

U.S. negotiators are counting on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's White House visit on June 22 to break the log jam.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that Russian tactical nuclear weapons would be physically deployed on the territory of Belarus "in several days" and that he had the facilities to host longer-range missiles too if ever needed.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday he is concerned that Russia will on July 17 quit a deal allowing the safe wartime export of grain and fertilizers from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

India threatened to shut down Twitter in the country unless it complied with orders to restrict accounts critical of the handling of farmer protests, co-founder Jack Dorsey said, an accusation Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government called an "outright lie".

At least six people were killed in a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih on Tuesday, officials said.

Four boys drowned after venturing into rough seas in Mumbai as Indian authorities began evacuating people from western coastal areas on Tuesday, two days before a powerful cyclone approaches Gujarat state and neighbouring southern Pakistan.

A Russian missile strike killed at least six civilians in an apartment building in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's hometown on Tuesday, while Moscow's forces yielded ground in the early stages of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Ukraine said on Monday its troops had recaptured seven villages from Russian forces along an approximately 100-km (60-mile) front in the southeast since starting its long-anticipated counteroffensive last week.

Ukrainian pilots could begin training to fly U.S.-manufacture F-16 fighter jets as soon as this summer, the Dutch defense minister has told Reuters, a first step toward supplying Kyiv with a powerful, long-term capability in its war with Russia.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah and its closest allies are set to torpedo an attempt by rivals to elect a senior IMF official as Lebanese president this week, in a tussle that underlines its decisive sway and the dim prospects for reviving the crumbling state.

The draining of one of Europe's largest reservoirs as a result of the destruction of the Kakhovka dam has revealed submerged military objects that offer a reminder of wars past and present on Ukrainian soil.