Reuters

The official did not deny media reports of recent U.S.-Iranian contacts but rather said that suggestions they were about an interim nuclear deal were inaccurate.

As the world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia's bilateral relationship with the world's biggest energy consumer is anchored by hydrocarbon ties. But cooperation between Riyadh and Beijing has also deepened in security and sensitive tech amid a warming of political ties - to the concern of the U.S. The two nations' momentum has also raised prospects for a successful conclusion to negotiations for a free trade deal between China and the Saudi Arabia-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council.

Russia's invasion has thrown up huge challenges for Ukraine's coal mines, from the danger posed by air strikes to the departure of miners for the front to fight.

Residents slogged through flooded streets carrying children on their shoulders, dogs in their arms and belongings in plastic bags while rescuers used rubber boats to search areas where the waters reached above head height.

Talks between Tunisia and the IMF for a $1.9 billion loan have been stalled for months, with Tunisian President Kais Saied rejecting key reform commitments to obtain the money and failing to publicly embrace a deal.

Speaking at a press conference alongside his Saudi counterpart, Blinken said the "historic" reform drive known as Vision 2030 would require Saudi Arabia to attract talent from around the world.

Israeli police said they had dispatched large forces to the area and were searching for suspects, confirming that the incident was criminal.

Lebanon must take urgent action on comprehensive economic reforms to avoid "irreversible consequences" for its economy, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

Locals can no longer ignore the fact that Russia's own territory has become vulnerable since it launched its "special military operation" against Ukraine 15 months ago - even if they are reluctant to discuss the reasons why.

Just when it seemed safe to unmask, some Canadians are donning the face coverings made ubiquitous during the coronavirus pandemic as a protection against hazardous smoky conditions as wildfires ravage much of the country.

Forest fires continued to burn across Canada on Thursday as the country endured its worst-ever start to wildfire season, forcing thousands of people from their homes and sending a smoky haze billowing across U.S.

Ousted Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan was on Thursday due to appeal to several courts for bail on a growing list of charges against him in a bid to avert his arrest, which could risk a repeat of violent protests by his supporters.

The U.N. children's agency said on Thursday it was following up with Afghanistan's Taliban authorities over whether international organisations would be excluded from education projects, which could affect hundreds of thousands of students.

The European Commission and the United Arab Emirates' presidency of this year's COP28 climate summit pledged on Wednesday to seek support for global goals to expand renewable energy, which they said would help countries to shift from unabated fossil fuels. The UAE's incoming COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber - who is also the head of the country's national oil company - last month urged countries to focus on "phasing out fossil fuel emissions". That could allow countries to keep using fossil fuels, while using technology to capture their emissions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Ukraine of destroying the Kakhovka dam at the suggestion of the West, in what he called a "barbaric" war crime that escalated the conflict with Moscow.

Shevtsova is one of thousands of Russians who have abandoned their homes and taken shelter in Belgorod, the nearest big Russian city to the border with Ukraine.

"If anyone thinks they should freeze the conflict and then see how to solve it, they don't understand it," he said in an online briefing aimed at African journalists, following a tour of African countries.

Moscow's intervention shows how geopolitical disputes since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year are complicating global efforts to combat climate change. I

A Reuters witness said a large military convoy arrived in downtown Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian government, leading hundreds of Palestinians to gather in the area.

Soccer's world governing body FIFA made false and misleading statements about the reduced environmental impact of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, a Swiss regulator said on Wednesday.

216 passengers and 16 crew who were on board the flight from Delhi to San Francisco had been moved to makeshift accommodations, given infrastructure limitations around the airport, the airline said.

Pakistan's government will hope to find a balance between reforms to satisfy the International Monetary Fund and measures to win over voters in an imminent election in its budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year to be announced on Friday, analysts said.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has enough water to cool its reactors for "several months" from a pond located above the reservoir of a nearby dam that has broken, the U.N.

About 42,000 people are at risk from flooding in Russian- and Ukrainian-controlled areas along the Dnipro River after a dam collapsed, as the U.N.

Distraught residents of Ukraine's Kherson evacuated their homes under artillery fire on Tuesday after they were flooded by the rupture of a vast dam upstream in a disaster that Kyiv and Moscow have blamed on each other.

A huge Soviet-era dam on the Dnipro River that separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine was breached on Tuesday, unleashing floodwaters across the war zone.

Hammad Azhar, who has served as Pakistan's finance and energy minister, says police and plain-clothed officials have burst into his home six times in recent weeks, smashed his belongings and threatened his 82-year-old father, warning that his daughter would be abducted.

Kuwait on Tuesday holds its second legislative election in nine months in a bid to resolve a grinding political crisis that has seen parliament repeatedly dissolved and reinstated, hindering economic reforms.

The dispute centres on the International Atomic Energy Agency's years-long investigation into the origin of uranium particles found at three undeclared Iranian sites, most of which appear to have been active around two decades ago.