WORLD

Howling gales and crashing waves pounded the coastline of India and Pakistan on Thursday hours before a powerful cyclone was due to make landfall, with those unable to flee seeking shelter where they could.

At least 79 migrants died after their boat sank off the Peloponnese, Greece's coastguard said Wednesday, as concern mounted that the death toll could rise much higher.

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.

Army warplanes bombed the Sudanese city of El Obeid Wednesday, as the country prepared to mark two months of suffering since a power struggle between rival generals plunged the country into a devastating war.

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.

Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday demanded that Pakistani prosecutors dismiss accusations against two journalists that could theoretically carry the death penalty, adding to US criticism of a crackdown.

Syrian refugees languishing in camps in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley for years say their hopes for the future are evaporating as their host country loses patience and international support dwindles.

Asian markets rose Thursday after the Federal Reserve decided against hiking interest rates and China's central bank cut borrowing costs as officials look to kickstart the struggling economy.

Macron's office said the two would speak on Friday over lunch at the president's Elysee Palace, adding that they would discuss "especially the war in Ukraine and its consequences for the rest of the world". The prince's stay in France could last some days, with MBS also due to attend a Paris summit on a New Global Financing Pact hosted by Macron on June 22-23.

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.

Israeli defence exports hit an all-time high of $12.5 billion last year, with Arab countries that recently established ties accounting for nearly a quarter of purchase contracts, officials said Wednesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signalled Wednesday that he would let his new economic team hike interest rates to combat inflation and stabilise the lira, reversing an era of unconventional policies.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday rebuffed growing international pressure on Ankara to ratify Sweden's NATO membership bid before the Western defence alliance meets in July.

Global oil demand could peak before the end of this decade as the energy crisis has accelerated the transition to cleaner technologies, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.

Lawmakers in crisis-hit Lebanon on Wednesday failed for a 12th time to elect a new president, with bitter divisions between the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah and its opponents marring the vote.

At least three people were killed and 13 wounded in a Russian missile attack on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa early Wednesday, authorities said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Tuesday for maintaining but streamlining a decade-old peacekeeping mission in troubled Mali, whose military leaders have clashed with the West and turned to Russia.

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.

A week ago, he was growing vegetables and fruit and grazing his cows. Now his land in the Mykolaiv region is deep under murky green water.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told US President Joe Biden at the White House on Tuesday that Western-backed Ukraine is "making progress" in its offensive to push Russia back from occupied territories.

President Vladimir Putin claimed Tuesday that Ukraine's casualties in its much-anticipated counteroffensive were ten times higher than Moscow's even as Kyiv said it was making gains and "moving forward".

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