WORLD

On Monday, the massive earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey and Syria killed him and his entire family.

Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a "special military operation" designed to demilitarize and "denazify" the country.

For several years the United Nations has described access to the opposition-controlled area of Syria through one border crossing from Turkey as a "lifeline" for some 4 million people who it says rely on humanitarian assistance.

The Nikkei business daily reported a final buyout proposal worth around 2 trillion yen had been submitted.

Having visited London and Paris on Wednesday, Zelenskiy is expected to attend a summit of EU leaders and address the European Parliament during his trip to the Belgian capital.

On May 14, Turkey will vote in presidential and parliamentary elections that polls conducted before the disaster showed would turn into a tight race for Erdogan, who has led the country since 2003.

London used the announcement of the visit to say that it would offer fighter jet training to Ukraine as Western allies debate how much military aid to give Kyiv amid warnings of an impending Russian offensive in the east.

In all, Kyiv says it expects between 120 and 140 modern Western tanks, as the country braces for a new Russian offensive possibly in the coming weeks.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed that the U.S. embassy had received a diplomatic note from the Russian foreign ministry, but said the department's general policy was not to comment on diplomatic correspondence.

Disaster agencies said several thousand buildings were flattened across an area plagued by war, insurgency, refugee crises and a recent cholera outbreak.

Top Ukrainian officials including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy have said Moscow will attempt to mount another major offensive with freshly mobilised troops in the coming weeks.

Last month, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) blamed Damascus for the strike on the rebel-held town of Douma, which killed 43 people.

The United States also said it expected to send further assistance to Turkey after sending two rescue teams to the NATO ally, which suffered heavily as well in Sunday's earthquake.

The dollar index was down slightly at 103.29 in early trade, extending losses after Powell's comments on Tuesday, making oil cheaper for those holding other currencies.

If there aren't enough rescuers, volunteers say they will have to step in and do the hard work themselves.

Israel said on Monday that it had received a Syrian request for assistance with earthquake relief for the Arab state and that it was prepared to oblige, in what would be rare cooperation between the enemy neighbours.

Briere, who was sentenced to eight years in jail for espionage, is one of seven French and more than two dozen foreign nationals who campaigners say Iran has jailed in a strategy of hostage-taking to extract concessions from the West.

An EU-wide ban on Russia oil products -- like diesel, gasoline and jet fuel -- came into effect Sunday alongside a Group of Seven (G7) price cap on the same items.

The secretary-general laid out his priorities for the year in a gloomy speech to the United Nations General Assembly that focused on Russia's invasion, the climate crisis and extreme poverty.

The mission has been in Islamabad since Jan. 31 to sort out the differences over fiscal policy that has stalled the release of more than $1 billion from $6.5 billion bailout package signed in 2019.

ChatGPT, created by San Francisco company OpenAI, has caused a sensation for its ability to write essays, poems or programming code on demand within seconds.

The magnitude 7.8 quake rippled through both countries early on Monday, toppling entire apartment blocks, wrecking hospitals, and leaving thousands more people injured or homeless.

The Biden administration's top diplomat spoke to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu by phone following the earthquake that killed more than 2,700 people across a swathe of Turkey and northwest Syria.

Free speech campaigners have highlighted what they say is a pattern of rising government censorship of Pakistan's printed and electronic media.

Harris will travel to Munich, Germany, from Feb. 16 to 18 to attend the Munich Security Conference as Ukraine, still waiting on promised longer-range Western missiles and battle tanks, readies itself for a new Russian offensive that could begin next week.

Ukraine is itself planning a spring offensive to recapture lost territory, but awaiting delivery of promised longer-range Western missiles and battle tanks, with some analysts saying the country was months away from being ready.

The military police prison in the town of Rajo near the Turkish border holds about 2,000 inmates, with about 1,300 of them suspected to be IS fighters, said the source.

Brent crude futures rose 82 cents, or 1.01%, to $81.81 per barrel by 0300 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate futures rose 82 cents, or 1.11%, to $74.93 per barrel.

Arakhamia said Ukraine's armed forces should not be overseen by politicians during wartime, but by people with a background in defence or security.