WORLD

Dramatic rescue efforts unfolded at a tower block in the eastern city of Dnipro, shattered by a Russian missile strike that left 30 people dead and an estimated 34 people missing.

Mursal Nabizada had been a member of parliament in the US-backed government that was overthrown by the Taliban in August 2021.

Russia said on Friday that its forces had taken control of Soledar, a rare success for Moscow after months of battlefield reverses.

Relatives said both father and son worked in construction and had been driving together to their jobs.

Russia and Belarus will begin joint air force drills on Monday, which have triggered fears in Kyiv and the West that Moscow could use its ally to launch a new ground offensive in Ukraine.

Economy Minister Shigeyuki Goto told a news conference that the sessions were not meant to discuss the BOJ's exit strategy from monetary easing or craft a new accord between the BOJ and the government.

The diplomatic spat threatened to set back Sweden's efforts to break down NATO member Turkey's resistance to its bid to join the Western defence alliance in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials have warned of a new looming Russian assault, with Belarus to the north named as one possible launchpad, as Moscow seeks to revive its faltering invasion.

The defence ministry in Moscow said Wednesday it had, again, replaced its top commander in Ukraine, putting army chief of staff Valery Gerasimov in charge.

The uptick in West Bank violence continued the trend of 2022, which was the deadliest since UN records began in 2005.

Drones have played key roles from the earliest days of the conflict, with Ukrainian forces using Turkish-made Bayraktars to carry out strikes on Moscow's troops as they unsuccessfully sought to seize Kyiv.

The agreement comes as Pakistan grapples with a major foreign exchange crisis, holding enough reserves to pay for just three weeks of imports.

One Palestinian was shot dead early morning on Thursday during overnight raids in Qalandia refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said.

Environmental activists were quick to react, warning that the involvement of a major figure from the oil industry could slow progress in the fight against global warming.

Turkish Medical Association head Sebnem Korur Fincanci was detained and jailed in October for using a television interview to highlight claims that first surfaced in media close to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The World Health Organization has repeatedly voiced concern that China's official statistics are not showing the true impact of its current surge in Covid cases.

Moscow named a new commander for its invasion of Ukraine while Russian private military firm Wagner Group said its capture of the salt mining town Soledar in eastern Ukraine was complete.

Demonstrations have swept Iran since the September 16 death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest in Tehran for allegedly failing to adhere to the dress rules which demand women wear hijab headscarves.

The succession of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was believed to have been killed in a U.S. raid last year, remains unclear, a U.S. intelligence official said on Tuesday.

President Isaac Herzog appealed to Israeli politicians on Tuesday to "lower the temperature" amid confrontional exchanges between the new hardline nationalist coalition government and the centre-left opposition.

Kharkiv has faced heavy bombardment during the war, but the frontline has moved east since a Ukrainian counter-offensive last year retook territory from Russian forces.

President Vladimir Putin's defence minister vowed on Tuesday to build a deeper arsenal of weapons, bolster aviation technology to better evade air defences and improve drone production after a series of battlefield humiliations in Ukraine.

The U.N. Security Council on Monday unanimously approved the delivery of humanitarian aid to some four million people in northwestern Syria for another six months, avoiding a traditional fight with Russia over the issue.

Russia has stepped up a powerful assault on Soledar in eastern Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said, forcing Ukrainian troops to repel waves of attacks led by the Wagner contract militia around the salt mining town and nearby fronts.

The latest sentences -- for three men convicted of killing three members of the security forces -- bring to 17 the official total of detainees condemned to death in connection with nearly four months of protests.

The pilgrimage -- one of five pillars of Islam, and which all able-bodied Muslims with the means are required to perform at least once -- is scheduled for June.

Nearly 10 documents were found at Biden's office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, CBS News reported.

A sacked executive of US banking giant Wells Fargo accused of urinating on a fellow passenger aboard an Air India flight has been arrested, a police spokesperson said Saturday.

The latest hangings double the number of executions to four over the nationwide unrest, which has escalated since mid-September into calls for an end to Iran's clerical regime.