WORLD

Iran's clerical rulers have stepped up suppression of persistent anti-government protests in the country's Kurdish region, deploying troops and killing at least four demonstrators on Sunday, social media posts and rights groups said.

Erdogan and Sisi have been sparring since the military's 2013 ouster in Cairo of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, personally backed by Erdogan.

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to extend the grain deal – known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative – by another 120 days.

The 42-year-old ruler hopes a smooth tournament will cement Qatar as a legitimate global player.

The Biden administration ruled on Thursday that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has immunity from a lawsuit over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, drawing immediate condemnation from the slain journalist's former fiancee.

Russian missiles and shells hit Ukrainian positions in several regions and there was no let up in heavy fighting in Donetsk in the east, the Ukrainian military said on Thursday night as Moscow's occupying forces appeared more active.

Russia and Kazakhstan share the world's longest continuous land border, prompting concern among some Kazakhs about the security of a country with the second-biggest ethnic Russian population among ex-Soviet republics after Ukraine.

The pro-democracy blogger is currently serving a five-year sentence for "spreading false news" by sharing another user's Facebook post about police brutality.

Talks to establish carbon offset markets to allow countries to buy credits to partly achieve their climate pledges are set to drag on beyond the COP27 summit and into next year, according to observers and a negotiator in the U.N.

After winning control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans said on Thursday that investigating President Joe Biden and his family's business dealings will be their top oversight priority when they formally take power next year.

Gaza's civil defence unit confirmed in a statement that 21 people had been killed.

The deal between the two warring sides, brokered by Turkey and the UN in July, has helped transport more than 11 million tonnes of grain.

Qatar is close to Iran, Israel's arch-enemy, and has hosted leaders of the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas.

South Korea's military said the ballistic missile was launched from the North's east coast city of Wonsan at 10:48 a.m. (0248 GMT).

For many migrant workers, often with boring or stressful jobs, cricket is an important outlet.

The United States on Wednesday sanctioned senior employees of an Iranian state-run media corporation it accused of being a "critical tool" in Iran's suppression and censorship of its people, stepping up pressure on Tehran over its crackdown on protests.

The top U.S. general on Wednesday said Ukraine's chances of any near-term, outright military victory were not high, cautioning that Russia still had significant combat power inside Ukraine despite suffering battlefield setbacks since its invasion in February.

The loss takes away some of Biden's power in Washington but on Wednesday he congratulated McCarthy and said he would work across the aisle to deliver results.

In Pakistan, where a third of the country lives in hardship on less than $4 a day, education is a rare ticket out of grinding poverty.

The United States and its NATO allies are investigating the blast that killed two in Poland, but early information suggests it may not have been caused by a missile fired from Russia, U.S.

Their photo op looked good for U.S. and Chinese leaders Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, but the superpowers remain driven by geopolitical rivalry despite their pledge to cooperate on global issues like climate change and public health.

The new British prime minister met separately with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as they gathered for the G20 summits.

The official Saudi Press Agency said the trip would include "a number of Asian countries", though officials have not yet confirmed details of the itinerary.

Abu Akleh was killed while covering an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank on May 11.

The group is also expected to declare that "the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons" is "inadmissible", a veiled rebuke of President Vladimir Putin who has repeatedly raised the spectre of nuclear conflagration.

Iran's crackdown on protesters and the sale of drones to Russia have turned the United States' focus away from reviving a nuclear deal, which Tehran has so far rejected, Washington's special envoy for Iran said on Monday.

The Kremlin began to phase out the Ukrainian currency after it annexed Kherson and three other battle-torn regions in late September.

Some aspects of the Islamic law include public executions, stonings and floggings.

The PKK has waged a deadly insurgency for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey since the 1980s.