WORLD

World hunger stopped rising in 2022 after growing for seven years but remains above pre-pandemic levels and far off track to be eradicated by 2030, UN agencies said Wednesday.

Carlos Alcaraz saw off Holger Rune in straight sets on Wednesday to stay on course for a Wimbledon title showdown against defending champion Novak Djokovic.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas vowed to rebuild the Jenin refugee camp during a rare and brief visit Wednesday, a week after a deadly Israeli raid destroyed much of the camp in the occupied West Bank.

US President Joe Biden hailed Ukraine's "astounding" courage Wednesday in talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who set aside earlier frustrations with NATO to profusely thank the United States for its help.

Chinese-based hackers seeking intelligence information breached the email accounts of a number of US government agencies, computer giant Microsoft said.

At a training ground on the edge of Kyiv, a group of women ran through an obstacle course and fired Kalashnikovs, putting the new uniforms finally designed for them through a stress test.

UN chief Antonio Guterres denounced Wednesday a global financial system where nearly half the world's people live in countries whose governments spend more on debt than education or health.

The United Nations on Wednesday said nearly three months of war in Sudan have uprooted more than three million people, and called for the warring sides to face "accountability".

Israeli fire wounded three members of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement on Wednesday near the border with Israel, a security source in southern Lebanon said. The incident comes amid tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border area, a stronghold of the Shiite movement and the site of sporadic skirmishes. The Israeli army said in a statement that "a number of suspects approached the northern security fence with Lebanon and attempted to sabotage the security fence in the area".

On Ukraine's eastern front, soldiers welcomed a controversial US decision to send cluster munitions to Kyiv that will give them an "advantage on the battlefield".

The UN Security Council failed Tuesday to reach consensus on extending a key Syria aid route, throwing into doubt a vital mechanism that provides life-saving support to millions of people.

US President Joe Biden thanked his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday for his "courage" in dropping opposition to Sweden's entry to NATO. At a meeting during the NATO summit in Vilnius, Biden celebrated the conclusion of a major diplomatic push to get Erdogan to stop blocking Sweden's application.

North Korea has fired a long-range ballistic missile, the South Korean military said Wednesday, days after Pyongyang threatened to down US spy planes that violated its airspace.

The war in Ukraine will not end until the West stops trying to defeat Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Indonesian media on Wednesday.

The leaders of Iran and Kenya pledged to strengthen ties as their governments signed a raft of trade agreements Wednesday during Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's maiden visit to the East African nation. The visit comes as the Islamic republic tries to shore up diplomatic support to ease its international isolation, with Raisi also due to travel to Uganda and Zimbabwe this week on the first Africa tour by an Iranian leader in 11 years.

The bodies of two migrants have been found in a desert region near Tunisia's border with Algeria, a judicial official and a witness said on Tuesday.

Pakistan and other Organisation of Islamic Cooperation countries secured an urgent debate at the UN's top rights body on Tuesday after a Koran was burnt outside Stockholm's main mosque, triggering a diplomatic backlash across the Muslim world. Pakistan's draft resolution condemns all manifestations of religious hatred, including "public and premeditated acts of desecration of the Holy Koran", and underscores the need to hold those responsible to account.

India on Friday launches its latest attempt at an unmanned moon landing, the next frontier of a burgeoning, cut-price aerospace programme rapidly closing in on the milestones set by global superpowers.

Western powers will propose long-term security commitments for Ukraine on Wednesday after NATO dashed President Volodymyr Zelensky's hopes of a clear timeline for joining the alliance.

Iraq will start paying for its Iranian gas imports with oil, to circumvent the complicated mechanism agreed with Washington in order not to contravene US sanctions, the prime minister said Tuesday.

Asian markets saw choppy trade Wednesday as investors jockeyed for position ahead of a key US inflation report later in the day, though Hong Kong extended gains on hopes for fresh Chinese stimulus.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has performed one of his trademark policy U-turns on Sweden's accession to NATO that culminates a gradual pro-Western tilt of course since his May re-election.

Indonesian maritime authorities seized an Iranian-flagged tanker carrying more than 200,000 metric tons of light crude oil after a suspected illegal transfer at sea, they said Tuesday.

The world's wealthiest nations must urgently prepare for the impact of an imminent "AI revolution" that will change jobs, create new ones and make others disappear, the OECD said Tuesday.

Twitter owner Elon Musk's freewheeling approach to the platform's handling of censorship has won support from an unlikely quarter -- Afghanistan's Taliban.

Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on the International Criminal Court to investigate possible "war crimes" in Sudan's Darfur region where fighting has intensified despite calls for an end to the conflict.

Protests erupted across Israel Tuesday, hours after parliament adopted in a first reading a key clause of the government's judicial overhaul package which opponents say threatens democracy.

UAE Ambassador to the Republic of Chad, Rashid Saeed Al Shamsi opened the field hospital in the presence of the Chadian Minister of Health, Assane Ngueadoum, alongside Chadian government officials, UAE entities supervising representatives and the Emirati medical team. Since the conflict began in April, UAE has sent nearly 2000 tonnes of medical, food, and relief materials to Sudan by air and sea bridge.

A UN-brokered agreement that allows for the delivery of aid overland from Turkey into rebel-held areas of Syria expired on Monday after the Security Council failed to hold a vote to reauthorize it.