WORLD

Most markets crawled higher Wednesday on speculation that China will unveil measures to support its struggling economy, while investors held out hope the Federal Reserve will skip an interest rate hike this month.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised concerns over human rights in Saudi Arabia during a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday, a US official said. "They had an open, candid discussion that covered the full range of regional and bilateral issues," the official said on condition of anonymity. "The secretary raised human rights both generally and with regards to specific issues." The meeting, which lasted about an hour and 40 minutes, touched on topics including Saudi Arabia's support for US evacuations from Sudan, the need for political dialogue in Yemen and the potential for the normalisation of relations with Israel.

A leading international NGO's Afghan women staff have resumed their work in some provinces, months after the Taliban government banned them from working.

Pope Francis visited a Rome hospital for a medical check-up on Tuesday, according to Italian media, just over two months after he was hospitalised with bronchitis.

President Ebrahim Raisi hailed the new missile's hypersonic capability, saying it would boost Iran's "power of deterrence" and "bring peace and stability to the countries of the region".

A huge Soviet-era dam on the Dnipro River that separates Russian and Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine was breached on Tuesday, unleashing floodwaters across the war zone.

Hammad Azhar, who has served as Pakistan's finance and energy minister, says police and plain-clothed officials have burst into his home six times in recent weeks, smashed his belongings and threatened his 82-year-old father, warning that his daughter would be abducted.

Kuwait on Tuesday holds its second legislative election in nine months in a bid to resolve a grinding political crisis that has seen parliament repeatedly dissolved and reinstated, hindering economic reforms.

Noor Bibi lost her mother, her daughter and the roof over her head in the catastrophic floods that drowned Pakistan last summer.

The dispute centres on the International Atomic Energy Agency's years-long investigation into the origin of uranium particles found at three undeclared Iranian sites, most of which appear to have been active around two decades ago.

Locals once lived self-sufficient lives in the vast freshwater areas that make up the UNESCO-recognized Iraqi Marshlands, filling their nets with varieties of fish and keeping large herds of water buffalo.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday for the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel on the eve of his visit to the Arab power. "The United States has a real national security interest in promoting normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia," Blinken said in a speech to the powerful pro-Israel lobby AIPAC. He said the administration of President Joe Biden has "no illusions" that bringing about full Saudi-Israel diplomatic relations can be done quickly or easily.

At least 42 people were dead and 11 missing in Haiti after heavy rains at the weekend triggered flooding and landslides, civil protection officials said Monday.

The United States and seven other countries are responsible for torture and illegal detention of a Saudi prisoner awaiting a death penalty trial at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, a UN watchdog has ruled.

Asian and Pacific nations, which according to a regional rotation had dibs this year on selecting the president of the two-week International Labour Conference, had proposed Ali Bin Samikh Al-Marri.

Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensified after the expiry late on Saturday of a ceasefire deal brokered by Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

Membership of the military alliance would "probably" only be possible for Ukraine after the end of active hostilities, Kuleba said in an interview in Kyiv.

Washington's sharply worded warning followed the U.S. Navy's release on Sunday of a video of what it called an "unsafe interaction" in the Taiwan Strait in which a Chinese warship crossed in front of a U.S. destroyer in the sensitive waterway.

Kyiv and Moscow will give their arguments to judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, in a case that was originally started by Ukraine back in 2017.

Russia launched a new wave of overnight air strikes on Kyiv, with officials at the Ukrainian capital saying that air defence systems downed more than 20 cruise missiles on their approach.

Washington is working to deepen ties with India and sees stronger military-to-military and technology ties with the world's largest democracy as a key counterweight to China's dominance in the region.

Moscow said on Monday it had thwarted a major Ukrainian offensive in the south of Ukraine's Donetsk region but Russia's main mercenary leader said Russian forces had lost ground around Bakhmut further north.

India's deadliest train disaster in decades killed at least 275 people and injured hundreds more, a tragedy officials have said was linked to an electronic signal system.

Swiss banking giant UBS is expected to complete its takeover of crisis-hit domestic rival Credit Suisse as early as June 12, the two lenders said on Monday.

Since the start of Moscow's offensive in Ukraine, Russian pensioner Antonina Zaikina had a bag prepared in case she had to flee her town of Shebekino on the border with Ukraine.

Khan has hinted previously at the military's hand in a crackdown on his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party but his comments in an interview at his Lahore home on Saturday night were the most blunt yet.

Kyiv has for months said it is preparing a major counteroffensive, hoping to reclaim territory lost since Russia launched its military operation in February 2022.

The jet fighters created a sonic boom over the U.S. capital as they pursued the errant Cessna Citation, officials said, causing consternation among people in the Washington area.

Soap, wet wipes and children's toys: Irina Burlakova, a 30-year-old Russian woman, picks up humanitarian aid after having fled Shebekino, a border town heavily shelled by Ukraine this week.