WORLD

Lebanon's health ministry said early Wednesday that Israeli strikes in the country's east killed one person, just over a day after similar strikes in the area and hours after four died in the south.

Burundi's President President Evariste Ndayishimiye continues to rule with an unrelenting "wave of repression" despite hopes of change when he took office four years ago, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

In war-ravaged Gaza, death appears to be the "only certainty" for 2.4 million Palestinians with no way to escape Israel's relentless bombardment, a UN official said Tuesday, recounting the growing desperation across the territory.

The UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan has been barred from entering the country, a diplomatic source told AFP on Tuesday.

Venezuela's parliament, controlled by members loyal to strongman President Nicolas Maduro, on Tuesday delayed debate on a law against "fascism" seen by detractors as a means of cracking down on political opponents.

It was still dark when a storm hit the Sicilian port of Porticello early Monday, and within minutes a superyacht had disappeared, taking many of those on board with it.

Some are wounded, most are very young and all want to go home. The young man, who wore checked trousers and plastic slippers, said his hope was "to be exchanged and go back home -- back home to my family".

India's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a national task force to examine how to bolster security for healthcare workers after the "horrific" rape and murder of a doctor sparked medical strikes and furious protests.

King Charles III on Tuesday visited the town in northwest England where a devastating knife attack that killed three young girls sparked nationwide anti-immigration riots.

Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday voted to ban the Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as Kyiv cuts religious, social and institutional ties with bodies it considers aligned with Moscow.

In a dingy New Delhi pedestrian subway, patients waiting for treatment at nearby hospitals line the ground as queues grow with Indian doctors protesting the rape and murder of a colleague.

Ukraine's military incursion into Russia, a first in the two-year-old war, has handed Kyiv the initiative on the battlefield, but its outcome remains highly uncertain, analysts say.

Blinken, on his ninth visit to the Middle East since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack triggered the war with Israel, flew to El Alamein, the Mediterranean city famous for a World War II battle, and began talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at his summer palace.

Taiwan conducted missile drills simulating the interception of enemy fighters and munitions at a sensitive test site Tuesday, as the island seeks to step up "combat effectiveness" against an increasingly assertive China.

Kenyan police launched a major manhunt on Tuesday after a man they claim has confessed to murdering and dismembering 42 women escaped from a Nairobi police cell, along with a dozen other detainees.

A North Korean defected to the South by walking across the heavily fortified border that separates the peninsula, Seoul's military said Tuesday.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken was due to travel to Egypt on Tuesday for talks on a Gaza ceasefire after saying Israel had accepted a US "bridging proposal" for a deal and urging Hamas to do the same.

A "limited number" of Afghans will temporarily stay in the Philippines while being processed for resettlement in the United States, Manila and Washington said Tuesday.

England head into the first Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford starting Wednesday with several players given a chance to prove a point after captain Ben Stokes's series-ending injury.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Ukraine on Friday, officials said, weeks after Kyiv condemned him for hugging President Vladimir Putin during a visit to traditional ally Russia. New Delhi's foreign ministry said on Monday Modi will visit Poland on Thursday before travelling on to Ukraine the next day.

The biggest attack on Russian soil since World War II has rattled Russia and penetrated several kilometres into Russia's Kursk region. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine now controls over 1,250 square kilometres (480 square miles) and 92 settlements.

UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch was among six people lost at sea Monday after a superyacht sank off the Italian island of Sicily during a sudden storm. The 56-meter-long luxury yacht had been moored off Porticello, east of Palermo, when violent winds and rains swept suddenly up the coast before dawn.

Ange Postecoglou admitted "wasteful" Tottenham lost their composure as Jamie Vardy's second-half equaliser gave Leicester a 1-1 draw against his profligate team on Monday.

Cases of the mpox virus are rising in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as the central African country awaits vaccines from the United States and Japan, the health minister said on Monday.

Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Monday claimed responsibility for a bombing in Tel Aviv, calling it a "suicide operation" and threatening more attacks in Israel as the Gaza war drags on.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's commitment to Ukraine "remains absolutely resolute", his spokesperson said Monday, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that UK support "has slowed down recently".

The Kremlin on Monday ruled out entering peace talks with Ukraine over Kyiv's surprise offensive into Russian territory, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said was meeting its goals.

France on Monday paid homage to film legend Alain Delon following his death at 88, with tributes pouring in for the actor who became one of his country's biggest stars, but was also shadowed by controversy.

After weeks of deadly student-led protests in Bangladesh toppled the autocratic premier, among the first things children at a school in the capital Dhaka did when they returned to class was honour their slain friend.