GAZA: Hamas has reportedly announced its openness to any ideas or proposals for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that he renewed calls for China to exert its influence to press North Korea to cease its "dangerous" activities and return to dialogue during his talks with top Chinese officials in Beijing.

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has unveiled a new initiative aimed at integrating fairness, sustainability, and human rights into the procurement and use of essential minerals for the clean energy transition.

ADEN: Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen's Houthi group, has vowed to continue its naval operations in the Red Sea, rejecting media reports suggesting a decrease in Houthi maritime attacks, the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported.

OTTAWA: Approximately 8.7 million people, or 22.9 per cent of Canada's population, lived in households that reported some form of food insecurity in 2022, Statistics Canada has said.

GAZA: The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip from ongoing Israeli attacks has risen to 34,356, the Hamas-run Health Ministry has said.

TOKYO: Three teenagers died after a mini car fell into a paddy field in the western Japanese prefecture of Tokushima, local authorities reported on Friday.

KYIV: Ukraine's highest anti-corruption court has ordered the pre-trial detention of Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi on suspicion of misappropriation of state land worth millions.

COLOMBO: One soldier died and nine others were injured when a lorry truck collided with an army cab in the area called Mankulam in northern Sri Lanka on Friday, police said.

BEIJING: On the last day of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China, Beijing has warned of a deterioration in relations between the two powers.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has "categorically" rejected a report by the US State Department over the human rights violations in the country last year, saying that only a "politically motivated report can ignore the alarming situation in Gaza".

JERUSALEM: Israel is expected to "soon" begin evacuating civilians from Rafah ahead of a planned ground attack on Gaza's southernmost city, a state-owned media outlet has reported.

UNITED NATIONS: Making the General Assembly more effective cannot be divorced from the wider context of the reform of the UN, including the Security Council, according to India.

UNITED NATIONS: India exemplifies how the digital revolution can be made accessible to millions and become "a fundamental driver of social transformation and progress", according to UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis.

LAHORE: Pakistan Punjab's Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz turned up in a police uniform to review the passing out parade of the provincial police here on Thursday, as per reports.

KYIV: The Ukrainian government has suspended issuing and renewing passports for overseas military-aged men, Ukrayinska Pravda, a Ukrainian online newspaper, reported.

MOSCOW: A fire has broken out at an oil production facility in Russia's central Siberian oblast of Omsk, regional Governor Vitaliy Khotsenko said on Thursday.

SEOUL: Sexual exploitation content in which minors are groomed or coerced into filming themselves has risen over the past few years, while the punishment for the crime has been toughened, with average prison terms nearly doubling in five years in South Korea, data showed on Thursday.

SEOUL: The overall direction of South Korea's alliance with the US will not change no matter who wins the White House in November, as the breadth and depth of the alliance has never been greater, its top envoy to Washington said Thursday.

MOSCOW: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Thursday warned that NATO nuclear facilities, if permanently located on the Polish territory, will become a military target for Russia.

CHENNAI: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have deployed its elite Nahal Brigade in the Rafah region of the Gaza Strip.

NEW YORK: Hundreds of students have been arrested on US campuses as protests against Washington’s support for Israel are surging sea to sea.

MEXICO CITY: The US must modify its foreign policy to respect the sovereignty of nations, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said.

WASHINGTON: The US shipped a new long-range missile system to Ukraine after the delivery received a secret sign-off, the Pentagon has said.

NEW YORK: A UN resolution tabled by the US and Japan against an arms race in space has failed in the UN Security Council due to a veto by Russia.

GAZA: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have mobilised two additional reserve brigades ahead of a possible deployment to the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

COLOMBO: Visiting Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday inaugurated the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project (UOMDP) with an expected annual energy production of 290 gigawatt hours.

STRASBOURG: The European Parliament is set to vote Wednesday on stricter limit values against air pollution.

KABUL: Zamir Kabulov, the Russian President's Special Representative for Afghanistan, travelled to Kabul to hold meetings with the interim senior leadership of Afghanistan, including Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan Abdul Kabir, Foreign Affairs Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Acting Minister of Interior Affairs, Sirajuddin Haqqani.

COLOMBO: Amid the tension in the Middle East, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Sri Lanka following his three-day visit to Pakistan.

BUENOS AIRES: Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Argentina to protest against cuts in the higher education sector.

MOSCOW: The upcoming NATO exercises near the Russian border increase the risks of military incidents, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted by local media as saying on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON: The US Congress has approved a $61-billion aid package for Ukraine after months of stalling.

BERLIN: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will visit Berlin for the first time on Wednesday, 18 months after taking office.

ANKARA: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will end his three-day visit to Turkey on Wednesday with a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.