WORLD

Amid a spiraling humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory, representatives from Egypt, Qatar, the United States, France and others have acted as go-betweens for Israel and Hamas, seeking a halt to the fighting and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Major hospitals are struggling to provide services after thousands of junior medics handed in their resignations and stopped working last week to protest against government plans to sharply increase medical school admissions in the face of a rapidly ageing society.

The 70-year-old, a key figure of the Nobel Prize-winning Memorial group, is the latest target of Kremlin repression, which has intensified since the offensive in Ukraine.

ECOWAS said it was lifting financial and economic sanctions against Guinea and ending restrictions on the recruitment of Malians to professional positions within the bloc's institutions.

The vast Darfur region, bordering Chad, has been one of the hardest hit parts of Sudan since war began 10 months ago between the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that Rafah -- where 1.4 million Palestinians live in crowded shelters near the Egyptian border -- is also "the core of the humanitarian aid operation" in besieged Gaza.

The WTO's 13th ministerial conference (MC13), scheduled to run until Thursday in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is the first in two years.

The meeting in Paris will be a chance for participants to "reaffirm their unity as well as their determination to defeat the war of aggression waged by Russia in Ukraine", the French presidency said.

Emergency responders rushed to the scene just before 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) in response to a "call for person on fire outside the Israeli Embassy," according to a message on X, formerly Twitter, by the capital's fire department.

Official figures show more than 10,000 junior doctors -- 80.5 percent of the trainee workforce -- have resigned as part of a spiraling action against government plans to sharply increase medical school admissions in the face of shortages and a rapidly ageing society.

More than 300,000 fans from the city-state and neighboring countries will attend the US superstar's six sold-out Eras Tour shows at the National Stadium from March 2-9.

The vote would end more than a year of delay that left fellow NATO partners furious as Ukraine has battled Russian troops.

The Salon de l'Agriculture, opening Saturday, is the de facto deadline for angry farmers who say they want written assurances from the government meeting their demands, or they will keep up their protests.

G20 nations broadly back a two-state solution to the conflict in the Middle East, host Brazil said Thursday after a meeting of top diplomats, adding to pressure on Israel to accept an independent Palestinian state.

The United States plans to impose sanctions Friday on more than 500 targets involved in Russia's war in Ukraine, as Moscow claims fresh battlefield advances two years after its invasion.

The Houthis have carried out relentless attacks since November on shipping transiting the Red Sea, a maritime hub through which 12 percent of global trade usually passes.

The European Union long ago set its sights on big tech, aiming to rein in globally dominant companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft.

Yasser Hanun from the Islamic Jihad group had previously been detained for his involvement in the "terrorist organisation's military activities," the army said in a statement.

On the two-year anniversary of Russia's brutal invasion, which has pitted the Kremlin's expansionist ambitions against Ukrainian resolve, there is a growing sense of uncertainty among those caught in between over how and when it will all end.

Israeli media reported a delegation led by David Barnea, head of the Mossad intelligence agency, was heading to Paris for new truce discussions in the war with Hamas militants.

Israel -- one of the world's main exporters of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) -- has for years waged a drone war along its borders, allowing it to monitor or target its enemies remotely with large, sophisticated airborne platforms.

Nasyrov, who left Russia shortly before Putin's invasion of Ukraine, is part of Navalny's team of opposition supporters doing what they can to campaign from outside Russia

Ed Clark, an 18-year Boeing veteran is "leaving the program," Boeing Commercial Aviation (BCA) chief Stan Deal said in a memo released by the company. Katie Ringgold has been named as his replacement.

US authorities said Wednesday they had charged a member of the Japanese yakuza criminal underworld with handling nuclear material sourced from Myanmar and seeking to sell it to fund an illicit arms deal.

The incident happened Tuesday at the "Bulla loca" mine in the state of Bolivar, a seven-hour boat ride from the nearest town, La Paragua, where family members waited anxiously for news.

The trove of documents from I-Soon, a private company that competed for Chinese government contracts, shows that its hackers compromised more than a dozen governments, according to cybersecurity firms SentinelLabs and Malwarebytes.

Global powers trying to navigate a way to end the Israel-Hamas war have so far come up short, but a US envoy was expected in Israel on Thursday to try to secure a truce deal.

Mike Gallagher heads a five-member delegation that met on Thursday with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen and Vice President Lai Ching-te, who won last month's presidential election and will take office in May.

France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands are also pulling out of the Energy Charter Treaty, while the European Parliament has called for the entire 27-nation European Union to withdraw.