WORLD

Rescuers freed nine people trapped in a winding cave in Taiwan's mountainous east on Friday, while locating two others who were feared dead, as they searched for those still missing after the island's biggest earthquake in 25 years.

US Treasury chief Janet Yellen warned during a visit to China on Friday that Beijing's subsidies for industry could pose a risk to global economic resilience.

Foreign minister Winston Peters said after a two-day visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels that a "partnership program" with the alliance would be agreed "in the coming months".

Kyiv launched once of its largest overnight attacks in weeks, firing more than 50 drones at Russian territory, according to Russia's defense ministry.

The resolution -- which passed with 28 of the council's 47 member states voting in favor, six opposed and 13 abstaining -- marked the first time the United Nations top rights body has taken a position on the bloodiest-ever war to beset the besieged Palestinian territory.

Ten people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in Wednesday's magnitude-7.4 quake, but strict building regulations and widespread public disaster awareness appear to have staved off a major catastrophe on the island.

The Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 re-invigorated NATO as it was confronted by one of the most serious challenges since it emerged from the ashes of World War II to counter the Soviet Union.

The exercise will be held Sunday in the disputed South China Sea -- which Beijing claims almost entirely -- days before US President Joe Biden is due to hold the first trilateral summit with the leaders of the Philippines and Japan.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrived in China's Guangzhou on Thursday for meetings to press Beijing over fears the country's industrial subsidies for green energy, cars and batteries could flood global markets with cheap goods.

President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold their first phone discussions since the Israeli strikes on Monday killed the employees of the US-based charity World Central Kitchen.

Thousands gathered in front of the country's parliament, with hostage families and former prime minister Ehud Barak blaming Netanyahu for the October 7 "disaster" and demanding an election.

The Palestinians, who have had observer status at the world body since 2012, have lobbied for years to gain full membership, which would amount to recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Video in state media showed the missile being carried into position on its launching vehicle, as Kim and an array of uniformed soldiers stood by watching, before the missile blasts off, trailing plumes of smoke and flames.

Yellen's trip from April 3-9 will begin in the southern Guangzhou city where she will speak with representatives of US firms as well meet with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and Guangdong province governor Wang Weizhong.

World Central Kitchen -- one of two NGOs spearheading efforts to distribute aid brought by boat -- said a "targeted Israeli strike" on Monday killed Australian, British, Palestinian, Polish and US-Canadian staff.

Strict building regulations and disaster awareness appear to have staved off a major catastrophe for the island, which is regularly hit by earthquakes as it lies near the junction of two tectonic plates.

Savannah Graziano, 15, was gunned down as one deputy called her away from her gun-toting father, who had killed her mother a day earlier and abducted his daughter.

A US-based charity blamed Israel on Tuesday for a strike that killed seven of its staff unloading food brought to the war-torn Gaza Strip by sea to help alleviate looming famine.

A 12-year-old opened fire Tuesday at a school north of the Finnish capital Helsinki, killing a fellow student and seriously injuring two others before being taken into custody, police said.

Among the defendants will be the two men alleged to have led the plot -- the aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss and a former army officer identified as Ruediger v.P.

Four other people were also reported killed in Monday's strike which levelled the five-storey building adjacent to the Iranian embassy and further stoked tensions already running high as the Gaza war nears the end of its sixth month.

He won a December election with 89.6 percent of the vote against three relative unknowns, after opposition challengers were sidelined or jailed.

The announcement comes just over two weeks after the Dutch government picked Naval Group for a submarine deal, giving the company another boost three years after Australia abruptly cancelled a major contract.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Tuesday on supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia and the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Tuesday's launch was the third ballistic missile test of 2024, after a solid-fuel one overseen by Kim in March and another tipped with a maneuverable hypersonic warhead in January.

Last week, a New York appeals court cut a $454 million bond payment he was originally required to make, reducing the sum to $175 million and giving him 10 days to pay a bond in that amount.

Elon Musk, one of the world's richest people, says he won't directly back Joe Biden or Donald Trump in the US election -- but one look at his X feed makes clear his heart is with the Republican.

Monday's deaths came as the Israeli army wrapped up a two-week military operation in and around the Al-Shifa Hospital which reduced the besieged territory's largest medical complex to charred ruins.

Japanese dietary supplements at the centre of an expanding health scare have now been linked to at least 157 hospitalisations, a health ministry official said Tuesday.