Spotlight
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Lebanon
Iran rejects ceasefire proposal, wants Lebanon in deal
Iran has rejected a proposed truce in its war with the United States and Israel, state media reported, despite a stark threat by U.S. President Don...
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Middle East
Trump doubles down on Iran threat, says ceasefire proposal 'not good enough'
U S. President Donald Trump doubled down Monday on his threat to wreck Iran's civilian infrastructure, warning U.S. forces could destroy every brid...
Sweden on Thursday called on the EU to suspend the trade section of its association agreement with Israel over its conduct of the war in Gaza.
"The situation in Gaza is absolutely appalling, and Israel is failing to fulfil its most basic obligations and agreements on emergency aid. Sweden therefore demands that the EU freeze the trade section of the association agreement as soon as possible," Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a post to X, calling on the Israeli government to allow "unhindered humanitarian aid into Gaza."
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Canada's support for Palestinian statehood makes a trade deal with Ottawa "very hard", U.S. President Donald Trump said early Thursday.
"Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh' Canada!!!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.
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Japan's weather office on Thursday lifted a tsunami advisory imposed a day earlier after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded, off Russia's Far East.
"There is currently no coastal area for which tsunami warnings or advisories are in force," the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said on its website.
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President Joseph Aoun said Thursday that Lebanon is determined to disarm Hezbollah, a step it has come under heavy U.S. pressure to take, with the Iran-backed group insisting that doing so would serve Israeli goals.
Hezbollah and Israel recently fought an all-out war that left the militant group badly weakened, though it retains part of its arsenal.
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Gaza is slipping into famine, U.N. agencies warned on Tuesday, as the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said the Palestinian death toll in the nearly 22-month war had topped 60,000.
The World Food Program, UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organization warned that time was running out and that Gaza was "on the brink of a full-scale famine."
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Turkey will start exporting natural gas from Azerbaijan to Syria from Saturday, the energy minister said on Wednesday.
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One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia's sparsely populated Far East on Wednesday, causing tsunamis up to four meters (12 feet) high across the Pacific and sparking evacuations from Hawaii to Japan.
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Israel said Tuesday it "rejected" Prime Minister Keir Starmer's announcement that Britain will recognize a Palestinian state unless Israel acts to end the war in Gaza.
"Israel rejects the statement by the prime minister of the United Kingdom", the foreign ministry posted on X, adding that the move "constitutes a reward for Hamas and harms efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza".
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Sirens sounded in several Israeli cities, including Jerusalem, on Tuesday as the military said it identified and intercepted a projectile launched from Yemen, while AFP journalists reported hearing booms over Jerusalem.
"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the (Israeli air force)", the military said in a statement.
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France on Tuesday condemned the "murder" in the West Bank of Palestinian teacher Awdah Hathaleen who contributed to Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land", describing Israeli settler violence as "terrorism".
"France condemns this murder with the utmost firmness as well as all deliberate acts of violence committed by extremist settlers against the Palestinian population, which are multiplying across the West Bank," a foreign ministry spokesman said, after Hathaleen was killed on Monday. "These acts of violence are acts of terrorism."
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