WORLD

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday slammed US policy towards North Korea as "dangerous" during a visit to Pyongyang, while touting the "new, strategic level" of relations between Moscow and the nuclear-armed state.

"Ordain women priests!" Adeline Fermanian, co-president of the Committee of Skirt, said the pope had given "openings" on the question of ordaining women.

The United States will ease some oil and gas sanctions against Venezuela after the South American country's government and opposition agreed to hold elections next year, the Treasury Department said Wednesday.

For months, the mayor of Tibu, a Colombian town under the yoke of guerrilla violence, was forced to do his job from more than 115 kilometers (71 miles) away, after receiving death threats.

Netflix on Wednesday said subscriber numbers grew more than 10 percent to 247 million in the recently ended third quarter as it cracked down on passwords and refined an ad-supported tier.

A Dutchman who was the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of an American woman vacationing in Aruba has confessed to her murder, prosecutors and the victim's family said Wednesday.

The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Wednesday calling for a "humanitarian pause" in the raging Israel-Hamas conflict as the text did not respect Israel's right to defend itself, the US ambassador said.

Uganda said Wednesday it was hunting down gunmen who killed a honeymooning couple and their safari guide in one of the country's famed national parks in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

Israelis living in border communities near the Gaza Strip are bracing for a long and hard war with Hamas -- some heeding evacuation calls but others staying put.

Austria's former chancellor Sebastian Kurz insisted he was innocent as he went on trial on Wednesday for allegedly giving false testimony to an inquiry probing wide-ranging corruption scandals that have rocked the country.

Thousands rallied across the Arab and Muslim world on Wednesday to protest the deaths of hundreds of people in a strike on a Gaza hospital that they blame on Israel, despite its denials.

The U.S. president reinforced support for Israel in its fight against Hamas in a speech in Tel Aviv.

The Belgian and Swedish prime ministers on Wednesday called for better border controls and more coordinated powers in the European Union to expel irregular migrants, after an attack in Brussels left two people dead.

Georgia ruling party lawmakers failed to get enough votes to remove the country's pro-EU President Salome Zurabishvili Wednesday, after she accused the government of undermining Tbilisi's EU membership bid.

Barcelona has dragged itself out of a difficult financial situation, the Catalan club's vice-president Eduard Romeu reported on Wednesday.

The US Treasury announced sanctions on 10 Hamas members, operatives and financial facilitators Wednesday, as conflict rages after the militant group's surprise attack on Israel.

Russia's central bank halted the circulation of a new 1,000 ruble note Wednesday after Orthodox priests complained that the image of a church dome lacked a cross, even though it does not have one in real life.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to fight anti-Semitism on German soil, after attackers hurled two Molotov cocktails at a Jewish synagogue in Berlin early Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday it was a "mistake" for Washington to give Ukraine long-range ATACMS missiles, warning they would not affect the frontline and would prolong Ukraine's "agony".

About 500 people were killed in the Israeli airstrike on the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in central Gaza, the region's health ministry said. Israel blamed the incident on a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket.

Tesla mechanics in Sweden will walk off the job on October 27 unless the electric carmaker agrees to sign a collective wage agreement, the metalworkers union IF Metall said Wednesday.

Egypt's president said Wednesday he would not allow any mass influx of refugees from Gaza, saying it would set a precedent for "the displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank into Jordan".

Gazans combed through the debris of the devastated hospital, collecting the bodies of the dead in the battered enclave Wednesday, hours after a strike killed hundreds sheltering at the facility.

A Gaza hospital strike that killed at least 200 people has unleashed a torrent of condemnation across the Arab world, with even allies blaming Israel for the attack, despite its denials.

China accused a Canadian aircraft of illegally intruding into its territorial airspace a day after Ottawa called out Beijing for the "dangerous and reckless" interception of its military plane over the East China Sea on Monday.

The New York Times has done "a great disservice to the cause to press freedom," Singham said and claimed the publication did not include the statement he provided to them prior to the release of its article.

The social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, said Tuesday it has started charging new users in New Zealand and the Philippines for basic features such as posting messages in a trial aimed at reducing spam.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday said there is "no excuse for hitting a hospital full of civilians" in Gaza, but did not apportion blame for the blast.

Israeli authorities have amped up their efforts to tackle the militant group's funding practices, targeting their cryptocurrency donations, believed to be one of the major sources of funds.