AFP news

The United States, Israel's main ally, on Thursday condemned demonstrators' "racist" chants against Arabs, with AFP reporters saying that many of the marchers had shouted anti-Arab slogans.

After weeks of lumbering talks on Capitol Hill, congressional leaders appeared ready to put a proposal to lawmakers before the government runs out of cash, said to be around June 1.

"Right now, everyone is so affected by the economic crisis that they feel the need to come out on the streets," said 27-year-old doctor Shahab Afzal.

Secular opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu delivered his first public address since a landmark election Sunday in which he came in almost five points behind President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The host of Friday's summit, Saudi Arabia, has championed Assad's return to the pan-Arab body and invited the Syrian leader over the objection of other regional leaders.The Syrian government had been isolated in the region for years since its brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011 triggered a war that has killed more than 500,000 people. Analysts say Assad's invitation also shows the clout of Saudi Arabia, which is casting itself as a peacemaker and asserting itself in multiple crises across the Middle East.

Petro shared the news on Twitter, saying the children were discovered after "arduous search efforts" by the military.

Over a year into Russia's invasion, the fighting has seeped into Ukrainian children's games and worldviews, impacting them in ways they will carry forever.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will host leaders from six other wealthy democracies in his hometown -- a city synonymous with nuclear destruction now peppered with peace monuments.

Markets have been skittish in recent sessions with Republicans and Democrats unable to find common ground as the deadline for a deal to raise the country's borrowing limit approached.

In Kyiv, officials also sought to allay fears that Russian forces destroyed a US-supplied Patriot air defence system, saying the powerful weapon was in operation.

Secular leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu huddled with the other five heads of his alliance on Wednesday to plot a harder-edged strategy for ending Erdogan's two-decade domination of Turkey.

The team of European researchers behind the study previously theorised the existence of supermassive stars in 2018 in an attempt to explain one of the great mysteries of astronomy.

A dissident expelled from a far-right group, Sinan Ogan had spent most of his career on the periphery of Turkish politics before his unexpected score in Sunday's presidential ballot thrust him into the limelight.

The state-owned hydrocarbon giant said the contract was for the engineering, procurement and construction of the North Field South (NFS) project.

The lawsuit filed in a US federal court in San Francisco, which named powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a conspirator, seeks a jury trial to determine damages. Abdulrahman al-Sadhan was working for the Red Crescent in Riyadh when he was taken away from the office in 2018 and later handed a 20-year jail sentence. Al-Sadhan, who had studied in the United States, had set up an anonymous Twitter account through which he critiqued the ultra-conservative monarchy and retweeted dissident voices.

Regional traders were provided a tepid lead from Wall Street, where disappointing retail sales data and weak earnings from Home Depot indicated softening consumer demand.

The United Nations' health agency released new guidelines on Monday advising against using so-called non-sugar sweeteners or NSS.

The wave of strikes came just over a week after Kyiv announced it had shot down a Kinzhal missile for the first time, using US-supplied Patriot systems.

According to the UN, more than 760,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in 1948.

Erdogan, 69, had already overcome jail, mass protests and a bloody 2016 coup attempt to emerge as Turkey's most important leader in generations, but this year's election seemed one hurdle too many even for him.

The US warheads are on 662 intercontinental ballistic missiles and other deployed delivery systems, down from 686 a year earlier and within the New START limit of 700.

As of late Monday, there was no official word as to whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would take part in the summit.

The three-day summit of leading developed democracies will cover everything from energy to AI, but a key focus will be targeting those who have helped Moscow blunt the impact of Western-led sanctions.

Beijing says trade with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan reached $70 billion in 2022 and expanded 22 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023.

Asian markets wobble as US struggles to reach In early trade, Asian markets struggled to extend Monday's strong performance.

Traders reacted also to a mixed inflation picture out of Europe and weekend elections in Thailand and Turkey.

They met at the Elysee Palace before both head to Versailles for the latest edition of the president's Choose France conference where Macron seeks to drum up investment in the country.

The unwieldy coalition now faces a challenging task to regroup for the runoff, with Erdogan seemingly possessing the momentum.

Khan was arrested on graft charges on Tuesday, prompting supporters to rampage through cities across Pakistan before the Supreme Court declared his detention illegal three days later.