AFP news

Putin, who has become the target of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, is expected to address thousands of troops standing at attention in Moscow's Red Square amid ramped-up security.

The turmoil saw the sale of the embattled First Republic Bank to JPMorgan Chase and came just two months after the collapse of three other regional banks and the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS.

The feuding generals have sent representatives to Saudi Arabia for talks on establishing a humanitarian truce in an effort also backed by the United States, but to no avail so far.

It is "with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency", World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

Leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are expected to attend the China-Central Asia Summit from May 18 to 19, said China's foreign ministry.

Chaab had been held in Iran since October 2020 after he vanished during a visit to Turkey before going on trial in Tehran, which does not recognise dual nationality.

A joint US-Saudi statement welcomed the "start of pre-negotiation talks" and urged sustained global support to quell fighting.

Multiple truce deals have been declared, without effect, since fighting erupted between army and paramilitary forces on April 15 in the poverty-stricken country with a history of political instability.

Moscow has blamed Kyiv -- and its Western supporters -- for an escalating number of long-range attacks and sabotage operations, including on the Kremlin.

Investigators said they "are probing Alexander Permyakov's involvement in the assassination attempt on Zakhar Prilepin".

Poverty in the conflict-wracked Palestinian territory, a thin strip of land wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, has hit a rate of 53 percent, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Toufic Kerbage, 65, watched the value of his pay packet and pension evaporate after the Lebanese economy began melting down in 2019, taking the local currency and people's savings with it.

Turkey officially denied the existence of such an ethnicity, depriving Kurds of cultural and education rights.

Rabbani was detained by Pakistan authorities in September 2002 and handed over to the US Central Intelligence Agency for a bounty of $5,000.

Rivalries between Yevgeny Prigozhin and the conventional army had boiled over during the battle for the now-devastated flashpoint, where Wagner is leading the assault.

The ministers in a statement emphasised their "keenness to launch a leading Arab role in efforts to resolve" the Syria crisis.

The Khan al-Ahmar community, on a strategic highway east of Jerusalem, was slated for demolition in 2018 after a ruling that it was built without Israeli permits.

The masses were packed shoulder-to-shoulder across the tarmac of Istanbul's old Ataturk airport: a tidal wave of Turkish flags and banners with the 69-year-old president's face.

The victory meant New Zealand avoided being swept in the five game series, which Pakistan won 4-1.

Investors remain wary of any further upheaval in the US financial system following last week's turmoil that saw sale of the embattled First Republic Bank to JPMorgan Chase.

In three weeks of fighting between rival generals that has plunged the impoverished country into turmoil, thousands have rushed to escape, often only having had the time to grab their most basic essentials.

Prigozhin's Wagner group has spearheaded the grinding, months-long Russian assault on Bakhmut, almost capturing the city in the longest and bloodiest battle of the campaign.

Asia-focused HSBC has urged shareholders to vote down the proposal at its annual general meeting in Birmingham, central England.

Tehran has been a key ally to Damascus throughout Syria's long-running war, offering vital economic and military assistance that has helped the Syrian government claw back most of the territory it lost at the start of the conflict.

Turkey's longest-serving leader has campaigned tirelessly since bouncing back from a health scare that sidelined him for three days last week.

The Ukrainian leader is on a rare first visit to the lowlands country after meeting Nordic leaders a day before in Helsinki, and is drumming up military support ahead of Kyiv's offensive against Russia.

Futures for markets in Europe, which also fell Thursday after the European Central Bank joined the Fed in increasing its main interest rate, were also making an uneven comeback.

Two gunmen entered a school in the remote border town of Teri Mangal in Kurram district -- less than a kilometre (mile) from the Afghan border -- as teachers gathered exam papers students had completed earlier in the day.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is in the Indian coastal resort state of Goa for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting of foreign ministers, along with counterparts from China and Russia.