WORLD

Envoys from Sudan's warring military factions - the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces - were in Jeddah for talks on Saturday, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said, as international mediators pressed for an end to the three-week old conflict.

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.

Deputy U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Friday there had been no change to "our posture on the ground."

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".

Tens of thousands of Israelis joined protests across the country on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bitterly disputed plans to tighten controls on the Supreme Court.

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.

"In light of the severe funding shortages, WFP is forced to make painful choices to stretch the limited resources," Samer Abdeljaber, the WFP's country director, he told Reuters by phone from Jerusalem.

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.

Russia stages its annual Victory Day parade on Red Square on Tuesday amid particularly tight security after a series of drone attacks, including on the Kremlin citadel, symbolic heart of the Russian state, that Moscow has blamed on Ukraine.

COGAT said the building's owner had refused several attempts by Israeli authorities to engage in dialogue over the status of the structure before the enforcement of the demolition.

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.

Jordan on Sunday ended laws enacted at the start of COVID-19 that gave the authorities powers to enforce a state of emergency that rights groups said were used as an excuse to suppress civic and political liberties.

Russia launched a large-scale wave of strikes on Kyiv and across Ukraine sowing destruction and injuries, officials said early on Monday, as Moscow prepares for its cherished Victory Day holiday that marks the anniversary of its defeat of Nazi Germany.

The boat, which was carrying about 40 inbound passengers, overturned as it was overcrowded, said Abdul Nazar, Malappuram district's junior superintendent of police.

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.

Hong Kong police seized an exhibit on Friday in connection with what they said was an attempt to incite subversion, with media reporting it was a statue commemorating Beijing's Tiananmen Square crackdown on democracy protesters in 1989.

Authorities in India's northeastern state of Manipur have evacuated some 20,000 people to camps under army protection to prevent escalation of ethnic violence just days after clashes between tribal and non-tribal groups.

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.

Even as the United States and its European allies grapple with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions with China, the smoldering crisis over Iran's nuclear program threatens to reignite.

The foreign ministers of India, Russia and Pakistan on Friday called for a representative government in Afghanistan and the protection of women's rights, almost two years after the Islamist Taliban swept to power in Kabul.