WORLD

Data from the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday showed U.S. crude inventories rose by about 3.3 million barrels in the week ended March 17, sources said.

Bulgaria's booming arms industry has never had it so good, with exports estimated at $4.3 billion last year (about four billion euros) -- three times its previous record.

Dress rules have stoked strong passions in Iran, especially restrictions on women who have long been required to wear modest clothing and headscarves.

An official source told Reuters on Tuesday that Amman had received assurances from Israel that the statements by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich did not represent Israel's position.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are prohibited from going to secondary school.

COP28 Chief Dr. Sultan Al Jaber spoke at the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial Summit ahead of this year's COP28.

Last October, a court handed Almadi a term of 16 years behind bars, which last month was lengthened to 19 years before his surprise release on Tuesday, Ibrahim said.

Smotrich had already faced international rebuke in early March after calling for a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank to be "wiped out", amid spiralling violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Because of that, we've been able to stave off famine," WFP Afghanistan Country Director Hsiao-Wei Lee told Reuters.

The sit-down was to be unexpectedly mirrored in Kyiv, where Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was en route to meet Putin's nemesis Volodymyr Zelensky.

Two massive earthquakes shattered the fragile existence of Syria's diaspora in Turkey and left many in despair about having to piece their lives together yet again, somehow, somewhere.

The move to save Credit Suisse aimed to prevent a wider crisis as it is among the 30 global banks considered "too big to fail".

Kishida is the last G7 leader to visit the war-torn country and has come under increasing pressure to make the trip, as Japan hosts the grouping's summit this May.

Women first took to the field in the region 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of Cairo in 1995, 30 years after the first men's team was established.

The oil-rich country remains traumatised from the years of war, occupation and bloody sectarian turmoil that followed the operation launched on March 20, 2003.

Police in Pakistan have arrested dozens of supporters and aides of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in raids in two cities as part of a crackdown on those involved in recent clashes with the security forces, Khan's party and police said on Monday.

Western nations slapped record sanctions on Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

That move came as UBS Group AG agreed to pay 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.2 billion) for 167-year-old Credit Suisse Group AG and assume up to $5.4 billion in losses. Swiss regulators orchestrated the deal.

The Bank of Japan on Monday appointed Seiichi Shimizu, whose market and technical expertise on the bank's yield curve control (YCC) policy earned him the name "Mr.

South Africa's left-wing party has called for a nationwide shutdown on March 20 over unresolved issues in the country, including increased load shedding, inflation and corruption scandals.

Brent crude futures for May settlement slid 68 cents, or 0.9%, to $72.29 a barrel at 0500 GMT after a near 12% loss last week, its biggest weekly fall since December.

The crisis led US authorities last week to promise support for other lenders and depositors, in a move aimed at preventing a run on banks.

Soon after, another round of explosions was heard in a neighbourhood two kilometres (one mile) away.

An Israeli government official, requesting anonymity because not authorised to speak publicly about the talks, implied a longer timeline.

The joint security agreement includes coordination in "protecting the common borders between the two countries and consolidating cooperation in several security fields", a statement from the Iraqi prime minister's office said.

Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, which wields a Knesset majority, say they want bills that would limit the authority of the Supreme Court to be written into law by April 2.

Kuwait's crown prince last year dissolved parliament and called early polls in an effort to end prolonged domestic political feuding that has hindered fiscal reform.

State television showed extended footage of Putin being shown around the city on Saturday night, meeting rehoused residents and being briefed on reconstruction efforts by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin.

Beijing seeks to depict itself as a neutral party to the conflict, neither condemning nor explicitly supporting the Russian offensive.