WORLD

Ravaged by grief, bearing torches and holding up portraits of their lost families, thousands of earthquake survivors gathered in the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday for the first anniversary of Turkey's worst disaster of modern times.

The Thai government will urgently move a bill to ban the recreational use of cannabis, the health minister said on Tuesday, after the kingdom decriminalised the drug in 2022.

The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group on Tuesday announced a six-month extension to a ceasefire in effect since August, with the ELN agreeing to suspend kidnappings for ransom.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will try to build on the momentum from Europe's success in agreeing new aid for war-torn Ukraine when he heads to Washington this week, where President Joe Biden is struggling to overcome opposition to a US package.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Egypt on Tuesday as part of his latest Middle East crisis tour, seeking a new ceasefire and "an enduring end" to the Israel-Hamas war.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres announced Monday the creation of an independent panel to assess UNRWA, its embattled agency tasked with helping Palestinian refugees.

King Charles III has been diagnosed with cancer and has begun treatment, Buckingham Palace said on Monday, sparking a flood of support from around the world.

Turkey's annual inflation rate stayed stable in January at nearly 65 percent, but month-on-month consumer price increases jumped sharply following a huge minimum wage hike, official data showed Monday.

US senators on Sunday released the text of a much-anticipated deal that would unlock billions in new aid for Ukraine and Israel while tightening US border laws, but the top House Republican quickly vowed to shoot it down.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to the Middle East for another crisis tour on Monday in a bid to secure a new truce in the Israel-Hamas war, as southern Gaza saw no let-up in fighting.

The death toll from central Chile's blazing wildfires climbed to at least 112 people on Sunday, after President Gabriel Boric warned the number would rise "significantly" as teams search gutted neighborhoods.

Yemen's Houthis said Sunday US and British air strikes "will not deter us" and vowed a response after dozens of targets were hit in retaliation for the Iran-backed rebels' repeated Red Sea attacks.

The US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank (ECB) and others have held interest rates elevated in recent months in an attempt to bring inflation back down toward target, following a post-pandemic surge in prices.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader of the upper chamber of Congress, said an initial vote on the bipartisan bill would take place on Wednesday at the latest -- although its prospects for being signed into law look vanishingly small.

The move comes as President Joe Biden pushes to rein in health care costs ahead of November's election. The negotiation program came on the back of Biden's landmark Inflation Reduction Act, a major package of energy transition policy and social reforms.

In recent weeks, Kim has declared South Korea his country's "principal enemy", jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over "even 0.001 mm" of territorial infringement.

Ukraine dragged Russia before the International Court of Justice only a few days after the invasion, seeking to battle its belligerent neighbor on all fronts, legal as well as diplomatic and military.

Opposition legislators stormed out of the building at one point to observe and denounce the police action, but later went back inside to take their seats and the debate resumed until past midnight.

The humanitarian crisis and the mounting civilian death toll have triggered growing international calls for a ceasefire. Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said there were hopes of "good news" about a fresh pause to the fighting "in the next couple of weeks".

Firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control by around 9:00 am (0600 GMT), more than nine hours after it erupted, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.

But if Labor defeats the governing Conservatives by a majority at this year's nationwide vote, its leader Keir Starmer will replace Rishi Sunak inside 10 Downing Street within hours.

The world's second-largest economy last year saw some of its slowest growth in decades, as a debt crisis in the property sector added to geopolitical tensions and weakening global demand.

A proposal to free the hostages in exchange for a pause in Israel's offensive in the Palestinian territory is being studied by Hamas leaders after it was thrashed out by Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the United States.

The Verdi services trade union called on more than 90,000 workers at over 130 local companies operating buses, trams and underground services to join the walkout in an escalating dispute over pay and working conditions.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva praised the Milei government's "bold actions to restore macroeconomic stability and... address long-standing impediments to growth."

The abrupt about-face from Orban on the vitally needed four-year funding package for Kyiv came as after EU leaders offered a possible review of the spending in two years.

Sudan's war has already killed thousands, including between 10,000 and 15,000 in a single city in the western Darfur region, according to UN experts.

It was the most violent episode in the initial stage of the huge protests that upended the financial hub that year, with Beijing later imposing a sweeping national security law to snuff out dissent.

The leader of Hamas was expected in Cairo on Thursday for talks on a proposed truce in Gaza, as Israel kept up its offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.