International troops could be deployed in the Gaza Strip as early as next month to form a UN-authorised stabilisation force, two US officials told Reuters, but it remains unclear how Palestinian militant group Hamas will be disarmed.

Two US Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in Syria yesterday by a suspected Islamic State attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead, the US military said.

Congressional Democrats released 19 new images from the estate of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, including photos of now-President Donald Trump, as a deadline for an extensive release of documents related to the disgraced financier nears.

The expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is at its highest level since at least 2017, when the United Nations began tracking such data, according to a report by the UN chief seen by AFP on Friday.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, fresh from a meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, said he hopes to discuss a Ukraine-Russia peace plan with US President Donald Trump, adding that “peace is not far away”.

Tens of thousands rallied for the party of Nepal’s ousted prime minister, KP Sharma Oli, yesterday, in the largest gathering in the Himalayan country since youth-led anti-graft protests forced him out three months ago.

Plans for nearly 47,390 housing units were advanced, approved, or tendered, the report said

On December 13, 2025, the Thai military used two F-16 fighter jets to drop seven bombs

A series of Israeli strikes hit south and east Lebanon yesterday, state media reported, as Israel’s army said it was targeting Hezbollah sites, the latest such raids despite a year-old ceasefire.

The White House on Thursday intensified its attacks on CNN, the news network at the center of a financial battle that President Donald Trump is tied up in politically and through family.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned as “unacceptable” the “extrajudicial operations” carried out by the United States on alleged drug-trafficking boats off Venezuela, in an interview published yesterday.

Germany yesterday accused Russia of cyberattacks targeting its air traffic control and February’s general election, and said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to protest.

The estate of an 83-year-old Connecticut woman filed a wrongful death lawsuit Thursday against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging the ChatGPT chatbot fueled her son’s paranoid delusions and contributed to her murder.

US President Donald Trump is “extremely frustrated” with both Kyiv and Moscow, his spokeswoman said Thursday, as negotiations on ending Russia’s nearly four-year war against its neighbour have faltered.

Ukraine would join the European Union as early as January 2027 under the latest US plan to end the war with Russia, a senior source familiar with the matter told AFP yesterday.

Divers have discovered a long-submerged wall some 7,000 years old under the sea off western France, scientists said Thursday.

The United Nations on Friday urged Ethiopia and Eritrea to respect each other’s territorial integrity, voicing concern over “renewed tensions” between the two neighbouring countries.

Former Iraqi president Barham Salih will become the next United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, a UN source told AFP on Friday, taking over an agency tackling swingeing budget cuts.

Mohammadi was granted temporary leave from prison in December 2024

Outgoing govt previously formed in Jan 2025