Leaders of the world's 20 major economies called for a global pact to combat hunger, more aid for war-torn Gaza and an end to hostilities in the Mideast and Ukraine, issuing a joint declaration Monday that was heavy on generalities but short of details on how to accomplish those goals. The joint statement was endorsed by group members but fell short of complete unanimity. It also called for a future global tax on billionaires and for reforms allowing the eventual expansion of the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) beyond its five current permanent members. At the start of the three-day meeting which formally ends Wednesday, experts doubted Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva could convince the assembled leaders to hammer out any agreement at all in a gathering rife with uncertainty over the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, and heightened global tensions over wars in the Mideast and Ukraine. Argentina challenged some of the language in initial
Trump will have much difficulty balancing his ardent support of Israel and his other ambitions in the region
India has provided financial support to the tune of $40 million for the UN Agency's core programmes and services
Born in Mashhad in 1969, Mojtaba Khamenei is the second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the present Supreme Leader of Iran
A suspected attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted a commercial ship late on Sunday night travelling through the southern reaches of the Red Sea, though it caused no damage nor injuries, authorities said. The attack comes as the rebels continue their monthslong assault targeting shipping through a waterway that typically sees USD 1 trillion in goods pass through it a year over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Israel's ground offensive in Lebanon. A ship's captain saw that "a missile splashed in close proximity to the vessel" as it travelled near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said in an alert. The attack happened some 48 kilometres west of Yemen port city of Mocha. "The vessel and crew are safe and proceeding to its next port of call," the UKMTO added. The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack. However, it can take the rebels hours or even days to acknowledge their
It was noted that neither Netanyahu nor his family was present at the residence during the time of the attacks
Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa'ar said that he held telephonic conversations with his counterparts participating in the forum regarding the matter
Israeli ground forces reached their deepest point in Lebanon since they invaded six weeks ago before pulling back Saturday after battles with Hezbollah militants, Lebanese state media reported. The clashes and further Israeli bombardment of Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, came as Lebanese and Hezbollah officials study a draft proposal presented by the U.S. earlier this week on ending the war. Israeli troops captured a strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Chamaa, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Israeli border, the state-run National News Agency reported. It said the troops were later pushed back. The agency added that Israeli troops blew up the Shrine of Shimon the Prophet in Chamaa as well as several homes before they withdrew, but the claim could not be immediately verified. Israel's military did not immediately respond to requests for comment but said in a statement that its troops continue their limited, localized and targeted operational .
Over the past two weeks, the political landscape around the negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza have undergone a dramatic transformation. The American elections, the firing of Israel's popular defense minister, Qatar's decision to suspend its mediation, and the ongoing war in Lebanon all seem to have pushed the possibility for a cease-fire in Gaza further away than it has been in more than a year of conflict. Still, some families of the dozens of hostages who remain captive in Gaza are desperately hoping the changes will reignite momentum to bring their loved ones home though the impact of Donald Trump returning to the White House and a hard-line new defense minister in Israel remains unknown. I think maybe there is new hope, said Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, 20, a soldier kidnapped from his base on the Gaza border during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Alexander's parents, Adi and Yael Alexander, who live in New Jersey, met
The UN Committee alleged Israel of intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury
Israeli strikes killed at least 11 people across Lebanon on Friday including a mother, father and their three kids in a home as rescue workers called off their search for survivors a day after an Israeli strike on a civil defence centre killed 14 emergency workers and volunteers. The airstrikes come as Lebanon's prime minister apparently urged Iran to convince the Hezbollah militant group to agree to a cease-fire deal with Israel, which could require the group to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border. Since late September, Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel. More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire 80 per cent of them in the past month Lebanon's Health Ministry says. The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people mostly civilians and abducting 250 others. Lebanon's Hezbollah group began firing .
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Human Rights Watch says Israel is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, including massive forced displacements that amount to ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from parts of Gaza. Palestinians have been killed while evacuating under Israeli orders and in Israeli-designated humanitarian zones, where hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps, according to the report released Thursday by the New York-based rights watchdog. The report said the widespread, deliberate demolition of homes and civilian infrastructure throughout Gaza, particularly in a military road that cuts Gaza in half as well as a buffer zone along the border, was likely to "permanently displace" many Palestinians. Israel said the report distorts the facts and leaves out important context, blaming civilian casualties on Hamas operating in residential areas and emphasizing that Israel does not deliberately target civilians. Israel's blistering 13-month war in Gaza has killed
An Israeli airstrike killed at least 12 Lebanese rescue workers on Thursday inside a civil defence centre in the eastern city of Baalbek, according to health and rescue officials, hours after state media in Syria said Israeli strikes in and around the capital killed at least 15 people. Lebanese emergency workers were digging through the rubble Thursday evening to search for more of their colleagues still trapped under the destroyed rescue centre, the group said in a statement. At least three civil defence members were wounded. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Lebanon's civil defence forces have no affiliation with the militant group Hezbollah, and they provide crucial rescue and medical services in one of the world's most war-torn nations. The Health Ministry condemned what it called a "barbaric attack on a Lebanese state-run health centre", adding that it is the second Israeli attack on a health emergency facility in less than two hours. In southern Lebano
A delegation of former hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and their relatives met Thursday with Pope Francis and expressed hope that the incoming and outgoing US administrations would work together to bring the remaining hostages home. The freed hostages included Yelena Troufanov, who was released last November but whose son Sasha remains in Gaza and appeared in a video released Wednesday by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. You see in the picture how my child has changed over the course of this year, Yelena Troufanov told a news conference in Rome after the papal audience. I am very worried about his condition, I see that he is not in a good mental state and not in a good physical state. She and the other former hostages and relatives renewed their calls for a deal to bring the remaining hostages home, especially with winter approaching. They said they hoped the incoming Trump administration would work with the outgoing Biden administration to push the process forward. The war star
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Targets included a launcher from which rockets were fired into the Western Galilee and central Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday
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When Zarifa Nawfal's family arrived in Beirut for her wounded daughter's surgery, one of the first things she wanted to do was go to the sea. The Mediterranean had been a constant companion at their home in Gaza before the war. The moment I smelled the sea, I felt at peace inside as if I were in Gaza, she said. But soon their place of refuge reminded her of home in far more distressing ways. Nawfal's 7-year-old daughter, Halima Abou Yassine, is one of a dozen severely wounded Palestinian children brought to Lebanon this year for treatment through a program launched by a British-Palestinian surgeon, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta. But months after their arrival, Lebanon is itself embroiled in a war some fear will end in Gaza-like destruction. In February, Nawfal was staying with her five children and her mother in an apartment in central Gaza. They had been displaced from their home in the north and Nawfal's husband was missing, likely dead. The children were filling water containers outs
Israel has done enough to assuage US concerns but needs to do more, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said in a briefing Tuesday in Washington