By Simon Lewis and Alexander Cornwell
WASHINGTON/TEL AVIV (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the Israeli Knesset's move towards the annexation of the West Bank would threaten President Donald Trump's plan to end the conflict in Gaza, which has produced a shaky ceasefire so far.
By Guy Faulconbridge and Anton Kolodyazhnyy
MOSCOW (Reuters) -A Russian court freed a French long-distance cyclist on Thursday after finding him guilty of illegally crossing the country's border with China while trying to break the world record for cycling across the Eurasian landmass.
Sofiane Sehili, a French citizen who describes himself as an "ultra-endurance racer and adventure cyclist", was freed by the court in Russia's Far Eastern district and exempted from paying a 50,000-rouble ($615) fine, a court in Primorye said.
Indonesia vowed Thursday to play an "active role" in global sports after the IOC urged federations not to stage events there following the country's ban on Israeli gymnasts.
The International Olympic Committee's executive board said Wednesday it would "recommend to all international federations not to host any international sports events or meetings in Indonesia" until it provided guarantees over access for all participants in competitions.
The board said it also ended dialogue with the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation on hosting any future Olympic events.
(Reuters) -The World Health Organization led the medical evacuation of 41 critical patients and 145 companions out of Gaza, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an X post on Wednesday. More than 15,000 Gaza patients are awaiting evacuation, including 3,800 children, according to the World Health Organization.
(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese)
DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran welcomed the conditional release of an Iranian student from French prison, the country's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, adding Tehran will strive for her full release.
Iran has accused France of arbitrarily detaining Mahdieh Esfandiari, a student living in the French city of Lyon, who was arrested this year over anti-Israel social media posts.
UN rights expert Francesca Albanese on Wednesday criticised a US-brokered ceasefire plan in Gaza as insufficient to address what she called a "genocide" of the Palestinian people by the United States and Israel.
A fragile truce is in place as part of a deal to end two years of the Israel-Hamas war, which also involves the recovery of hostages, delivery of more aid to Gaza and eventual rebuilding of the devastated Palestinian territory.
By Yousef Saba
ABU DHABI (Reuters) -Saudi Arabia's AlUla cultural heritage site plans to offer projects worth 6 billion riyals ($1.6 billion) for private sector participation, a tourism chief said on Wednesday.
AlUla, which attracted 300,000 visitors last year, is mainly funded by the Saudi finance ministry and now hopes to draw in private funds, Phillip Jones, chief tourism officer of the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), said in an interview at the Reuters NEXT Gulf Summit in Abu Dhabi.
Turkey and Qatar intensified efforts to preserve the fragile Gaza ceasefire, with their leaders meeting in Doha Wednesday as diplomatic and intelligence chiefs coordinated to prevent renewed fighting, officials and sources said.
Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met Hamas officials in Doha late Tuesday, a day before talks between Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -A bill applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, a move tantamount to annexation of land which Palestinians want for a state, won preliminary approval from Israel's parliament on Wednesday.
The vote was the first of four needed to pass the law and it coincided with the visit of U.S. Vice President JD Vance to Israel, a month after President Donald Trump said that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.
The International Court of Justice said Wednesday that Israel was obliged to ease the passage of aid into Gaza, stressing it had to provide Palestinians with the "basic needs" to survive.
The wide-ranging ICJ ruling, quickly rejected by Israel, came as aid groups scrambled to scale up much-needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza, seizing upon a fragile ceasefire agreed earlier this month.
While the UN's top court's "Advisory Opinion" is not legally binding, the ICJ believes it carries "great legal weight and moral authority".
