The United States and Iran reported progress in their latest round of nuclear talks on Saturday and agreed to meet again next week as they pursue a deal that could help ease soaring Middle East tensions.
A US official called the talks "positive and productive", and Iran's top diplomat said the two sides will study how to narrow their differences on a range of subjects before next week's fourth round.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi prepared for fresh nuclear talks with the United States in Oman on Friday after apparent progress in previous rounds.
Araghchi flew into Muscat ahead of Saturday's meeting with US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, their third encounter in as many weeks.
Araghchi will lead Iran's delegation of diplomats and technical experts in indirect discussions with the US side, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei posted on X.
Syria's foreign minister on Friday raised his country's new flag at UN headquarters in New York, hailing the move as a "proclamation of a new existence" after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Asaad al-Shaibani raised the three-starred flag, officially adopted after Assad's December ouster, and later spoke to the Security Council, where he urged a lifting of international sanctions and for Israel to be pressured to leave Syrian territory.
"This flag is not a mere symbol, but rather a proclamation of a new existence," he said in his first United Nations speech.
The UN's World Food Programme said Friday it had depleted its food stocks in war-ravaged Gaza, where Israel has blocked all aid for more than seven weeks.
After 18 months of war, the situation in Gaza "is probably the worst" it has been, the UN's humanitarian office has said, with the head of the world body's Palestinian refugee agency decrying the aid stoppage on Friday as "politically motivated starvation".
Farmer Hadi Saheb cannot wait to see his wheat fields flourish in the heart of the desert after he tapped into groundwater reserves in water-starved Iraq.
He is just one of many Iraqis who have turned to drilling wells in the desert to help sustain the country's agriculture.
It is a risky move that threatens to deplete the groundwater in a nation already battered by frequent drought and scarce rainfall.
Tunisian authorities on Thursday set fire to tents housing sub-Saharan African migrants, an AFP correspondent said, in a new drive to clear their informal camps.
Many migrants arrived in Tunisia after crossing the deserts of Algeria and Mali, hoping to reach Italy. But tighter controls on the sea route have left them stranded.
For nearly two years, olive groves around El Amra, a town near the city of Sfax, served as informal camps for thousands of the migrants but on April 4 authorities began dismantling the camps.
The world's only research centre on mycetoma, a neglected tropical disease common among farmers, has been destroyed in Sudan's two-year war, its director and another expert say.
Mycetoma is caused by bacteria or fungus and usually enters the body through cuts. It is a progressively destructive infectious disease of the body tissue, affecting skin, muscle and even bone.
It is often characterised by swollen feet, but can also cause barnacle-like growths and club-like hands.
President Donald Trump announced Thursday he will sit for an interview with the reporter who uncovered a major security lapse after being inadvertently added to a group chat in which top US officials shared secret military strike plans.
The Atlantic magazine editor Jeffrey Goldberg was propelled to global fame -- and roundly attacked by Trump and other cabinet officials -- after publishing details of the sensitive exchanges on the Signal app in the run up to US strikes on rebel Huthis in Yemen.
Gaza rescue teams and medics said Israeli air strikes killed at least 55 people on Thursday, as the military threatened an even larger offensive if hostages were not freed soon.
Israel resumed its military assault in the Gaza Strip on March 18, after the collapse of a two-month ceasefire that had brought a temporary halt to fighting in the blockaded Palestinian territory.
Israel's army chief, visiting troops in Gaza on Thursday, threatened to expand the offensive in Gaza if hostages seized during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel were not released.
Spain on Thursday cancelled a contract to buy bullets from an Israeli company following pressure from the Socialist-led government's far-left coalition partner -- a move swiftly condemned by Israel.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, one of the most outspoken critics of Israel's military operations in Gaza, halted weapons transactions with Israel after the outbreak of the war following Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
