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UN rights chief urges US to conclude probe into deadly Iran school strike

GENEVA, March 27 (Reuters) - The U.N. rights chief urged Washington to conclude its investigation into a fatal strike on a primary school in Iran at a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting on Friday, with some states voicing outrage over the incident.

The emergency debate at the Geneva council was called by Iran to discuss the attack on the Shajareh ​Tayyebeh School which Tehran says killed more than 175 children and teachers on the first day of the nearly month-long regional war which began with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes.

FILE PHOTO: Graves are being prepared for the victims following a reported strike on a school in Minab, Iran, March 2, 2026. Iranian Foreign Media Department/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

Ukraine closes on Mideast deals to help counter Iranian drones

By John Irish

VAUX-DE-CERNAY, France, March 27 (Reuters) - Ukraine is close to clinching several security agreements — including with the UAE and Qatar — to counter Iranian attacks, its foreign minister said on Friday, adding that he saw scope to draw China into peace efforts to end the war with Russia.

"We have the situation in the Middle East so it is important not to lose the global attention on the Ukrainian case, because everything is interlinked," Andrii Sybiha told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the G7 foreign ministers meeting in France.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha poses after an interview with Reuters on the second day of the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting at Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey in Cernay-la-Ville near Paris, France, March 27, 2026. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq

Lebanon at risk of 'humanitarian catastrophe': UN

Nearly a month into the Middle East war, Lebanon is facing a deepening humanitarian crisis that now risks teetering over into a catastrophe, the United Nations refugee agency warned Friday.

Since March 2, more than a million people -- one in five residents -- have been forced to flee their homes, said the UNHCR.

With the numbers continuing to rise, "it is really a deepening humanitarian crisis that we here on the ground are seeing in Lebanon", said Karolina Lindholm Billing, the agency's representative in the country.

A fireball rises from the site of an Israeli air strike that targeted a building in Beirut

WTO reform talks face U.S.-India wall in Cameroon, diplomats say

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, March 27 (Reuters) - Large differences remain between most countries and the U.S. and India as trade ministers meet to discuss reforms at the World Trade Organization, two diplomats told Reuters on Friday.

The ministers are meeting for four days in Yaounde, Cameroon, as the organisation faces a critical test to its future amid a year of tariff-fuelled trade turmoil and large-scale disruption to shipping, energy prices and supply chains due to the Middle East conflict.

A logo is seen at the World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters before a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, October 5, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

Cholera aid for African countries stalled by Iran conflict

By Emma Farge

GENEVA, March 27 (Reuters) - Emergency cholera medical supplies for several African countries have become stuck in a logistical quagmire caused by the Iran war, aid officials told Reuters, raising concerns about preparations ahead of the high-risk rainy season.

The stocks stranded in Dubai warehouses are contingency supplies placed in cholera-prone countries including Chad and Sudan ahead of the rainy months starting from May to curb any future outbreak of the fast-spreading, potentially fatal diarrhoeal disease.

FILE PHOTO: Sudanese women sit on beds while monitoring their family members treated for dengue fever at Omdurman Hospital, as Sudan grapples with outbreaks of dengue and cholera amid the annual rainy season and a collapsed healthcare and infrastructure system, in Khartoum, Sudan, September 23, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

War in the Middle East: latest developments

Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Israel reports Yemen missile fire -

Israel's military reported on Saturday a first missile launch from Yemen since the Middle East war began on February 28.

There were no reports of any casualties or damage in Israel. Yemen's Houthi movement warned on Friday it would join the war if US-Israeli attacks continue to hit its ally Iran or if more countries join the conflict.

- Thailand-Iran deal on Hormuz strait -

Firefighters at a bombed-out residential building in Tehran

More than 1,900 dead in Iran since start of U.S.-Israel strikes, IFRC says

March 27 (Reuters) - More than 1,900 people have been killed and at least 20,000 injured in Iran since the start of U.S. and Israeli attacks, said Maria Martinez of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on Friday, citing figures provided by the Iranian Red Crescent.

Martinez said the Iranian Red Crescent continues to serve as the only nationwide humanitarian organization operating across the country amidst the escalating conflict.

(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; editing by Matthias Williams)

Emergency responders remove a casualty from beneath the rubble at a site of a residential building damaged by a strike, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 27, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Rubio sees G7 building 'coalition' against Iran strait control

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday he saw European readiness to help form a coalition against Iranian control of the strategic Strait of Hormuz after US-Israeli attacks unleashed a regional war.

Rubio joined top diplomats from the Group of Seven powers for talks as he assured them that the war launched a month ago would only continue for a matter of weeks.

The top US diplomat voiced alarm that Iran would seek to establish a permanent "tolling system" for vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which one fifth of global oil normally transits.

Rubio told reporters the US expected to finish Iran operations in the 'next couple of weeks'

Analysis-War between Hezbollah and Israel deepens fractures in Lebanon

By Tom Perry, Maya Gebeily, Laila Bassam and Emilie Madi

BEIRUT, March 27 (Reuters) - War between Israel and Hezbollah is pushing Lebanon's fragile state and society towards breaking point, straining sectarian and political faultlines as Shi'ite Muslims are displaced and enmity deepens between the Iran-backed group and its opponents.

Of all Lebanon's many crises since a 1975-90 civil war, the renewed conflict ignited by the Iran war could be its most destabilising, Lebanese analysts and figures from across the political spectrum say.

A woman holds a child in a school turned into a shelter for displaced families, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Dekwaneh, Lebanon. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

US uses hundreds of Tomahawk missiles on Iran, alarming some at Pentagon, WaPo reports

March 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. military has fired over 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles in four weeks of war with Iran, burning through the precision weapons at a rate that has alarmed some Pentagon officials and prompted internal discussions about how to make more available, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The U.S. Department of Defense and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

FILE PHOTO: Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance fires a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile in support of Operation Epic Fury, at an undisclosed location, February 28, 2026. U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo