Germany's president on Wednesday sought pardon for crimes committed by Germans during World War II in comments on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising anniversary in Poland's capital.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the first German president to speak at the commemorations, joined Polish and Israeli heads of state to mark 80 years since a doomed uprising by Jewish insurgents against Nazi German occupiers.

"I stand before you today and ask for your forgiveness for the crimes committed by Germans here," said Steinmeier, speaking at the annual ceremony held in Warsaw's former Jewish district.

Explosions shook Sudan's capital Tuesday evening despite claims of a ceasefire on the fourth day of fighting that has killed nearly 200.

A weeks-long power struggle erupted into battles Saturday between the forces of two generals who seized power in a 2021 coup: army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Since then, international calls have mounted for an end to hostilities that have spawned increasing lawlessness, death and damage.

Rather than fixating on the impact of the world's soaring population, the world should look at women's reproductive rights to shore up "demographic resilience," the UN said Wednesday.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) -- the UN's sexual and reproductive health agency -- acknowledged there was widespread anxiety over the size of the world's population, which is expected to peak at around 10.4 billion during the 2080s.

But the UNFPA said the focus should be on giving women more power to control when and how they have children.

Explosions shook Sudan's capital Tuesday evening despite one side's claiming a ceasefire on the fourth day of fighting that has killed nearly 200.

A weeks-long power struggle erupted into battles Saturday between the forces of two generals who seized power in a 2021 coup: army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Since then, international calls have mounted for an end to hostilities that have spawned increasing lawlessness, death and damage.

Iran's sentencing of 10 alleged perpetrators in the downing of a Ukrainian airliner was criticised Tuesday by Canada and other countries whose citizens were aboard the flight, saying the "sham trials" lacked impartiality and transparency.

Iranian forces shot down Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 shortly after its takeoff from Tehran on January 8, 2020, killing all 176 people on board. Most were Iranians and Canadians, including many dual nationals.

Tunisian authorities closed the offices of Islamist-inspired opposition party Ennahdha on Tuesday, a senior party official and local media said, a day after arresting its leader Rached Ghannouchi.

Ennahdha was the largest party in Tunisia's parliament before President Kais Saied dissolved the chamber in July 2021.

The party's shutdown sparked renewed concern from Europe and former colonial power France.

"A police unit showed up at the party's main headquarters (in Tunis) and ordered everyone there to leave before closing it," Riadh Chaibi said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with Saudi Arabia's top diplomat in Damascus on Tuesday, state media reported, ending more than a decade of diplomatic deep-freeze between the two countries.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan's trip -- the first visit to Syria's capital by a Saudi official since the start of the country's civil war in 2011 -- marks a new era in ties between Iran-backed Damascus and Riyadh.

"Sound relations between Syria and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should be the norm," state news agency SANA quoted Assad as saying during the meeting.

Seven Palestinians were injured in an Israeli army operation in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said Tuesday, hours after two Israeli men were injured by gunfire near a Jewish site in annexed east Jerusalem.

The shooting comes amid a period of deadly attacks and military raids across the West Bank, along with killings in Israel.

Soaring inflation in Morocco is driving up living costs and stirring public anger, and as food prices increase the country's export-led agricultural model is coming under fire.

On April 8, protesters gathered outside parliament in the capital Rabat, with some saying "The rise in prices is a disgrace" and: "We're an agricultural country but vegetables are too expensive."

Official figures from February put year-on-year inflation in the North African country at just over 10 percent -- a figure that also included a 20 percent jump in food prices.

China's foreign minister told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts his country is ready to help facilitate peace talks, state media Xinhua reported Tuesday.

The separate phone calls between Foreign Minister Qin Gang and the Israeli and the Palestinian top diplomats comes amid recent moves by Beijing to position itself as a regional mediator.

Qin encouraged "steps to resume peace talks," and said that "China is ready to provide convenience for this," in a Monday phone call with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Xinhua reported in a summarization.