The United States said it downed multiple Iranian drones targeting commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz early Saturday, hours after both sides said a deal to end the Middle East war was closer than ever.
The interception came after weeks of halting talks between Tehran and Washington, mediated by Pakistan, that have been marked by threats and exchanges of fire despite a fragile truce agreed in April.
By Stephanie van den Berg and Anthony Deutsch
THE HAGUE, June 12 (Reuters) - This week's suspension of International Criminal Court lead prosecutor Karim Khan for alleged sexual misconduct sets the court up for months of potentially damaging wrangling while U.S. antagonism and divisions between member states grow.
The outspoken Briton attracted approval and hostility in equal measure, to say nothing of U.S. sanctions, for spearheading a quest for arrest warrants for Israeli officials over Israel's conduct in Gaza and for some leaders of its Palestinian adversary Hamas.
NEW DELHI, June 12 (Reuters) - India summoned the U.S. deputy chief of mission in Delhi on Friday to protest against U.S. military strikes on commercial vessels off the coast of Oman, an Indian source said, the second time in three days New Delhi has expressed its displeasure.
U.S. deputy chief of mission to the country, Jason Meeks, was summoned by India for the first time on Wednesday following a U.S. navy attack that killed three Indian sailors on Palau-flagged oil products tanker Settebello.
June 12 (Reuters) - A pro-Russian opposition alliance filed a request to Armenia's election commission on Friday to throw out the results of last Sunday's parliamentary election, won by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's governing party.
The petition was submitted by Strong Armenia, party member Aram Vardevanyan told reporters in the capital Yerevan, after opposition groups alleged there had been voting irregularities.
By Parisa Hafezi and Humeyra Pamuk
DUBAI/WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuters) - Hopes grew on Friday for peace between Iran and the United States afterPresident Donald Trump said a deal could be signed as soon as this weekend, even as Tehran said it had not made a final decision on a pact.
The deal, if confirmed, would be the most significant diplomatic breakthrough yet to end the three-month-old war, which has killed thousands and sent global energy prices sharply higher after Iran all but closed the Strait of Hormuz to shipping.
By Jonathan Saul and Nidhi Verma
LONDON/NEW DELHI, June 11 (Reuters) - A U.S. jet fired two missiles into the engine room of the tanker Jalveer off Oman on Thursday, U.S. Central Command confirmed, as authorities said the 20 crew members were safe after the third strike on Indian-crewed tankers this week.
Three Indian sailors died in a U.S. strike on the Settebello tanker off Oman a day earlier.
In Nairobi's congested streets, the almost imperceptible hum of electric motorbikes is increasingly replacing the roar of their petrol-powered counterparts.
The war in the Middle East, launched by the United States and Israel in February, has had the unlikely consequence of boosting green vehicles across Africa, especially in countries such as Kenya that are heavily dependent on fuel imports.
"Boda-bodas" -- the name given to motorbikes in Kenya -- are a vital part of the economy in the east African nation, used to transport everything from people to groceries to furniture.
At a cemetery in southern Lebanon, Ghada Hussein clutched images of her son, a Hezbollah fighter killed in an Israeli strike and buried in a temporary grave because the family cannot return to her border village.
In a section just above the regular cemetery in Haret Saida, dozens of graves have been dug into the gravelly earth, many lined with cement blocks and holding coffins made with construction board.
A decade after fierce battles reduced much of the University of Benghazi to rubble, students at Libya's oldest and largest university are once again looking to the future with optimism.
After the 2011 uprisings that toppled and killed longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi, the university, founded in 1955, became the stage for intense fighting between jihadist groups and forces led by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
Today, its nearly 70,000 students still attend classes in temporary facilities while a brand-new vast campus is set to open in the autumn.
Iran's footballers took to the training pitch in front of journalists Thursday at their base camp in Mexico, giving the world its first glimpse of a team whose participation in the World Cup has been clouded by war with the United States.
After having moved their training camp to Tijuana from the planned base in Arizona, the squad has said very little since arriving for the tournament last Sunday.
For Thursday's training session, journalists were given fifteen minutes to see a small group of players as they ran through warm-up exercises.
