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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

Attacks across Middle East as Iran war enters second month

Gulf countries and Israel came under missile fire and Israeli forces struck Iran on Saturday, as the war raged into its second month with Washington expressing hopes for progress in talks with Tehran.

In a sign that the conflict may be expanding further, Israel's military said air defences responded to a missile launched from Yemen -- the first since the start of the war on February 28, and after threats from Iran's Houthi allies to launch attacks.

The war, now in its second month, began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran

UNICEF says over 370,000 children displaced in Lebanon, 121 killed

March 27 (Reuters) - More than 370,000 children have been forced from their homes in Lebanon amid Israel's offensive against Hezbollah, with at least 121 children killed and 399 injured, UNICEF's representative in Lebanon, MarcoluigiCorsi, said on Friday.

(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle, editing by Thomas Seythal)

Children play at the yard of a school used as a temporary shelter for displaced people, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Beirut, Lebanon, March 23, 2026. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Hamas disarmament plan sees Gaza's tunnels destroyed, arms given up in stages, text shows

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO, March 27 (Reuters) - Hamas would be required to allow the destruction of its vast Gaza tunnel network as it lays down its arms in stages under a disarmament plan that was presented to the militants by U.S. President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace", and viewed by Reuters.

The plan follows an eight-month timeline that begins with a U.S.-backed committee of Palestinian technocrats taking security control of Gaza and concludes with Israeli forces withdrawing completely upon "verification that Gaza is free of weaponry".

An Israeli soldier sits inside a tunnel underneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis at the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun