(Reuters) -Six security personnel and six militants were killed on Tuesday during an assault on the base of a paramilitary force in northwest Pakistan that began with a suicide bomber ramming the compound and led to a 12-hour gun battle, police said.

The suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into the boundary wall of the base in the town of Bannu early on Tuesday, causing an explosion that allowed other attackers to enter the compound, said Sajjad Khan, the regional police chief.

DUBAI (Reuters) -The path to nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States is not closed but U.S. demands for curbs on Iranian missiles are obstructing prospects for talks, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday.

A sixth round of Iran-U.S. talks was suspended after the start of a 12-day war in June, in which Israel and the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear facilities and Iran retaliated with waves of ballistic missiles against Israel.

(Reuters) -More than 1,400 people were killed and over 3,100 injured after a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan around midnight on Sunday.

As rescue efforts continue, here is a look at why Afghanistan experiences frequent tremors, and how their impact can be reduced:

ARE EARTHQUAKES COMMON IN AFGHANISTAN?

Hemmed in by rugged mountains, Afghanistan is prone to a range of natural disasters, but its earthquakes cause the most fatalities, killing about 560 people on average each year and causing annual damages estimated at $80 million.

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he discussed ways to end the Ukraine war with Russia's Vladimir Putin during talks in China and with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy by phone, but that the sides were "not yet ready" for a leaders' meeting.

Erdogan spoke to reporters aboard his plane returning from China, where he met Putin and then said he called Zelenskiy. He said talks in recent months between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Istanbul showed the path to peace remains open.

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the United States should immediately revise its decision to revoke the visas of Palestinian officials and bar them from attending the United Nations meeting in New York this month.

Washington said last week it would not allow Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to travel to New York, where several U.S. allies are set to recognise Palestine as a state.

ROME (Reuters) -Israeli President Isaac Herzog will travel to the Vatican on Thursday to meet Pope Leo, who has recently stepped up his calls for an end to the war in Gaza.

The one-day visit is being made at the invitation of the pope, Herzog's office said in a statement on Tuesday.

The president will also meet Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's chief diplomat, and tour the Vatican Archives and Library, it added.

(Reuters) -Afghanistan's Taliban government has appealed for help from the world after more than 1,100 people were killed in one of the deadliest earthquakes to hit the impoverished nation in recent years, saying it needs urgent aid.

But relief has been hard to come by to a country largely ignored by the world since the 2021 Taliban takeover. Here is a list of aid provided and promised in the wake of the disaster:

UNICEF

Israeli reservists began responding to call-up orders on Tuesday, swelling the military's ranks ahead of a planned offensive to capture Gaza City after nearly two years of devastating war.

Despite mounting pressure at home and abroad to end its campaign, Israel has recently been stepping up operations as it lays the groundwork for seizing the Palestinian territory's largest urban centre.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 85 people on Tuesday across the Strip, which has been in the grips of a major humanitarian crisis for months.

By Emily Rose, Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi

JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Tens of thousands of reservists started to report for duty on Tuesday ahead of a new Israeli offensive in Gaza City, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to speed up, despite warnings from senior ranks.

Israeli Army Radio said that some 40,000 reservists would report for duty on Tuesday for the Gaza City offensive. The military said it was readying logistically for the intake of reservists ahead of the offensive.

Tears streamed down the faces of some of the hundreds of people gathered in a synagogue in Johannesburg as Or Levy described his release after 491 days as a hostage of Hamas.

Levy was brought to South Africa, the country that filed a case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice, by the local branch of the Jewish National Fund (JNF), a state-linked Israeli organisation.

Since May 2024, local Jewish groups have organised at least 16 similar events with former captives, survivors or families of victims of the militant group's October 7, 2023 attack.