By Jesus Calero
May 8 (Reuters) - Global perceptions of the U.S. have deteriorated for a second consecutive year and are now worse than views of Russia, an annual study on democracy published on Friday showed, as U.S. President Donald Trump's policies continue to severely strain the NATO alliance.
By Mikhail Flores
CEBU, Philippines, May 8 (Reuters) - Leaders of Southeast Asian countries holding a summit on Friday are expected to thrash out a coordinated response to the impacts of the Middle East crisis, as they aim to ease pressure from an energy shock that has rattled their oil import-reliant economies.
By Idrees Ali and Hatem Maher
WASHINGTON/CAIRO, May 8 (Reuters) - U.S. ally the United Arab Emirates said its air defences were engaging missile and drone threats from Iran early on Friday in a further test of the shaky, month-long ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.
US President Donald Trump heads for a superpower summit with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping next week hoping the Iran war will not spoil the mood in Beijing.
Trump will be expecting a lavish welcome at the high-stakes meeting, which he delayed in March because of the Middle East conflict.
But the war will still loom large over his first visit to China since 2017, which is supposed to focus on easing tensions over trade and Taiwan between the world's largest economies.
Trump said the two leaders would discuss the issue and that Xi had been "very respectful" over Iran.
An Australian mother and daughter "kept a female slave" after travelling to Syria in 2014 to support the Islamic State group, police said Friday as the pair faced charges in Melbourne.
The women returned to Australia on Thursday after years spent in a Syrian detention camp, where they were stranded after Islamic State's collapse.
Counter-terrorism forces arrested Kawsar Ahmad, 53, and her daughter Zeinab, 31, immediately after their Qatar Airways flight landed at Melbourne International airport.
By Renju Jose
SYDNEY, May 8 (Reuters) - Australian police said on Friday they had charged two women linked to the Islamic State extremist group with slavery offences after they returned overnight from Syria, where they had been detained in a refugee camp for more than seven years.
The women, aged 53 and 31, face crimes against humanity charges including owning and using a slave in Syria, which carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. They were arrested at Melbourne airport on Thursday upon their arrival.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday called for US authorities to relaunch their investigation into the Israeli military's killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was gunned down while reporting for Al Jazeera in the occupied West Bank in 2022.
In a letter to the US Department of Justice -- which oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- and FBI chief Kash Patel, the global press freedoms group demanded a "public progress update" on Abu Akleh's death.
WASHINGTON, May 7 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday three U.S. Navy destroyers transited out of the Strait of Hormuz under fire, adding that the American destroyers were not damaged but "great damage was done to Iranian attackers."
"Three World Class American Destroyers just transited, very successfully, out of the Strait of Hormuz, under fire. There was no damage done to the three Destroyers, but great damage done to the Iranian attackers," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
"They were completely destroyed along with numerous small boats," he said.
By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, May 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said it carried out retaliatory strikes on Iran on Thursday, targeting sites it said were responsible for attacking U.S. forces in what it called unprovoked hostilities by Tehran.
Earlier, Iran's top joint military command said the U.S. had violated a ceasefire by targeting an Iranian oil tanker and another ship entering the Strait of Hormuz, and by striking civilian areas.
May 7 (Reuters) - U.S. military naval units operating in the area of the Strait of Hormuz came under Iranian missile fire following an attack by the U.S. military on an Iranian oil tanker, Iranian state media, citing an unnamed military official, said on Thursday.
U.S. military vessels were forced to retreat after sustaining damage from Iranian missile strikes, it added.
It was unclear when the incident happened.
Iran's semi-official news agency Tasnim reported that three U.S. destroyers near the Strait of Hormuz were targeted in an attack by the Iranian navy.
