SUSIYA, West Bank Feb 25 (Reuters) - Israeli settlers set fire to vehicles and tents in the Palestinian village of Susiya on Tuesday night, residents said, in the latest incidentof settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Videos verified by Reuters showed a masked group of men, who residents said were Israeli settlers, approaching the village near the city of Hebron, and later burning vehicles and Palestinian property.

An Iranian delegation headed by its top diplomat arrived in Geneva on Wednesday for talks with the US, as the Islamic republic's president struck an upbeat tone about the prospect of a negotiated agreement to avert fresh conflict.

Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened strikes if Iran fails to cut a deal on its atomic programme, and in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, the US president accused Tehran of "sinister nuclear ambitions" after he ordered a massive military deployment around the Gulf.

Feb 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed new Iran-related sanctions on four individuals, several entities and tankers, according to a notice on its website.

(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis)

Egypt said Wednesday that 18 of its citizens were still missing after a migrant boat capsized, killing four people, off the Greek island of Crete last week.

The wooden boat was carrying 50 people, including four minors, when Greece's coast guard was alerted late Friday.

Greek authorities then directed a commercial vessel to the area for a rescue operation.

According to Greek public broadcaster ERT, an accident occurred when the commercial vessel approached the migrants' boat.

DUBAI, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Iran sees the chance of a good outcome from a third round of talks with the United States, its President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday, as a delegation left for Geneva for negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program.

A senior U.S. official said on Monday that U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner are slated to meet with the Iranian delegation, led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, in Geneva on Thursday.

By David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - A record 129 journalists and media workers were killed in the course of their work last year, two-thirds of them killed by Israel, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Wednesday.

It was the second straight year that press killings set a record and the second straight year that Israel was responsible for two-thirds of them, the CPJ, a New York-based independent organization which documents attacks on the press, said in its annual report.

By Rami Ayyub, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Alexander Cornwell

JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Feb 25 (Reuters) - A Gaza firm has been contracted to build an Emirati-funded compound for tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in a part of the territory under Israeli military control, two Israeli officials and two Palestinian businessmen told Reuters.

The plan for a Palestinian contracting firm staffed by Gaza workers to build the compound has not been previously reported.

Pope Leo XIV will visit four African nations in April, the Vatican said Thursday, including Algeria -- the first time a pope will travel to the North African Muslim nation.

The Vatican announced a series of international trips in the months ahead for the US pontiff, who was elected last year, including to Spain and Monaco.

But the official trip to Algeria, which will see Leo visit Algiers and Annaba from April 13 to 15, will be particularly symbolic.

By Asif Shahzad and Mubasher Bukhari

ISLAMABAD, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Pakistan has boosted security and arrested dozens of suspects as it fearsrising wave of militant attacks following its air strikes in Afghanistan,Pakistan's Junior Interior Minister said on Wednesday.

"Our forces are on high-alert to combat any attacks," the minister,TalalChaudhry, told Reuters. "You know the militants always react whenever we go after their hideouts in Afghanistan."

DUBAI, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Ali Shamkhani, who taunted Israel after being pulled alive from the rubble of his Tehran home following a strike in June 2025, has survived at the centre of Iranian policy-making during its most testing military confrontations and diplomatic endeavours.

The 70-year-old former Revolutionary Guard commander is a trusted adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a high-stakes standoff with the U.S. that could determine whether the Islamic Republic, born from revolution in 1979, survives to half a century.