By Mohammad Yunus Yawar

KABUL, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban government said on Tuesday it had released three Pakistani soldiers captured during border clashes in October, in a move mediated by Saudi Arabia amid strained ties and a prolonged frontier closure between the two neighbours.

The release comes months after the worst cross-border fighting since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Dozens were killed in October clashes, after which both sides agreed to a fragile ceasefire but failed to secure a longer-term political understanding.

By Angelo Amante

ROME, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Italy's opposition groups criticised a government plan to attend the inaugural meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace this week, saying on Tuesday that the body undermined the United Nations and ran counter to international law.

The group is scheduled to meet in Washington on Thursday for the first time since it was established in January, to discuss reconstruction plans for Gaza. Delegations from more than 20 countries are due to attend.

Iranians shouted slogans against the leader of the Islamic republic on Tuesday as they gathered to commemorate protesters killed in a crackdown on nationwide demonstrations that rights groups said left thousands dead, according to videos verified by AFP.

The country's clerical authorities also staged a commemoration in the capital Tehran to mark the 40th day since the deaths at the peak of the protests on January 8 and 9, in line with Shiite mourning tradition.

An Israeli bobsleigher said on Tuesday he gave no "credence whatsoever" to the "diatribe" from a Swiss television commentator who had questioned the legitimacy of him competing at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

The commentator on Swiss channel RTS said Adam Edelman's supportive comments of Israel's more-than-two-year bombardment of Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 people and the destruction of most of the territory's infrastructure, should have resulted in him being barred from the Olympics.

Feb 17 (Reuters) - A UK maritime agency said on Tuesday that it received a report of an exchange of fire involving a vessel and a small boat around 70 nautical miles southwest of Yemen's port of Aden.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said that a vesselwas approached and hailed by a white skiff with five people on board, and this was followed by an exchange of small arms fire.

Two additional skiffs were also reported in the vicinity, and authorities were investigating, according to UKMTO.

DUBAI, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Parts of the Strait of Hormuz will close for a few hours on Tuesday due to 'security precautions' for shipping safety, semi-official Fars news agency reported, as the Revolutionary Guards conduct military drills in the waterway.

The strait is the world's most vital oil export route, which connects the biggest Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom, Editing by Nayera Abdallah)

By Mushtaq Ali

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Militants rammed a vehicle filled with explosives into an army checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan, killing 11 security personnel and a child, the military said on Tuesday, as the South Asian nation battles a surge in violence.

Women and children were among seven wounded in Monday's attack in Bajur district, which lies along the border with Afghanistan, the military said.

Iran said Tuesday it had agreed with the United States in talks in Geneva on "guiding principles" for a deal to avoid conflict, but Vice President JD Vance said Tehran had not yet acknowledged all of Washington's red lines.

The Omani-mediated talks were aimed at averting the possibility of US military intervention to curb Iran's nuclear programme, weeks after the cleric-run state killed thousands of people as it crushed mass demonstrations.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. and Iran hold indirect talks in Geneva on Tuesday aimed at resolving their long-running nuclear dispute, with little clear indication of compromise as Washington masses a battle force in the region.

U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will take part in the negotiations, which are being mediated by Oman, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters, alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.

At an hour when Ahmad and Mohammed should have been in the classroom, the two brothers sat idle at home in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

The 10-year-old twins are part of a generation abruptly cut adrift by a fiscal crisis that has slashed public schooling from five days a week to three across the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority's deepening budget shortfall is cutting through every layer of society across the West Bank.