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Greenland prime minister rebuffs Trump remarks as NATO tensions rise

By Stine Jacobsen

COPENHAGEN, April 9 (Reuters) - Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said on Thursday that he represents a proud nation seeking to maintain global order, pushing back against the latest comments about the Arctic island by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump on Wednesday vented his frustration with NATO as relations reached a crisis point over the Iran war, stating that the military alliance was not around when needed, and that he still remembered Greenland, a "BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE".

Austria demands Israel stop attacking civilian targets in Lebanon

VIENNA, April 9 (Reuters) - Austria's foreign ministry on Thursday called on Israel to stop attacking civilian targets in Lebanon, and said the Austrian members of a U.N. peacekeeping force there must be protected.

Austria has in recent years been one of Israel's staunchest political supporters in the European Union.

"Israel must immediately stop its military operations against civilian targets and infrastructure in Lebanon," the ministry said in response to a question from Reuters.

Germany's Merz: We do not want NATO to split over U.S.-Iran war

BERLIN, April 9 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday he did not want U.S.-Iran war to place any further strain on relations between the United States and its European NATO partners.

"We do not want – I do not want – NATO to split. NATO is a guarantor of our security, including and above all in Europe," he said, speaking to journalists.

He added he had encouraged U.S. President Donald Trump in a call to pursue negotiations with Iran with urgency.

Germany was resuming direct talks with Iranian leadership in Tehran, Merz said in Berlin.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks to the media about the current developments in domestic and foreign politics, in Berlin, Germany, April 9, 2026. REUTERS/Nadja Wohlleben

Lebanon's hospitals may run out of vital medical supplies within days, says WHO

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, April 9 (Reuters) - Some of Lebanon's hospitals could run out of life-saving trauma medical kits within days as supplies near depletion following mass casualties from large-scale Israeli strikes over the past day, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

The life-saving trauma kits include bandages, antibiotics and anaesthetics to treat patients who sustained war-related injuries, the WHO stated.

Emergency services operate at the site of an Israeli strike carried out on Wednesday, in Ain Al Mraiseh in Beirut, Lebanon, April 9, 2026. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki

IMF to cut global growth forecast due to Mideast war

The International Monetary Fund will lower global growth forecasts due to the Middle East war, its chief said Thursday, warning of the conflict's "scarring effects" despite a fragile ceasefire.

"Even in a best case, there will be no neat and clean return to the status quo ante," IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said.

Georgieva said that -- even in the fund's "most hopeful scenario" -- spiraling energy costs, infrastructure damage, supply disruptions and a loss of market confidence meant growth would be less than expected.

International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva kicking off the 2026 Spring Meetings in Washington

Pakistan says Lebanon's PM seeks support for immediate end to attacks

ISLAMABAD, April 9 (Reuters) - Pakistan said Lebanon Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had sought Islamabad's support for bringing an immediate end to the attacks targeting Lebanon and its people in a phone call with Pakistan's prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif.

"... Pakistan was engaged in sincere efforts for regional peace and it was in this spirit that the peace talks between Iran and the U.S. were being convened," Sharif told Salam, according to a statement from Pakistan's Prime Minister Office.

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad;Editing by Alison Williams)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam leads a cabinet meeting, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in Beirut, Lebanon, March 26, 2026. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

NATO's Rutte told allies Trump wants Hormuz commitments within days, diplomats say

April 9 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has briefed some capitals that U.S. President Donald Trump wants concrete commitments within the next few days for help securing the Strait of Hormuz, two European diplomats told Reuters on Thursday.

Rutte met with Trump in Washington on Wednesday, amid tensions within the alliance over the Iran war.

"We note the frustration in Washington, but they did not consult allies either before or after starting this war," said one of the diplomats.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

Believers rejoice as Jerusalem's holy sites re-open

Just before 5 am at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a Muslim worshipper prayed in tears. A few hours later, similar emotion overcame Christians and Jews as the city's holy sites reopened following the truce with Iran.

Jerusalem's Old City contains major holy sites for all three Abrahamic religions, which had been shuttered since the start of the war sparked by the US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28.

For the first time in 41 days, Muslim worshippers returned to Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jews to the Western Wall and Christians to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

For the first time in 41 days, Muslim worshippers returned to Al-Aqsa Mosque