ANKARA (Reuters) -Syrian soldiers will be allowed to use Turkish military barracks for training meant to boost Syria's military capabilities, while 49 Syrian students will begin schooling at Turkish military academies from Friday onwards, Ankara said on Thursday.

NATO member Turkey has become Syria's main foreign ally after the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad late last year. It has vowed to aid the country's rebuilding, restructure its state institutions, train its armed forces, and provide it with diplomatic and political support.

CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli planes and tanks pounded areas in eastern Gaza on Thursday, Palestinian residents and witnesses said, a day after Israel said it remained committed to a U.S.-backed ceasefire despite launching more lethal bombardments in the territory.

Witnesses said Israeli planes carried out 10 airstrikes in areas east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, while tanks shelled areas east of Gaza City in the north. No injuries or deaths were reported.

The Israeli military on Thursday killed a municipal worker in a raid in southern Lebanon, prompting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to order the army to confront such incursions.

Israel's military confirmed the raid, saying it was operating against Hezbollah infrastructure when its forces fired on a "suspect".

Despite a November 2024 ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group, Israel maintains troops in five areas in southern Lebanon and has kept up regular air strikes.

An AFP journalist saw bullet holes in the walls and windows of the municipal building in Blida.

By Guy Faulconbridge

(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military on Thursday to immediately resume testing nuclear weapons after a gap of 33 years, minutes before beginning a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

How many nuclear weapons tests have there been, why were they stopped - and why would anyone start them again?

THE NUCLEAR AGE

WELLINGTON (Reuters) -New Zealand on Thursday announced expanded sanctions on Russia's oil industry and shadow fleet while meeting with the Nordic 5 foreign ministers in Stockholm.

New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand was sanctioning a further 65 shadow fleet vessels and actors from Belarus, Iran and North Korea involved in refining and transporting Russian oil, and in facilitating oil-related payments.

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican and Democratic U.S. senators called for a strong response from President Donald Trump's administration after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces seized new territory in Sudan, reportedly attacking civilians.

Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for the U.S. to officially designate the RSF as a foreign terrorist organization.

A US judge jailed two men for 25 years each Wednesday for a plot allegedly hatched by Tehran to kill Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, her team confirmed to AFP.

Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, both members of an eastern European criminal gang, orchestrated a failed plot to assassinate campaigning reporter Alinejad.

By Jack Queen

(Reuters) -Two men convicted of murder-for-hire charges were each sentenced in New York on Wednesday to 25 years in prison over what prosecutors called a failed Tehran-backed plot to kill an Iranian dissident living in the U.S.

Rafat Amirov, 46, and Polad Omarov, 41, appeared in prison garb before U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan.

(Reuters) -The U.N. nuclear watchdog's chief Rafael Grossi has told news agency AP that Iran isn't actively enriching uranium but activity has been detected near the country's nuclear stockpiles, according to an interview published on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Barcelona;)

(Reuters) -The Israeli military said on Wednesday it conducted a "targeted" strike in the area of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip targeting an infrastructure site where weapons were stored.

The military said earlier on Wednesday that it had resumed enforcing the Gaza ceasefire agreement after a series of strikes across the enclave that it said was in response to Hamas violations.

Residents in Gaza City said they heard an explosion in northern Gaza and saw a column of smoke.

(Reporting by Ahmed Elimam, writing by Yomna Ehab; Editing by Ros Russell)