BAGHDAD, June 25 (Reuters) - Iraq will be compelled to consider all available options if its OPEC quota is not significantly increased, a senior Iraqi oil ministry official told Reuters on Thursday.

Separate sources told Reuters Iraqi officials had considered leaving OPEC, but the current plan was to remain a member and seek a higher quota.

The prospect of Iraq considering an exit from OPEC would be a further blow to the group after the departure of the United Arab Emirates this year. Iraq is one of five founding members and the group was formed in the Iraqi capital.

By Khalid Abdelaziz and Nafisa Eltahir

June 25 (Reuters) - Newly issued Sudanese pounds have begun circulating in territory controlled by a paramilitary group fighting the national army, raising questions about the source of the notes and potentially deepening the country's de facto division.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) - which cooperated with Sudan's armed forces before the two fell out and began fighting a war in April 2023 - now controls large swathes of the country, including the vast western Darfur region.

By Gram Slattery

MANAMA, June 25 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Bahrain officials on Thursday on the final leg of a trip to the Middle East where he has sought to sell the Trump administration's preliminary Iran accord to skeptical Gulf Arab allies.

Rubio has acknowledged his delicate mission in pitching the peace deal to Gulf Arab leaders who fear excessive concessions will strengthen Tehran and ​reshape the region's security balance and oil flows.

From being shepherded out of Iraq as a baby to growing up on the mean streets of Toxteth in Liverpool, Iraqi striker Ali al-Hamadi's journey to the World Cup has been challenging.

The 24-year-old will draw on all the qualities he has accrued from his tough upbringing when he tries to extend his country's stay at the World Cup when they play Senegal in their final Group I game on Friday.

The first Iraqi player to appear in the Premier League -- for Ipswich in August 2024 -- he came close to scoring against France in the 3-0 defeat earlier in the tournament.

By Renju Jose

SYDNEY, June 25 (Reuters) - Australia faces multi-faceted threats from autocratic regimes, hackers and antisemitic extremists that present a systemic challenge to national security and are degrading the security environment, the country's spy chief said.

While Australia's terrorism threat level remains at "probable", Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess said the designation does not accurately capture the "concurrent, cascading and compounding threats."

The last Australian woman stranded in the Middle East over suspected links to the Islamic State group will be allowed to return home, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Thursday.

Dozens of women and children have been returning to Australian from squalid Syrian detention camps, where they were held for years after the collapse of Islamic State's self-declared caliphate.

In many cases the women left Australia to follow husbands who had signed up as jihadist fighters, which has seen them widely dubbed the "IS brides" back home.

By Humeyra Pamuk and Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday it may never be known who was at fault for a deadly strike on a girls' school in Iran on February 28, the first day of the Iran war, that killed scores of children.

Reuters first ‌reported in March that an initial internal U.S. military investigation showed U.S. forces were likely responsible for the fatal strike in Minab in southern Iran. The Pentagon has ​since elevated the probe but it has not acknowledged any ​preliminary findings.

By Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte sought to calm tensions with President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday, using a mix of flattery and gentle pushback to argue that examples of allies' reluctance to support the U.S. war with Iran were "isolated cases."

The NATO chief is visiting Washington to try to ease strains over the Iran war and U.S. threats to draw down troops in Europe ahead of a pivotal NATO leaders' summit in July in Ankara.

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President JD Vance indicated on Wednesday that a review was under way to see how the United States could sell Turkey F-35 fighter jets given Ankara's 2019 acquisition of Russian S-400 missile defense systems.

"Pete and the entire team are reviewing this right now, because there are certain things that we have to certify have happened ... in order to comply with American law. The president has asked us to do that," Vance told reporters.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Andrea Shalal; editing by Michelle Nichols )

By Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - Three International Criminal Court judges on Wednesday sued U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration over sanctions imposed on themlast year, arguing the measures were unlawful.

In the lawsuit filed in the federal court in Manhattan, judges Kimberly Prost of Canada, Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda and Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin said the sanctions were designed to exert extrajudicial pressure with the objective of punishing and coercing the judges.