HELSINKI (Reuters) -The captain and two officers of an oil tanker accused of severing five undersea power and telecoms cables when their vessel left Russia and sailed through the Gulf of Finland in late 2024 will stand trial in Helsinki on Monday.

Investigators have concluded that the Eagle S dragged its anchor along the seabed, severing the Estlink 2 power cable connecting Finland and Estonia, and four internet lines, leading Finnish security forces to interrupt the vessel's journey and board it from helicopters after ordering it to move into Finnish territorial waters.

(Reuters) -Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Gaza on Monday killed at least 15 people, including three journalists, one of whom worked for Reuters, Palestinian health officials said.

Cameraman Hussam al-Masri, one of the journalists killed in the strikes according to the officials, was a contractor for Reuters. Photographer Hatem Khaled, who was also a Reuters contractor, was wounded, the officials said.

The Israeli military and Prime Minister's Office both had no immediate comment regarding the strikes.

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ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey’s transport minister was slapped with a speeding ticket after posting a video of himself driving 225 km per hour (140 mph) on a highway — nearly twice the legal limit — prompting ridicule on social media and a public apology.

The clip, set to folk music and excerpts of a speech by President Tayyip Erdogan praising the government's infrastructure, showed Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu's speedometer soaring and his car zipping past others in the fast lane on the Ankara–Nigde motorway.

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) says that preparations for the 2029 Asian Winter Games in Saudi Arabia are "on schedule" after South Korea and China emerged as potential replacements.

Saudi Arabia is supposed to host the next edition of the regional winter competition in a move derided by environmental groups.

The OCA in 2022 unanimously approved the desert kingdom's bid to stage the Games at its $500 billion megacity NEOM, part of Saudi Arabia's splurge on major sporting events, including the 2034 football World Cup.

An expected United Nations Security Council vote on the future of the blue helmet peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon, which has faced US and Israeli opposition, was pushed back on Monday as negotiations continued.

The Council is debating a French-drafted compromise that would keep the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), deployed in 1978 to separate Israel and Lebanon, in place for one more year while it prepares to withdraw.

For years, Egyptian jasmine picker Wael al-Sayed has collected blossoms by night in the Nile Delta, supplying top global perfume houses. But in recent summers, his basket has felt lighter and the once-rich fragrance is fading.

"It's the heat," said Sayed, 45, who has spent nearly a decade working the fields in Shubra Balula, a quiet village about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Cairo and a key hub for Egypt's jasmine industry.

PARIS (Reuters) -France summoned the American ambassador Charles Kushner after he wrote a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron alleging France had failed to do enough to stem antisemitic violence, a French foreign ministry spokesperson said on Sunday.

Kushner, who is Jewish and whose son is married to U.S. President Donald Trump's daughter, published the open letter in the Wall Street Journal amid deep divides between France and the U.S. and Israel.

France's foreign ministry said Sunday it would summon the US ambassador after he criticised the government for what he said was its insufficient action against antisemitism in a letter to President Emmanuel Macron.

The letter from Charles Kushner, dated August 25 but leaked to the media on Sunday, echoed Israel's criticism of France days earlier, which provoked a sharp response from Paris.

The US ambassador to Paris has upped the pressure on President Emmanuel Macron over antisemitism in France with a letter calling the government's action on anti-Jewish hatred insufficient, days after similar criticism from Israel.

US envoy Charles Kushner's letter to Macron was dated August 25, which he noted was "the 81st anniversary of the Allied Liberation of Paris, which ended the deportation of Jews from French soil" under Nazi German occupation.

(Reuters) -Israeli strikes hit the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Sunday in retaliation for Houthi missiles fired towards Israel, with Houthi media saying the attack killed at least two people and injured five.

The strikes are the latest in over a year of direct attacks and counterstrikes between Israel and Houthi militants in Yemen, part of a spillover from the war in Gaza.