The Eurovision Song Contest heads into its 70th anniversary edition next year mired in its biggest-ever political boycott, with five countries staying away over Israel's participation.

Eurovision organisers announced Monday that 35 countries would take part in the world's biggest live televised music event in May -- the fewest since entry was expanded in 2004.

The number would have been even lower, but for Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova rejoining the glitzy annual extravaganza.

Once the lights go up in Vienna, Eurovision 2026 may look very much like a regular edition.

Dec 17 (Reuters) - Among the 15 victims of a mass shooting at Australia's Bondi Beach targeting an event for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah were two who tried to thwart the attack, and others who ​died shielding friends and family, according to family members, officials and local media reports.

By Asif Shahzad and Ariba Shahid

ISLAMABAD, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Pakistan's most powerful military chief in decades faces the toughest test of his newly ​amassed powers as Washington pushes Islamabad to contribute troops to the ​Gaza stabilisation force, a move analysts say could spark domestic backlash.

Field Marshal Asim Munir is expected to fly to Washington to meet President Donald Trump in ⁠the coming weeks for a third meeting in six months that will likely focus on the Gaza force, two sources told Reuters, one of them a key player in the general's economic diplomacy.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday sharply expanded a travel ban by barring people from seven more countries including Syria, as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders, from entering the United States.

The latest move brings to nearly 40 the number of countries whose citizens face restrictions in coming to the United States solely by virtue of nationality, with Trump also tightening rules for routine travel from Western nations.

Six members of Canada's parliament travelling from Jordan were denied entry to the occupied West Bank on Tuesday by Israeli authorities who accused the delegation of being sponsored by "a terror entity."

Jenny Kwan, an opposition lawmaker with Canada's left-wing New Democratic Party, told AFP that one MP, Iqra Khalid of Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal Party, was "pushed multiple times" by an Israeli border officer.

The lawmakers were on a trip sponsored by Canadian-Muslim Vote, a charity group.

WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - ​President Donald ​Trump has signed ⁠a proclamation further restricting and limiting the ​entry of ‍foreign nationals to ​the United States, the White House said ⁠on Tuesday.

The U.S. has imposed full restrictions and entry limitations on nationals from five ​countries - Burkina ⁠Faso, ⁠Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria - in addition to the ‌initial list of ​12 countries, the White House said.

Full restrictions have ‍also been imposed on individuals holding ‌Palestinian Authority-issued ‌travel documents, it said.

Iranian authorities are refusing to allow an independent medical examination of Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi after she was beaten during her arrest last week, her family said on Tuesday.

Her brother Hamid Reza Mohammadi, who lives in Norway, told reporters in Paris via video link that she had informed her other brother in Iran in a brief telephone call late on Sunday that police had beaten her with truncheons on her face, head and neck.

By John Irish

PARIS, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The brother and lawyer of ​Iranian human rights activist and Nobel ​Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi said on Tuesday they have no information ⁠on her whereabouts or health, four days after her arrest.

Mohammadi was arrested on Friday after denouncing the suspicious death of lawyer Khosrow ​Alikordi during his memorial ceremony in the northeastern city ‍of Mashhad.

Some pushed cars through the Gaza Strip's flooded streets, while others took to donkey-pulled carts to wade through the floodwaters after fresh winter rains lashed the war-battered Palestinian territory.

The rains have flooded tents and makeshift shelters in Gaza, where most of the buildings have been destroyed or damaged by two years of war between Israel and Hamas.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said a two-week-old baby named Muhammad Khalil Abu Al-Khair died because of severe hypothermia caused by extreme cold.

By Mahmoud Hasano

NAYRAB, Syria, Dec 16 (Reuters) - As Australia's worst mass shooting in nearly ​30 years unfolded, a Sydney shopowner was ​captured on camera charging at one of the gunmen and disarming him. Halfway around ⁠the world in Syria, a group of men watching the footage recognised a familiar face.