By Jonathan Saul and Catherine Cartier

LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - A vast oil spill from a leaking tanker has started to hit Oman's coastline, its environment agency confirmed on Wednesday, in what threatens to become one of the world’s worst in years after spreading largely unchecked for weeks.

The oil could end up impacting 40 km (25 miles) of coast near Ras Madraka as well as Masirah Island, the agency said.

The slick now covers an area of more than 2,000 square km, said John Amos, an oil spill specialist who reviewed satellite imagery obtained by Reuters.

Eurovision Song Contest organisers announced Wednesday that they were excluding any country in an armed conflict from hosting the competition and increased the mininum age of competitors.

While they did not mention any country by name, Israel, which has been at war in Gaza since 2023, came close to winning the competition in both 2025 and 2026, ultimately finishing second on each occasion.

Under the old rules, the winning country normally hosts the following year's competition.

Aug 12 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the United States in is control of the Strait of Hormuz.

"The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT! Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, “A WALL OF STEEL,” and there is nothing Iran can do about it," he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Caitlin Webber)

The Israeli military said Wednesday it would send more troops to try to impose order on defiant settlers after failing to end their blockade of Palestinians' homes in the occupied West Bank.

The siege began on Sunday, when a group of settlers set up a makeshift tent near houses in the Palestinian village of Qusra, just south of Nablus, blocking essential supplies from entering.

PARIS, Aug 12 (Reuters) - The EU and 26 countries condemned Iran's executions of protesters in a joint statement, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Wednesday.

The countries called on Iran to listen to its people, take meaningful steps toward ensuring respect for human rights, immediately end use of the death penalty and release those arbitrarily detained.

(Reporting by ELizabeth Pineau; Writing by Inti Landauro; Editing by Makini Brice)

By Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI, Aug 12 (Reuters) - There have been no talks on extending a ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. under an interim deal, with Iran saying that Washington must return to the pact and define a timeframe to implement its commitments, a senior Iranian source told Reuters on Wednesday.

The source's comments came after Turkey's Anadolu news agency, citing Pakistani government sources, reported that Tehran and Washington had agreed to extend a 60-day ceasefire under their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

By Elwely Elwelly and Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI, Aug 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. and Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis reported separate attacks on shipping on Tuesday as prospects for ending the Iran war appeared to dim, with Tehran saying the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed unless Washington accepts its conditions.

The attacks, in the Gulf of Oman leading to the strait and at the entrance to the Red Sea — both vital chokepoints for global oil supplies — come as the war shows no signs of ending despite repeated assertions from U.S. President Donald Trump of a deal being imminent.

By Bo Erickson

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he secretly switched planes in Turkey last month at the direction of the U.S. Secret Service, but that the plane he ultimately flew on was still more vulnerable than Air Force One.

Following a NATO summit in Ankara, Trump was transferred from Air Force One to a military plane via a catering truck in an extraordinary deception prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, U.S. media reported.

QUSRA, West Bank, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Israeli troops clashed with Jewish settlers on Wednesday while trying to disperse them from a West Bank outpost they set up directly in front of Palestinian homes, and later withdrew from the area after failing to clear the settlers, witnesses said.

The incident on the outskirts of the Palestinian village of Qusra in the occupied West Bank marked a rare confrontation between settlers and the military and comes amid a sharp increase in settler land seizures and attacks on Palestinians.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he hoped more countries would join a defence agreement signed last week between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan aimed at stabilising a region wracked by conflict.

The so-called Mecca Joint Defence Agreement was signed on Friday as the Middle East grapples with fallout from the US-Iran war which has dragged in regional players and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.