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Israel is lobbying the United States to keep Syria weak and decentralised, including by letting Russia keep its military bases there to counter Turkey's growing influence in the country, four sources familiar with the efforts said.

Turkey's often fraught ties with Israel have come under severe strain during the Gaza war and Israeli officials have told Washington that Syria's new Islamist rulers, who are backed by Ankara, pose a threat to Israel's borders, the sources said.

The lobbying points to a concerted Israeli campaign to influence U.S. policy at a critical juncture for Syria, as the Islamists who ousted Bashar al-Assad try to stabilise the fractured state and get Washington to lift punishing sanctions. Israel communicated its views to top U.S. officials during meetings in Washington in February and subsequent meetings in Israel with U.S. Congressional representatives, three U.S. sources and another person familiar with the contacts said.

Fifty-seven people were killed when a passenger train filled with students collided with a freight train on February 28, 2023 in central Greece. The accident has become a painful emblem of the perceived neglect of the country's infrastructure in the decades before the crash and the two years since.

The Taiwan Strait does not belong to China and any attempts to create tension threaten global security, the island's defence ministry said on Monday, after Beijing criticised Canada for sailing a warship through the sensitive waterway.

Peace Now says the development of 974 new housing units would allow the population of the Efrat settlement to expand by 40% and further block the development of the nearby Palestinian city of Bethlehem. Hagit Ofran, who leads the group’s settlement monitoring, said construction can begin after the contracting process and issuing of permits, which could take another year at least.

BERLIN — German political leaders have reacted with alarm to U.S. President Donald Trump’s bombshell announcement that his administration will conduct peace negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the head of European leaders.

Nicaragua’s Congress approved a constitutional reform on Thursday that would make President Daniel Ortega and his wife, current Vice President Rosario Murillo, “copresidents” of the Central American nation.

Police in France's western region of Brittany said they are investigating the damage to the grave, which was reportedly caused by a sledgehammer.

China has executed a man found guilty of killing at least 35 people in a car attack in November, in what is thought to be the deadliest attack in the country for a decade.

Fan Weiqiu, 62, injured dozens more when he drove his car into people exercising outside a stadium in the southern city of Zhuhai.

State media said a second man was executed for a separate attack that came days later. Xu Jiajin, 21, killed eight people in a stabbing spree at his university in the eastern city of Wuxi.

Authorities said Fan was driven by "dissatisfaction" over how his property had been divided following his divorce, while Xu carried out his attack after "failing to obtain his diploma due to poor exam results".

The commission, in a report submitted to the chief of Bangladesh’s interim government Muhammad Yunus, recommended that three principles “secularism”, “socialism” and “nationalism” be replaced with “equality”, “human dignity”, “social justice” and “pluralism”.

Climate protest group Just Stop Oil (JSO) said two activists used chalk paint on the grave of the famous naturalist, who is best known for his theories on evolution.

Poland’s foreign minister has warned that foreign interference in Polish elections is illegal, following Elon Musk’s recent interventions in German and British politics. Presidential elections will take place in Poland this year.

There is concern growing in Syria that the new Islamist-led authorities have already decided on changes to the school curriculum, without the input of the rest of society. The Facebook page of the transitional government's education ministry has posted the new curriculum for all age groups, which will take on a more Islamic slant, as well as dropping any reference to the Assad era across all subjects. The phrase "Defending the nation" has been replaced by "Defending Allah", among other changes.