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Efforts towards a truce in the Israel-Hamas war appeared to rekindle on Saturday after a new proposal from the Palestinian Hamas group which also called for more aid into Gaza, where the first food shipment by sea reached shore. Israel said it would send a delegation to Qatar for a new round of talks on a possible deal. It also advanced plans for a military operation in Rafah, where most of Gaza's population has sought refuge from more than five months of war and deprivation. The US charity World Central Kitchen said its team had finished unloading almost 200 tonnes of food, the first shipment to arrive on a new maritime aid corridor from Cyprus. "All cargo was offloaded and is being readied for distribution in Gaza," it said in a statement. The Cypriot government said that a second aid ship, the Jennifer, was set "to depart for Gaza today (Saturday) or tomorrow". The vessel was expected to carry 240 tonnes of food, World Central Kitchens said. The United ...

Russia's presidential election kicked off on Friday with polling stations opening in the Kamchatka Peninsula region at 8 am local time. Spanning 11 time zones, the election is scheduled to end in the Kaliningrad enclave on Sunday at 8 pm. Current President Vladimir Putin has held continuous positions as either President or Prime Minister of Russia since 1999, serving as prime minister from 1999 to 2000 and from 2008 to 2012, and as president from 2000 to 2008 and since 2012. He is expected to secure another six-year term and is facing limited opposition in the race. Leaders up against Vladimir Putin in Russia's election Leonid Slutsky from the LDPR Leonid Eduardovich Slutsky, born on January 4, 1968, is a prominent Russian politician leading the ultranationalist LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia) party since 2022. He holds the position of Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs and has been serving in the State Duma since 1999. Mr Slutsky's ...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Friday he had approved the military's plan for an operation in Rafah, where most of war-battered Gaza's population has sought refuge. Netanyahu "approved the plans for action in Rafah," his office said in a statement, without giving details or a timeline. The statement said the military was "prepared for the operational side and for the evacuation of the population." Rafah is the last major population centre yet to be subjected to a ground assault during Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, which was triggered by the militants' unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7. The attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures. Israel's retaliatory military campaign to eliminate Hamas has killed at least 31,490 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. US...

An Indian-origin couple and their teenage daughter were killed in a "suspicious" fire which tore through their home last week in Canada's Ontario province, police said on Friday. A fire engulfed a home at the Big Sky Way and Van Kirk Drive area of Brampton on March 7, a press release by the Peel Police said. After the blaze was put out, investigators located what was believed to be human remains within the gutted house, but the number of people killed couldn't be ascertained at the time. The charred remains were on Friday identified as those of three family members: 51-year-old Rajiv Warikoo; his wife, 47-year-old Shilpa Kotha; and their 16-year-old daughter, Mahek Warikoo. Police said that they resided at the address before the fire. Peel police Constable Taryn Young on Friday said the fire had been deemed suspicious, the CTV news channel reported. "At this time, we are investigating this with our homicide bureau, and we are deeming this as suspicious as t...

The United States will call for global action on synthetic drugs including fentanyl, which has killed thousands of Americans, at a UN conference Friday, the State Department said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will warn of a threat "not just to the United States, but to all nations," when he addresses the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters Thursday. The US has been ravaged by the powerful opioid fentanyl in recent years, with tens of thousands of deaths attributed to the drug each year. "This administration has made it a top priority to address the fentanyl and synthetic drug crisis," Miller said. He added that Blinken would look to secure concrete commitments to address synthetic drugs fuelling a public health crisis. The US set up a coalition to combat synthetic drug threats last year, and it now features 149 countries. Washington officials have notably been putting pressure on China, one of the primary source...

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has appointed Mohammed Mustafa, a long-trusted adviser on economic affairs, as Prime Minister, the official Wafa news agency said on Thursday. Mustafa's appointment comes less than three weeks after his predecessor, Mohammed Shtayyeh, resigned, citing the need for change after the Hamas attack of October 7 triggered war with Israel in Gaza. The 69-year-old now faces the task of forming a new government for the Palestinian Authority, which has limited powers in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Mustafa, who studied at George Washington University in Washington, is an independent executive committee member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation -- dominated by the ruling Fatah movement. He has served as deputy prime minister for economic affairs, held a board seat at the Palestine Investment Fund and worked in several senior positions at the World Bank. He has also advised the Kuwaiti government and the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi A...

A British Royal Air Force plane carrying the UK defence minister had its signal jammed as it flew near Russian territory this week, a government spokesman confirmed on Thursday. The electronic attack happened on Wednesday evening as Grant Shapps flew back on an RAF jet from Poland where he had watched a NATO exercise, the Times newspaper reported. A UK government spokesman said the plane "temporarily experienced GPS jamming when they flew close to Kaliningrad" on the Baltic Sea, some 1,200 kilometres (some 750 miles) west of Moscow. "It didn't threaten the safety of the aircraft and it is not unusual for aircraft to experience GPS jamming near Kaliningrad, which is of course Russian territory," the spokesman added. The Times, who had journalists on the plane, said the GPS signal was interfered with for about 30 minutes. Mobile phones could no longer connect to the internet and the aircraft was forced to use alternative methods to determine its location, the...