Spotlight
The United States and Iran on Monday separately announced they will send delegations to Qatar this week, though Tehran insisted it has not agreed to meet with the U.S. "at any level" after attacks across the Persian Gulf over the weekend challenged negotiations to end the war.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the Islamic Republic had requested a meeting with U.S. counterparts and that they planned to convene Tuesday in Doha, Qatar.
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In the northern Lebanese town of Zgharta, Brazilian flags hung from balconies and stone alleyways as families prepared for Brazil's Round of 32 FIFA World Cup match against Japan.
Children wearing yellow jerseys played soccer in the streets, while cafés and public squares filled with supporters draped in green and yellow, reflecting a passion for Brazil that stretches across Lebanon.
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As Israeli troops and vehicles entered the town of Abdin in southern Syria, residents blocked the roads with rocks, and some young men and boys threw stones to push back the military patrol.
Tensions in this part of the country created by a buffer zone occupied by Israeli forces have flared into violence in recent days, leaving residents anxious that more escalation is coming. Residents of Abdin, located near a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone now controlled by Israeli troops, tried to resist against a military incursion Sunday.
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Decades later, Samar Kabouli still fondly recalls gathering with women in her family and sipping cardamom-spiced coffee as they embroidered fabric with colorful threads in traditional Palestinian patterns.
Born in Lebanon to Palestinian refugees, Kabouli had never seen her parents' homeland. But more than just making pretty designs, the threads in her needle were stitching a connection to her heritage.
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Five people were killed in a shooting on Monday at a youth welfare facility in the northern German town of Stade, police said. Two people were arrested, including the suspected shooter.
Other people were wounded, police said, but they did not give a figure.
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Israel's Cabinet unanimously approved a proposal on Sunday to designate violence against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide.
The step, which still needs approval in Parliament, reflects deteriorating ties between Israel and Turkey. Turkey has fiercely lobbied to prevent countries from officially recognizing the mass deaths of Armenians around 1915 as a genocide, even as Armenians have pushed for it.
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Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar that poured a fortune into soccer and infrastructure experienced unceremonious exits from the World Cup, proving that big money doesn't guarantee success on the sport's biggest stage.
Saudi Arabia is out at the earliest point. Again. Bottom of a group that included tiny Cape Verde, the third-smallest nation ever to compete on this stage and into the knockouts for the first time.
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Russian missiles and drones killed at least eight civilians and injured 35 others in Ukraine on Monday in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described as "horrific attacks."
Since Russia launched its all-out invasion of its neighbor more than four years ago, its forces have conducted strategic bombing in an effort to destroy the country's infrastructure and sap Ukrainian morale. More than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, according to the U.N.
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A strong aftershock jolted Venezuela early Monday following last week's devastating back-to-back earthquakes, as civilians and emergency responders kept combing through the ruins of fallen buildings for survivors.
The aftershock, which struck about 27 kilometers (17 miles) north of Caraballeda on Venezuela's Caribbean coast at 7:01 a.m. local time, measured 4.6 on the Richter scale, according to the United States Geological Survey. Colombia's geological survey put the magnitude at 5.1.
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Overnight ground operations and strikes by Pakistani forces have killed at least 36 civilians and injured more than 160 others, Afghan officials said Monday, as tensions between the neighbors further escalated. One Afghan official said the attacks would be met with retaliation.
Pakistani security forces carried out a ground operation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border late Sunday, followed by strikes against militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters, Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said. Pakistan said the operations were launched in response to multiple militant attacks across Pakistan.
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