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Leaders of 18 nations call on Hamas to release hostages

The leaders of the United States, Britain, France and more than a dozen other countries called in a joint statement Thursday for Hamas to release the scores of hostages it is holding, the White House said.

"We call for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza for over 200 days. They include our own citizens," the leaders said.

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COP29 host says deal on climate aid essential but offers few details

The world must agree this year on how to raise billions of dollars to help poorer countries adapt to global warming, the president of the U.N. climate talks said Thursday.

Mukhtar Babayev offered little concrete detail about how to broker this new deal but said climate finance would be a "pillar" of the COP29 summit in the petro-state of Azerbaijan in November.

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Ukraine, Russia exchange fire, at least seven dead

Ukrainian and Russian forces exchanged drone and artillery fire on Thursday, leaving at least seven dead, regional officials on both sides of the frontline announced.

The uptick in civilian deaths came as Russian forces are pressing in hard in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, ahead of events in Moscow on May 9, hailing the Soviet Union's victory in World War II.

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Hezbollah denies Israel claim it killed half of commanders in south

Hezbollah denied on Thursday an Israeli claim that it had killed half of the Iran-backed Lebanese group's commanders in the south of the country, saying only a handful were slain.

The Lebanese group has been exchanging near-daily fire with the Israeli army since the day after its Palestinian ally Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.

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Macron accuses US, China of failing to respect global trade rules

French President Emmanuel Macron Thursday called for a "revision" of EU trade policy to defend European interests, accusing both China and the United States of no longer respecting the rules of global commerce.

"It cannot work if we are the only ones in the world to respect the rules of trade -- as they were written up 15 years ago -- if the Chinese and the Americans no longer respect them by subsidising critical sectors," he said in a keynote speech.

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US downs anti-ship missile, 4 drones in Aden Gulf as Houthis resume attacks

US-led coalition forces shot down four drones and an anti-ship missile launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels, American authorities said Thursday, as the Iran-backed group announced strikes against U.S. and Israeli ships.

A Greek vessel deployed in the Gulf of Aden as part of an EU naval coalition also shot down a drone off Yemen's coast early on Thursday, the Greece general staff said in a statement.

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Fadlallah says Hezbollah 'ready for any scenario'

Hezbollah member of parliament Hassan Fadlallah has told the National News Agency during a funeral procession in southern Lebanon that "the targeting of civilians... cannot happen without a concrete response."

"Let us make this enemy understand that... we are ready for any scenario," Fadlallah said.

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One wounded in Israeli drone strike on Baalbek's Douris

An Israeli drone struck Thursday a fuel truck in the town of Douris southwest of Baalbek, wounding the driver, the National News Agency said.

Later on Thursday, Hezbollah targeted a group of Israeli soldiers in the Dhaira post in northern Israel while Israeli warplanes and artillery bombed the outskirts of the southern border towns of Alma al-Shaab and al-Naqoura.

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EU urges probe into reported mass graves at Gaza hospitals

The European Union on Wednesday called for an independent probe into the reported discovery of mass graves at two Gaza hospitals destroyed in Israeli sieges.

"This is something that forces us to call for an independent investigation of all the suspicions and all the circumstances, because indeed it creates the impression that there might have been violations of international human rights committed," EU spokesman Peter Stano said.

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Hezbollah replaces Iranian forces as Tehran cuts Syria presence

Iran has reduced its military footprint in Syria after a succession of strikes blamed on Israel, a source close to Iran-backed Hezbollah and a war monitor said Wednesday.

Iran has provided military support to Syrian government forces through more than a decade of civil war but a series of strikes targeting its commanders in recent months has prompted a reshaping of its presence, the sources said.

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