The top diplomats from China and the United States discussed the Israel-Hamas conflict in a call on Wednesday, Beijing and Washington said, agreeing on the need to de-escalate the war.

The Israeli army has said that it regrets having killed a Lebanese soldier on a military post near the southern border town of Odaisseh.

Israel's army acknowledged the incident, saying in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it had targeted Tuesday a Hezbollah position in an effort "to eliminate an imminent threat".

Kyiv said Wednesday that Moscow had launched dozens of Iranian-designed attack drones towards Ukraine overnight from southern Russia and the annexed Crimean peninsula, in its latest aerial barrage.

"A total of 48 Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs were launched," the Ukrainian air force said in a statement, adding that defensive systems had downed 41 of the unmanned aerial vehicles.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Tuesday that U.N.-sponsored talks are planned in the coming months to bring "greater stability" to Lebanon's clashes-hit southern border region.

The talks will aim at "reaching an agreement, via the U.N., about contested points along the border with the Israeli enemy," Mikati told a delegation from Lebanon's consular corps.

Qatar's ruler hit out at "shameful" international inaction over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as he opened a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Doha on Tuesday.

"It is shameful for the international community to allow this heinous crime to continue for nearly two months, during which the systematic and deliberate killing of innocent civilians continues, including women and children," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said.

A Lebanese soldier was killed Tuesday and three others were injured by Israeli shelling that targeted their position on the al-Awayda Hill in the southern town of Odaisseh, as Hezbollah and Israel traded cross-border fire.

"An army military position in the Odaisseh area was bombarded by the Israeli enemy, leaving one soldier martyred and three others injured," the Lebanese army said in a statement.

Turkey's annual inflation rate ticked up slightly in November, the state statistics agency said on Monday, showing further signs of levelling off following a series of sharp interest rate hikes.

Gold hit a record high Monday as growing optimism that the Federal Reserve will cut U.S. interest rates in the new year has dented the dollar in recent weeks.

An "overwhelming" 95 percent of Venezuelan voters have approved of the country's territorial claim on a huge chunk of neighboring Guyana, according to an initial count from a non-binding national referendum.

It is "an evident and overwhelming victory for the 'Yes' in this consultative referendum for the Essequibo," said the president of the National Electoral Council, Elvis Amoroso, referring to the oil-rich region controlled by Guyana on which Venezuela has held a longstanding claim.

U.S. and Japanese rescuers found five bodies in the wreckage of an Osprey military aircraft on Monday that crashed last week off Japan, the U.S. military said.

Air Force Special Operations Command said search teams were able to locate remains along with the main fuselage of the aircraft wreckage. "The dive teams were able to confirm five additional crew members from the original team of eight that were involved with the crash," it said in a statement.