President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial military mobilization and vowed on Wednesday to use "all available means" to protect Russian territory, after Moscow-held regions of Ukraine suddenly announced annexation referendums.

Three people have been killed during protests in Iran's Kurdistan province over the death of a young woman after she was arrested by "morality police," the region's governor said Tuesday.

"The three were killed suspiciously" as part of "a plot by the enemy," the governor, Ismail Zarei Koosha, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency, without specifying when the fatalities occurred.

Israel is preparing to activate an offshore gas field partly disputed by Lebanon, aiming to boost energy exports to Europe but risking further tensions with its northern neighbor.

Israel and Lebanon, still technically at war, have engaged in on-off U.S. mediated talks since 2020 to delineate their Mediterranean border, which could allow both parties to boost offshore natural gas exploration.

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to swap 200 prisoners in one of the largest exchanges of the seven-month war, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. television.

Erdogan made the announcement after talks last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a regional summit in Uzbekistan.

A rare operation by the Palestinian Authority security forces to arrest a Hamas member sparked clashes in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, multiple sources said. 

There were reports that a bystander, 53-year-old Firas Yaish, was killed in the crossfire but the Palestinian health ministry had not yet confirmed the death. A tweet, purportedly from Yaish's cousin Kawther, said it was "mourning" Firas's death.

The U.N .decried Tuesday Mahsa Amini's death in custody after she was arrested by Iran's "morality police" and the violent crackdown on protests over her death, demanding an independent investigation.

"Acting U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif today expressed alarm at the death in custody of Mahsa Amini... and the violent response by security forces to ensuing protests," the rights office said in a statement.

French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Mikati had on Monday took part in the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London before leaving for the United States where he will lead Lebanon’s delegation to the works of the U.N. General Assembly.

In a war-scarred Beirut heritage house turned museum, archives of Lebanon's troubled past fuse with artistic depictions of its grim present to portray a country seemingly in perpetual turmoil.

Newspaper clippings, film negatives and diary entries from the years before Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war tell a story of government corruption, public sector strikes and student protests.

French President Emmanuel Macron's choice of footwear during his trip to London ahead of the queen's funeral caused an outpouring of commentary -- and disinformation -- online.

Burning the world's remaining fossil fuel reserves would unleash 3.5 trillion tons of greenhouse gas emissions -- seven times the remaining carbon budget to cap global heating at 1.5C -- according to the first public inventory of hydrocarbons released Monday.