Four civilians captured by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon -- two Lebanese and two Syrians -- will be released on Friday. A fifth civilian has already been handed over to the Lebanese army.

Lebanon said Thursday its army had received a man returned by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the first since Beirut called in August talks for the release of an initial group seized since the start of a 2024 Israel-Hezbollah war.

Uber and British start-up Wayve launched their commercial robotaxi service in London on Thursday, although passengers will still have a human supervisor behind the wheel.

France's financial prosecutor's office has asked that four people, including disgraced former Asian football chief Mohamed Bin Hammam, be sent to trial for corruption in connection with the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

Venezuela's ousted leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife asked a U.S. judge late Wednesday to dismiss drug trafficking charges against them, claiming they have immunity as president and first lady of a sovereign country.

Iran's Tasnim news agency on Thursday said six members of the Iranian army's naval forces were killed by U.S. attacks during renewed fighting this week.

The six died during a wave of U.S. attacks on Tuesday, the report said, without specifying where they were killed.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief Ahmad Vahidi vowed on Thursday to avenge the four people killed at a wedding ceremony in the south, which Iran has blamed on the U.S.

"The pure blood of these oppressed martyrs...  will not go unanswered and will definitely be avenged," Vahidi said in a statement carried by state television.

Belgium logged nearly 3,000 excess deaths during successive heatwaves since June, health authorities said Thursday, days after this summer was confirmed as the hottest on record in the northern European nation.

Some 365 excess deaths were observed between July 28 and August 16, as Belgium sweltered under a third heatwave, adding to the almost 2,600 excess deaths recorded during the previous two bouts of high temperatures, the Sciensano national public health institute said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday slammed the Moroccan government for "unacceptable" comments about Ceuta and Melilla, in rare criticism of Rabat which claims sovereignty over Spain's north African territories.

After the mass migrant entry into Ceuta from Morocco in late July, throughout August "we heard two of their ministers make unacceptable comments about Ceuta and Melilla," Sanchez told parliament, revealing Spain summoned Morocco's ambassador on August 21.

Beijing urged France on Thursday to abandon its recently implemented law on ultra-fast fashion, lambasting the new measure targeting Chinese firms including Shein and Temu as "clearly discriminatory".

"China urges France to immediately halt the implementation of the anti-ultra-fast fashion law," commerce ministry spokeswoman Huang Ling said at a news conference.

Kuwait's foreign ministry on Thursday lambasted Tehran after the latest overnight attack targeting the tiny Gulf state, as hostilities between Iran and the United States reignited over the past days.

In a statement, the foreign ministry called the strikes "a direct threat to its (Kuwait's) security and stability, and the safety of its citizens and residents on its territory, and a grave breach of the rules of international law".