The symbolism will be palpable when leaders of the world's rich democracies sit down in Hiroshima, a city whose name evokes the tragedy of war, to tackle a host of challenges including Russia's invasion of Ukraine and rising tensions in Asia.

The attention on the war in Europe comes just days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy completed a whirlwind trip to meet many of the Group of Seven leaders now heading to Japan for the summit starting Friday. That tour was aimed at adding to his country's weapons stockpile and building political support ahead of a widely anticipated counteroffensive to reclaim lands occupied by Moscow's forces.

A Moscow court has ordered the arrest of prominent film producer Alexander Rodnyansky and theater director Ivan Vyrypaev for "spreading false information" about the Russian army.

The initial court hearings against Rodnyansky and Vyrypaev were held on 27 April, but not reported by the court until Wednesday.

More than 40 countries at a summit of European leaders have backed a system to estimate the damage Russia is causing during the war in Ukraine, in the hopes Moscow can be forced to compensate victims and help rebuild the nation once the conflict is over.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine was the dominant topic during the meeting in the Icelandic capital, Reykjavík, where delegations from Council of Europe member states discussed how the continent's preeminent human rights organization could support Kyiv.

A Tunisian appeals court has sentenced a journalist to five years in prison for revealing details of a counterterrorism operation and refusing to reveal his sources, according to his lawyer, prompting outcry from media rights advocates.

Khalifa Guesmi's lawyer said he would appeal to Tunisia's highest court. More than 30 rights groups issued a statement denouncing the conviction and expressing concern about a growing crackdown on dissent.

Russia has frozen the bank accounts of Finland's diplomatic representations in Moscow and St. Petersburg, disrupting money flow and forcing the country's missions to resort to cash payments, the Finnish foreign minister said Wednesday.

Pekka Haavisto said Moscow's move at the end of April breaches the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and Helsinki has delivered a diplomatic note on the matter to Russia.

The leaders of South Korea and Canada on Wednesday vowed to strengthen their security and economic cooperation to address challenges posed by North Korea and expand Canadian supplies of minerals crucial to South Korea's technology industry as they held a summit in Seoul.

The meeting between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came before they travel to Japan for the weekend's Group of Seven meetings, where geopolitical uncertainties worsened by Russia's war on Ukraine, China's regional assertiveness and North Korea's nuclear ambitions are expected to drive discussions.

Arab foreign ministers met Wednesday in Saudi Arabia ahead of the Arab League's annual summit in the kingdom to discuss the upcoming gathering's agenda and draft resolutions.

This year's summit, starting Friday in the city of Jeddah, will mark the readmittance of war-torn Syria into the 22-member league, after a 12-year suspension. Syria's membership was frozen following Syrian President Bashar Assad's brutal crackdown on the 2011 mass protests against his rule. The country quickly descended into a brutal civil war that has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country's pre-war population of 23 million.

There's a two-out-of-three chance within the next five years that the world will temporarily reach the internationally accepted global temperature threshold for limiting the worst effects of climate change, a new World Meteorological Organization report forecasts.

It likely would only be a fleeting and less worrisome flirtation with the agreed-upon climate danger point, the United Nations weather agency said Wednesday. That's because scientists expect a temporary burst of heat from an El Nino will supercharge human-caused warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas to new heights and then slip back down a bit.

Officials in northern Italy warned residents to get to higher ground Wednesday amid fears that rain-swollen rivers would again burst their banks, after flooding killed at least five people, forced the evacuation of some 5,000 and suspended some train services.

Days of heavy rain stretched across a broad swath of northern Italy and the Balkans, where "apocalyptic" floods, landslides and evacuations were also reported in Croatia, Bosnia and Slovenia.

A searing heat wave in parts of southern Asia in April this year was made at least 30 times more likely by climate change, according to a rapid study by international scientists released Wednesday.

Sizzling temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) were recorded in monitoring stations in parts of India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Laos last month — which was unusually high for the time of year.