A mess of ice, sleet and snow lingered across much of the southern U.S. as thousands in Texas endured freezing temperatures with no power, including many in the state capital of Austin, but a warming trend was forecast to bring relief from the deadly storm Thursday.

However, an Arctic cold front is expected to move from Canada into the northern Plains and Upper Midwest and sweep into the Northeast by Friday, bringing snow and bitter cold with windchills of more than minus 50 (minus 45 Celsius) in northern New England, according to the National Weather Service.

Pakistan's Peshawar was once known as "the city of flowers," surrounded by orchards of pear, quince and pomegranate trees. It was a trading city, situated at the gates of a key mountain valley connecting South and Central Asia.

But for the past four decades, it has borne the brunt of rising militancy in the region, fueled by the conflicts in neighboring Afghanistan and the geopolitical games of great powers.

Beyoncé is taking her "Renaissance" global — the superstar will start a world tour in Sweden in May with stops throughout Europe and the United States.

The highly anticipated tour announcement she made on Instagram and her website Wednesday comes days before the Grammy Awards on Sunday, where the global superstar is the most nominated artist and could make Recording Academy history.

Top European Union officials arrived in Kyiv on Thursday for talks with the Ukrainian government as rescue crews dug through the rubble of an apartment building in eastern Ukraine that was struck by a Russian missile, killing at least three people and wounding 21 others.

The scene of devastation in the eastern Donetsk provincial city of Kramatorsk, where emergency workers spent the night searching for survivors after the missile hit late Wednesday, served as a grim reminder of the war's toll almost a year after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The European Union's parliament on Thursday removed the protective immunity of two lawmakers linked to one of the bloc's biggest-ever corruption scandals, paving the way for them to be questioned by Belgian investigators.

In a show of hands, the assembly voted overwhelmingly to lift the parliamentary immunity of Belgian lawmaker Marc Tarabella and Italian Andrea Cozzolino. Both men previously said, through their lawyers, that they are willing to cooperate with the Belgian authorities.

Syria on Thursday dismissed the global chemical weapons watchdog's statement that investigators found "reasonable grounds to believe" the air force dropped two cylinders of chlorine gas on the city of Douma in 2018.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons produced a detailed report following a fact finding mission that investigated the April 7, 2018 attack. Medical workers and activists said at the time more than 40 people were killed in the attack. OPCW inspectors headed to the site of the attack days later.

Israeli police on Thursday arrested an American tourist after he allegedly knocked down and broke a statue of Jesus in a church in Jerusalem's Old City.

Images on social media showed the statue laying horizontally on the floor after apparently being pulled down from a stand at the church. The incident occurred in the Church of the Flagellation, which is located on the Via Dolorosa, the route believed to have been walked by Jesus to his crucifixion.

French naval forces in January seized thousands of assault rifles, machine guns and anti-tank missiles in the Gulf of Oman coming from Iran and heading to Yemen's Houthi rebels, officials said Thursday.

While Iran denied being involved, images of the weapons released by the U.S. military's Central Command showed them to be similar to others captured by American forces in other shipments tied to Tehran.

Israel's West Bank settler population now makes up more than half a million people, a pro-settler group said Thursday, crossing a major threshold. Settler leaders predicted even faster population growth under Israel's new ultranationalist government.

The report, by WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com and based on official figures, showed the settler population grew to 502,991 as of Jan. 1, rising more than 2.5% in 12 months and nearly 16% over the last five years.

Israel's attorney general has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he must not be involved in an overhaul to the country's judicial system proposed by his government, saying in a letter made public Thursday that he risks a conflict of interest in his ongoing corruption trial.

Netanyahu's new far-right government has made changing the legal system a centerpiece of its legislative agenda and despite mounting public criticism, has charged ahead with steps to weaken the Supreme Court and grant politicians less judicial oversight in their policymaking.