Deadly clashes between India and Pakistan have prompted concern and calls for restraint from around the world on Wednesday.

Attacks by Ukrainian long-range drones caused flight disruption at Moscow's main airports for a third straight day on Wednesday, authorities said, as Russia prepared to receive the Chinese president and other foreign leaders for the annual Victory Day military parade in Red Square.

India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery fire along their contested frontier on Wednesday after New Delhi launched deadly missile strikes on its arch-rival, in the worst violence between the nuclear-armed neighbors in two decades.

Russia will stick to its plans to halt fire on Ukraine between May 8-10, but will respond to attacks by Kyiv's forces, the Kremlin said Tuesday, days after Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the truce proposal as a "game" and "manipulation".

"President (Vladimir) Putin's initiative for a temporary ceasefire," remains in force, the Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, but added that "an adequate response will be given immediately" if Ukraine does not also halt combat operations.

Cities from London to Moscow will be awash with parades, flyovers and memorials this week as the world marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day — the day Nazi Germany surrendered to Allied forces.

The surrender didn't end World War II because the war against Japan continued in the Far East. However, it was a moment of celebration for the servicemen and women who battled Adolf Hitler's armies, as well as civilians across Europe who had been bombed, invaded and subjugated since the invasion of Poland in 1938.

In a forest near Berlin, the remains of 107 fallen Wehrmacht soldiers were ceremoniously interred last week. High school students placed white gerbera daisies on small black coffins, and German soldiers lowered them respectfully into a large, freshly dug grave as a military band played a solemn tune.

Hundreds of villagers and relatives of the fallen watched silently, some wiping tears off their cheeks, as the soldiers who died in one of the last large World War II battles fighting for Adolf Hitler's army got their final resting place.

Conservative leader Friedrich Merz 's bid to become Germany's 10th chancellor since World War II failed in the first round of voting in parliament on Tuesday by six votes, a vote he had been widely expected to win smoothly.

Merz needed a majority of 316 out of 630 votes in a secret ballot. He only received 310 votes. The parties were now to regroup to discuss the next step but it was not immediately clear how long the process could take.

Sudan's paramilitary unleashed drones on the Red Sea city of Port Sudan early Tuesday, hitting key targets there, including the airport, the port and a hotel, military officials said. The barrage was the second such attack this week on a city that had been a hub for people fleeing Sudan's two-year war.

There was no immediate word on any casualties or the extent of the damage. Local media reported loud sound of explosions and fires at the port and the airport. Footage circulating online showed thick smoke rising over the area.

Iran is talking tough — while still wanting to talk more with the United States over a possible nuclear deal.

In the last days, Tehran has backed an attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels that slipped through Israel's missile defenses to strike near Ben-Gurion International Airport. It aired footage of its own ballistic missile test while defense minister called out threats by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth against the Islamic Republic. And an organization linked to its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard unveiled a new mural with a map of Israel overlaid by possible missile targets in the shape of a Yemeni jambiyya, an ornamental dagger worn by Yemeni men.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he is directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a hard-to-reach California island off San Francisco that has been closed for more than 60 years.

In a post on his Truth Social site Sunday evening, Trump wrote that, "For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering. When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That's the way it's supposed to be."