South Korea on Monday expressed hopes for resumption of diplomacy between the U.S. and North Korea to ease animosities on the Korean Peninsula, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said he ordered annual U.S. military exercises with South Korea to be scaled back.

Trump cited his good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the decision. The announcement baffled many in South Korea, a key U.S. ally in Asia where national security is a top priority due to threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.

The deal that U.S. President Donald Trump signed at Versailles in June set an ambitious 60-day deadline for ending the war with Iran and reaching an accord on its nuclear program.

The deadline was Monday, and the two sides are further apart than they were then.

The attacks began on a July weekend and have continued for a month, stretching from Moscow and St. Petersburg, to cities in the south, and eastward to the Ural Mountains. The targets weren't oil refineries, maritime hubs or arms plants hit by other Ukrainian strikes, but warehouses that bring the convenience of online shopping across the breadth of Russia.

Ukraine's drones have pummeled the giant depots belonging to Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer, burning billions of dollars' worth of merchandise and bringing the war home to the broad public.

Thousands of people were still waiting for aid on the Indonesian island of Flores as the country celebrated its 81st Independence Day on Monday, days after a powerful earthquake killed at least 54 people, injured dozens and damaged hundreds of homes and other buildings.

Many residents spent the day mourning victims, searching for loved ones and waiting for aid to arrive to communities still cut off by the deadly quake.

Hundreds of drones targeted Moscow on Sunday as Russia launched missile strikes that killed three people and wounded more than a dozen in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, officials on the two sides said.

Amid the intense hostilities, three people were also killed in the Russian city of Rostov, while a Spanish NATO fighter jet shot down a drone that crossed into Romanian territory -- the second time in two days that the war has spilled over into eastern Europe.

U.S. President Donald Trump has dismissed concerns over living conditions and the mental health of service members on a U.S. aircraft carrier deployed against Iran, while confirming the ship would soon rotate out.

Asked by reporters whether family members were worried about the situation on the USS Abraham Lincoln, Trump said "no, they're not."

Iran on Saturday fired back at U.S. President Donald Trump's claim that he would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz part of U.S. territory, saying the crucial energy waterway it has blockaded "will remain Iranian".

Ash spewing from Sicily's Mount Etna has forced the closure of the Italian island's largest airport for the fifth consecutive day, stranding hundreds of summer holiday travelers during the busiest travel week of the year.

Catania's airport will remain closed until early Saturday, which falls on the Ferragosto holiday that marks the height of the Italian summer holiday season when millions flock to the sea and mountains, deserting Italian cities.

Russian jet-powered drones struck a home in northern Ukraine on Friday, killing a 29-year-old woman and her 9-year-old son, officials said.

The strike came a day after the United Nations said July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since the weeks following Moscow's all-out invasion of its neighbor more than four years ago.

As Afghanistan's Taliban rulers mark five years since sweeping back to power, some Kabul residents said they feel safer after decades of conflict and upheaval but stressed the leaders should now focus on creating jobs and expanding access to schools in the country where girls above the age of 12 are banned from education.

"Thank God, the past five years have passed in safety," said Mohammad Qasim, 30, reflecting on the anniversary that comes against a backdrop of economic hardship in a conflict-stricken country. "Our wish and hope from the government is to create job opportunities for the youth."