A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, shaking the South American nation and neighboring Ecuador and prompting people to evacuate homes and buildings.

The epicenter was in San Jose Del Palmar, a municipality in the Choco region about 250 miles (400 kilometers) west of Colombia's capital, Bogota, the U.S. Geological Survey and Colombia's counterpart reported. The USGS said it struck at a depth of 66 miles (107 kilometers).

The commander leading Ukraine's drone war says his country's recent strikes in Crimea are the first phase of a campaign aimed at rendering the peninsula — illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 — unusable as a staging ground for Russian forces.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian recently met with supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since assuming the post early in the Middle East war, Khamenei's office said Sunday.

The former commander in chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezaei, has been named head of the country's highest national security body, the Iranian presidency announced.

Germany will beef up its anti-drone police unit, the government said Monday, days after an explosives-laden unmanned aerial vehicle was flown into a strategically important airport.

Turkish lawmakers on Monday began debating a bill that would offer limited amnesty for Kurdish militant PKK fighters in a first legislative step to end decades of deadly violence.

Tehran on Monday said Iranians had shown "they are professional chess players" in response to remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump comparing his dealings with Iran to the board game.

Trump on Sunday signaled he was prepared to let economic pressure mount against Iran, apparently backing away from more military strikes after Tehran issued a list of demands for opening the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's foreign ministry said Monday that a defense pact signed last week between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan was "a sign of a change in the perception" of countries in the region towards the United States.

Iran set preconditions on Saturday for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, including compensation for war damages, complicating a potential deal to open the waterway essential to the world economy.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Sunday said they would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States accepts all of Tehran's demands.