Global

Emirati astronaut Nora AlMatrooshi has become the first Arab woman to graduate from NASA's training program.

Mediators struggled on Thursday to reach a truce in Israel's war with Hamas that entered its sixth month with dozens more killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory threatened by famine. The ministry said 83 more people had been killed over the previous day, adding to a toll it says has reached 30,800, mostly women and children, in a war that China called "a disgrace to civilisation".

Around 900 luxury watches worth almost $13 million are missing in Japan after a site renting them out folded and its owner fled to Dubai, local media reported. The owners of the Rolexes and other pricey timepieces earned monthly deposit fees by loaning them to Osaka-based Toke Match, which would then rent them to customers.

Sweden has not been involved in a war, including World War II, since the Napoleonic conflicts of the early 19th century. But Finland and Sweden launched a joint bid after Russia in 2022 invaded Ukraine, which had unsuccessfully sought to join NATO.

Thailand is a major transit hub for wildlife smugglers, who often sell the animals in China and Vietnam, although recent years have seen an uptick in trafficking to India.

The number of people who fled their homes in northern Mozambique has peaked at over 112,000 in the last two months due to jihadist violence.

The world's biggest digital companies will be forced to comply from Thursday with strict EU rules that Brussels hopes will make the online market fairer for all. The European Union in September named six so-called gatekeepers and 22 of their platforms including Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn that must adhere to the rules: Google's Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok parent ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft.

The 90-year-old is wanted in the United States over the rape of a 13-year-old in 1977 and faces several other accusations of alleged sexual assault dating back decades and past the statute of limitations, all claims he has rejected.

Envoys from the Palestinian militant group and the United States were expected to meet with Qatari and Egyptian mediators for a third day of negotiations over a six-week truce, for the exchange of dozens of remaining hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and the flow of aid to Gaza.