The war games will feature live-fire exercises in the north of the country facing the Taiwan Strait, as well as a province off the disputed South China Sea, where the Philippines and China have engaged in repeated confrontations.

Thousands of American and Philippine troops, joined for the first time by a significant contingent of Japanese forces, began annual military exercises Monday set against the backdrop of the Middle East war.

Victims of Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades began government-supervised visits to their ravaged former homes on Monday for the first time since the November blaze, looking to retrieve personal items that might have survived.

North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles towards the sea off its east coast, South Korea and Japan said on Sunday, marking the latest in a flurry of launches by Pyongyang to accelerate efforts to boost its military capabilities.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Saturday intended to speed up access to medical research and treatment based on psychedelic drugs.

Banga's comments, on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, reflect growing recognition of the huge impact the war is already having on global growth and inflation, with developing countries likely to be hit the hardest.

Pope Leo warned of the risk of democracies sliding into "majoritarian tyranny" on Tuesday, in a letter issued by the Vatican two days after US President Donald Trump attacked the pontiff on social media.

Pope Leo sought to downplay his feud with US President Donald Trump on Saturday, saying reporting about comments he has made so far during his Africa tour "has not been accurate in all its aspects".

President Prabowo Subianto was hosted by counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace Tuesday, where they "discussed strengthening strategic cooperation," a statement from the government said.

"In view of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with Israel," Meloni said on the sidelines of an event in Verona, according to Italian news agencies ANSA and AGI.

Among the vessels that made it through on Saturday, five of them last loaded cargoes from Iran ranging from oil products to metals. Three of them are liquefied petroleum gas carriers with one each heading to China and India.

Concerns grew on Monday that the ceasefire between the United States and Iran might not hold after the US said it had seized an Iranian cargo ship that tried to run its blockade and Iran vowed to retaliate.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, said in a televised address that there has been "progress" in talks with Washington "but there are many gaps and some fundamental points remain."