Given past form, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is also capable of a complete surprise in the Oct. 6 announcement.

As the southern hemisphere transitions into spring, the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said in a statement that Antarctic sea ice had only reached a maximum size of 16.96 million square kilometers (6.55 million square miles) this year, on September 10.

Belgium is replacing its F-16s with F-35 fighter jets and its defence ministry had said earlier the F-16s were too old for Ukraine to use in battle, though De Croo said they might still be of use, for example in training pilots.

Washington had promised the tanks to Kyiv at the beginning of the year, part of more than $43 billion in security assistance pledged by the United States since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Kim left Pyongyang for Russia on Sunday on his private train, the North's state media reported on Tuesday, accompanied by top arms industry and military officials and the foreign minister.

The Russian president is skipping this year's gathering in New Delhi, avoiding possible political opprobrium and any risk of criminal detention under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant.

Fierce storms have battered Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria following a period of extreme heat and devastating wildfires, the kind of extreme weather climate experts say is becoming more frequent because of human-induced climate change.

Young online celebrities best known for posting about video games, their dogs or their holidays to millions of followers are also dropping in unexpected plugs for gasoline stations, fuel rewards and club cards.

Hartwig Fischer, a German art historian who had led the museum since 2016, said there could have been a better response to warnings that an employee may have been stealing items and the failings "must ultimately" rest with him.

Fire crews were battling 517 wildfires that had broken out across Greece since last Friday, he said, fueled by high temperatures and in some cases gale force winds.

Denmark stepped up security earlier this month following the backlash, as did neighbouring Sweden which has also seen a spate of Quran burnings in recent months.

Russian authorities have said Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on the plane which fell from the sky northwest of Moscow on Wednesday evening, two months to the day after he led an abortive mutiny against the army top brass.

"I don't know for a fact what happened, but I'm not surprised," Biden said.

The crash comes two months after Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a short-lived rebellion -- seen as the biggest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin's authority since he came to power.

The blaze broke out on Wednesday in a mountainous national park around the Mount Teide volcano, Spain's highest peak, amid hot and dry weather.

"Multi-purpose nuclear submarines of the Yasen-M project will ... be equipped with the Zircon missile system on a regular basis," , Alexei Rakhmanov, chief executive officer of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), told RIA. 

France in 2019 enacted a copyright rule dubbed "neighbouring rights" that compels large online platforms to open talks with publishers seeking remuneration for news.

Trade between the two countries amounted to US$2.7 billion in 2022, a 38 percent increase from the previous year. The rise in trade volume was thanks to the entry into force of the Indonesia-European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in November 2021.

The meeting would bring senior officials from up to 30 countries, including Indonesia, Egypt, Mexico, Chile and Zambia, to Jeddah on Aug 5 and 6, the report said, citing diplomats involved in the discussion. 

Denmark and Sweden have said they deplore the burning of the Quran but cannot prevent it under rules protecting free speech. Last week, protesters in Iraq set the Swedish embassy in Baghdad ablaze.

The most senior diplomats of Indonesia and Portugal have agreed to pursue cooperation on renewable energy and palm oil, despite the former's insistence that the European Union is being discriminatory against its top export.

The motion, brought by Pakistan in response to last month's incident, seeks a report from the UN rights chief on the topic and calls on states to review their laws and plug gaps that may "impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred". 

Rutte's coalition will stay on as caretaker government until a new administration is formed after the next elections, a process which in the fractured Dutch political landscape usually takes months.

In its annual report, ISTAT said the share of the population aged over 100 had tripled since the beginning of the century and totalled almost 22,000 people as of January this year, most of them women.

The decision to return some 478 objects followed recommendations by a government-appointed commission last year looking into illegal Dutch colonial acquisitions now being displayed in museums in the Netherlands.

The Indonesian Embassy in Paris has advised all Indonesians in France to reach out to the embassy's hotline should they need any assistance amid the unrest sparked by the recent fatal police shooting of a teenager in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

"The Swedish Government fully understands that the Islamophobic acts committed by individuals at demonstrations in Sweden can be offensive to Muslims," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The new minister Kim Yung-ho is a conservative scholar and outspoken critic human rights abuses in North Korea, which Yoon has sought to spotlight amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The king was speaking at a ceremony marking the 160th anniversary of the legal abolition of slavery in the Netherlands, including its former colonies in the Caribbean.

A total of 486 people had been arrested across France as of 3:00 am (0100 GMT) Sunday, the interior ministry said, though the level of violence appeared to have declined since rioting first broke out over the death of Nahel M. in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday.