The Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Sunday with Arab partners as he pressed ahead with an urgent Middle East diplomatic mission to prevent Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza from spreading.

The military government acknowledged it withdrew forces from a city on the northeastern border with China after it was taken over by an alliance of ethnic armed groups it has been battling for months.

The militia fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel, warning that the barrage was its initial response to the targeted killing of a top leader from the allied Hamas group in Lebanon's capital.

The new round of artillery drills near the two countries' disputed sea boundary came a day after the North's similar exercises prompted South Korea to respond with its own firing drills.

Alaska Airlines grounded all of its Boeing 737-9 aircraft, hours after a window on one such plane blew out midair and forced an emergency landing in Oregon. The airline said the plane landed safely.

Mukhtar Babayev, has been named to lead the United Nations' annual climate talks later this year, prompting concern from some climate activists over his former ties to the state oil company.

The rival Koreas fired artillery rounds into the sea as part of provocative drills along their disputed sea boundary Friday, in violation of the fragile 2018 inter-Korean agreement.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the United States and China must insist on peaceful coexistence and promised that giant pandas would return to the U.S. — specifically California — by year end.

Soul was a 1970s heartthrob who co-starred as the blond half of the crime-fighting duo "Starsky & Hutch" and topped the music charts with the ballad "Don't Give Up on Us."

The bombings, which killed at least 84, targeted a commemoration for an Iranian general slain in a 2020 U.S. drone strike. Wednesday's event was the worst militant attack to strike Iran in decades.

The organization announced that the rare herding breed is now eligible for thousands of dog shows, including the prominent Westminster Kennel Club show.

Ukrainian authorities said 230 Ukrainian prisoners of war returned home in the first exchange in almost five months. Russia's Defense Ministry said 248 Russian servicemen have been freed.