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Ecuador qualify for 2026 World Cup after Peru draw

Ecuador qualified for the World Cup for the fifth time in their history on Tuesday after a 0-0 draw with Peru in Lima.

The Ecuadorans, who were eliminated in the group stage of the Qatar World Cup in 2022, grabbed the solitary point needed to qualify despite being reduced to 10 men.

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Greenland ice melted much faster than average in May heatwave

Greenland's ice sheet melted 17 times faster than the historic average during a May heatwave that also hit Iceland, the scientific network World Weather Attribution (WWA) said in a report Wednesday.

"The melting rate of the Greenland ice sheet by, from a preliminary analysis, a factor of 17... means the Greenland ice sheet contribution to sea level rise is higher than it would have otherwise been without this heatwave," one of the authors of the report, Friederike Otto, told reporters, adding that "without climate change this would have been impossible".

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South Korea halts loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts against North

South Korea on Wednesday halted loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts into the nuclear-armed North, the defense ministry said, adding it was a bid to "restore trust" under Seoul's new administration.

The decision to suspend the broadcasts "was made to make good on a promise to restore trust in South-North Korea relations and seek peace on the Korean peninsula", the defense ministry said in a brief statement, adding the halt started Wednesday.

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Police make 'mass arrests' in LA during nighttime curfew

Los Angeles police began arresting people in the city's downtown late Tuesday, as groups gathered in violation of an overnight curfew after a fifth day of protests against Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

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Three Alawites killed after attack on Syria government forces

Three Alawite civilians were killed in western Syria overnight, hours after an attack on government forces killed at least one officer, a war monitor said on Wednesday.

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Gaza rescuers say 31 killed by Israel fire near aid center

The Gaza civil defense agency said 31 people were killed and "about 200" wounded Wednesday when Israeli troops fired on people waiting to enter a food distribution center.

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Sirens in central Israel as army says projectile launched form Yemen

Air raid sirens sounded across central Israel and Jerusalem on Tuesday as the military said it had detected a projectile launched from Yemen.

"The IDF (military) has identified the launch of a missile from Yemen toward Israeli territory," the military said in a statement, adding that sirens were sounded in several areas. AFP reporters heard loud booms over Jerusalem, similar to past interceptions.

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Syria rescuers say two killed in drone strikes on northwest

Two people were killed in separate drone strikes Tuesday on a car and a motorcycle in the northwestern bastion of the Islamist former rebels who now head the Syrian government, rescuers said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the twin drone strikes in the Idlib region but a U.S.-led coalition in Syria has carried out past strikes on jihadists in the area.

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Aoun meets Le Drian, condemns attacks on UNIFIL

After a meeting with French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned "the occasional attacks on UNIFIL patrols", calling them "unjustified and unacceptable".

There have been several confrontations between people in south Lebanon, where Hezbollah holds sway, and U.N. peacekeepers in recent weeks.

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Army searches building in Hadath for Hezbollah weapons

Army forces launched Tuesday a search in a building in a densely populated area of Hadath in Beirut's southern suburbs.

A Lebanese military official said the forces were looking for weapons at the request of a five-member committee supervising the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.

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