Oil prices surged on Wednesday after US President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of "sanctioned" oil tankers heading to and leaving Venezuela.

Venezuela struck a defiant note Wednesday, insisting that crude oil exports were not impacted by US President Donald Trump's announcement of a blockade.

The Venezuelan military said Wednesday it was "not intimidated" by threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil vessels heading to and leaving the South American country.

The head of Israel's Mossad intelligence service said on Tuesday that the country must "ensure" Iran doesn't restart its nuclear program, six months after it bombed Tehran's atomic facilities during a 12-day war.

Dozens of residents from the West Bank's emptied Nour Shams refugee camp returned on Wednesday to retrieve belongings ahead of the Israeli military's demolition of 25 residential buildings there.

Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar headed to Bulgaria on Wednesday to question a shipowner wanted in connection with the catastrophic 2020 Beirut port blast, a judicial official told AFP.

The long-awaited questioning comes after a court this month refused Lebanon's request to extradite Igor Grechushkin, a 48-year-old Russian-Cypriot who was arrested in September at Sofia airport.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday the bloc must take a decision on financing Ukraine at a crunch summit this week, with leaders under pressure to agree a plan to use frozen Russian assets.

"There is no more important act of European defence than supporting Ukraine's defence. The next days will be a crucial step for securing this, it is up to us to choose how we fund Ukraine's fight," von der Leyen told EU lawmakers.

Nepal launched on Tuesday a nationwide tiger census, a key step in conservation efforts to aid the recovery of the big cats that once faced near extinction in the Himalayan nation.

The survey will be conducted in four national parks in Nepal's forested southern plains, covering more than 8,000 square kilometres (3,000 square miles) of protected areas and adjoining forests, officials said.

The European Union looks set to scrap a landmark 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel cars on Tuesday, as part of a package of reforms aimed at supporting Europe's embattled auto industry.

Iraq's transport ministry said Tuesday that a flight operated by Greece's Aegean Airlines had been the first European aircraft in 35 years to land at Baghdad's international airport.