The foreign ministers of Iran and Syria, two allies of Russia, discussed the war in Ukraine and other developments during a meeting in Damascus on Wednesday. Syria's top diplomat said Moscow is defending its people.

Faisal Mekdad spoke to reporters in Damascus after his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, held talks with President Bashar Assad, Mekdad and top security official Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk.

The search for clues into why a Chinese commercial jetliner dove suddenly and crashed into a mountain in southern China was suspended Wednesday as rain slickened the debris field and filled the red-dirt gash formed by the plane's fiery impact.

Earlier, searchers had used hand tools, drones and sniffer dogs under rainy conditions to comb the heavily forested slopes for the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, as well as any human remains. Crews also worked to pump water from the pit created when the plane hit the ground, but their efforts were suspended around midmorning because small landslides were possible on the steep, slick slopes.

Ukrainian leaders accused Russia of seizing 15 rescue workers and drivers from a humanitarian convoy trying to get desperately needed food and other supplies into the bloodied port city of Mariupol, which also came under naval attack after weeks of air and land strikes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy estimated that 100,000 civilians remained in Mariupol, scene of some of the war's worst devastation, as Russia presses a nearly month-old offensive by bombarding cities and towns. Those made it out described a shattered city.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday that this week’s meeting between NATO leaders should be focused on ways of securing a cease-fire in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and not just on sanctions and deterrence.

“Everyone’s first aim should be a cease-fire,” Cavusoglu told Turkish journalists on the sideline of an Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Pakistan. “It should be to stop the war that is going on right now. Everyone should act responsibly and constructively.”

Ukrainian forces said they retook a strategically important suburb of the capital early Tuesday, while Russia's attack on the embattled southern port of Mariupol raged unabated, with fleeing civilians describing relentless bombardments and corpses lying in the streets.

While Russian forces carried on with the siege of Mariupol after the southern port city's defenders refused demands to surrender, the Kremlin's ground offensive in other parts of the country advanced slowly or not at all, knocked back by lethal hit-and-run attacks by the Ukrainians.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has remained immersed in technology while also pursuing divergent interests since his 1985 departure from the revolutionary company he started with the late Steve Jobs.

Ukraine rejected a Russian ultimatum to surrender the besieged port city of Mariupol on Monday, as overnight Russian strikes destroyed a shopping mall in the capital Kyiv, killing eight people.

High-risk COVID-19 patients now have new treatments they can take at home to stay out of the hospital — if doctors get the pills to them fast enough.

Health systems around the country are rushing out same-day prescription deliveries. Some clinics have started testing and treating patients in one visit, an initiative that President Joe Biden's administration recently touted.

Barcelona's players had just returned to the locker room when Gerard Piqué put out a message on Twitter.

"We are back," it read.

The Czech Republic will be without its best attacker for the World Cup qualifying playoff against Sweden after Patrik Schick was ruled out on Monday because of injury.

The striker was selected in the Czechs' squad last week despite having not played since Feb. 18 because of a calf problem.