Yemen's Huthi rebels are not prepared to hold talks with the government in Saudi Arabia or other "enemy countries", an official said Thursday, after a proposal to meet in Riyadh.

The Iran-backed rebels said they were open to finding a peaceful solution to the seven-year war but baulked at travelling to Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition fighting on the side of the government.

Turkey's central bank kept interest rates unchanged for a third straight month Thursday as consumer prices surge at an eye-popping pace, coming after a series of rate cuts last year triggered a currency crisis that has made it difficult for people to buy basic goods.

The latest official statistics showed inflation above 54.4%. The bank said in a statement that inflation has been driven by "rising energy costs resulting from the heightened regional conflict," referring to Russia's war in Ukraine, and supply side factors affecting food prices.

Tired-looking. Unshaven. Wearing jeans and a hoodie. As he runs for re-election next month, French President Emmanuel Macron released unusual pictures of himself working nights and weekends at the Elysee palace, where he is spending most of his time focusing on the war in Ukraine — while avoiding traditional campaign activities.

If it's a campaign strategy it seems to be paying off, reinforcing his position of frontrunner in the presidential race while making it difficult for other contenders to challenge him.

Authorities are trying to determine why a pickup truck crossed into the opposite lane on a darkened, two-lane West Texas highway before colliding head-on with a van, killing nine people including six New Mexico university students and a golf coach, as well as a 13-year-old boy.

The University of the Southwest students, including one from Portugal and one from Mexico, and the coach were returning from a golf tournament. Also killed in Tuesday evening's fiery crash were the pickup truck's driver, while two Canadian students were hospitalized in critical condition.

President Joe Biden set out to finally complete the "pivot to Asia," a long sought adjustment of U.S. foreign policy to better reflect the rise of America's most significant military and economic competitor: China.

But Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine has made that vexing move even more complicated. China's government has vacillated between full embrace and more measured responses as Russian President Vladimir Putin prosecutes his war, making the decisions for Biden far more layered.

The United Nations' political chief warned Wednesday that Libya could again see two rival administrations and a return to instability, calling for elections as soon as possible to unify the oil-rich North African nation.

Undersecretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo told the U.N. Security Council she is encouraged by support for a U.N. initiative to convene a joint committee from Libya's rival House of Representatives and High State Council with a goal of reaching agreement by both bodies "on a constitutional basis that would lead to elections this year."

U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy are men of different generations, countries and styles — and with very different missions.

Zelenskyy is fighting to save his nation. Biden to restore a shattered world order — without igniting a world war.

The al-Astal family in the Gaza Strip is once again confronting the horrors of war — air raids, food shortages, power cuts, frantic phone calls. But this time, they are on the outside looking in.

They are among dozens of Palestinian-Ukrainian families in the isolated territory who have experienced several wars firsthand — the most recent last May — and are now watching another unfold in Ukraine, where many of them have loved ones.

The assets of Fransabank were seized and all monetary operations were suspended and safes and registers were sealed with red wax, after a depositor filed a lawsuit against the bank.

Earlier this week, Judge Ghada Aoun had also frozen the assets of five of Lebanon’s largest banks and those of their board of directors as she investigates possible transfers of billions of dollars aboard during the country’s economic meltdown.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Germany of putting its economy before his country’s security in the run-up to the Russian invasion.

In an address to Germany’s parliament Thursday, Zelenskyy criticized the German government’s support for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project meant to bring natural gas from Russia. Ukraine and others had opposed the project, warning that it endangered Ukrainian and European security.