Portugal's president has announced that he is dissolving parliament and calling a snap election for Jan. 30, following the minority Socialist government's defeat in a key vote on post-pandemic plans to spend billions of euros in European Union funding.

The announcement, in a televised address to the nation, was widely expected. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had previously said Portugal would go to the ballot box two years ahead of schedule if the government's 2022 state budget proposal was rejected by parliament, which happened last week.

Thousands of Iranians have gathered on Tehran streets for the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy, chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," and burning American and Israeli flags. The embassy takeover triggered a 444-day hostage crisis and break in diplomatic relations that continues to this day.

The government-organized commemoration, long a venue for voicing anti-Western sentiment, typically draws angry crowds each year. Last year, authorities canceled the event due to the still-raging coronavirus pandemic but on Thursday, state TV said that 800 cities across Iran staged demonstrations.

The judge leading investigations into last year's Beirut port blast was forced to stop work Thursday over a lawsuit filed by an ex-minister he had summoned for interrogation.

Tarek Bitar was informed of a "lawsuit submitted by former public works minister Youssef Fenianos... which forced him to pause the probe until a ruling is issued," a court official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The woman in charge of weapons on the movie set where actor Alec Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins said Wednesday night that she had inspected the gun Baldwin shot but doesn't know how a live bullet ended up inside.

"Who put those in there and why is the central question," Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the armorer for the movie "Rust" said in a statement issued by one of her lawyers, Jason Bowles of Albuquerque, New Mexico. "Hannah kept guns locked up, including throughout lunch on the day in question (Oct. 21), and she instructed her department to watch the cart containing the guns when she was pulled away for her other duties or on a lunch break."

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Thursday again urged Information Minister George Kordahi to step down over an unprecedented diplomatic rift with Saudi Arabia, saying his resignation would be "a priority."

“I reiterate my call for the information minister to put national interest first,” Miqati said in a speech from the Grand Serail, shortly after he met in Baabda with President Michel Aoun.

The European Union has announced that talks between world powers and Iran to revive the troubled 2015 Iran nuclear deal will resume in Vienna on Nov. 29.

The EU said the meeting of the commission of the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action will be attended by high-level officials from Iran, China, France, Russia, Germany and Britain.

Lionel Messi was included in the Argentina squad for two upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Brazil despite having struggled with a knee injury in recent weeks.

Messi didn't play in Paris Saint-Germain's 2-2 draw at Red Bull Leipzig in the Champions League Wednesday, but was still included by coach Lionel Scaloni for the games on Nov. 12 and Nov. 16.

Urgent new efforts to calm Ethiopia's escalating war are unfolding Thursday as a U.S. special envoy visits and the president of neighboring Kenya calls for an immediate cease-fire while the country marks a year of conflict.

The lack of dialogue "has been particularly disturbing," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement, as the war that has killed thousands of people and displaced millions since November 2020 threatens to engulf the capital, Addis Ababa. Rival Tigray forces seized key cities in recent days and linked up with another armed group, leading the government of Africa's second most populous country to declare a national state of emergency.

Egypt's president on Wednesday ordered his administration to start moving its offices next month to a sprawling new administrative capital in the desert outside Cairo, a spokesman said.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has directed the government to begin a six-month trial period of working from the new complex starting Dec. 1, according to his spokesman, Bassam Radi.

Ruhollah Parazideh, a wiry 38-year-old with a thick mustache and hair flecked with gray, was desperate for a job. The father of three in southern Iran walked into a local office of a foundation that helps war veterans and their families, pleading for assistance.

Local media reported that Parazideh told officials he would throw himself off their roof if they couldn't help. They tried to reason with him, promising a meager loan, but he left unsatisfied.