China on Wednesday defended its international scientific exchange programs in the wake of the conviction of a Harvard University professor charged with hiding his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment program.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said China manages such exchanges along the same lines as the U.S. and other countries.

The pipeline is built and being filled with natural gas. But Russia's Nord Stream 2 faces a rocky road before any gas flows to Germany, with its new leaders adopting a more skeptical tone toward the project and tensions ratcheting up over Russia's troop buildup at the Ukrainian border.

The pipeline opposed by Ukraine, Poland and the U.S. awaits approval from Germany and the European Union to bypass other countries and start bringing natural gas directly to Europe. The continent is struggling with a shortage that has sent prices surging, fueling inflation and raising fears about what would come next if gas supplies become critically low.

Greece's coast guard says one migrant has died and dozens are feared missing after a boat sank off the coast of the island of Folegandros.

The body of the unidentified man was recovered during an ongoing search and rescue operation launched early Wednesday after the boat sank some 180 kilometers (112 miles) southeast of Athens. The coast guard said 12 people, all believed to be from Iraq, had been rescued and transported to the nearby island of Santorini.

The U.N. chief has warned that the international community is unlikely to come forth with much-needed support for Lebanon amid its persistent government paralysis and as the country struggles through a "very dramatic" crisis.

Antonio Guterres' remarks came at the end of his three-day visit during which he repeatedly urged Lebanon's political leadership to work together to resolve the economic and financial crisis. He also met with members of civil society groups and the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.

Each year, thousands of people travel to the Turkish city of Konya to attend a weeklong series of events and ceremonies that mark the death of the 13th-century Islamic poet, scholar and Sufi mystic Jalaladdin Rumi.

Instead of mourning his death, however, the ceremonies celebrate what his followers believe is his union with God.

Virtually every household in the Gaza Strip relies on batteries to keep their home running -- a result of years of chronic power outages.

These batteries, fueling everything from lights to internet routers to solar panels, have helped mitigate one crisis. But they are causing another one as huge mounds of old and used batteries pile up in a territory lacking the ability to safely dispose of them.

Israeli troops have killed a Palestinian man who allegedly tried to ram his vehicle into a military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, army officials said.

According to Palestinian media, the soldiers opened fire at the vehicle, killing the man and causing his car to veer off course, crash into a military vehicle and burst into flames near the northern West Bank town of Jenin.

A Libyan parliamentary committee said Wednesday that it has become "impossible" to hold a long-awaited presidential election in two days as scheduled, in a major blow to international efforts to end a decade of chaos in the oil-rich country.

It was the first official statement that the vote would not happen on Friday, although it had been widely expected amid mounting challenges and calls for a delay. For nearly a year, the election was the lynchpin of international efforts to bring peace to Libya, and many have warned that either scenario — holding the vote on time or postponing it — could be a destabilizing setback.

The United States and Israel need a "common strategy" as world powers negotiate a new nuclear deal with Iran, the White House's national security adviser said Wednesday.

Jake Sullivan spoke ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and other Israeli security officials in Jerusalem. He said the meeting came at a "critical juncture for both of our countries on a major set of security issues."

The U.N. human rights office on Tuesday called for an independent investigation into allegations of sexual violence including rape and gang rape during mass anti-coup protests in Sudan earlier this week, a spokeswoman said.

Liz Throssell, a spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights office in Geneva, said they received "disturbing" reports alleging that 13 women and girls were raped or gang raped in the demonstrations on Sunday in the capital, Khartoum.