A large explosion hit an arms depot belonging to an Iranian-backed militia faction north of Baghdad on Tuesday, the latest in a series of mysterious blasts at military bases and munitions depots around the country in the past few weeks.

The founder of Chinese tech giant Huawei said Tuesday he expects no relief from U.S. export curbs due to the political climate in Washington but expressed confidence the company will thrive because it is developing its own technology.

Ren Zhengfei also said he doesn't want relief from U.S. sanctions if it requires China to make concessions in a tariff war, even if that means his daughter, who is under house arrest in Canada on U.S. criminal charges, faces a longer legal struggle.

Facing pressure to end months of antigovernment protests, Hong Kong's leader pledged Tuesday to open up dialogue with city residents in an effort to narrow differences.

However, Chief Executive Carrie Lam offered no concessions to the protest movement and a key organizer of the mass rallies dismissed her plan to immediately set up a "communication platform," underlining the challenge in resolving the semiautonomous Chinese city's political crisis.

Thousands of schoolteachers in Hong Kong marched to the official residence of the city's leader on Saturday as another weekend of protests got underway in the Chinese territory.

An overflow crowd rallied at a nearby public square before setting off on streets that had been closed to traffic, carrying signs that read "Protect the next generation" and umbrellas to ward off intermittent downpours.

The U.N. expert on human rights in Iran says last year saw increasing restrictions on the right to freedom of expression and continuing violations of the right to life, liberty and a fair trial in the Islamic Republic, including 253 reported executions of adults and children.

Javaid Rehman said in a report to the General Assembly circulated Friday that while the number of executions was the lowest since 2007, "the number of executions remains one of the highest in the world."

North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range missiles into the sea on Friday and launched a scathing attack on "foolish" calls for dialogue from South Korean President Moon Jae-in, rejecting further peace talks with Seoul.

At least one gunman opened fire on police Wednesday as they were serving a drug warrant in Philadelphia, wounding six officers and triggering a standoff that extended into the night, authorities said.

Two other officers were trapped inside the house for about five hours after the shooting broke out but were freed by a SWAT team well after darkness fell on the residential neighborhood.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended his government's controversial measure to strip the disputed Kashmir region of its statehood and special constitutional provisions in an Independence Day speech Thursday, as about 4 million Kashmiris stayed indoors for the 11th day of an unprecedented security lockdown and communications blackout.

In his live address from the capital's Mughal-era Red Fort, Modi said that Kashmir's previous status — some political autonomy and a ban on outsiders buying land and taking public sector jobs in the Muslim-majority Himalayan region — had fueled a movement for separatism and was unjust for Kashmiri women, because the law said that they lost their inheritance rights if marrying a person from outside the region.

A top Trump administration official says that the famous inscription on the Statue of Liberty welcoming immigrants into the country is about "people coming from Europe" and that America is looking to receive migrants "who can stand on their own two feet."

The comments on Tuesday from Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, came a day after the Trump administration announced it would seek to deny green cards to migrants who seek Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers or other forms of public assistance. The move, and Cuccinelli's defense, prompted an outcry from Democrats and immigration advocates who said the policy would favor wealthier immigrants and disadvantage those from poorer countries in Latin America and Africa.

A Syrian war monitor and state-controlled media say that government forces have captured two northwestern villages, inching closer to a major rebel-held town.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked war monitoring group, says Syrian troops captured the villages of Tel Aas and Kfar Eean early on Wednesday. The villages are just west of the rebel stronghold of Khan Sheikhoun.