Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel defended his country's military preparedness exercises as a deterrent against potential aggression from the United States.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought more air defense suppport from allies on Sunday as hundreds of buildings in Kyiv were still without heating for a second day after Russian strikes.

The decapitated body of a woman, whose legs were also cut off, was found in a rubbish bin in Istanbul overnight, Turkish media reported Sunday, sparking fury from women's groups.

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a force which was key in putting down recent nationwide protests in a crackdown that left thousands dead, is "more ready than ever, finger on the trigger," its commander said Saturday, as U.S. warships headed toward the Middle East.

Ukraine on Saturday accused Russia of undermining negotiations to end their almost four-year war by launching fresh deadly strikes, as officials from both countries and the United States met for a second day of direct talks in Abu Dhabi.

The United Nations rights chief decried Friday that "thousands" of people, including children, had died in Iran's crackdown on nationwide protests, and urged the authorities to "end their brutal repression".

Speaking at the start of a U.N. Human Rights Council urgent meeting on the situation in Iran, Volker Turk urged the authorities in Tehran "to reconsider, to pull back, and to end their brutal repression".

U.S. President Donald Trump provoked outrage and distress in the U.K. on Friday with his suggestion that troops from NATO countries stayed away from the frontline during the war in Afghanistan.

In an interview with Fox News in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Trump said he was not sure NATO would be there to support the U.S. if and when requested.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday withdrew an invite for Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney to join his newly constituted "Board of Peace."

"Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada's joining," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said negotiating teams from Washington, Moscow and Kyiv would discuss territorial control of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region at talks beginning Friday in the United Arab Emirates.

"The Donbas is a key issue. It will be discussed in the modality that the three parties see fit in Abu Dhabi today and tomorrow," Zelensky told journalists, including from AFP, in an online briefing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the settlement in Ukraine with U.S. President Donald Trump's envoys during marathon overnight talks, and the Kremlin insisted that the territorial issue needs to be resolved to reach a peace deal.

The Kremlin meeting, which lasted past 3 a.m. Friday, came hours after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sharply criticized his European allies Thursday for what he cast as their slow and fragmented response to Russia's nearly four-year full-scale invasion that he said has left Ukraine at the mercy of Putin amid an ongoing U.S. push for a peace settlement.