The number of violent incidents reported in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia fell slightly on Friday, a day after France imposed a state of emergency as 1,000 promised reinforcements for security services were deployed with increased powers to quell unrest in the archipelago that has long sought independence.

The top French official in the territory, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, announced stringent measures Friday under the state of emergency declared by President Emmanuel Macron. In light of severe public order disturbances, a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. is now in effect.

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico was seriously wounded in an apparent assassination attempt just weeks before a Europe-wide election that has been deeply divisive. He was shot multiple times in an attack in the town of Handlova that authorities described as politically motivated, although they said the suspect did not belong to any political groups.

Here's a global look at other notable assassinations and assassination attempts during the 21st century:

North Korea fired suspected short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Friday, South Korea's military said, a day after South Korea and the U.S. flew powerful fighter jets in a joint drill that the North views as a major security threat.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the weapons launched from the North's east coast Wonsan region traveled about 300 kilometers (185 miles) before landing in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said a North Korean missile landed outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.

French police shot and killed a man armed with a knife and a metal bar who is suspected of having set fire to a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen early on Friday, the latest apparent act in a storm of antisemitism roiling France amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Officers were alerted early Friday morning that smoke was rising from the synagogue and came face to face with the man when they got there, the national police information service said. It said the man surged toward officers with a knife and a metal bar. An officer opened fire and fatally wounded the man, police said. Police said they had not yet identified the man.

Russia launched a ground assault into Ukraine's north east last week to stop cross-border shelling but has no current plans to capture Kharkiv city, President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

"As for what is happening on the Kharkiv front, this is their fault, because they have shelled and continue to shell residential neighbourhoods in border areas," Putin told Russian reporters on a visit to China.

The House delivered a rebuke to President Joe Biden Thursday for pausing a shipment of bombs to Israel, passing legislation that seeks to force the weapons transfer as Republicans worked to highlight Democratic divisions over the Israel-Hamas war.

Seeking to discourage Israel from its offensive on the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah, the Biden administration this month put on hold a weapons shipment of 3,500 bombs — some as large as 2,000 pounds — that are capable of killing hundreds in populated areas. Republicans were outraged, accusing Biden of abandoning the closest U.S. ally in the Middle East.

Nearly 300 signatories have signed an open 10-point letter before next month's European Parliament election, saying lawmakers should be putting democracy at the top of their agenda in an increasingly authoritarian world.

The letter, which was released on Thursday, calls for widening powers to uphold the rule of law, ensuring new digital technologies safeguard human rights, and to place democracy at the heart of the European Union's security, migration, energy, and trade agendas.

Slovakia's populist Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot multiple times and gravely wounded Wednesday, but his deputy prime minister said he believed Fico would survive.

The prime minister had been greeting supporters at an event when the attempted assassination took place, shocking the small country and reverberating across Europe weeks before an election.

The Ukrainian army on Thursday said it had halted the Russian advance in some zones of the northeastern Kharkiv region, where Moscow's troops launched a new offensive on May 10.

"The situation in the Kharkiv sector remains complicated but is evolving in a dynamic manner. Our defence forces have partially stabilised the situation, the advance of the enemy in certain zones and localities has been halted," the army spokesman said.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Thursday that he and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed on the need for a "political solution" to the war in Ukraine, following talks between the two presidents in Beijing.

"Both sides agree that a political solution to the Ukraine crisis is the correct direction," Xi told media alongside Putin in a joint press conference broadcast by Russian television.