Lebanon said Israeli air strikes on Saturday killed more than 55 people, many of them in central Beirut, as Israel's defence minister vowed decisive action against Hezbollah, in a call with his US counterpart.
On Israel's second front, the more than 13-month war with Hamas militants in Gaza, rescuers said pre-dawn Israeli air strikes and tank fire killed 19 people and wounded more than 40.
Saudi Arabia hosts this year's Indian Premier League player auction in a partnership between a money-spinning cricket tournament expanding its global reach and a kingdom using sports to improve its image.
De facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has backed extravagant sports investments -- set to culminate in Saudi Arabia hosting the football World Cup in 2034 -- to diversify its oil-rich economy.
Israel appears to be trying to create a buffer zone in south Lebanon to remove the threat from Hezbollah but its effectiveness in preventing cross-border attacks remains to be seen, observers say.
Israel began heavily bombarding south Lebanon in September, escalating its months-long battle against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and later sending in ground troops.
An official in south Lebanon said more than a dozen border villages have been two-thirds destroyed, while data analysis also points to broad destruction in the frontier area.
Premier League clubs voted to amend sponsorship rules on Friday despite calls from some clubs, including champions Manchester City, to delay any agreement.
City challenged the league's associated party transaction (APT) rules, which assess whether deals between clubs and entities linked to their ownership represent fair market value, on competition law grounds earlier this year.
Since a takeover from Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, vice president of the United Arab Emirates, in 2008, City have become the dominant force in English football.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.
The warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war.
A staggering 281 aid workers have been killed around the world so far this year, making 2024 the deadliest year for humanitarians, the UN aid chief said Friday.
"Humanitarian workers are being killed at an unprecedented rate, their courage and humanity being met with bullets and bombs," said Tom Fletcher, the United Nations' new under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.
With more than a month left to go of 2024, the "grim milestone was reached", he said, after 280 humanitarians were killed across 33 countries during all of 2023.
Iran said Friday it would launch a series of "new and advanced" centrifuges in response to a resolution adopted by the UN nuclear watchdog that censures Tehran for what the agency called lack of cooperation.
The censure motion brought by Britain, France, Germany, and the United States at the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) follows a similar one in June.
It came as tensions run high over Iran's atomic programme, with critics fearing that Tehran is attempting to develop a nuclear weapon -- a claim the Islamic Republic has repeatedly denied.
Air strikes hit south Beirut on Friday, crumpling an 11-storey building, as Israel kept up its deadly bombardment of strongholds of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli strikes in the south of the country killed five Hezbollah-affiliated paramedics.
The World Health Organization said 226 health workers and patients have been killed in Lebanon since Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging fire in October last year.
Plastic pollution litters our seas, our air and even our bodies, but negotiators face an uphill battle next week to agree on the world's first treaty aimed at ending the problem.
Countries will have a week in South Korea's Busan from Monday to round off two years of negotiations.
They remain deeply divided on whether the deal should limit plastic production and certain chemicals, and even if the treaty should be adopted by majority vote or consensus.
The talks are a "moment of truth", UN Environment Programme chief Inger Andersen warned this month.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the International Criminal Court as "anti-Semitic" on Thursday afer it issued arrest warrants for him and his former defence minister, vowing it would not deter him from defending Israel.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also criticised the arrest warrants, accusing the court of rewarding "terrorism".
The arrast warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant were issued on suspicion of "crimes against humanity and war crimes committed" in Gaza since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
