International from Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025

India announced a raft of measures to downgrade its ties with Pakistan on Wednesday, a day after 26 men were killed in an attack on a tourist destination in India's Jammu and Kashmir territory.

China is set to launch its Shenzhou-20 mission that will carry three astronauts to the Chinese space station Tiangong on Thursday (0917 GMT), state media said on Wednesday.

Jordan has outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the outfit were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.

Talks between the US, Ukraine and European officials to discuss ending Russia's war in Ukraine faltered on Wednesday as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio abruptly cancelled his trip to London and negotiations were downgraded.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Hamas on Wednesday to cede responsibility for the Gaza Strip, hand over its arms to the Palestinian Authority and turn itself into a political party.

A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 shook Istanbul on Wednesday, Turkey's AFAD disaster agency said, one of the strongest quakes to strike the city of 16 million in recent years.

An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced families in northern Gaza killed at least 10 people, while another hit a children's hospital, local health authorities said, taking Wednesday's death toll to 20.

A Russian drone hit a bus carrying workers in the Ukrainian city of Marhanets early on Wednesday, killing nine people in a wave of attacks that targeted civilian infrastructure in east, south and central Ukraine, officials said.

Pope Francis' body was due to be moved to St Peter's Basilica on Wednesday to allow worshippers and the public to pay their final respects ahead of a funeral expected to bring US President Donald Trump and dozens of other world leaders to Rome.

The chief of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees), Philippe Lazzarini, has denounced the escalating "deliberate famine" in Gaza after 50 days of an Israeli-imposed blockade on aid.

Twenty-six people were killed and 17 were injured when gunmen opened fire at tourists in India's Jammu and Kashmir territory, police said on Wednesday, the worst such attack in the country in nearly two decades.