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Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan on October 22, 2024. Photo: AFP / Pool / Alexander Zemlianichenko Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russia's Vladimir Putin that the international situation was gripped by chaos but that Beijing's strategic partnership with Moscow was a force for stability amid the most significant changes seen in a century. Xi and Putin in May pledged a "new era" of partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States, which they cast as an aggressive Cold War hegemon sowing chaos across the world. "At present, the world is going through changes unseen in a hundred years, the international situation is intertwined with chaos," Xi told Putin in the Russian city of Kaza...

Harvey Weinstein. Photo: AFP / Pool / Etienne Laurent By Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN Harvey Weinstein has been diagnosed with bone cancer, a source close to the incarcerated producer tells CNN. Weinstein's specific diagnosis is chronic myeloid leukaemia, a form of cancer of the bone marrow, the source says, adding that he is undergoing treatment at Rikers Island in New York. Weinstein's longtime spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer, declined to comment on Weinstein's diagnosis. His attorney, Arthur Aidala, did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment. Weinstein's prison consultant and authorised legal healthcare representative in New York state, Craig Rothfeld, shot down speculation regarding Weinstein's diagnosis. "It is both troubling and unacceptable that such private and confiden...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards a plane as he departs Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on 21 October, 2024, en route to the Middle East. Photo: Nathan Howard / POOL / AFP By Humeyra Pamuk, Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to capitalise on the killing of Hamas' leader by securing the release of the 7 October attack hostages and ending the war in Gaza. After repeated abortive attempts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Blinken was making his 11th trip to the Middle East since the Gaza war erupted - and the last before a presidential election that could upend US policy. Blinken was also seeking ways to defuse an escalating spillover conflict between Israel and the Ir...

A checkpoint near the Hamrin Mountains, where a raid has seen Iraqi forces kill nine Islamic State commanders (file photo). Photo: AFP / LAURENT PERPIGNA IBAN Iraqi forces have killed nine Islamic State (IS) group commanders, including the jihadists' top figure in the country, Baghdad announced Tuesday, with the Pentagon saying two US troops were injured during the raid. Iraq's Joint Operations Command said in a statement that counterterrorism forces "killed nine terrorists, among them the so-called governor of Iraq" for IS, naming him as Jassim al-Mazrouei Abu Abdel Qader. The statement said the raid in the northern Hamrin Mountains was carried out "with technical support" and intelligence provided by the US-led anti-jihadist coalition, and said that "large quantities of weapons" were ...

By James Redmayne for Reuters King Charles and Queen Camilla are on a three-day visit to Samoa as part of CHOGM. Photo: AFP King Charles III will be offered the title of high chief in Samoa during a three-day visit starting on Wednesday and be shown the impact of rising sea levels due to climate change. Lenatai Victor Tamapua, a Samoan chief and member of parliament, said he planned to offer the title of Tui Taumeasina to the monarch during a traditional ceremonial welcome to the king and Queen Camilla on Thursday. He will later lead the king through a walkway on a mangrove reserve highlighting the impact of climate change on the Pacific nations and its communities. "The king tide today is about twice that it was 20, 30 years ago, and that is affecting our land, and it's eating away ...