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By Simon Lewis and Michelle Nichols for Reuters Addressing the UN General Assembly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov took aim at backers of Ukraine. (File photo) Photo: AFP Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has told the United Nations that it is senseless to ignore alternatives to Ukraine's peace proposals, warning the West of the danger of trying to "fight to victory with a nuclear power". Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Lavrov took aim at backers of Ukraine who support Kyiv's peace proposal. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Nine months later Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced a 10-point peace plan to bring a just end to the war on the basis of the founding UN Charter and international law. Moscow rejected the plan. "I'm not going to...

By Joshua McElwee for Reuters Pope Francis at a meeting with students and members of the Catholic University of Louvain on 28 September. Photo: Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP Pope Francis has been sharply criticised by one of Belgium's Catholic universities over his stance on the role of women in society, in a strongly worded press release issued just moments after the pontiff spoke at the college. Professors and students at UCLouvain, where the 87-year-old pontiff had made a speech on Saturday afternoon, said they wanted to express their "incomprehension and disapproval" about the pope's views. "UCLouvain GǪ deplores the conservative positions expressed by Pope Francis on the role of women in society," said the statement, in extraordinary language from a Catholic university about a pope. Fra...

By Gopal Sharma, Reuters Residents clean a flooded street after the Balkhu river overflowed during monsoon rains in Kathmandu. Photo: PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP At least 66 people have been killed in Nepal since early on Friday as persistent downpours triggered flooding and landslides, closing major roads and disrupting domestic air travel, officials said on Saturday. The death toll could rise, they added, with another 69 people reported missing, and 60 injured since Friday morning, home ministry official Dil Kumar Tamang told Reuters. Most of the deaths took place in the Kathmandu valley, which is home to 4 million people and the country's capital, where the flooding brought traffic and normal activity to a standstill. Rescue workers used helicopters and rubber boats to help people stran...

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been taken to a secure location inside the country, according to Reuters sources. (File photo) Photo: AFP / HO / Khamenei.IR Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been taken to a secure location inside Iran amid heightened security, Reuters sources say, a day after Israel killed the head of Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah in a strike on Beirut. The move to safeguard Iran's top decision-maker is the latest show of nervousness by the Iranian authorities as Israel launched a series of devastating attacks on Hezbollah, Iran's best armed and most well-equipped ally in the region. Reuters reported this month Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps - the ideological guardians of the Islamic Republic - had ordered all of its members to s...

By Rich McKay, Joseph Ax and Andrew Hay, Reuters In this aerial view, boats are piled up in front of homes after Hurricane Helene hit the area as it passed offshore on September 28, 2024 in Treasure Island, Florida. Hurricane Helene made landfall Thursday night in Florida's Big Bend. Photo: JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP Authorities across a wide swath of the southeastern United States faced the daunting task on Saturday of cleaning up from Hurricane Helene, one of the most powerful to hit the country, as the death toll continued to rise. At least 47 deaths were reported by early Saturday, and officials feared still more bodies would be discovered across several states. Downgraded late on Friday to a post-tropical cyclone, Helene continued to produce h...