Local authorities in a village in Nepal registered the Himalayan nation’s first same-sex marriage, officials and activists said, five months after the Supreme Court issued an interim order clearing the way for such marriages in the largely conservative country.

Bangladesh’s main opposition party said it would continue its anti-government protests despite what a rights group called an “autocratic crackdown” ahead of a general election in January.

A Pakistan court overturned the conviction of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a corruption case on Wednesday, his lawyer said, removing one of the many obstacles for him to qualify to stand in elections in February.

Four Palestinians, including an 8-year-old boy and a 15-year-old male as well as two senior militant commanders, were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinian official news agency WAFA said.

Israeli women and children on their return from Hamas captivity in Gaza speak of being beaten and threatened with death, moved from place to place and forced to whisper during weeks spent with little to do, their families say.

An 85-year-old Israeli woman abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 and set free two weeks later said she met its Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar while in captivity and asked him how he was not ashamed for having acted violently against peace activists like herself.

Sixteen hostages were released on Wednesday by Hamas on the final day of a two-day extension of a truce in the Gaza war between Israel and the Palestinian militants.

An Indian government official directed an unsuccessful plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist, who is also a U.S. citizen, on U.S. soil, the U.S. Justice Department said, in announcing charges against a man accused of orchestrating the attempted murder.

The handover of more Israeli hostages by Hamas is underway in Gaza, a Palestinian official familiar with the truce efforts told Reuters on Wednesday, the final day of a two-day extension of a truce in the Gaza war.

The Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh won the right to host the Expo 2030 world fair, vote results showed, in another diplomatic victory for a Gulf country after last year’s soccer World Cup in Qatar.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not make peace in Ukraine before he knows the results of the November 2024 U.S. election, a senior U.S. State Department official said, amid concerns that a potential victory for former President Donald Trump could upend Western support for Kyiv.

Australia will ban imports of disposable vapes in January, the Health Minister said on Tuesday, the first step in a crackdown aimed at curbing the growing popularity of these nicotine-filled devices with young people.