International news from Saturday, December 28th, 2024

Russia's Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologised to Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, for a "tragic incident" which happened in Russian airspace involving an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane that crashed on Wednesday.

Turkey has decided to allow parliament's pro-Kurdish DEM Party to hold face-to-face talks with PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan on his island prison, the party said on Friday, setting up the first such visit in nearly a decade.

Afghan Taliban forces targeted "several points" in neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan's defence ministry said on Saturday, days after Pakistani aircraft carried out aerial bombardment inside Afghanistan.

Gaza health officials said on Saturday that Israeli forces detained the director of a hospital in the north, which the World Health Organization said was put out of service by an Israeli raid. 

Huge crowds demonstrated in Yemen's capital on Friday, a day after Israeli jets pounded Houthi rebel targets in response to missile and drone attacks by the Iran-backed group.