India and Pakistan yesterday accused each other of carrying out waves of attacks using drones and missiles, as deadly confrontations between the nuclear-armed foes raised the fear of escalation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday told Russia’s Vladimir Putin their two countries should be “friends of steel”, as they pledged to boost cooperation to a new level at a time of heightened confrontation with the West.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, a little known missionary from Chicago, was elected in a surprise choice to be the new leader of the Catholic Church yesterday, becoming the first US pope and taking the name Leo XIV.

Russia is undertaking a major factory expansion in remote Siberia to ramp up production of a powerful explosive used in artillery shells and other munitions in the war in Ukraine, a Reuters review of publicly available state documents has found.

Israel launched dozens of airstrikes in south Lebanon yesterday, in one of its heaviest bombardments of the region since a ceasefire ended last year’s war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The violent crisis between India and Pakistan is exactly the kind of international emergency that would once have prompted a full-on US diplomatic drive to cool tempers and head off a wider war.

Dozens of community kitchens in Gaza shut their doors yesterday due to a lack of supplies, closing off a lifeline used by hundreds of thousands of people in a further blow to efforts to combat growing hunger in the enclave.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged de-escalation and expressed support for direct dialogue in separate calls with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said

Devi, a daily labourer, had recently come along with 15 relatives from Bihar, one of India's poorest regions, for employment in the village of Akhnoor near Jammu, in the Indian-administered part of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir

White smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel and the bells of St. Peter's rang out on Thursday, signalling that cardinals have elected a new pope to succeed Pope Francis and take charge of the Roman Catholic Church

An Indian Air Force spokesperson said he had no comment when asked about the Reuters report

South Asia's two nuclear-armed countries, India and Pakistan, are once again embroiled in a new conflict over the issue of Pahalgam in Kashmir

Sirens ring out in Jammu, projectiles in night sky; Islamabad says Indian drones earlier entered its airspace

Today's Star Explains is on how the web of misinformation is being spread around the conflict, and who is fuelling it

"This cowardly attack is a sign of India's worry and panic," Pakistan ISPR said in a statement

Pakistan's army said it shot down 25 Indian drones, while New Delhi accused Islamabad of launching overnight raids with "drones and missiles", and claimed it destroyed an air defence system in Lahore

Says Pakistan defence minister

India's government said Thursday that Pakistan launched an overnight air attack using "drones and missiles", before New Delhi retaliated to destroy an air defence system in Lahore

Shehbaz Sharif has vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes

This was the second time that top government functionaries and opposition leaders met