UNITED NATIONS, APRIL 19. /TASS/. The United States exercised its veto right to block a UN Security Council resolution granting full UN membership to Palestine, a TASS correspondent reported.

A total of 12 countries, including Russia and China, voted in favor of the document, while two countries — Switzerland and the United Kingdom — abstained. The United States was the only country that voted against the proposed resolution.

19 April 2024; AP: CAPRI, Italy; The United States told the Group of Seven foreign ministers on Friday that it received “last minute” information from Israel about a drone action in Iran, Italy’s foreign minister said.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia on Friday expressed its disappointment over a U.S. decision to use its veto to deny Palestine's full membership in the United Nations.

It also called into question the sincerity of the United States to realize the inalienable rights of the Palestinians, including their right to self-determination, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

DAMASCUS, April 19 (Xinhua) -- In the early hours of Friday, the Israeli military launched a series of airstrikes targeting Syrian air defense sites in the southern region, the Syrian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The airstrikes started at approximately 2:55 a.m. local time on Friday (2355 GMT Thursday) from northern Israel and aimed at air defense installations in southern Syria, it said.

The strikes caused material losses, but no casualties were reported, it added.

Tehran, IRNA — Over 100 pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested on the campus of New York’s Columbia University as police cleared an encampment set up by students demonstrating against Israel’s war on Gaza, media outlets have reported.

Several students involved in the protest said they were also suspended from Columbia University and its associate institution, Barnard College. They include Isra Hirsi, who is the daughter of Ilhan Omar, a Democrat in the United States House of Representatives, Al Jazeera reported on Friday.

19 April 2024; AP: The U.S. and U.K. on Thursday imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran as concern grows that Tehran’s unprecedented attack on Israel could fuel a wider war in the Middle East.

MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. Russian forces destroyed a Ukrainian command post and two S-300 surface-to-air missile launchers over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

Tehran, IRNA - Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and his Emirati counterpart have stressed the need to put an end to the crimes being committed by the Zionist regime against the people in the besieged Gaza Strip.

During a phone conversation late on Thursday, Amirabdollahian and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates called for expediting humanitarian aid delivery into Gaza.

NEW DELHI: The Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday of protecting those responsible for the paper-leak and recruitment "scams" in Madhya Pradesh and asked him why the crime rate against Dalits is "increasing" in the state.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre ahead of Modi's rally in Damoh in Madhya Pradesh.

KATIHAR (BIHAR): I) Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday used the analogy of a train to target the BJP's "unstable" alliance with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U).

Taking potshots at Kumar, who dumped the INDIA bloc and returned to the BJP-led NDA a few months ago, Kharge said that "the so-called double engine in Bihar meets with frequent accidents, causing the train cars to decouple".

Kharge made the remark at a rally in the Katihar Lok Sabha seat of the state, where former Union Minister Tariq Anwar is the Congress candidate.

18 April 2024; AP: PARIS — Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem captured this year’s prestigious World Press Photo of the Year award Thursday with a depiction of loss and sorrow in Gaza, a heartrending photo of a Palestinian woman cradling the body of her young niece.

MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated the West’s growing concern about the work of the BRICS countries to develop their independent financial mechanisms.