World News Roundup: Ukraine says it shot down 36 drones in overnight Russian attacks; Suez traffic returns to normal after ship briefly stranded and more

Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programmes in the Middle East, says its weapons are capable of reaching the bases of arch-foes Israel and the United States in the region. Three dead, one injured in stabbing, shooting incident in Japan - media Three people were killed and one injured in a shooting and stabbing incident in a city in rural Japan on Thursday, with the perpetrator having barricaded himself inside a building, media reported.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Ukraine says it shot down 36 drones in overnight Russian attacks

Ukraine said on Thursday it had shot down all 36 Iranian-made drones launched by Russia in overnight attacks which it said probably targeted critical infrastructure and military facilities. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it had been an "uneasy night" but commended the work of air defences.

Suez traffic returns to normal after ship briefly stranded

Tugboats refloated a large ship that had been stranded for several hours in the Suez Canal on Thursday, and sources said shipping traffic through one of the world's busiest waterways had returned to normal. Two canal sources said traffic was back to normal by around 11:00 am local time (0800 GMT), around six hours after the incident began and three-and-a-half hours after the vessel was refloated.

Egypt's female 'prisoners of poverty' struggle with stigma

Egyptian women facing jail for falling into debt face social stigma, and if they have been freed from prison struggle to rebuild their lives, NGO workers say, despite support from civil society groups and some state help in securing early releases. The issue has gained attention recently because of a move by President Abdal Fattah al-Sisi in March to grant pardons to male and female debtors, after which the Interior Ministry said 85 prisoners had been freed.

First-time asylum applications in EU surge in February

First-time asylum applications from people seeking international protection in European Union countries soared in February, driven largely by Syrians and Afghans, a report from the bloc's statistics agency Eurostat showed on Thursday. The bloc received 76,505 first-time asylum requests from non-EU citizens applying for international protection, an increase of 41% compared to February 2022, with Syrians topping the ranking, followed by Afghans, Colombians and Venezuelans.

Exclusive-From Russia with gold: UAE cashes in as sanctions bite

The United Arab Emirates has become a key trade hub for Russian gold since Western sanctions over Ukraine cut Russia's more traditional export routes, Russian customs records show. The records, which contain details of nearly a thousand gold shipments in the year since the Ukraine war started, show the Gulf state imported 75.7 tonnes of Russian gold worth $4.3 billion - up from just 1.3 tonnes during 2021.

Iran says it has successfully test-launched ballistic missile

Iran successfully test-launched a ballistic missile with a potential 2,000-km range on Thursday, state media said, two days after the chief of Israel's armed forces raised the prospect of "action" against Tehran over its nuclear programme. Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programmes in the Middle East, says its weapons are capable of reaching the bases of arch-foes Israel and the United States in the region.

Three dead, one injured in stabbing, shooting incident in Japan - media

Three people were killed and one injured in a shooting and stabbing incident in a city in rural Japan on Thursday, with the perpetrator having barricaded himself inside a building, media reported. Few details were immediately available about the incident, in which a man dressed in camouflage stabbed a woman with a knife and shot what appeared to be a hunting rifle in the city of Nakano in Nagano prefecture, central Japan, NHK national television said.

Sixteen to face Pakistan military trial for violence after ex-PM Khan's arrest - lawyer

A Pakistani court in the eastern city of Lahore on Thursday handed 16 civilians over to the military for trial over their suspected involvement in violent protests following the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan this month. The military said after the violence that the suspects would be tried in military courts, used primarily to try enemies of the state.

Researchers find Israeli-made spyware deployed across Armenia

Researchers have discovered Israeli-made Pegasus phone hacking software deployed against targets across Armenia, including reporters at a U.S. government-funded news organization, a report released on Thursday found. A team of researchers from digital rights group Access Now, human rights organization Amnesty International, Canadian internet watchdog Citizen Lab, Armenian digital defense group CyberHUB-AM and independent researcher Ruben Muradyan, said they had confirmed at least 12 cases in which espionage software made by Israel's NSO Group had been used against Armenian officials, journalists and organizers.

Fresh fighting threatens Sudan's week-long truce

Sporadic clashes between Sudan's army and a powerful paramilitary force spilled over into Thursday, puncturing the relative calm in the capital Khartoum and raising the risk that a week-long truce would crumble. The ceasefire, monitored by Saudi Arabia and the United States, was reached after five weeks of warfare in Khartoum and outbursts of violence in other parts of Sudan, including the western region of Darfur.