Reuters World News Summary

That would lead to the furlough of hundreds of thousands of federal workers and the suspension of a wide range of government services, from economic data releases to nutrition benefits, until Congress manages to pass a funding bill that President Joe Biden, a Democrat, would sign into law. Over 10,000 displaced in Haiti after violence escalates north of capital More than 10,000 people have fled their homes in parts of Haiti's central department, the United Nations' migration agency said on Wednesday, after a series of gang attacks in recent days including in a hospital north of the capital.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Iraq wedding fire kills more than 100, relatives identify bodies

A fire ripped through a packed wedding hall in northern Iraq late on Tuesday, killing more than 100 people in a Christian town that had survived Islamic State occupation. Fire fighters searched the charred remains of the building in Qaraqosh, also known as Hamdaniya, through Wednesday morning and bereaved relatives gathered outside a morgue in the nearby city of Mosul, wailing and rocking in distress.

North Korea parliament amends constitution to enshrine nuclear policy

North Korea has adopted a constitutional amendment to enshrine its policy on nuclear force, state media reported on Thursday, as the country's leader pledged to accelerate production of nuclear weapons to deter what he called U.S. "provocations." The North's rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly, unanimously adopted "the crucial agenda item for formulating the DPRK's policy on the nuclear force as the basic law of the state," KCNA said. DPRK is the initials of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

UN peace envoy, Egypt working to restore calm along Gaza fence

International mediators have stepped up efforts to prevent a new round of armed confrontation between Israel and the Islamist Hamas group, which runs Gaza, amid an escalation in violent protests along the border fence. "The United Nations is talking to and working with all concerned to improve the lives of people in Gaza, particularly the most vulnerable," U.N. Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland said on social media platform X on Wednesday, a day after he met Hamas officials in Gaza.

'State of war': residents, police describe heavy battle in northern Kosovo

A battle between police and armed men holed up in a monastery turned a quiet village in northern Kosovo into a war zone, residents and police said on Wednesday, in the first accounts at the scene of fighting that has shocked the region. Kosovo authorities allowed journalists into the village of Banjska for the first time since Sunday's battle, the worst violence for years in a restive area where local ethnic Serbs reject rule from Kosovo's ethnic Albanian-dominated government.

Shutdown countdown: US Congress has four days to fund government

Republican U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday rejected a stopgap funding bill advancing in the Senate, bringing Washington closer to its fourth partial shutdown of the U.S. government in a decade with just four days to go. That would lead to the furlough of hundreds of thousands of federal workers and the suspension of a wide range of government services, from economic data releases to nutrition benefits, until Congress manages to pass a funding bill that President Joe Biden, a Democrat, would sign into law.

Over 10,000 displaced in Haiti after violence escalates north of capital

More than 10,000 people have fled their homes in parts of Haiti's central department, the United Nations' migration agency said on Wednesday, after a series of gang attacks in recent days including in a hospital north of the capital. Under-resourced police have struggled with heavily armed gangs who gained territory and massively expanded their influence over the past year, forming powerful alliances notably in the capital Port-au-Prince.

US soldier Travis King heads home after North Korea expels him

Private Travis King, the U.S. soldier who ran into North Korea in July, is in U.S. custody and heading home after being expelled by North Korea into China, the United States said on Wednesday. While details about the diplomacy that led to King's transfer remained scarce, the development was a rare example of cooperation between the United States, North Korea and China. The State Department said King was expected to return to the United States later on Wednesday.

Canada's Trudeau apologizes after Nazi veteran praised in parliament

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday formally apologized after the speaker of the House of Commons praised a Nazi veteran in the chamber while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was present. Trudeau also said Ottawa had already reached out to Kyiv and Zelenskiy through diplomatic channels to apologize.

Azerbaijan arrests former top Karabakh minister as exodus tops 50,000

A former head of the breakaway ethnic Armenian government in Nagorno-Karabakh was arrested by Azerbaijan on Wednesday as he tried to escape into Armenia as part of an exodus of tens of thousands of people that has triggered a humanitarian crisis. Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire banker and philanthropist, headed Karabakh's separatist government between November 2022 and February 2023.

Ukraine asks UN court to hear genocide case despite Russian objection

Ukraine on Wednesday urged judges at the United Nations' highest court to dismiss Russia's objections and hear in full Kyiv's claim that Moscow abused international law by saying the 2022 invasion was done to stop an alleged genocide. "Your jurisdiction to resolve the dispute is clear. Your judgment remains urgently needed," Ukraine's representative Oksana Zolotaryova said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)