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Stock markets mostly fell Thursday while oil prices rose as the Israel-Iran conflict added to fears over a renewed spike in inflation that could dent economic growth in major countries.Investors had already taken a cautious stance after the US Federal Reserve kept its interest rates unchanged and warned Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s trade war …

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Air India’s Boeing plane was “well-maintained” before it crashed a week ago, killing all but one of 242 people on board, the airline said on Thursday.Indian authorities are yet to detail what caused the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to hurtle to the ground in the western city of Ahmedabad a week ago.At least 38 people were …

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Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 72 people on Thursday, including 21 who had gathered near aid distribution sites as famine looms after more than 20 months of war.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that six people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern Gaza Strip and 15 others in a central area known as the Netzarim corridor, where thousands of Palestinians have gathered daily in the hope of receiving food rations.The Israeli army told AFP that its troops in Netzarim corridor — a strip of land militarised by Israel that bisects the Palestinian territory — had fired “warning shots” at “suspects” approaching them, but that it was “not aware of any injured individuals”.The army did not comment on the incident reported in the south.In northern Gaza, Bassal said that nine separate Israeli strikes killed another 51 people, updating earlier tolls provided by his agency.Bassam Abu Shaar, who witnessed the shooting incident in the Netzarim area, said thousands of people had gathered there overnight in the hope of receiving aid at the US- and Israeli-backed distribution site when it opened in the morning.”Around 1:00 am (2200 GMT Wednesday), they started shooting at us,” he told AFP by phone, reporting gunfire, tank shelling and bombs dropped by drones.Abu Shaar said that the size of the crowd had made it impossible for people to escape, with casualties left lying on the ground within walking distance of the distribution point, which is run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”We couldn’t help them or even escape ourselves,” he said.At least 300 Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying to reach aid distribution points in Gaza, which is suffering from famine-like conditions, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry has said.Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities in the Palestinian territory.In early March, Israel imposed an aid blockade on Gaza amid a deadlock in truce negotiations, only partially easing restrictions in late May.After Israel loosened its blockade, the privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began distributing aid, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes.UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation — which has the support of Israel and its ally the United States — over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.

A French court is set to deliver a long-awaited ruling in July on the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been imprisoned for 40 years for the 1982 killings of two foreign diplomats.The Paris appeals court, initially set to deliver its verdict in February before postponing, will now announce its decision on July 17 after re-examining the request on Thursday.”I told the judges, either you release him or you sentence him to death,” his lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset told the media after the closed-door hearing.Abdallah, 74, was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the murders of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.He has been eligible for release for 25 years, but has seen multiple requests for his freedom denied.The United States, a civil party to the case, has consistently opposed his release but Lebanese authorities have repeatedly said he should be freed from jail.In November 2024, a French court ordered his release conditional on Abdallah leaving France.But France’s anti-terror prosecutors, arguing that he had not changed his political views, appealed the decision which was consequently suspended.Abdallah has always insisted he is a “fighter” who battled for the rights of Palestinians and not a “criminal”. The appeals court said in February the decision to postpone was prompted by the unresolved question of whether Abdallah had proof that he had paid compensation to the plaintiffs, something he has consistently refused to do.His lawyer said on Thursday he presented documents showing some 16,000 euros ($18,360) in Abdallah’s prison account “at the disposal of civil parties”.First detained in 1984 and convicted in 1987 over the murders, the 74-year-old is one of the longest serving prisoners in France — most convicts serving life sentences are freed after less than 30 years. 

Israel’s defence minister said Thursday that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist”, just days after reports that Washington vetoed Israeli plans to assassinate him.The comments from Defence Minister Israel Katz came after the Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba reported 40 people injured following a fresh salvo of Iranian missiles.”Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed — he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals,” Katz told journalists in the city of Holon near Tel Aviv.”Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist.”When asked about Khamenei on a visit to Beersheba on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “I have made it clear that no one is immune.But he added: “In war, I believe one must choose words carefully and execute actions with precision.”A senior US official told AFP on Sunday that President Donald Trump had “found out that the Israelis had plans to hit Iran’s supreme leader”.”President Trump was against it and we told the Israelis not to,” said the US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.Netanyahu has neither confirmed nor denied the claim.In a television interview on Monday, he did not rule it out, saying that killing the 86-year-old cleric who has ruled Iran since 1989 would “end the conflict” between the two countries. Trump wrote on Tuesday that the United States knew Khamenei’s location but would not kill him “for now”.Israel launched strikes on Iran last Friday in what it said was an 11th-hour move to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.It has since hit hundreds of targets, including military commanders, top nuclear scientists and military and nuclear facilities.- ‘Regime change’ -The movements of the supreme leader, who has not left Iran since he took power, are subject to the tightest security and secrecy.Netanyahu has not said publicly that Israel is trying to topple him, only that regime change could be a result of its military action. Iranians “understand that the regime is much weaker than they thought — they realise it, and that could lead to results,” he told a press conference on Monday. French President Emmanuel Macron has said that any attempt at forcing change through military action would result in “chaos”, while both China and Russia have demanded that Israel cease fire.Iran denies seeking to develop a nuclear weapon and reports citing US intelligence officials this week have cast doubt on Israeli claims that it has accelerated efforts to produce one.Iran has been enriching uranium to 60 percent — far above the 3.67-percent limit set in a 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump abandoned, but still short of the 90-percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead.Israel has maintained ambiguity on its own nuclear arsenal, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says it has 90 nuclear warheads.