International from Friday, August 22nd, 2025

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un lauded his country's "heroic" troops who fought for Russia in the war against Ukraine, in a ceremony where he decorated returning soldiers and consoled children of the bereaved with hugs, state media said on Friday.

Former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who led the country during a devastating 2019-2024 economic crisis, was arrested and appeared in court on Friday over allegations he misused state funds while in office, police said.

Famine has struck an area of Gaza and will likely spread over the next month, a global hunger monitor determined on Friday, an assessment that will escalate pressure on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the war-torn Palestinian enclave.

A court in Thailand on Friday dismissed a royal insult case against influential former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, his lawyer said, the first in a series of high-stakes rulings involving the powerful Shinawatra dynasty.

India's Supreme Court modified its order on stray dogs on Friday, directing that those picked up from streets in and around Delhi be released after sterilisation and immunisation, after a storm of protests from animal lovers.

At least 18 people died and more than forty were injured on Thursday following a bomb explosion and helicopter attack in Colombia attributed to different dissident factions of the former FARC guerrilla group, authorities reported.

The Arab League has strongly condemned the settlement plan approved by the Israeli government in the area known as E1 east of Jerusalem, stressing that it threatens the territorial continuity of Palestine.