World

(Reuters) - The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years on Saturday. The following is reaction from around the world. UNITED STATES "There is never any justification for terrorism. We stand in solidarity with the government and people of Israel, and extend our condolences for the Israeli lives lost in these attacks," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement released by the State Department. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said: "Over the coming days the Department of Defense will work to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defen...

By Mohammad Yunus Yawar KABUL (Reuters) -More than 2,000 people were killed in earthquakes in Afghanistan and more than 9,000 injured, the Taliban administration said on Sunday, in the deadliest tremors to rock the quake-prone mountainous country in years. The Saturday quakes in the west of the country hit 35 km (20 miles) northwest of the city of Herat, with one measuring 6.3 magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said. They were among the world's deadliest quakes in a year when tremors in Turkey and Syria killed an estimated 50,000 in February. Mullah Janan Sayeeq, spokesman for the Mi...

By Emily Rose JERUSALEM (Reuters) - As Israel reeled from a deadly attack by Hamas militants who broke through barriers around Gaza and roamed at will, killing scores of civilians in Israeli towns, defence chiefs faced growing questions over how the disaster could have happened. A day after the 50th anniversary of the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur war, when Israeli forces were caught off guard by Syrian and Egyptian tank columns, the military appeared once again to have been surprised by a sudden attack. "It looks quite similar to what happened at that time," said retired General Giora Eiland, ...

By Samia Nakhoul, Nidal al-Mughrabi, Matt Spetalnick and Laila Bassam DUBAI/GAZA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Islamist group Hamas launched a spectacular attack against Israel, it also took aim at efforts to forge new regional security alignments that could threaten Palestinian aspirations for statehood and the ambitions of the group's main backer Iran. Saturday's assault, the biggest incursion into Israel in decades, coincides with U.S.-backed moves to push Saudi Arabia towards normalising ties with Israel in return for a defence deal between Washington and Riyadh, a move that would slam the b...

(Reuters) -Ecuadorean President Guillermo Lasso announced on Saturday a shake up of the high ranks of the security forces following the killing of seven inmates accused in the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. He removed two officials, the prisons director and the head of the police investigations unit, and replaced the head of the national police with Cesar Augusto Zapata Correa, a long-time member of the force with nearly 35 years of experience. The announcement came after six inmates were killed at the Litoral Penitentiary on Friday and another was killed in a Quito p...

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) -The Organization of American States (OAS) on Saturday named the representatives that will lead its mission to mediate between Guatemalan officials and street protesters seeking an orderly transfer to power to President-elect Bernardo Arevalo, according to a statement published on social media site X. OAS head Luis Almagro previously said late on Friday that he accepted the invitation from Guatemala's government that asked to achieve "consensus among different sectors" of the country. Former Minister of Defense of Uruguay Luis Rosadilla, and the OAS Secretary of Access...