BUENOS AIRES – Argentine grain-truck drivers, industry groups and government officials failed to make a breakthrough in talks on Wednesday to end a strike, raising a threat to corn and soy exports during the key harvest season.

BEIRUT – Syrian state television reported that Israeli air strikes had hit several locations in the countryside west of the capital Damascus on Thursday.

BRUSSELS – The European Union has closed a loophole that allowed EU governments to export weapons worth tens of millions of euros to Russia last year alone despite an embargo which took effect in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region.

TOKYO – Japan and the United States are likely to hold a bilateral finance ministers’ meeting next week on the sidelines of the Group of 20 gathering to be held in Washington, Kyodo news agency reported on Friday.

Australia and the United States are stepping up diplomatic outreach to the Solomon Islands after China signed a security deal with the South Pacific island nation that could lead to Beijing establishing a military presence there.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says flooding in the Durban area has taken at least 259 lives and is a “catastrophe of enormous proportions.”.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is urging China to use its “special relationship with Russia” to persuade Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

MELBOURNE – Australia’s most populous states will face blackout risks from 2025 if new power capacity is not built in time to replace the country’s biggest coal-fired plant, due to be shut that year, the energy market operator said on Thursday.

Sri Lanka’s government says it is suspending its repayment of foreign debt, including bonds and government-to-government borrowing.

Climate activists are urging more banks and insurers not to back the controversial $5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline that is primed to transport oil from the Hoima oilfields in Uganda to the Tanzanian coastal city of Tanga.