ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE – The Biden administration, seeking to deter China from aiding sanctions-hit Russia, on Wednesday warned Beijing not to take advantage of business opportunities created by sanctions, help Moscow evade export controls or process its banned financial transactions.

DUBAI – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic and world powers are closer than ever to reviving a 2015 nuclear deal.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa David Satterfield told Reuters on Wednesday the top U.S. priority in the region is the delivery of humanitarian aid to Ethiopia’s conflict-ravaged Tigray region, where millions are dependent on it.

MILAN – Italian railway company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS) said on Wednesday it had temporarily halted some ticket sale services as it feared they had been targeted by a cyber attack.

DOHA  – Commanders of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) drank tea, nibbled dates and displayed models of Iranian missiles at a defence show in Qatar, a Gulf Arab state which is home to the largest American military base in the region.

LVIV/KYIV, Ukraine – Ukraine’s military warned the public on Tuesday of more indiscriminate Russian shelling from bogged-down Russian troops, and U.S. President Joe Biden issued his strongest warning yet that Russia is considering using chemical weapons.

Japan’s government is alerting people in the Tokyo region they may face blackouts as power runs short after several coal-fired plants temporarily stopped generating electricity following an earthquake last week.

A China Eastern Boeing 737-800 with 132 people on board has crashed in southern China in the country’s worst air disaster in nearly a decade.

LISBON – Around 1,100 small earthquakes have rattled one of Portugal’s mid-Atlantic volcanic islands in less than 48 hours, prompting authorities to activate an emergency plan as experts assess what they have described as a “seismic crisis”.

Russia has withdrawn from peace treaty talks with Japan and frozen joint economic projects related to the disputed Kuril islands due to sanctions imposed by Tokyo over Ukraine, the foreign ministry said on Monday.