Three contenders of the Democratic Party (DP) for South Korean presidential elections are set to hold their second public debate on Wednesday, four days before the party plans to pick its candidate for the June 3 presidential election.

The debate will bring together former DP leader Lee Jae-myung, Gyeonggi Province Gov. Kim Dong-yeon and Kim Kyung-soo, a former South Gyeongsang Province governor.

During the 90-minute debate, the candidates will present their visions in key areas, including politics, the economy, diplomacy, security and social policy.

Lee, who declared his presidential bid earlier this month and is leading opinion polls for the presidential election, recently won two regional primaries by a large margin, news agency reported.

Three people were killed as heavy storms hit the central US state of Oklahoma over the weekend, authorities said.

A 12-year-old boy and his mother died in Moore, about 10 miles (about 16 km) south of Oklahoma City, on Sunday after floodwaters washed away their vehicle, said local police.

"This was a historical weather event that impacted roads and resulted in dozens of high-water incidents across the city," Moore police said in a statement.

Another person was killed on Saturday night after a tornado hit Spaulding, a town in Hughes County, the county wrote on Facebook, news agency reported.

Several homes and structures were destroyed, and there were "numerous washouts" of county roads, it said.

Four terrorists were killed during a joint operation of security forces and law enforcement agencies in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said.

The intelligence-based operation was conducted in Swat district of the province, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said on Friday in a statement.

Security forces engaged the terrorists at their location, killing all four terrorists, said the ISPR, adding that a huge cache of weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the terrorists' hideout, news agency reported.

The killed terrorists were involved in numerous terror activities in the area, said the statement.

Hours after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a telephonic conversation with the United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US President Donald Trump said that he expects to get Russia's response on a possible ceasefire in Ukraine over the weekend.

"We're going to be hearing from them this week, very shortly, actually. I think we're getting close, but we'll let you know very soon," Trump told reporters at the White House.

The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Lavrov reaffirmed Moscow's readiness to continue collaborative efforts with American counterparts to comprehensively address the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis.

Most of the estimated 400,000 people fleeing the Zamzam displacement camp bombardment sought shelter in another Sudanese refuge camp, only for it to be shelled too, the UN humanitarian agency said.

"Access to Zamzam remains completely blocked," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

"Local authorities and partners' reports indicate that armed groups continue to shell El Fasher and surrounding areas, including Abu Shouk camp, which is obviously placing all of the civilians there at immense risk."

The majority of the 400,000 people fleeing the Zamzam camp bombardment fled to the towns of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, and Tawila, where host communities are already under immense strain.

The death toll from US overnight airstrikes on the Yemeni fuel port of Ras Isa has increased to 38, with 102 others wounded, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported on Friday, citing Houthi-controlled local health authorities.

According to al-Masirah, the casualties include five paramedics who were killed upon arriving at the scene, when the US military launched another wave of airstrikes on the port just minutes after the first on Thursday night.

More than 14 airstrikes on the fuel port were reported during the two waves, igniting massive fires in tanks storing imported fuel. The fires were extinguished within hours, said the report.

The US Central Command said earlier in a statement that it struck and destroyed the Ras Isa port on Thursday to "eliminate this source of fuel for" and "degrade the economic source of power of" the Houthis, news agency reported.

Former South Korean Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung has a strong lead among potential candidates for the June 3 presidential election, a survey showed on Friday.

In the poll conducted by Gallup Korea on 1,000 adults from Tuesday to Thursday, Lee garnered 38 per cent support, marking his highest rating in Gallup polls this year.

Trailing behind at 7 per cent were former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo and former Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party (PPP), as well as Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who currently serves as the acting president.

Han has not declared his candidacy despite ongoing speculation about his possible bid.

Israel's military has said in a statement that it killed a Hezbollah commander in a drone strike in southern Lebanon.

The strike targeted the area of Blida, killing Ali Ibar al-Nabi Khadi, who was identified by the military as the deputy head of Hezbollah's military outpost in the Mhaibib area, news agency reported.

Meanwhile, an unnamed Lebanese security source confirmed to news agency that an Israeli drone strike killed an individual in southern Lebanon on Thursday, identifying the deceased as a Hezbollah member named Ali Abdel Nabi Hijazi, who came from the village of Blida.

The person was hit while riding a motorcycle in the village of Aitaroun, Lebanon's Public Health Emergency Operations Centre and security sources said as reported by news agency.

A senior US energy official on Friday underscored South Korea's growing significance in the Donald Trump administration's push to expand American energy exports and diversify global supply chains.

Speaking via video remarks at an energy forum hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM) held in Seoul, Tommy Joyce, acting assistant secretary for international affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), said Seoul remains a critical ally in Washington's energy agenda, reports news agency.

"South Korea and each of you in Seoul are absolutely essential allies in this pursuit," Joyce said in his remarks addressed to business representatives at a Seoul hotel. "South Korea plays an important role in unleashing American energy and supporting President Trump's vision of building supply chains independent of China."

A destructive hailstorm ripped through parts of Pakistan's capital Islamabad and provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), claiming lives of at least five people and damaging properties and standing crops worth millions.

Several vehicles were damaged in Islamabad as hailstones as big as the size of a golf ball battered the region. The capital's famous Faisal Mosque also suffered damage with windows broken due to the hailstorm. Strong winds uprooted trees and power pylons in the Tornal area, which remained the worst affected in the capital.

Locals said they had never witnessed such a hailstorm in the capital before.

"The hailstones were the size of golf balls and started falling like rain. It felt scary. We saw it smashing the windscreens of several vehicles and also damaging other structures," said one of the locals in Islamabad.

Continuing with its humanitarian assistance to earthquake-hit Myanmar under Operation Brahma, India has sent an additional consignment of relief material that was handed over by Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Abhay Thakur to Mandalay Chief Minister Myo Aung in the presence of diaspora leaders of Mandalay and Sagaing.

The relief aid included RO water plant, genset, rice, noodles, cooking oil, atta, sugar, dal, salt, MREs, blankets and medicines for the needy, the Embassy of India in Yangon stated.

India had launched Operation Brahma to provide necessary support, including Search and Rescue (SAR), humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and medical assistance, following the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28.

South Korean stocks rose nearly 1 percent on Thursday as investors became optimistic about the ongoing trade talks between the United States and Japan. The local currency rose to a more than four-month high against the US dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 22.98 points, or 0.94 percent, to close at 2,470.41, rebounding from a 1.21 percent drop the previous day, reports news agency.

Trade volume was moderate at 589.6 million shares worth 6.5 trillion won ($4.58 billion), with winners beating losers 638 to 225.

Institutions purchased a net 346.2 billion won worth of stocks, while foreign and retail investors sold a net 351.9 billion won and 87.4 billion won, respectively.

The number of days each year that the world's oceans experience extreme surface heat has tripled over the past 80 years due to global warming, a new study has found.

Researchers found that, on average, the global sea surface saw about 15 days of extreme heat annually in the 1940s, news agency reported.

Today that figure has soared to nearly 50 days per year, revealed the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Global warming is responsible for almost half of the occurrence of marine heatwaves -- periods when sea surface temperatures rise well above normal for an extended time.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that the United States' 245 per cent tariff on certain products from China no longer makes economic sense.

It the US continues to play the "tariff numbers game", it will pay no attention to it, according to the spokesperson, news agency reported.

The statement came in the wake of White House's statement that China faces tariffs of up to 245 per cent due to its retaliatory action.

China now faces up to 245 per cent tariffs on imports to the US as a result of its retaliatory tariffs, according to the White House Fact sheet.

Pakistan's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador Sadiq Khan landed in Kabul on Wednesday on a day-long visit to participate in the second round of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) meeting as Islamabad aims to settle border disputes with the neighbouring country.

The JCC meeting is happening after 16 months as Pakistan plans to initiate high-level engagements to de-escalate and normalise bilateral relations.

The Afghan Taliban side will be represented by Deputy Minister of Defence, Mullah Abdul Qayum Zakir - an ex-Guantanamo detainee regarded as the most predacious Taliban commander since the death of Mullah Dadullah - who holds a hardline stance on Pakistan.

The crucial talks are being held at a time when Pakistan has accused the Afghan Taliban for supporting, funding, arming, harbouring and facilitating militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Baloch militant outfits who have been carrying out attacks in Pakistan.

The South Korean People Power Party (PPP) said on Wednesday that it has selected eight presidential aspirants to advance to the first round of its primary to pick a candidate for the June 3 presidential election.

The eight hopefuls include former Labour Minister Kim Moon-soo, former PPP leader Han Dong-hoon, former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo, PPP lawmakers Na Kyung-won and Ahn Cheol-soo, Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok, North Gyeongsang Governor Lee Cheol-woo and former lawmaker Yang Hyang-ja. They were chosen from among 11 registered applicants.

The party will conduct a public survey on them to shortlist four candidates for the next round on April 22.

A second round of the primary will be held on April 29 to select two finalists, based on a combination of party member votes and public polling, each weighted at 50 per cent. The final nominee will be confirmed on May 3, news agency reported.

Four Pakistanis were among the 11 dead in a Libya boat capsize incident, Pakistan’s Foreign Office confirmed.

The bodies of at least four Pakistani nationals were among the 11 recovered off the Harawa shoreline near Sirte in eastern Libya after a boat carrying foreign migrants overturned.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the loss of lives, vowing to take strict action against those responsible for luring citizens into the death traps.

PM Shehbaz Sharif has directed the Pakistan Mission in Tripoli and the Foreign Office to work with the local authorities to retrieve the remains of the deceased Pakistani nationals.

As Singaporeans prepare to head to the polls on May 3, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Tuesday that "Singaporeans should decide on the team to lead our nation" at this critical juncture.

"The global conditions that enabled Singapore's success over the past decades may no longer hold," Wong said in a Facebook post, adding that this is why he has called the general election.

Earlier on Tuesday, Wong advised President Tharman Shanmugaratnam to dissolve the parliament, officially triggering the election process, news agency reported. The Nomination Day will take place on April 23, when political parties will announce their final slate of candidates contesting across Singapore's 33 constituencies.

Voters will cast ballots for individual candidates or groups of candidates running to represent their constituency in the parliament.

Two health workers affiliated with Pakistan's anti-polio campaign were abducted by unidentified gunmen in the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police said Tuesday.

The incident occurred in the Kulachi area of Dera Ismail Khan district, where armed men intercepted a passenger bus en route to Dera Ismail Khan and forcibly took the two workers -- Raz Muhammad and Muhammad Asif -- to an unknown location, a local police official said.

The victims were returning from official duties related to the country's polio eradication campaign, police said.

Law enforcement agencies have launched a search and rescue operation in the area. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the abduction, news agency reported.

Iran has confirmed that Muscat, the capital of Oman, will remain the venue for the second round of "indirect" negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

"Following consultations, it was decided that Muscat continues to be the host of the second round of the negotiations, which are scheduled to be held on Saturday," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei as saying on Tuesday.

In the first round of Muscat talks on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi engaged in "indirect" discussions with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, facilitated by Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi. These talks focused on Iran's nuclear programme and the potential removal of US sanctions.

Australians' view of US President Donald Trump is driving a drop in support for opposition leader Peter Dutton ahead of the nation's general election, according to new polling.

Several major opinion polls published in recent days have shown that voter support for incumbent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his governing Labor Party is continuing to grow as the campaign for the May 3 election reaches the halfway point.

One poll undertaken by research firm Resolve Strategic and published by Nine Entertainment newspapers on Monday night estimated that Labor leads Dutton's Coalition 53.5-46.5 per cent in two-party terms. The same poll in late March had the two major parties deadlocked at 50-50.

Asked about how their view of Trump would influence their vote at the upcoming election, 33 per cent of respondents said that it has made them less likely to vote for Dutton and the Coalition, with 14 per cent more likely to do so and 53 per cent either undecided or saying it would have no effect.

Syria extended South Korea's top diplomat the highest diplomatic courtesies during his visit last week to forge formal ties, signalling a strong commitment to deepening cooperation in the economy, reconstruction and other fields, a Seoul official said Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul travelled to Damascus last Thursday to formalise the diplomatic relations, a milestone that completed Seoul's endeavours to have formal ties with every UN member state except North Korea.

Cho's trip was conducted discreetly due to the security situation in Syria, where an interim government has taken power following the overthrow of former leader Bashar al-Assad's half-century dictatorship.

During his brief visit, Cho was accorded top-level diplomatic protocol, including security three times the scale usually provided for a foreign minister, a Seoul official said on background.

At least three policemen were killed and 16 others injured in a roadside bomb explosion in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province on Tuesday, officials said.

The incident took place near the Kund Masuri area of Mastung district, where a police truck carrying personnel from a training centre in Kalat district was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), revealed Shahid Rind, spokesperson for the Balochistan government.

"The condition of two injured is critical," Rind said.

He added that all the injured have been shifted to local hospitals, while those in serious condition are being transferred to Quetta for advanced medical treatment.

South Korea and the United States on Tuesday staged joint air drills, involving at least one US B-1B bomber, over the Korean Peninsula, the defence ministry said, in a show of force against North Korean military threats.

The drills, which also mobilised South Korean F-35A and F-16 fighter jets and US F-16s, were designed to demonstrate the allies' capabilities to respond to North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile threats, according to the ministry.

The drills coincided with the 113th birth anniversary of North Korea's late state founder Kim Il-sung, a major national holiday in the North, called the "Day of the Sun."

"In order to deter and respond to North Korea's threats, South Korea and the US will continue to expand combined exercises and strengthen the level of cooperation of the South Korea-US alliance," the ministry said.

A total of 123 civilians have been killed and 247 others injured, mostly women and children, since the US military resumed airstrikes across Yemen in mid-March, Houthi-run health authorities said in an statement.

The statement was issued following US airstrikes against a ceramic factory on the western outskirts of Yemen's capital Sanaa late on Sunday night, which killed seven people and injured 29 others.

The health authorities' previous statement on April 9 put the death toll from the renewed US air raids at 107 and the number of injuries at 223.

The Houthi group rarely discloses casualties among its fighters. However, the US military has repeatedly said the strikes have killed dozens of Houthi leaders, which the group has denied, news agency reported.

Rescue workers continued their search for a fifth day Tuesday to find a worker missing in the collapse of a subway construction site in the city of Gwangmyeong.

The construction site for the Sinansan Line collapsed Friday, causing a section of the road above ground to cave in and damaging several buildings, news agency reported.

All but one worker in his 50s were found safe or rescued.

The search for the missing person continued overnight with 95 personnel and 31 pieces of equipment, including four fire trucks fitted with smoke extraction devices and lamps, according to the Gyeonggi Fire Service.

The US dollar fell 0.7 per cent on Monday -- marking its fifth day of decline in a row. It pushed the DXY index, which measures the dollar’s strength against a group of major currencies, to its lowest level in three years.

Since the start of April, when US President Donald Trump declared ‘Liberation Day’ while unveiling his aggressive tariff policies, the dollar index has fallen more than four per cent.

This decline comes as investors begin to lose confidence in the strength of the US economy and pull out their money from American assets.

President Trump addressed these concerns last week, saying that the US dollar would always remain ‘the currency of choice.’

He added that if any country tried to move away from using the dollar, a single phone call would be enough to bring them back.

Despite his confidence, market reactions have shown increasing nervousness.

Two Air Force unit commanders of South Korea have been booked in relation to an unprecedented mistaken bombing on a civilian town last month, officials said on Monday, as the ministry released the interim probe results of the fighter jet accident.

On March 6, two KF-16 fighter jets dropped eight MK-82 bombs outside a training range in Pocheon, some 40 kilometres north of Seoul, during live-fire drills, injuring 52 people, including 38 civilians, according to an estimate by city authorities.

The two pilots, who are alleged to have erroneously entered the target coordinates prior to the live-fire drills, have been booked on charges of professional negligence resulting in injury and damaging military facilities. The pilots have also been suspended from air duty for one year.

"The ministry plans to refer the two pilots and the unit commanders who have been booked to the military prosecution after the probe concludes and seek disciplinary action against nine officials who were found to have belatedly reported the case and taken insufficient measures," the ministry's criminal investigation command said in a release.

Seoul, April 14 || Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol defended himself during his first criminal trial on insurrection charges on Monday, saying his attempt to impose martial law in December did not amount to an insurrection.

Yoon arrived at the Seoul Central District Court in a black security vehicle and entered via the underground parking to avoid public exposure.

The first hearing got underway shortly before 10 am, with Yoon seated in the defendant's seat in a navy suit. Photography and filming by the Press were not allowed under a court order.

Yoon, a former top prosecutor, faces charges of leading an insurrection through his brief imposition of martial law on December 3 that saw the deployment of troops to the National Assembly in an alleged attempt to stop lawmakers from voting down the decree.

He was impeached by the National Assembly days later and removed from office on April 4 after the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld his impeachment.

Supporters and opponents of South Korea's former President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday gathered in front of the Seoul Central District Court in time for his arrival there to attend his first criminal trial related to his martial law declaration last year.

About 20 supporters of Yoon began to wave the South Korean and US flags in front of the court's main gate from 9 am, chanting slogans such as "Yoon Again." Some of them shouted, "The president is not guilty."

On the street across from the court's gate, a banner was hung that praises the presiding judge of Yoon's trial, news agency reported.

A Punjab-born surgeon, her two children and their partners were killed along with her husband, who piloted a small plane that crashed in New York state.

Joy Saini's family confirmed their deaths in a statement to the media on Sunday.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Albert Nixon said on Sunday that the crash happened on Saturday while their Mitsubishi MU2B aircraft was trying to land at the Columbia County Airport, about 200 km from New York City.

Speaking at a news conference in Albany, he said that the pilot missed the approach for landing and asked to make another try, but the air traffic controller noticed it was flying at a low altitude and unsuccessfully tried to alert the pilot.

A total of 468 aftershocks have been recorded in Myanmar and surrounding areas as of Saturday, following the powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit the nation on March 28.

According to a report from the Thai Meteorological Department's Earthquake Observation Division, there were 184 aftershocks with magnitudes between 1.0 and 2.9, 198 with magnitudes between 3.0 and 3.9, 73 with magnitudes between 4.0 and 4.9, and 13 with magnitudes between 5.0 and 5.9.

Meanwhile, in Thailand, a total of 21 mild aftershocks have been reported, primarily in Mae Hong Son province, with magnitudes ranging from 1.0 to 5.9 since then.

The latest aftershock was registered in Myanmar in the early morning on Saturday, with no impact on Thailand, according to media reports.

A search for one worker missing from a subway construction site collapse in Gwangmyeong, just south of Seoul, continued for the second day Saturday, officials said.

The construction site for the Sinansan Line collapsed at 3:13 p.m. Friday, causing a section of the road above ground to cave in and damaging several buildings, news agency reported.

Five workers were initially unreachable, but three were found safe, while another -- an excavator driver in his 20s -- was rescued 13 hours after the collapse some 30 metres underground.

Authorities are currently racing to find the fifth worker, who is in his 50s, and have deployed seven search-and-rescue dogs and plan to use heavy equipment as part of the operation.

Police and firefighters are facing difficulties in pinpointing the missing worker's location despite trying to locate him through his mobile phone.

Nepali businessman Durga Prasai will be charged with sedition and organised crime as the Kathmandu District Court remanded him to 12 days in custody for his alleged involvement in the violent pro-monarchy protest in Tinkune on March 28, according to police officials.

The district attorneys preparing the case against Prasai on Friday stated that additional charges may be filed with the progress of the investigation.

The police are preparing to file charges against him for sedition, organised crime, criminal mischief, attempted murder, vandalism of public and private property, and arson, local media reports stated.

Earlier, Prasai was apprehended in India before being brought to Kathmandu through the Kakarbhitta border point. His bodyguard, Deepak Khadka, who was arrested along with him, has also been remanded for the same period.

In a sweeping move that has ignited concern among immigrant communities across the United States, the White House has announced that all foreign nationals residing in the country for over 30 days must register with the federal government or face strict penalties, including fines, imprisonment, and deportation.

"All foreign nationals present in the United States longer than 30 days must register with the federal government. Failure to comply with this is a crime punishable by fines, imprisonment, or both," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

"If not, you will be arrested, fined, deported, never to return to our country again," she added.

She also mentioned that the deadline to register under the Alien Registration Act was on April 11 (local time).