Syria's defense ministry says it has completed a military operation in the country's western coastal region, after days of violence in which hundreds of people have been killed. 

Security forces had "neutralized" loyalists of former president Bashar al-Assad in several towns in Latakia and Tartous provinces and were "paving the way for life to return to normal", a ministry spokesman said. 

Syria’s interim government signed a deal with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast, including a ceasefire and the merging of the main U.S.-backed force there into the Syrian army. 

The deal is a major breakthrough that would bring most of Syria under the control of the government, which is led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that led the ouster of President Bashar Assad in December. 

An unannounced trip by former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to Hong Kong set off speculations on Sunday that he may be trying to evade a possible arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court over his bloody crackdown on drugs while in power. 

Rohingya refugees in crammed Bangladeshi camps say they are worried about a U.S. decision to cut food rations by half beginning next month, while a refugee official says the reduction will impact the nutrition of more than 1 million refugees and create “social and mental pressure.” 

Demonstrators have taken to the streets across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas to mark International Women’s Day, with many demanding an end to gender-based violence and inequality. 

In cities like Buenos Aires, Argentina, those warnings were particularly grave, as protesters railed against austerity plans put forth by President Javier Milei that they say will roll back services for women. 

South Sudan has seen an “alarming regression” as clashes in recent weeks in the country’s northeast threaten to undo years of progress towards peace, the United Nations commission on human rights for the country has warned. 

Israel said that it would send a delegation to Qatar “in an effort to advance the negotiations” around the ceasefire in Gaza, while Hamas reported “positive signals” in talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators on starting negotiations on the truce’s delayed second phase. 

A South Sudanese general and dozens of soldiers have been killed after a United Nations helicopter trying to evacuate them from the northern town of Nasir came under attack, the government has said. 

The UN said the incident, which could deal a blow to an already fragile peace process, was “utterly abhorrent” and a possible war crime. 

More than 500 people may have been tortured or starved to death and then buried in a secret mass grave north of Khartoum. 

A visit to a base belonging to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shortly after it was retaken by the Sudanese military found a previously unknown detention center, with manacles hanging from doors, apparent punishment chambers, and bloodstains on the floor. Accounts from people held at the detention center describe being repeatedly tortured by their captors.