At least 20 people have been killed, including five children, and dozens are missing after a war-damaged building collapsed in the Gaza Strip, according to local rescue teams. Video footage shows the search for bodies and survivors continuing in the rubble of the multi-storey building in the Tal al-Hawa area of Gaza City, its floors sandwiched together. Locals said 10 families had been living in the apartments despite warnings that they were unsafe. Members of the Hamas-run Civil Defence rescue service said they had initially been working with empty hands due to tight Israeli restrictions on equipment allowed into Gaza. However, they have since been able to borrow some heavy machinery.

Tall athletes can't stretch their legs in container beds at Asian Games, official says Wooden container huts meant for thousands of athletes have become the subject of heated criticism ahead of the opening of Japan's Asian Games on Saturday. Jung Jae-yong, vice-president of the Korea Basketball Association, told AFP news agency the accommodation was the worst it has ever been. Athletes who are over two metres (6ft 7in) tall cannot even stretch their legs out on the beds. The Games, held in the city of Nagoya and wider Aichi prefecture, have faced weeks of concern about a potential shortage of beds. More than 17,000 athletes and officials are attending - exceeding the initial 15,000 expected.

The US and China agree that advanced AI poses serious risks. But Beijing is deeply skeptical of a deal that prioritizes keeping US companies ahead. For years, many of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley have argued that the US is locked in an AI arms race with China, and that the consequences of losing would be disastrous. But over the past week, those same executives have started emphasizing a different message. AI has the potential to become so dangerous, tech leaders say, that the two countries urgently need to work together to slow the race down.

USS Abraham Lincoln returns from combat in the Middle East as a White House order to revisit steam catapults over EMALS threatens U.S. aircraft carrier readiness against China's navy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with the governor of Novgorod region in Moscow on Monday. When Russian President Vladimir Putin imposed harsh censorship laws in the wake of his 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a major Russian publishing house took drastic action. Faced with trawling through the thousands of volumes it had published over the previous 20 years in light of the new restrictive criteria, the Eksmo-AST group trained an artificial intelligence agent to highlight books and passages that risked falling foul of the law so they could be removed from bookshelves. The publisher conducted some 20,000 checks, and 600 volumes were handed over to external experts for additional reviews, Oleg Novikov, the group's president, told Russian state television. "We're here on the frontier of technological progress," he said.

Image caption, The Houthis denied they had targeted Mecca, where Islam's most sacred shrine is located Saudi Arabia intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone south of the Islamic holy city of Mecca on Tuesday evening, according to the spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. Turki al-Maliki said the targeting of Mecca, which is the home of Islam's most sacred shrine and the focal point of the Hajj pilgrimage, was a disgraceful act. The 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said attacks on Mecca and Medina province, where Islam's second holiest shrine is located, constituted an unacceptable and intolerable transgression. But the Houthis, an Iran-backed armed group that controls much of western Yemen, denied targeting Mecca and accused Saudi Arabia of fabrications and lies. There is no threat whatsoever from Yemen to the holy sites.

Trump has few good options to slow China's rise as AI superpower U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to extend a trade truce with China reached last year when Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the White House next week. Even as U.S. President Donald Trump blasts Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei over his call to hit the brakes on artificial intelligence development, the two agree on the need to prevent China from catching up with the U.S. But doing that remains difficult in practice. In his 3,800-word missive titled "We Must Pace the Frontier," Amodei called on policymakers to avoid selling China advanced AI chips, crack down on chip smuggling and prevent "unauthorized distillation by companies in authoritarian countries," among other steps. He urged democracies to maintain a lead "as large as possible," echoing language from the administration of former President Joe Biden.

Lawson, one of Japan's biggest convenience store operators, has said it will roll out three new AI-inspired food items, which were created around the theme What on earth is this? Fears that advanced artificial intelligence could wipe out humanity have dominated global headlines, but in Japan the technology is being used for a sweeter purpose -- developing never-before-seen convenience store desserts. For customers tired of the usual egg sandwiches and rice balls, major chains are turning to AI to develop products, including some unexpected flavors. Lawson, one of the country's biggest convenience store operators, said on Tuesday it will roll out three new food items, including a pickle-flavored lemon tart and a bread roll filled with red bean paste, margarine and yogurt cream. These products, to be launched this month in Tokyo and neighboring regions, were created using AI around the theme "What on earth is this?

New Zealand has apologised to the three children of Tom Phillips who vanished with their father for years until he died in a police shootout after an inquiry found authorities failed to protect them. There were missed opportunities... and we're sorry about the impact that it's had on those children, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Wednesday. Agencies involved had underplayed, minimised or overlooked how the significant periods of isolation harmed the children, the inquiry found. When Phillips took his kids, then aged five, seven and eight, into the bush in December 2021, it wasn't the first time he had disappeared with them. Yet they would not be found for almost four years .

Did Iran capture a US submarine? Saudi Arabia has cancelled some oil deliveries to Europe after drone attacks shut down its key export pipeline to the Red Sea. The rare move has caused global panic and forced buyers to rush for alternatives. Why is the far-right embracing crypto? NATO downs drone over Lithuania, 'probably' launched by Russia