United Nations

North Korea fired two cruise missiles Wednesday, Seoul's defence ministry said, ending a month-long lull in Pyongyang's record-breaking spate of weapons tests this year.

"Early this morning, we detected that North Korea fired two cruise missiles into the West Sea from Onchon, South Pyongan province," a ministry official told AFP.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have accepted an invition from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet on Aug. 18 to review the deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be shipped to world markets to help alleviate the global grain crisis and discuss ways to end the six-month-old war.

Reconciliation between the Syrian regime and the opposition groups is essential for ending the ongoing civil war in the country, Türkiye's top diplomat has said, repeating Ankara's calls on Damascus to genuinely endorse the international efforts for a political solution to the decade-old tragedy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of trying to expand a system similar to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) into the Asia-Pacific region.

"The situation in Ukraine shows that the US seeks to prolong the conflict. And it acts in the same way, igniting the potential for conflict in Asia, Africa, Latin America," Putin said.

"They implemented an anti-Russian project, they pretended not to see the spread of neo-Nazi ideology until the massacre of people in Donbass, they are stockpiling and continue to stockpile weapons to the regime in Kyiv, including heavy weapons," Putin said.

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

Shoigu and Guterres discussed the security situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP

Türkiye has made a revolution with reforms and has transformed into a more democratic and free country, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Aug. 15.

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

Over 40 countries called on Russia to hand over the Zaporizhzhia NPP to Kyiv

Five people died and 16 were injured in an explosion Sunday in the Ecuadoran port city of Guayaquil in an attack the government blamed on organized crime, officials said.

President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency in the country's second largest city of Guayaquil, where eight houses and two cars were destroyed in the blast.

Staff at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have described to the BBC being kept at gunpoint while Russian troops use it as a military base.
Moscow has also recently been accused of using the plant "as a shield" while its troops launch rockets from there towards nearby locations.