The ongoing doctors' strike at all three major government hospitals in Pakistan's Rawalpindi left thousands of patients distressed in the city.

The Young Doctors Association (YDA) have been on strike since last week in protest against the Punjab government's plan to outsource public hospitals.

The protesting doctors boycotted the Outpatient Departments (OPDs) services at Holy Family Hospital (HFH), Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH), and Rawalpindi Teaching Hospital (RTH) Raja Bazaar on the call of the YDA Punjab, according to local media reports.

The protest brought OPD services to a standstill as patients at the three hospitals continue to suffer. The officials from the divisional administration visited the hospitals but reportedly did little to engage the Young Doctors Association (YDA) to resume services at the OPDs, quoting sources.

Russia and the United States have yet to discuss the nuances of a peace plan, said Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya, as both nations continue their dialogue on finding a peaceful solution to the Ukraine conflict.

"The Russian-American dialogue is ongoing, and lots of nuances regarding the future contours of a peace plan have yet to be discussed," Nebenzya told a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine.

"Since the onset of the conflict, we have stated that we prefer diplomatic ways of attaining the objectives of our special military operation. This is why Russia is still committed to finding long-lasting solutions that would remove the root cause of the conflict and prevent it from reigniting," he further said.

Meanwhile, Acting Alternate Representative of the US Mission to the United Nations John Kelley said that Russia currently has a great opportunity for a durable peace in Ukraine, and the United States will fully support Moscow and Kyiv on their path to a "lasting peace."

South Korea and the United States will hold working-level talks this week to set details of their recent agreement concerning the Donald Trump administration's tariff scheme, Seoul's industry ministry said on Wednesday.

The two-day "technical discussions" will begin on Wednesday (U.S. time) in Washington as a follow-up to last week's agreement to craft a package deal on the new U.S. tariffs and ways of bilateral economic and industrial cooperation before the 90-day pause on the tariff measures expires on July 8, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The upcoming discussions will be attended by officials from the ministry and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), reports news agency.

Governor of the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan Mohammad Ashouri Taziani refuted on Tuesday the hypothesis that an act of sabotage was behind a deadly blast at Shahid Rajaee Port in southern Iran.

He made the remarks while elaborating on the likely causes of the explosion that occurred on Saturday and its subsequent fire, in which at least 70 people were killed and over 1,200 others injured, the official news agency reported.

Ahsouri Taziani said some foreign media raised the speculation that the incident had probably been the result of an act of sabotage, but preliminary investigations showed that the sabotage hypothesis failed to be of "sufficient strength."

He added that according to a statement by the provincial crisis management headquarters, a failure to properly observe safety and passive defense measures had been among the main causes of the incident.

On Monday, Iran's Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni identified "certain negligence" as one of the reasons behind the deadly explosion,news agency reported.

The death toll from a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar has risen to 3,770 as of April 28, the state-owned daily The Mirror reported on Tuesday.

In addition, 5,106 people were injured and 106 people were reported missing, news agency reported.

Myanmar has experienced a total of 157 aftershocks following the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake on March 28.

The aftershocks ranged from magnitude 2.8 to 7.5, the department said.

Issuing a strong warning to Islamabad, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry has stated that strict penalties will be imposed on Pakistani citizens found violating Haj permit regulations this year.

The warning came at a time when Pakistan formally commenced its Haj flight operations on Tuesday with the first batch of 442 pilgrims departing from Islamabad to Madina under the Makkah Route Initiative.

The Saudi ministry’s latest warning further stated that penalties will be applicable from today (Tuesday) till June 10, 2025. The ministry warned that any Pakistani performing or attempting to perform Haj without a valid permit, will face a fine of up to SR20,000. The penalty includes all types of visa holders, including those entering and staying in Mecca.

Blaming Ukraine for destabilisation in the Black Sea region, Russian Presidential aide and Maritime Board Chairman, Nikolay Patrushev, on Tuesday said that both Moscow and Washington are interested in ensuring the security of maritime traffic and the next step should be made by Kyiv.

"Clearly, the activities of Ukraine's armed forces and mercenaries are the main destabilising factor in the Black Sea region," Patrushev said in an interview with the Russian state-run news agency Tass.

He further added that the Kyiv regime repeatedly showed that it is impossible to negotiate with.

"At the same time, as we have already learned from practice, Kyiv has repeatedly demonstrated its total inability to negotiate with," said the Kremlin aide.

A devastating fire tore through a restaurant in Liaoyang City, located in northeast China's Liaoning Province, on Tuesday afternoon, claiming the lives of 22 people and leaving three others injured, according to state media.

The cause of the blaze has not yet been disclosed as authorities continue investigations into the tragedy.

The fire reportedly broke out at 12:25 p.m. local time in a restaurant situated within a residential area, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for "all-out efforts" to ensure that the injured receive the best possible medical care and instructed officials to strengthen fire safety measures nationwide, news agency reports.

The South Korea's Supreme Court said on Tuesday that it will rule on the election law violation case of the Democratic Party (DP) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung later this week.

The ruling will be made at 3 pm Thursday, the court said, just four days after Lee won the DP's primary for the June 3 presidential election.

The announcement comes after prosecutors appealed a high court ruling last month that acquitted Lee of lying as a presidential candidate during the 2022 election and overturned a lower court's sentence of a suspended prison term.

The case has posed a major legal hurdle for Lee, who is considered the front-runner in the upcoming presidential election.

Iran's Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the US deadly airstrikes on Yemen's capital of Sanaa and Saada province, including a centre where African migrants were kept.

In a statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei denounced Sunday's bombings, which killed at least 78 people, including 68 African migrants held at a detention centre in Saada, and wounded dozens of others.

Baghaei described the US military attacks against civilian targets, vital infrastructure and people's houses in different parts of Yemen as "war crimes," "which have killed hundreds of innocent people."

He criticised the United Nations and international human rights organisations for their "silence and indifference towards this flagrant law-breaking and the frequent violations of Yemen's sovereignty and territorial integrity."