Afghan security forces have seized 1,000 kg of illicit drugs and arrested two alleged drug smugglers in southern Afghanistan's Zabul province, the Ministry of Interior Affairs said in a statement on Thursday.

The opium was concealed inside a truck and discovered during a counter-narcotic operation in Shahjoy district, the ministry said, news agency reported.

The visiting Indian medical team held detailed consultations with senior officials of the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and doctors at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in Dhaka on Thursday, reviewing critical cases from Monday's horrific plane crash. They Indian experts also exchanged views on the treatment methodologies and conveyed their assessment on future course of treatment for the admitted patients.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal noted that the visit of the Indian doctors and nursing officials to Dhaka comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assurance of providing support to Bangladesh following the plane crash on July 21.

Russia on Thursday accused Ukraine of carrying out deliberate attacks targetting civilians, stating that seven people have been killed and over 120 wounded, including 11 minors, by shelling and UAV strikes over the past week.

"On July 16, a woman was killed when an enemy drone struck a private home in the village of Smorodino; In the village of Novostroevka-Pervaya, a UAV attacked a combine harvester working in the field, injuring the driver; In the villages of Pritsepilovka and Novaya Tavolzhanka, three people were injured as a result of drone strikes," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Thursday.

Torrential monsoon rain-related incidents have killed 256 people and injured 616 others across Pakistan since June 26, the country's disaster management authority said on Thursday.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in its latest report that four people lost their lives and five others sustained injuries in the past 24 hours.

The deceased include 123 children, 87 males, and 46 females, according to the NDMA. It added that among the injured are 243 males, 203 children and 170 females.

Five people, including three students and two guardians from Bangladesh’s Milestone school and college are still missing after Monday's horrific air crash in Dhaka, an official statement by the institute detailed on Thursday.

On a routine training exercise early Monday afternoon, the Bangladesh Air Force FT-7 BGI fighter had crashed into the building on the permanent Diabari campus of Milestone School and college.

Multiple regions across northern China activated flood emergency responses on Thursday as meteorological forecasts predicted heavy rainfall over the coming days.

The Beijing municipal government has upgraded its rainstorm warning to yellow, the third highest, and activated citywide flood-control emergency response measures.

Two people have been confirmed dead and dozens evacuated as a massive wildfire continued to burn out of control in the mountainous areas of Limassol District in southern Cyprus, authorities said Thursday.

According to local media reports and statements from emergency officials, the bodies of two individuals were discovered inside a burnt-out vehicle between the villages of Monagri and Alassa late Wednesday night. Identification efforts are currently underway.

Typhoon Wipha has left three people dead, one missing and five others injured in Vietnam, the Vietnam Disaster and Dyke Management Authority reported on Thursday.

Among the fatalities, two people were swept away by floods in the central province of Nghe An, while another died in a landslide in the same locality.

The typhoon damaged approximately 720 houses and submerged 3,848 others across northern and central Vietnam.

Nghe An was the hardest-hit province, with more than 9,000 households suffering from prolonged power outages, Vietnam News Agency reported.

On July 22, the typhoon struck coastal areas between Hung Yen and Ninh Binh provinces, sustaining maximum winds of 88 km per hour, equivalent to level 8-9 on the Beaufort scale, with gusts reaching level 11, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that Argentina's international reserves remain at "critical" levels, urging the country to take additional steps to strengthen them.

"The economic fundamentals have improved substantially since the end of 2023, but net international reserves remain critically low," said the IMF's latest External Sector Report, titled Global Imbalances in a Changing World.

Argentina's external assessment "is subject to exceptionally high uncertainty and depends on the implementation of structural reforms that boost competitiveness and productivity," the IMF added.

US President Donald Trump said that his administration will impose 15 per cent "reciprocal" tariffs on Japanese products, 10 percentage points lower than what was previously announced, as he touted a "massive" trade deal with the Asian ally.

Trump made the announcement in a social media post as South Korea and other countries are striving to reach trade deals with the US to avoid or reduce the steep tariffs that his administration plans to start implementing on August 1 unless trade deals are agreed on.

"Perhaps most importantly, Japan will open their Country to Trade including Cars and Trucks, Rice and certain other Agricultural Products, and other things. Japan will pay Reciprocal Tariffs to the United States of 15%," he wrote on Truth Social.