Two policemen were killed and three others injured when militants attacked their vehicle in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Thursday morning, police sources said.

The incident happened at about 8:50 a.m. (local time) in the Tank district of the province, where unknown assailants opened fire on the vehicle before fleeing the scene, sources from the district police told news agency.

The vehicle was conducting routine patrols when it came under the attack, the sources added.

The injured policemen were rushed to a nearby hospital, where one of them is in critical condition.

A US military helicopter made an emergency landing on Thursday at a beach in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture near Tokyo, with no reports of injuries or damage to the aircraft, local media reported.

According to the US Navy, the helicopter, with three crew onboard, made the landing at around 11:05 a.m. (local time) as a precautionary measure after detecting irregularities, reports.

The helicopter resumed flight at about 3:05 p.m. (local time), the report said.

The US Navy did not provide further details, including the cause of the irregularities, saying the incident is "still under investigation," it added.

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) on Thursday announced details of its Court of Inquiry (COI) into the sinking of a navy ship near the southern coast of Upolu in Samoa.

The multi-purpose maritime support ship HMNZS Manawanui, with a displacement of 5,741 tons, struck a reef and was grounded off Samoa on Saturday while conducting a hydrographic survey one nautical mile from shore. All 75 people aboard were successfully rescued, reports news agency.

The COI, which will assemble on Friday, will collect and record evidence and report on the sequence of events leading up to the loss of the ship, the cause of the grounding and subsequent sinking, and details on notification procedures, injuries sustained and any environmental damage, said a NZDF statement.

Hurricane Milton made its landfall along the west-central coast of Florida as a Category 3 storm, expected to inflict heavy losses and damage on the Sunshine State.

"Life-threatening storm surge, extreme winds, and flooding rains will continue to occur across portions of central and southwestern Florida," said an advisory by the National Weather Service on Wednesday night.

The State of Florida had over 1.4 million electric customers without power as of 10 p.m. Eastern Time, around 1.5 hours after the landing, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that tracks and records power outages across the country, reports news agency.

Mongolian police have seized at least 288 dead marmots since mid-August, raising concerns about the potential spread of bubonic plague, according to an announcement from the emergency management department of the capital city, Ulan Bator.

The marmots were discovered in vehicles heading to Ulan Bator, said the department's release on Thursday, according to news agency.

Although hunting marmots is illegal in Mongolia, many locals regard the rodent as a delicacy and frequently disregard the law.

Most recently, a bag of dead marmots was discovered in a restroom of the "Blue Sky" tower in downtown Ulan Bator, home to over half of Mongolia's 3.5 million residents, causing the incident to go viral on social media.

The office of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has replaced Energy Minister Antonio Goncalves amid an acute energy crisis that has led to power cuts, said a statement.

Goncalves, who took office in July, announced earlier that power cuts of up to 10 hours per day were required due to "critical" energy shortages.

Environment Minister Ines Manzano has been designated as the interim minister of energy, reports news agency.

Manzano "will lead the transformation of an outdated matrix, which has left us 72 per cent dependent on rain, and will undertake renewable energy projects," the presidential office said on Wednesday.

The UN General Assembly elected 18 members to the 47-member Human Rights Council for the 2025-2027 term.

The 18 countries -- Benin, Bolivia, Colombia, Cyprus, Czechia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Iceland, Kenya, Marshall Islands, Mexico, North Macedonia, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand -- were elected by a secret ballot on Wednesday, and they will serve three-year terms beginning on January 1, 2025, replacing members whose terms of office are set to expire on December 31, 2024.

All the outgoing members -- Argentina, Benin, Cameroon, Eritrea, Finland, Gambia, Honduras, India, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Montenegro, Paraguay, Qatar, Somalia, United Arab Emirates and the United States -- were eligible for immediate re-election except those members who have served two consecutive terms, including Argentina, Cameroon, Eritrea, India and Somalia, news agency reported.

Israeli airstrikes targeted several locations across Syria on Thursday, injuring at least one person and causing significant damage.

A major strike hit a car manufacturing plant in the industrial city of Hasyaa, in the countryside of Homs. The initial casualty report confirmed one person was injured, and several vehicles loaded with relief materials and aid were destroyed in the attack, news agency reported quoting the Syrian state television.

A separate strike in the town of Maarin, located in Hama province, sparked a large fire, and there were no immediate reports of casualty. Meanwhile, an explosion was reported in the city of Daraa, with authorities still investigating the cause.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a Shiite militia group, claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a "vital" site in Eilat, Israel's southern port city.

The group said in a statement on Wednesday night that the attack was conducted "in solidarity with the people of Palestine and Lebanon," pledging to continue targeting "the enemy's strongholds."

The statement did not provide further details about the targeted site or report any casualties, news agency reported.

Earlier in the day, the Iraqi militant group claimed responsibility for four drone attacks on four "vital" sites in Israel.

Israel's military said its warplanes launched an airstrike in southwestern Syria, killing a Hezbollah operative.

In a statement on Wednesday, the military claimed that Adham Jahout, a militant with Hezbollah's "Golan Terrorist Network" in Syria, was killed in the airstrike in the area of Quneitra near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, reports news agency.

"As part of his role, Jahout relayed information from Syrian sources to Hezbollah and transmitted intelligence gathered on the Syrian front to facilitate operations against Israel in the Golan Heights," the military said.

Syrian state television reported earlier that a policeman was killed in the attack, the latest in a series of Israeli airstrikes in the region, which, according to Israel, are aimed at Iranian and Hezbollah targets.