Thousands of people have been isolated amid record-breaking flooding on the east coast Australian state of New South Wales (NSW).

Heavy rainfall on Wednesday continued for a fourth consecutive day in regions over 100 km north of Sydney, exacerbating widespread flash flooding.

The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) said that it responded to 887 calls for assistance, including 118 flood rescues, in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning.

Around 16,000 people or 7,400 dwellings in the worst-affected areas could expect to be isolated for at least a day, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) quoted SES spokesperson Andrew Edmunds as saying on Wednesday morning.

SES was aware of 52 people trapped on tables, verandahs and their roofs, he added.

One person died and several others were injured after police resorted to a baton charge and reportedly opened fire to disperse anti-canal demonstrators in Pakistan's Sindh province, local media reported.

The unrest erupted in the city of Moro, in Sindh's Naushahro Feroze district, where protesters, demonstrating against the construction of proposed canals over the Indus River, had blocked the motorway bypass road.

Police, attempting to restore traffic, prompted the use of force. As the situation escalated, reports of gunfire added to the chaos, according to local media.

Amid the crackdown, a planned roundtable conference by the Sindhi nationalist organisation Sindh Sabha was thwarted following a heavy deployment of security forces and road blockades near the Hyderabad Press Club, as reported.

The top military officers of South Korea and the US vowed to further strengthen the allies' trilateral security cooperation with Japan during their first video talks earlier this week, the South's military said Wednesday.

Adm. Kim Myung-soo, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), and his US counterpart, Gen. John Daniel Caine, held the talks Tuesday, which marked the first between the two sides since Caine took office last month.

"Through the South Korea-US-Japan Trilateral Chief of Defense meeting set to take place in South Korea in July, (the two sides) agreed to further strengthen the momentum of trilateral security cooperation," the JCS said in a release.

The three countries have recently ramped up trilateral security cooperation through joint military drills amid growing nuclear and missile threats from North Korea, news agency reported.

Kim and Caine also stressed the importance of establishing the capabilities and posture to effectively respond to advancing North Korean threats in line with Pyongyang's expanding cooperation with Moscow, according to the JCS.

The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), a human rights body of Balochistan, on Tuesday strongly condemned Pashtun "genocide" by the Pakistan government in Waziristan, highlighting the drone attacks on civilian homes and the brutal massacre of children.

"We strongly condemn the drone strikes on civilian homes, the brutal massacre of children and the Pashtun genocide in North Waziristan. The Pashtun land has been subjected to state repression, violence and military brutality for the past several decades. We consider this a clear and systematic Pashtun genocide without any interpretation or vague explanation," read a statement issued by the BYC.

Drawing parallel with the condition in Balochistan, the BYC stated that just as the Baloch nation, the government is pursuing a policy of systematic genocide against the Pashtun people, adding that in the same vein, state brutality and violence continue in Pashtun lands.

Evacuations have been ordered and more than 20 people rescued amid flooding in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW).

The State Emergency Service (SES) in NSW late on Monday night issued emergency warnings for residents of the towns of Dungog and Paterson, over 140 km north of Sydney in the state's Hunter region, advising them to evacuate by 11:30 p.m.

"If you remain in the area, you may become trapped without power, water, and other essential services. It may be too dangerous for NSW SES to rescue you, and buildings may not be able to withstand the impact of flood water," it said.

Separate warnings issued in the early hours of Tuesday morning for parts of the Hunter towns of Bulahdelah and Gloucester urged residents to evacuate before 6 a.m.

Australia's conservative Coalition has split after the National Party announced it would not re-enter a partnership with the Liberal Party following a historic defeat at the federal election.

David Littleproud, leader of the Nationals, on Tuesday said that the party has made the decision not to enter into a new Coalition agreement for the 48th parliament after a breakdown in negotiations with new Liberal leader Sussan Ley.

It comes after the May 3 election for the 48th parliament, at which the governing centre-left Labor Party was re-elected in a historic landslide.

"The National Party will sit alone on a principle basis," Littleproud told reporters in Canberra.

"On the basis of looking forward, not having to look back, and to try and actually regain important policy pieces that change the lives of the people we represent."

South Korean nationals living or staying abroad went to the polls on Tuesday to pick a new president as overseas voting was underway ahead of the June 3 election, according to embassy officials.

The out-of-country voting will run for six days, with more than 258,000 South Korean nationals, including those registered as absentee voters, eligible to vote at 223 polling stations across 118 countries.

In Japan, some 38,000 out of 411,000 South Korean nationals aged 18 or over with voting rights registered to vote, the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo said.

Polling stations have been set up in Tokyo and other major cities like Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe, Sapporo, Sendai and Fukuoka.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday described his two-hour-long phone conversation with former US President Donald Trump as "substantive" and "productive," raising fresh hopes for a potential breakthrough in the prolonged Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The call, which focused on reviving stalled peace negotiations, marks a significant diplomatic development in the three-year-long war.

"This conversation has effectively taken place and lasted more than two hours. I would like to emphasise that it was both substantive and quite candid. Overall, I believe it was a very productive exchange," Putin told the media following the conversation.

The talks come amid renewed efforts by the United States to facilitate direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.

While discussions between the Russian and Ukrainian sides were initially expected to resume through a high-level meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey last week, the Russian leader did not attend. Trump, who was on a tour of West Asia at the time, had signalled he might visit the summit but did not make the trip either.

South Korea's military on Monday raised the possibility that North Korea received technological assistance from Russia in developing a new air-to-air missile following the North's test of the weapon last week.

On Saturday, the North's state media reported North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw anti-air combat and air raid drills by an air force flight group earlier in the week, unveiling what appeared to be a live-fire drill involving a new air-to-air missile launched from a MiG-29 fighter jet. Kim was accompanied by a group of party and military officials, including Ri Pyong-chol, general adviser for the munitions policy of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, and Kim Yong-hwan, president of the Academy of Defence Sciences.

"We believe there is an association," Col. Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), told a regular press briefing, when asked whether the North received arms and advanced technology from Russia in exchange for its troop deployment.

Two people were killed and one person remains missing after multiple pedestrians were struck by a train in Fremont, Ohio, authorities confirmed.

The tragic incident occurred around 7 p.m. on Sunday near the Miles Newton Bridge in Fremont, a city located between Toledo and Cleveland along Lake Erie.

The Fremont Police Department, in coordination with other emergency responders, launched a search operation in the area, focusing on the Sandusky River, where one individual is believed to be missing.

Fremont Mayor Danny Sanchez confirmed the two fatalities, noting that both victims were adults. However, the identities of the deceased have not yet been released, pending notification of their families.