South Korea had "constructive" talks with the United States this week to advance the negotiations for determining Seoul's share of the cost for the upkeep of American troops here, a Seoul official said Friday.

The allies wrapped up the three-day defence cost-sharing talks in Seoul, amid growing speculation that the two sides might be nearing an end to renew the multi-year deal for stationing 28,500-strong US soldiers in South Korea, news agency reported.

"South Korea and the United States held constructive discussions aimed at narrowing their differences on key issues of mutual interest," a foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

North Korea has increased the number of criminal charges subject to the death penalty to 16 from 11 by revising the penal code several times between 2022 and 2023, as per a report on Friday.

According to the report by Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), since revising the criminal law in May 2022, North Korea has further amended it three times, including the latest revision in December 2023, news agency reported.

North Korea newly added five criminal charges that could lead to the death penalty as a maximum sentence, when compared with the revisions in the penal code between May 2022 and December 2023, according to the report.

Two people have been killed and another critically injured after a sedan crashed into a motorcycle in Palawan province, Philippine police said on Friday.

According to the police, the accident happened on Thursday at 11:25 p.m. local time along a highway in Puerto Princesa City, news agency reported.

Police rushed to the scene and said that the 19-year-old male sedan driver lost control of the speeding vehicle, swerved to the opposite side of the road, and collided with the motorcycle.

The motorcycle riders were thrown onto the road, resulting in the deaths of the 21-year-old male motorcycle driver and one of his two passengers, a 68-year-old female.

The driver's 20-year-old partner was also critically injured.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said that the country and the European signatories to a 2015 nuclear deal have discussed the agreement's revival and removal of sanctions on Tehran.

He made the remarks upon arrival in the Iranian capital Tehran from his trip to New York, where he attended the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly and held several bilateral meetings, including with his foreign counterparts, news agency reported quoting the official news agency IRNA.

"Talks were held about the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). We shared our concerns with the European states, and it was decided that (our) foreign ministers follow up on the issue," Pezeshkian said.

As many as 16 people were taken to hospital on Friday after a toxic chemical leak at a plant in the southeastern industrial city of Ulsan, officials said.

Firefighters received a report that a burning smell and white smoke were coming from a synthetic resin production plant in Ulju County in Ulsan, some 300 kms southeast of Seoul, at 10:15 A.M.,news agency reported.

The smoke began while testing a reactor containing some 50 kgs of epoxy, a chemical compound, when its temperature suddenly shot up to 200 C, officials said.

Twenty-three Syrian refugees, mostly women and children, were killed in an airstrike on Lebanon's Younine area, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said.

In a statement, the ministry on Thursday said that the airstrike was launched just hours before Israeli forces struck the Matrabah border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, injuring several refugees fleeing the violence.

The statement accused Israel of deliberately targeting innocent civilians, including refugees seeking safety, news agency reported.

Uganda warned that more than one million people could be affected by ongoing torrential rain, which are likely to trigger landslides and flooding.

On Thursday, Lilian Aber, minister of state for relief, disaster preparedness and refugees said in a disaster situation statement that the country is currently facing heavy rain, compounded by strong winds and hailstorms. These conditions have caused widespread waterlogging, flooding, crop destruction and the displacement of thousands of families, news agency reported.

Aber said the floods have displaced 25,990 people from 6,650 families and impacted 40,213 people in the Ugandan districts of Ntoroko and Kasese.

At least two people died and four others are missing after a service barge used in the maintenance of oil wells sank in Lake Maracaibo, in western Venezuela's Zulia state.

The state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) informed about the incident on Thursday, news agency reported.

In a statement, the firm said that the incident was caused by "bad weather conditions that affected the area at the time of the accident," and said the barge named "Chantase G" belongs to SOSCA, the firm currently providing oil well maintenance services.

"Search and rescue work continues in conjunction with public safety organisations," the company said, adding a PDVSA High-Level Investigation Committee will look into the matter to definitively determine the causes of the accident and support will be provided to the relatives of the victims.

Eight people were injured in an explosion inside a police station in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, rescuers said.

The accident happened in the Swabi district of the province where a fire broke out before the explosion, severely damaging a room in the police station and reducing it to rubble, Bilal Faizi, spokesperson of the state-owned rescue organisation Rescue 1122, told news agency.

He said that the fire erupted inside the room where explosive materials, recovered from terrorists during separate operations, were stored.

The death toll from 115 Israeli airstrikes on various regions in Lebanon rose to 60, the Health Ministry reported on Friday.

Israel conducted attacks across Lebanon on Thursday, the ministry noted, adding the large-scale airstrikes, which started on Monday and have been focused on the south and east of Lebanon, have now spread to include regions in the Mount Lebanon Governorate on its fourth day, news agency reported.

As of Thursday, the death toll from the Israel-Hezbollah clashes since October 8, reached 1,540, with injuries totalling 5,410, the ministry added.

In an airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs earlier Thursday, at least two people were killed and 15 others injured when a residential building near al-Qaem mosque in Dahieh was hit, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Footage from Lebanese TV channel al-Jadeed showed rescue teams and ambulances rushing to the densely populated area to transport casualties to the hospital and remove victims from beneath the rubble.