YANKEETOWN, Fla. (AP) — A freshwater spring bubbles amid the mangroves, cabbage palms and red cedars on Sweetheart Island, a two-acre uninhabited patch of paradise about a mile off the coast of this little Gulf Coast town.

Pelicans divebomb nearby into the cool waters of Florida’s Withlacoochee Bay and the open view westward holds the promise of dazzling sunsets.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The white Honda Civic sped down Highway 57, a rural two-lane corridor that reaches the U.S.-Mexico border, after a Texas sheriff’s deputy tried pulling over the car and gave chase when it didn’t stop.

High-speed pursuits of migrants and suspected smugglers have become routine in Texas. But Wednesday’s chase came to one of the deadliest endings in recent years: a head-on crash that killed eight people, including Honduran citizens and two residents of Georgia.

BERLIN, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Germany will strengthen its military to make it the backbone of deterrence and collective defence in Europe, its defence minister pledged on Thursday as Berlin issued new defence policy guidelines for the first time in over a decade.

The 19-page document details what the "Zeitenwende" - the major shift of policy German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 - means for the workings of the Bundeswehr.

DONETSK REGION, Ukraine, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The soldiers piloting Ukraine's fleet of small, cheap assault drones are voicing concerns that, despite pioneering their use, they are now being leapfrogged by their adversary as Moscow pumps money and resources into its drone sector.

The use of agile First Person View (FPV) drones in battle has been one of the most successful of the various low-cost strategies Ukraine has used to defend itself from a full-scale invasion by Russia, its much richer and more powerful neighbour.

NEW DELHI, Nov 10 (Reuters) - India and the United States announced progress on key defence deals and said they would expand their growing partnership in the face of geopolitical challenges as their top diplomats and senior ministers met on Friday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi as part of their annual "2+2 Dialogue", focused on the Indo-Pacific region.

LISBON, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Thursday announced snap parliamentary elections for March 10, 2024, following Tuesday's resignation of Prime Minister Antonio Costa who is under corruption investigation.

In a televised national address after a meeting with the Council of State, Rebelo de Sousa said the call for early elections comes from the need for "clarity and direction to overcome an unexpected void that surprised the Portuguese."

MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/: After his visit to Kazakhstan, Russian President Vladimir Putin stopped in Rostov-on-Don, where he visited the headquarters of the Southern Military District, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reported.

"Having completed his official visit to Astana, Vladimir Putin, flew to Rostov, where he visited the headquarters of the Southern Military District," he said.

Putin was accompanied at the headquarters by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Defense Ministry Valery Gerasimov and other military leaders.

PARIS (AP) — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has set off a cacophony of criticism over her plans to attend a weekend march to protest rising antisemitism in France, with critics saying that her once-pariah party has failed to shake off its antisemitic heritage despite growing political legitimacy.

TEHRAN, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani exchanged views on the political solutions to end the Israeli attacks against the Gaza Strip.

In a phone call on Thursday, the two sides strongly condemned the Israeli attacks against people in Gaza and expressed deep concern over the unfavorable humanitarian situation in the coastal enclave, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on its website on Friday.

PUTRAJAYA, Nov 9 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has expressed hope that China would join forces to ensure the Palestinian-Israeli conflict can be resolved quickly so that humanitarian aid could be sent to Gaza without restrictions. 

According to Malaysian Foreign Minister Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir, the matter was conveyed by Anwar to China’s Vice President Han Zheng during their meeting at Perdana Putra here. 

Han, who is on a four-day official visit to Malaysia, had earlier paid a courtesy call on the Prime Minister.

WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday took a procedural step to allow the Democratic-majority chamber to pass a stopgap government funding bill before a Nov. 17 deadline to avert a partial government shutdown.

THE TAKE

Disputes within the fractious House of Representatives Republican majority have prevented that chamber from voting on a stopgap funding measure known as a continuing resolution, or CR.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The poverty rate in Palestine will soar by 34 percent, thrusting nearly half a million additional people into poverty, if the war in Gaza continues for a second month, warns a UN report.

In such a scenario, Palestine's gross domestic product (GDP) will plummet by 8.4 percent -- a loss of 1.7 billion U.S. dollars, according to initial estimates by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).