Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Russia says Ukraine drone attack caused major Crimea fuel depot fire

A Ukrainian drone strike set ablaze a Russian fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol early on Saturday, sending a vast column of black smoke into the sky in the latest attack on the Russia-occupied peninsula. The city's Moscow-installed governor blamed Ukraine and later said the fire had been put out before a disaster occurred.

UAE evacuates citizens, others from Sudan by plane

The United Arab Emirates evacuated its citizens, other nationalities and humanitarian cases from Sudan by plane on Saturday, part of the flow of people fleeing a conflict which broke out two weeks ago. Around 128 evacuees, including British and U.S. citizens, landed in the capital Abu Dhabi where they were greeted by officials.

Analysis-Sudan risks long conflict as entrenched rivals struggle for control

Sudan's warring factions are locked in a conflict that two weeks of fighting shows neither can easily win, raising the spectre of a drawn-out war between an agile paramilitary force and the better-equipped army that could destabilise a fragile region. Even with hundreds of people killed and the capital Khartoum turned into a war zone, there has been little sign of compromise between army commander Abdul-Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commonly known as Hemedti.

Even one American in Iraq is too many, Iran leader tells Iraqi president

The United States is an unreliable friend, and Iraq should not allow any U.S. troops on its territory, Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told visiting Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid on Saturday. Iran, which has strong ties with Iraq, opposes the U.S. military presence on its borders in Iraq and the Gulf, saying Western military intervention is the root of insecurity in the region.

Fighting rages in Khartoum, but envoy sees sides more open to talks

Air strikes and artillery rocked Khartoum on Saturday as Sudan entered a third week of fighting between rival military forces despite a ceasefire, prompting more civilians to flee and renewed warnings of wider instability if the war is not stopped.

By Saturday evening, heavy clashes could be heard near downtown Khartoum, close to the army headquarters and the presidential palace.

Uzbeks vote on allowing president to extend time in power

Uzbekistan votes on constitutional amendments on Sunday that promise its citizens greater social protection in exchange for resetting President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's term count to zero, which could allow him to stay in power until 2040. Mirziyoyev, 65, has been praised at home and abroad as a liberal reformer for abandoning the previous leadership's isolationist policies and police state approach.

Armenia and Azerbaijan to hold peace settlement talks in Washington on Sunday

Armenia and Azerbaijan will hold a new round of talks in Washington on Sunday to try to normalise relations, Yerevan said on Saturday, after weeks of rising tensions over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Armed forces from the two Caucasus neighbours have frequently exchanged fire amid disputes over the mountain enclave, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.

Russia pledges harsh response after Polish 'seizure' of embassy school in Warsaw

Russia on Saturday promised it would respond harshly to what it said was Poland's illegal seizure of its embassy school in Warsaw, an act it called a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations. Polish state-run news channel TVP Info had earlier reported that police had showed up outside the Russian embassy school on Kieleckiej street in Warsaw on Saturday morning.

Pope meets Ukrainian refugees during visit to Hungary

Pope Francis met Ukrainian refugees on the second day of his visit to Hungary on Saturday, telling them a different future was possible as they described the hardships they have faced since the war began. Francis met about 600 refugees, poor and homeless people in a visit to a Budapest church a day after warning of the dangers in Europe and telling the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban that accepting migrants along with the rest of the continent would be a true sign of Christianity.

Ukraine told Poland, EU that grain import restrictions are 'unacceptable'

Ukraine had protested to key allies the European Union and Poland over restrictions on its grain supplies on Friday, before the European Commisssion announced later in the day that a deal had been reached in principle to resolve the matter. Ukraine's foreign ministry said on Saturday it had sent notes to the Polish Embassy and EU representative office in Kyiv on Friday expressing dissapointment with the situation and saying restrictions on its grain exports via the European trade bloc were "categorically unacceptable".

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)