PAKISTAN: A suspected drone strike has killed four children and wounded five in north-west Pakistan, prompting thousands of residents to stage a protest by placing the children’s bodies on a main road to demand justice, local elders said today.

It wasn't immediately clear who was behind Monday's attack in Mir Ali and there was no comment from the army.

IRAN: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pushed back today against US criticism of his country’s nuclear programme, saying that Tehran would not seek anyone’s permission to enrich uranium and dismissing US statements as “nonsense.”

“They say: ‘We won’t allow Iran to enrich uranium.’ That’s way out of line,” the Ayatollah said during a memorial event for the late president Ebrahim Raisi.

“No-one in Iran is waiting for their permission. The Islamic republic has its own policies and direction and it will stick to them.”

UNITED NATIONS: The top UN court sided with Equatorial Guinea against neighbouring Gabon today in a dispute over three islands in the potentially oil-rich waters off the African continent's west coast.

The International Court of Justice ruled that Equatorial Guinea's claim of to the islands of Conga, Mbanie and Cocoteros, based on a 1900 treaty dividing up French and Spanish colonial assets, should be honoured. 

AUSTRALIA: The right-wing Liberal-National Coalition, the country’s main opposition, split today after nearly 80 years.

National leader David Littleproud said his party was going on a journey of “rediscovery” after the alliance was trounced by the Labour Party in the May 3 federal election.