RIYADH/SANAA, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-led coalition said on Friday it had intercepted a drone in the region of Mecca, Islam's holiest city, as the Houthi media reported that more than 30 people were killed or injured in an airstrike on a crowded public market in the southwestern Yemeni province of Taiz.Interception and destruction of a drone in the Mecca region, Turki Al-Malki, the coalition's spokesperson, said on social media, without elaborating on the source of the attack.Earlier in the day, Al-Malki said the coalition's defenses intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis toward Najran in southwestern Saudi Arabia.There was no immediate comment from the Houthis. In previous statements, the group has strongly denied Saudi-led coalition accusations that they launched drones or missiles toward Mecca and Medina.Also on Friday, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported that three airstrikes hit Al-Hadarah Market in the Al-Wazi'iyah district on Friday morning when the market was crowded with shoppers, attributing the attack to Saudi warplanes.It reported that the preliminary casualty toll exceeded 30 as rescue efforts were underway to search for missing people and bodies, without specifying deaths or injuries.The casualty figures and circumstances of the strikes could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities.The strikes come amid intensified fighting across Taiz and other parts of Yemen between the Houthi group and government forces supported by the Saudi-led coalition.The escalation has also spread into Saudi Arabia, where the Houthis have claimed repeated missile and drone attacks on airports, oil facilities and military installations.Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen, prompting a Saudi-led intervention in 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government.

Japan's electric vehicle (EV) sales topped 100,000 units in the first 10 months of 2026 for the first time, as demand continued to grow, local media reported Friday.EV sales from January through October totaled 111,876 units

India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves fell by 2.691 billion U.S. dollars to 717.056 billion dollars during the week ending October 30, according to the weekly bulletin released by the country's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Friday.

Belgium's King Philippe on Friday rejected Prime Minister Bart De Wever's resignation and asked him to continue federal budget negotiations, the Royal Palace said in a statement.

TEHRAN, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Friday morning that two violating oil tankers seeking to transit the Strait of Hormuz through an unauthorized route caught fire after hitting naval mines.In a statement on the IRGC's official news outlet Sepah News, the IRGC's navy said both vessels had turned off their navigation and identification systems and were trying to exit the strait through the unauthorized route with the aggressive and terrorist U.S. Army's support, but were stopped after hitting the naval mines.The navy stressed that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, and no change will occur to the waterway's status quo unless the United States meets Iran's seven conditions.It added that bids by the forces of U.S. Central Command to compel oil tankers to cross the waterway through the mined route will lead to nothing but consecutive and abject defeats.Iran tightened its grip on the strait on Feb. 28, barring safe passage of vessels belonging to or affiliated with Israel and the United States following their joint strikes on Iran.

Experts have called for climate change to be declared a global health emergency, warning that its impacts on human health are accelerating worldwide, according to a global report involving researchers in Australia.The 2026 Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change found that many