Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan will take over as Prime Minister on August 18 and Indian cricket legends Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Navjot Sidhu have been invited for the swearing-in ceremony, a party spokesperson said on Friday.

The Islamic Hamas movement said that a truce with Israel on halting escalation in the Gaza Strip began from Thursday midnight.

The agreement, brokered by Egypt and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov, will end another round of military confrontation between Israel and Hamas, a source from Hamas told Xinhua news agency.

Dozens of people were killed and injured as an airstrike hit buses carrying children in northern Yemen on Thursday, according to the Yemeni branch of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC).

An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale struck Indonesia's Lombok Island on Thursday, less than a week after a major earthquake in the region left at least 168 people dead, more than 1,500 injured and 156,000 affected.

The US Geological Survey said the hypocentre was located at a depth of 10 km and 23 km from Mataram, the capital of the province, reports Efe news.

In yet another incident of violence against women artistes in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, actress and singer Reshma was recently shot dead allegedly by her husband in Nowshera Kalan area.

According to a report by Geo TV, Reshma, who was the suspect's fourth wife, used to live with her brother at the city's Hakimabad area.

Iran has again ruled out any negotiation with the US, accusing it of pursuing "erratic policies" in dealing with the Islamic republic.

"The Americans have never acted with sincerity, and President Donald Trump's move and remarks to invite Iran for talks were merely a propaganda stunt," the state TV quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying on Wednesday after the cabinet meeting, Xinhua reported.

London's population has been rising steadily since the mid-1980s but evidence has emerged that Brexit and the high cost of buying and renting homes is deterring new people from coming to live in the city.

The London Intelligence Report published on Wednesday by the think-tank the Centre for London showed that in the year to mid-2017 London's population experienced the slowest rate of growth in over a decade, Xinhua news agency reported.

Israel has carried out large-scale airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, targeting "12 terror sites", a military spokesperson said.

Israel struck Hamas sites in Gaza, bombing a concrete factory and a maritime assault tunnel shaft, after at least 36 Gaza rockets hit Israel, the army said on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.