Germany's blue-chip DAX stock index jumped above 25,000 points for the first time Wednesday, following strong gains on Wall Street as hopes for the artificial intelligence boom bolster investor sentiment.

The index, which groups the 40 largest publicly traded companies on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, hit the milestone shortly after opening, and was trading at 25,010 points at 9:15 am (0815 GMT).

The United Nations said on Wednesday that decades of discrimination and segregation of Palestinians in the West Bank by Israel were intensifying and creating a kind of "apartheid system".

Rights chief Volker Turk said there was "a systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank", creating a "particularly severe form of racial discrimination and segregation, that resembles the kind of apartheid system we have seen before".

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday ordered security forces not to crack down on economic protests, drawing a distinction between peaceful demonstrators and armed "rioters".

In a video released by the news agency Mehr after a cabinet meeting, Vice President Mohammad Jafar Ghaempanah said Pezeshkian had "ordered that no security measures be taken against the demonstrators".

Syria's army began shelling Kurdish-majority neighborhoods in the northern city Aleppo on Wednesday after its deadline for civilians to leave expired, an AFP correspondent said, on the second day of clashes between the two sides.

The Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces traded blame over who started the deadly clashes on Tuesday, with the two sides so far failing to implement a March deal to merge the Kurds' semi-autonomous administration and military into Syria's new Islamist government.

The ceasefire monitoring committee, which includes representatives from the United States, France, Lebanon, Israel and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), met Wednesday in Naqoura in south Lebanon.

The meeting was only military and was not attended by civilian representatives. Last month, Lebanon and Israel appointed the first civilians to lead their delegations to the ceasefire monitoring committee, after a request from the United States.

Israeli strikes on south Lebanon killed two people on Tuesday as Israel said it targeted Hezbollah operatives, a day before a new meeting of the committee monitoring a year-long ceasefire.

Israel has intensified its strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon in recent days, saying it has struck targets from both the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group and its Palestinian ally Hamas.

President Joseph Aoun on Tuesday condemned Israel's latest strikes on Lebanon, saying they undermine efforts to prevent escalation.

Aoun's criticism came after Israel launched a series of strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday, saying it hit Hezbollah and Hamas targets.

An emboldened U.S. President Donald Trump has hinted that he has other countries in his sights after toppling Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, leaving the world asking: where's next?

Key Ukrainian allies were to huddle with top U.S. envoys in Paris on Tuesday to discuss security guarantees, as they press ahead on U.S.-brokered plans to end the war with Russia.

Ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges at a defiant appearance in a New York court Monday, two days after being snatched by U.S. forces in a stunning raid on his home in Caracas.