Category: English

LONDON — UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged an additional £13 million ($16.56 million) to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

The announcement followed a meeting between him and UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini in London on Wednesday.

Starmer gave his condolences to the agency for the deaths of staff members killed in Gaza. The pair agreed that more needs to be done to protect aid workers in the Palestinian enclave, and reiterated their calls for an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages held by Hamas.

The money will come on top of the £21 million per year already given to UNRWA by the UK, which was temporarily suspended by the former government after Israel accused 12 agency members of taking part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in 2023.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he was “reassured” that UNRWA met UK government standards for vetting employees following an independent review of the situation.

UNRWA was established in 1949 to help Palestinian refugees. In October, Israel banned it from operating in its territory, hampering its ability to operate in the Occupied Territories.

Starmer condemned the decision, saying it had left him “gravely concerned” and would make it “impossible” for vital work to be done helping displaced and vulnerable Palestinian civilians.

AN

TAIPEI — Taiwan said Thursday it detected 16 Chinese warships in waters around the island, one of the highest numbers this year, as Beijing intensifies military pressure on Taipei.

The navy vessels, along with 34 Chinese aircraft, were spotted near Taiwan in the 24 hours to 6:00 a.m. Thursday, according to the defense ministry’s daily tally.

Beijing has been holding its biggest maritime drills in years from near the southern islands of Japan to the South China Sea, Taiwan authorities said this week.

Around 90 Chinese warships and coast guard vessels have been involved in the exercises that include simulating attacks on foreign ships and practicing blockading sea routes, a Taiwan security official said Wednesday.

There has been no announcement by Beijing’s army or Chinese state media about increased military activity in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea or Western Pacific Ocean.

AN-AFP

RAIPUR, India — Indian troops shot dead seven Maoist rebels in a fierce gunbattle on Thursday, as security forces step up efforts to crush the long-running armed conflict.

More than 10,000 people have died in the decades-long insurgency waged by the Naxalite movement, as the Maoist insurgents are known, who say they are fighting for the rights of marginalized Indigenous people in India’s resource-rich central regions.
The insurgency has drastically shrunk in recent years and a crackdown by security forces has killed over 200 rebels this year, according to government data.

The latest gunbattle took place in a remote forested area of Bastar region in Chhattisgarh state, the heartland of the insurgency.

“So far seven bodies of Maoists, who were in their uniforms, have been recovered during search operations,” police inspector general P. Sunderraj said, adding that the toll was likely to rise.

Indian home minister Amit Shah warned the Maoist rebels in September to surrender or face an “all-out” assault, saying the government expected to quash the insurgency by early 2026.

The Naxalites, named after the district where their armed campaign began in 1967, were inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.

They demanded land, jobs and a share of the region’s immense natural resources for local residents, and made inroads in a number of remote communities across India’s east and south.

The movement gained in strength and numbers until the early 2000s when New Delhi deployed tens of thousands of security personnel against the rebels in a stretch of territory known as the “Red Corridor.”

Authorities have since invested millions of dollars in local infrastructure and social projects.

AN-AFP

MOSCOW — Russia will “definitely” respond to a Ukrainian attack on a southern airfield using US-supplied ATACMS missiles, the Kremlin said Thursday.

President Vladimir Putin has previously threatened to launch its new hypersonic ballistic missile, named Oreshnik, at the center of Kyiv if Ukraine does not halt its attacks on Russian territory using US-supplied ATACMS missiles.

Russia’s defense ministry on Wednesday accused Ukraine of firing the missiles in an overnight attack on an airfield in the port city of Taganrog in the southern Rostov region.

A response “will follow when, and in a way that is deemed, appropriate. It will definitely follow,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

He did not provide details of how Russia might retaliate.

Washington only recently gave Kyiv permission to fire ATACMS on Russian territory, following months of requests.

The United States warned Wednesday that Russia could be preparing to fire Oreshnik missiles at Ukraine again.

The US warning was “based on an intelligence assessment that it’s possible that Russia could use this Oreshnik missile in the coming days,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists.

Both sides have escalated aerial attacks in recent months as Russia’s troops advance on the battlefield.

Russia’s defense ministry said Thursday its troops had captured the tiny settlement of Zarya in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

AN-AFP

PARIS — Fifty-four journalists were killed worldwide while carrying out their work or because of their profession in 2024, a third of them by the Israeli army, according to an annual report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published Thursday.

According to the press freedom NGO, Israeli armed forces were responsible for the deaths of 18 journalists this year — 16 in Gaza and two in Lebanon.

“Palestine is the most dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years,” RSF said in its annual report, which covers data up to December 1.

The organization has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “war crimes committed against journalists by the Israeli army.”

It said that in total “more than 145” journalists had been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the start of the war there in October 2023, with 35 of them working at the time of their deaths, RSF said.

It described the number of killings as “an unprecedented bloodbath.”

In a separate report published Tuesday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reported that 104 journalists were killed worldwide in 2024, with more than half of them in Gaza.

The figures differ between the IFJ and RSF due to two different methodologies used in calculating the toll.

RSF only includes journalists whose deaths have been “proven to be directly related to their professional activity.”

Israel denies that it intentionally harms journalists but admits that some have been killed in air strikes on military targets.

“We don’t accept these figures. We don’t believe they are correct,” Israeli government spokesman David Mercer told a press conference on Wednesday.

After Gaza, the deadliest places for journalists in 2024 were Pakistan with seven deaths, followed by Bangladesh and Mexico with five each.

In 2023, the number of journalists killed worldwide stood at 45 in the same January-December period.

As of December 1, there were 550 journalists imprisoned worldwide, compared to 513 last year, according to RSF figures.

The three countries with the highest numbers of detained journalists are China (124, including 11 in Hong Kong), Myanmar (61), and Israel (41).

Furthermore, 55 journalists are currently being held hostage, including two abducted in 2024.

Nearly half — 25 in total — are in the hands of the Daesh group.

In addition, 95 journalists are reported missing, including four new cases reported in 2024.

AN-AFP

MEXICO CITY — A judge was shot dead Wednesday in Mexico’s once-thriving beach city of Acapulco, local media and the state prosecutor’s office said.

Local press identified the slain judge as Edmundo Roman Pinzon, president of the Superior Court of Justice in Guerrero state, saying he was shot at least four times in his car outside an Acapulco courthouse.

The southern state of Guerrero is one the areas hardest hit in Mexico by violence linked to organized crime, and has seen a string of deadly attacks this year.

In October, the mayor of the state capital Chilpancingo was killed and decapitated just days after taking office.

Weeks later, armed clashes between alleged gang members and security forces left 19 people dead in the state. Last month, a dozen dismembered bodies were discovered in vehicles in Chilpancingo.

Acapulco, the state’s most populous city, was once a playground for the rich and famous, but has lost its luster over the last decade as foreign tourists have been spooked by bloodshed that has made it one of the world’s most violent cities.

On Wednesday, the Guerrero state prosecutor’s office said in a statement that it was “investigating the crime of aggravated homicide against Edmundo N,” in line with the usual practice of not giving full names.

The killing comes just over a week after President Claudia Sheinbaum led a meeting of the National Public Security Council in Acapulco, with state governors in attendance.

Spiraling violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking, has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in Mexico since 2006, when the government launched an offensive against organized crime.

Sheinbaum, who took office in October as Mexico’s first woman president, has ruled out launching a new “war on drugs,” as the controversial program was known.

She has pledged instead to stick to her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” strategy of using social policy to address the causes of crime.

Last year, 1,890 murders were recorded in Guerrero.

AN-AFP

CAIRO — At least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a group of Palestinians tasked with securing aid trucks into the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said.

Medics said at least 30 people were wounded and with several in critical condition, they feared the death toll may rise. The strike took place in western area of Rafah City, in the south of the enclave, medics and residents said.

Armed gangs have repeatedly hijacked aid trucks shortly after they roll into the enclave, prompting the Islamist Hamas group to form a task-force to confront them. The Hamas-led forces have killed over two dozen members of the gangs in recent months, according to Hamas sources and medics.

Hamas said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 700 police tasked with securing aid trucks into Gaza since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023.

AN-REUTERS

DAMASCUS — The leader of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham confirmed on Wednesday that the militants did not receive any international support to confront former President Bashar Assad’s government.

HTS’ leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, now using his real name Ahmed Al-Sharaa, said that the weapons they fought the Assad government with were manufactured locally, according to Al Arabiya news channel.

He added: “The Syrian people are exhausted from years of conflict, and the country will not witness another war.”

Those responsible for killing Syrians, and security and army officers in the former administration involved in torturing will be held accountable by the Military Operations Department, said Al-Sharaa.

He said in a statement: “We will pursue the war criminals and demand them from the countries to which they fled so that they may receive their just punishment.”

The leader confirmed that “a list containing the names of the most senior people involved will be announced.”

He added that “rewards will also be offered to anyone who provides information about senior army and security officers involved in war crimes.”

Al-Sharaa said that the military leadership is “committed to tolerance for those whose hands are not stained with the blood of the Syrian people,” adding that it granted amnesty to those in compulsory service.

AN

KATHMANDU — A local government and other stakeholders in the Mount Qomolangma region of Nepal have decided to forbid commercial flights of helicopters in the region starting from Jan. 1 next year, a local government official said on Wednesday.

The decision was made a day earlier on the grounds that such flights affect local economic activities and disturb wildlife, said Mingma Chhiri Sherpa, chairperson of Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality.

“We’re sending letters regarding the decision to the helicopter operators, trekking and travel agencies and tourism enterprises,” he told Xinhua.

He explained that due to a rising number of helicopter flights, tourists have stayed less time in recent years.

Trekking routes in the region are world famous and thousands of foreigners visit there for trekking every year.

“Noises caused by helicopter flights have also disturbed wildlife at the Sagarmatha National Park,” Sherpa said, noting that helicopters mobilized for rescue efforts would not be affected by the latest decision.

“But such a rescue operation will be allowed only after a local hospital makes a recommendation,” he added.

XINHUA

TEHRAN — Syria’s Baath party has announced that it is suspending work indefinitely, days after the fall of the government of President Bshar al-Assad and the takeover of the country by armed opposition groups.

According to IRNA, citing the Russian Sputnik news agency, the Baath Party of former Syrian presidents, which has been active for more than 60 years in the Arab country.

It also announced that it has handed over its weapons to the Ministry of Interior of the new and transitional government.

The party’s central leadership has decided to “suspend party work and activity in all its forms … until further notice,” said a statement published on the party’s newspaper website.

The Baath Party, which ruled Syria since 1963, promoted a personality cult around the Assad family since 1969.

IRNA