Author: Disha Mishra
CAIRO, Jan 9 (Reuters) – U.S. and Arab mediators have made some progress in their efforts to reach a ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but not enough to seal a deal, Palestinian sources close to the talks said on Thursday. As talks continued in Qatar, the Israeli military carried out strikes across the enclave, killing at least 17 people on Thursday, Palestinian medics said. The deaths brought to 70 the number of people killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s health ministry. Qatar, the U.S. and Egypt are…
LOS ANGELES, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Raging wildfires surrounding Los Angeles spread to the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday, after other fires in the area killed at least five people, destroyed hundreds of homes and stretched firefighting resources and water supplies to the limit. More than 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate as dry, hurricane-force winds hindered firefighting operations and spread the fires, which have burned thousands of acres (hectares) since they began on Tuesday. “This firestorm is the big one,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told a press conference after rushing back to the city, cutting short an official trip…
ROME, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was freed by Iran on Wednesday and returned home, three weeks after she was detained in Tehran during a reporting trip. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani were on hand to greet the 29-year-old as she flew back into Rome, highlighting the political importance attached to her case. Sala, a writer and podcaster, had been working with a regular journalist visa when she was detained in Tehran on Dec. 19, accused of “violating the laws of the Islamic Republic”. She was held three days after Iranian businessman…
KYIV, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Membership in NATO is the only credible long-term security guarantee Ukraine can receive against future Russian aggression, Finland’s top diplomat said on Wednesday. Donald Trump’s return to the White House on Jan. 20 has sparked hope of a diplomatic resolution to end Moscow’s invasion but also fears in Kyiv that a quick peace could come at a high price. Ukrainian officials including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy have called for strong security guarantees from partners that would prevent Russia from rearming for a new attack. “I think in the long term the only credible security guarantee is…
(Reuters) – Lebanon’s parliament looks set to elect army chief Joseph Aoun head of state on Thursday, three senior political sources said, ending a presidential vacuum which has persisted since 2022 and showing the diminished sway of the Iran-backed Hezbollah. The election marks the first test of Lebanon’s power balance since Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah emerged badly pummelled from last year’swar with Israel, and since its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad was toppled from power in December. The post, reserved for a Maronite Christian in the country’s sectarian power-sharing system, has been vacant since Michel Aoun’s term ended in October 2022. None…
SEOUL, Jan 9 (Reuters) – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will accept the decision of the Constitutional Court that is trying parliament’s impeachment case against him, even if it decides to remove the suspended leader from office, his lawyer said on Thursday. “So if the decision is ‘removal’, it cannot but be accepted,” Yoon’s lawyer Yoon Kab-keun told a news conference. Rulings by the court, one of the two highest courts in the country along with the Supreme Court, cannot be appealed. Yoon has earlier ignored the Constitutional Court’s requests to submit legal briefs before the court began its…
(Reuters) – A Russian guided bomb attack on Wednesday killed at least 13 people and injured 113 in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, authorities said. The blast left bodies strewn across a road alongside injured residents. Public transport was also damaged in the strike. Prosecutors increased the injury toll from 63 to 113 people on Thursday morning. Rescue work had been completed at the site of the attack the evening before. High-rise apartment blocks were damaged along with an industrial facility and other infrastructure, Ukraine’s prosecutor general office said on Telegram. The debris hit a tram and a bus with…
HYDERABAD, Jan 9 (Reuters) – At least six people were killed and 35 injured in a stampede near one of India’s busiest, and richest, temples, after thousands of devout Hindus flocked to secure free visit passes, authorities said on Thursday. The period from Friday to Jan. 19 is considered auspicious for visits to the deity at the Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple, popularly known as Tirupati, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, the site of Wednesday’s incident. “The stampede took place when the gate was opened,” S. Venkateswar, the district collector, or top revenue official, told reporters on Thursday. “About…
KABUL, Jan 9 (Reuters) – The Taliban’s foreign office said they saw India as a “significant regional and economic partner” after meeting with its most senior foreign ministry official, the highest level talks with Delhi since their takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met acting Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai on Wednesday. Afghanistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that they had discussed expanding relations with Afghanistan and to boost trade through Chabahar Port in Iran, which India has been developing for goods to bypass the ports of Karachi and Gwadar in its…
CAIRO, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Archaeologists have uncovered intact portions of the foundation wall of pharaonic Queen Hatshepsut’s valley temple in Luxor and the nearby tomb of Queen Teti Sheri, grandmother of Ahmose I, the first pharaoh of Egypt’s golden New Kingdom era. The discovery of more than 1,000 decorated stone blocks on the outskirts of Hatshepsut’s funerary temple above was announced on Wednesday by team leader Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist and former minister of antiquities who has been leading excavations at the site since 2022. The 18th dynasty Queen Hatshepsut, who died in about 1458 B.C., was one…