Israeli hostages reported to be in Egypt after being released by Hamas
Israel source confirms hostages handed over
AFP news agency quotes an Israeli security source as saying that 13 Israeli hostages have been handed over to Israeli forces.
We will bring you more as soon as we have it.
Red Cross vehicles seen crossing from Gaza into Egypt
TV footage streamed from the Egypt-Gaza border has just shown a number of Red Cross vehicles crossing the border into Egypt.
- Later today, 39 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli jails are due to released to the West Bank
- More aid is also being allowed into Gaza – 60 lorries carrying medical supplies, fuel and food entered today from Egypt
- Hamas’s attacks on 7 October killed 1,200 people, with about 240 taken hostage
- Since then, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 14,000 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory campaign
Irish police chief warns of further disruption by far right after Dublin riot
Drew Harris says radicalised people exploited ‘terrible crime’ of knife attack to unleash mayhem on streets
Ireland’s police chief has warned that far-right radicalisation will continue to disrupt the country after a night of arson, rioting and looting left parts of Dublin resembling a war zone.
The capital was tense but calm on Friday as significant numbers of police remained on the streets and Dublin counted the cost of an anti-immigrant protest that turned into anarchy, leaving the political establishment shocked.
The cleanup began as fresh details emerged of the stabbing attack outside a school that left three children and a carer injured, two of them critically, and the suspect, reportedly a naturalised Irish citizen in his 50s, in custody and requiring medical treatment.
Russia vows retaliation over Moldova’s backing of EU sanctions
Russia views Moldova‘s decision to join EU sanctions against it as a hostile step aimed at destroying ties with Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday, vowing to retaliate.
“We regard this as yet another hostile step by the Moldovan leadership, which is fully integrated into the anti-Russian campaign of the ‘collective West,'” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“Its aim is the complete destruction of Russian-Moldovan relations, which, through the fault of official Chisinau, are already in a very deplorable state,” the ministry added.
Moldova has, so far, backed four of the six packages of EU sanctions against Moscow in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Along with Ukraine, Moldova is a candidate for EU membership. Brussels requires future EU members to coordinate their foreign policy, including complying with the EU’s sanctions policy.
Climate activists fear surveillance, detention at COP28 talks in UAE
Rights groups are preparing for the COP28 climate talks in the United Arab Emirates with trepidation, fearing surveillance and detention under the oil-rich monarchy’s strict criminal justice system.
Highly attuned to international scrutiny, the UAE, where unauthorised protests are illegal, has said it would permit demonstrations in designated areas of the COP28 site, a far-flung development in the Dubai suburbs surrounded mostly by desert.
But those assurances, and a pledge to host the “most inclusive” edition yet of the United Nations climate talks, have done little to assuage campaigners, who say they plan to raise human rights issues during COP28.
“We are deeply concerned about people being detained and arrested,” said Asad Rehman, lead spokesperson for the Climate Justice Coalition, which is planning actions on the ground.
S Korean court orders Japan to compensate former ‘comfort women’
By Hyonhee Shin
A South Korean appellate court on Thursday ordered Japan to compensate a group of 16 women who were forced to work in Japanese wartime brothels, overturning a lower court ruling that dismissed the case and prompting a stern protest from Tokyo.
The legacy of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula remains politically sensitive for both sides, with many surviving “comfort women” – a Japanese euphemism for the sex abuse victims – still demanding Tokyo’s formal apology and compensation.
Bilateral relations between the two U.S. allies have been strained for years by the issues of wartime sex abuse and forced labour, but South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have sought to improve ties.
Beijing hospitals overwhelmed with post-Covid surge in respiratory illnesses among children
Hospitals in Beijing and northern China are grappling with a surge of children with respiratory illnesses as the country enters its first winter since relaxing stringent Covid-19 controls nearly one year ago.
Wait times to see doctors stretch for hours, with hundreds of patients queuing at some children’s hospitals in major cities across northern China, according to CNN reporting and Chinese state and social media.
An official at the Beijing Children’s Hospital told state media Tuesday that the current average of more than 7,000 daily patients “far exceeds the hospital’s capacity.” The largest pediatric hospital in nearby Tianjin broke a record on Saturday, receiving more than 13,000 children at its outpatient and emergency departments, according to a local state-run outlet.
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