Israeli minister outlines plans for Gaza after war
By Wyre Davies in Jerusalem & Alys Davies in London BBC News
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has outlined proposals for the future governance of Gaza once the war between Israel and Hamas is over.
There would, he said, be limited Palestinian rule in the territory.
Hamas would no longer control Gaza and Israel would retain overall security control, he added.
Fighting in Gaza continued alongside the plan’s publication, with dozens of people killed in the previous 24 hours, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
Oil industry veteran to lead next round of Cop climate change summit
Mukhtar Babayev is named president-in-waiting of UN climate summit to be held in November
Cop29, the next round of UN talks to tackle the climate crisis, will be led by another veteran of the oil and gas industry.
Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s ecology and natural resources minister, has been appointed the president-in-waiting for the Cop29 climate talks when they take place in the country in November.
Before his entry into politics in the autocratic country in western Asia, once a Soviet republic, Babayev spent 26 years working for the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (Socar).
Iran arrests suspects after IS attack in Kerman
The arrests come as people once again gather in Kerman, this time to mourn Wednesday’s dead. At least nine young children were among the victims of the blasts.
Iranian authorities have arrested a number of suspects in relation to the blasts that killed 89 people at the grave of General Qassem Soleimani on Wednesday in the city of Kerman, Iranian media reported.
Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi said five people had been arrested in five different provinces, according to state news agency IRNA and semi-official agency Tasnim.
The news of the arrests, provided without further information, came as the victims of those attacks — which were claimed by the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) — were laid to rest.
Iranian media reported that 30 of the victims had been under the age of 18, and nine were 10 or younger.
India navy rescues Arabian Sea crew after hijack attempt
India’s navy said Friday it had rescued 21 crew members from a vessel in the Arabian Sea after a hijacking distress call, the latest attack on commercial shipping in the region.
Last month the force deployed several warships into the sea to “maintain a deterrent presence” after a string of recent shipping attacks, including a drone strike near India’s coast which the United States has blamed on Iran.
It comes at a time when many vessels have been rerouted from the Red Sea due to drone and missile attacks carried out by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is battling Hamas militants.
A navy statement said Friday that all 21 crew members, including 15 Indian nationals, aboard the MV Lila Norfolk had been evacuated from the ship’s citadel — a fortified section of commercial vessels used as a refuge during pirate attacks.
Final whistle to blow for ‘Captain Tsubasa’ manga series in April
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
January 5, 2024 at 17:30 JST
“Captain Tsubasa,” a globally beloved soccer manga series, will end its 40-year run in April, publisher Shueisha Inc. announced on Jan. 5.
In a statement, Yoichi Takahashi, 63, the manga artist, cited changes in the creative environment due to the digitization process, as well as his declining health.
“Rather than continue drawing ‘manga’ to the limits of my physical strength, I have decided to stop the serialization so that I can tell the ‘story’ of ‘Captain Tsubasa’ to the end,” he said.
World’s biggest polluter just had its hottest year on record, marked by deadly extreme weather
China saw Its hottest year on record in 2023, state media reported this week, as the world’s biggest polluter confronted a series of relentless heat waves and other extreme weather events driven by the human-caused climate crisis.
Daily and monthly temperature records were repeatedly shattered as the year wore on while the country grappled with scorching heat waves, which authorities said had arrived earlier and been more widespread and extreme than in previous years.
China’s exceptional warmth echoed global trends – with scientists confirming that 2023 will officially be the hottest year on record, the result of the combined effects of El Niño and climate change.
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