NEWS

KYIV — A Russian attack has killed four people and injured three in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the city’s military administration said Saturday.

“We already have four dead in Shevchenkivsky district,” said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, in a Telegram post, adding that three people were injured.

Hours earlier, Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko warned of a “ballistic missile threat” against the capital and said the city’s air defense was activated.

He later said a building in Shevchenkivsky district had its windows broken, with smoke coming from it, while a water pipeline in the area was damaged.

In addition, a metro station near the city’s center also suffered damage and was temporarily closed, with Kyiv’s trains bypassing that stop, Klitschko said.

The attack – a rare strike on the heart of the Ukrainian capital – came as Kyiv has upped its aerial attacks on Russian energy and military facilities in recent months.

Kyiv’s army has hit several Russian oil depots recently, including two major strikes on a facility near a military airfield in Russia’s Saratov region that triggered days-long blazes.

Also on Saturday, Russian forces “attacked the center” of Zaporizhzhia, injuring two people, according to local governor Ivan Fedorov. An administrative building of an industrial facility was partially damaged, he said.

AN-AFP

KABUL — The Salang highway, linking Afghanistan’s capital Kabul to nine northern provinces, has been blocked due to heavy snowfalls, the Ministry of Public Work announced on Saturday.

The highway has been blocked due to severe snowfalls and storms, and motorists are urged to refrain from driving on it until further notice, the ministry added.

According to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, 29 out of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces will experience heavy snowfalls, floods, and heavy rain over the next few days.

XINHUA

ISLAMABAD — Five terrorists were killed during an intelligence-based operation in Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said on Friday.

The security forces conducted the operation in the Khyber district of the province on reported presence of terrorists, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said in a statement.

“During the conduct of the operation, the terrorists’ location was effectively engaged by own troops,” the ISPR said, adding that the five terrorists were killed while one of them was apprehended during the operation.

According to the ISPR, a huge cache of weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the terrorists, who remained actively involved in terrorist activities against security forces as well as killing of civilians in the area.

A clearance operation is being carried out to eliminate the presence of other terrorists from the area, it added.

XINHUA

SAO PAULO — Six suspects were killed on Friday in a shootout with police in Ponta Grossa, a municipality in the southern Brazilian state of Parana, local authorities said.

The gunfight occurred during a police raid to confiscate illegal weapons of a gang.

The criminal organization was stockpiling weapons and planned to attack cash transport trucks and banks in small towns in the state of Parana, according to the police.

During the raid, six suspects were killed and no security agents were injured. The police confiscated weapons including rifles commonly used by the military.

XINHUA

JERUSALEM — The Israeli government on Saturday approved a ceasefire agreement aimed at the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, following a lengthy cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

At the meeting, 24 ministers voted in favor and eight against. The agreement is expected to take effect on Sunday, it said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the meeting that he was assured by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that Israel would receive a halted arms supply once he takes office, reported Channel 12 News.

“This is important because if we do not reach the second phase of the deal, we will have additional tools to return to fighting,” Netanyahu said. “Trump is giving Israel full backing to return to war in case of a violation of the agreement.”

The full cabinet meeting was held after Israel’s restricted security cabinet voted in favor of the Gaza ceasefire-for-hostage agreement on Friday.

Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, two far-right ministers, opposed the agreement and demanded a government commitment to resume fighting in Gaza once the first phase of the deal, in which Hamas would release 33 Israeli hostages, is completed.

Disputes have been resolved, Hamas said on Friday, a day after the group affirmed its commitment to the full terms of the accord in a statement.

XINHUA

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 – The Supreme Court upheld on Friday a law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if its Chinese parent company ByteDance does not sell it, putting the popular short-video app on track to go dark in just two days.

The court’s 9-0 decision throws the social media platform – and its 170 million American users – into limbo, and its fate in the hands of Donald Trump, who has vowed to rescue TikTok after returning to the presidency on Monday.

The law was passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by President Joe Biden, though a growing chorus of lawmakers who voted it are now seeking to keep TikTok operating in the United States.

TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app’s users challenged the law, but the Supreme Court decided that it did not violate the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech as they had argued.

REUTERS

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said that French-Israeli citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are in the first group of hostages due to be freed by Hamas following a ceasefire with Israel.

Macron’s announcement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that the release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel is expected to begin on Sunday.

“Our fellow citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are on the list of 33 hostages to be freed in the first phase of the Gaza accord,” Macron said in a social media post.

“We remain mobilized without pause to ensure their return to their families,” he wrote.

The French president is set to meet with the families of the two Franco-Israeli hostages “very soon,” according to his entourage.

Yahalomi, who turned 50 in captivity, was kidnapped from his home in Nir Oz kibbutz.

His 12-year-old son, abducted separately, was released in November 2023 during the first truce.

Kalderon, 54, was kidnapped along with his son and daughter from Nir Oz kibbutz. The two children were released in the November 2023 truce.

AN-AFP/Jan 17, 2025

JERUSALEM — The Israeli justice ministry published a list of 95 Palestinian prisoners, the majority women, who are to be freed starting Sunday as part of the first exchange for Israeli captives under a Gaza ceasefire deal.

“The release of prisoners is… subject to government approval of the (ceasefire) plan and will not take place before Sunday 16:00 (1400 GMT),” the ministry said in a statement on Friday.

Israel’s security cabinet approved the deal, while the full cabinet will convene to vote on it later on Friday.

The list includes 69 women, 16 men and 10 minors.

According to the ministry, the youngest inmate on the list is 16.

The list includes only seven prisoners who were arrested before the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

Among those on the list is also Khalida Jarar, a leftist Palestinian lawmaker whom Israel arrested and imprisoned on several occasions.

Jarar is a prominent member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group designated a “terrorist organization” by Israel, the United States and the European Union.

Detained in late December in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, the 60-year-old has been held since then without charge.

In September 2021, she was released after serving a two-year sentence in an Israeli prison for participating in PFLP activities.

According to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the release of hostages as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas is expected to begin Sunday.

Two sources close to Hamas told AFP that the first group of hostages to be released consists of three Israeli women soldiers.
However, since the Palestinian Islamist movement considers any Israeli of military age who has completed mandatory service a soldier, the reference could also apply to civilians abducted during the attack that triggered the war.

The first three names on a list obtained by AFP of the 33 hostages set to be released in the first phase are women under 30 who were not in military service on the day of the Hamas attack.

Justice ministry spokeswoman Noga Katz said the final number of prisoners to be released in the first swap would depend on the number of live hostages released by Hamas.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called on political allies to vote against the Gaza deal, stating it would see the release of several Palestinian militants “serving life sentences” for killing Israelis.

AN-AFP/ Jan 17, 2025

SEOUL — Investigators probing the Jeju Air crash that killed 179 people last month have found feathers in both engines, according to South Korean media reports, with a bird strike being examined as one possible cause.

The Boeing 737-800 was flying from Thailand to Muan, South Korea, on December 29 carrying 181 passengers and crew when it belly-landed at Muan airport and exploded in a fireball after slamming into a concrete barrier.

It was the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil.

“Feathers were found in both engines,” the government-linked National Institute of Biological Resources told South Korean broadcaster MBN, without specifying who gave them the information.

“We have completed the analysis of a total of 17 samples, including feathers and blood,” it said.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport declined to confirm the report when asked by AFP.

South Korean and US investigators are still probing the cause of the crash, which prompted a national outpouring of mourning with memorials set up across the country.

Investigators have pointed to a bird strike, faulty landing gear and the runway barrier as possible issues.

The pilot warned of a bird strike before pulling out of a first landing attempt. The plane crashed on its second attempt when the landing gear did not emerge.

Lead investigator Lee Seung-yeol told reporters last week that “feathers were found” in one of the plane’s recovered engines but cautioned that a bird strike does not lead to an immediate engine failure.

“We need to investigate whether it affected both engines. It is certain that one engine has definitely experienced a bird strike,” he said.

The investigation was further clouded on Saturday when the transport ministry said the black boxes holding the flight data and cockpit voice recorders for the crashed flight had stopped recording four minutes before the disaster.

Authorities have raided offices at Muan airport, a regional aviation office in the southwestern county, and Jeju Air’s office in the capital Seoul as part of the investigation.
The land ministry has extended Muan airport’s closure until January 19.

AN-AFP/Jan 17, 2025

MOSCOW — Russian forces have regained control of 63.2 percent of the territory in the Kursk region previously seized by Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defense said Friday.

Units of the North military group took back four settlements in the Kursk region over the course of two weeks in January, it said.

Russian forces are continuing their offensive in all directions, said the ministry, adding that Ukrainian troops are retreating from occupied territories despite reinforcements.

XINHUA

NEW DELHI — At least seven people, mostly spectators, were killed and over 400 others injured by bulls at the bullfighting sports events in southern India, multiple local media reported Friday.

The deaths and injuries were reported on Thursday during the events held in various parts of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

The reports said two bulls also died in separate incidents. A bull died during an event in Pudukkottai, while a bull owner and his bull died at Siravayal village in Sivaganga district during a bull chasing event.

Officials said most of the deaths and injuries took place outside the arenas, where bull owners usually collect their bulls after the run in the presence of huge crowds.

XINHUA

SYDNEY — Two people have been injured after a tree fell amid heavy winds in central Sydney.

The large tree was brought down by strong winds at about 3 p.m. local time on Friday in Hyde Park in the central business district of Sydney, the capital city of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW).

Emergency services attended the scene where two women, aged 35 and 66, were treated for minor injuries by ambulance paramedics before being taken to hospital.

Police said they were working to clear the fallen tree from Elizabeth Street, a major road running north-south through central Sydney, and have put traffic diversions in place.

Sydney and surrounding areas in NSW have been hit by a series of intense storms and damaging winds since Wednesday.

XINHUA

PHNOM PENH — A 49-year-old woman had died after being attacked by a swarm of bees in northeastern Cambodia’s Mondulkiri province, the National Police said on Friday.

The rare accident occurred on Wednesday afternoon in Pechreada district’s Pu Kreng village when the victim was lying in a hammock under an avocado tree.

“Experts inspected the victim’s face and body and found that the swarm of bees stung her 67 times,” the National Police said on its website.

The woman was soon taken to a local health center, but the doctor pronounced that she was dead from complications due to the bee stings before reaching the health center.

“Our experts concluded that the woman was killed by bee stings,” the National Police said.

According to the police, the swarm was likely a traveling one because there was no evidence of a bee colony in trees around the scene.

XINHUA

ISTANBUL — Three illegal migrants died and three others went missing after falling from a rubber boat into the Aegean Sea off the coast of Türkiye’s Aydin province, local media reported on Friday.

According to NTV, the accident occurred near the coastal town of Kusadasi when the boat carrying migrants failed to heed a “stop” warning from security forces.

As the boat attempted to flee, several migrants fell into the sea. The Coast Guard rescued 32 individuals and recovered the bodies of three others.

The report added that three people are still missing as search and rescue operations are ongoing.

Preliminary reports suggest that the migrants were attempting to illegally cross to a Greek island.

The Aegean Sea has long been a key route for migrants attempting to reach Europe via Türkiye.

As one of the world’s leading destinations for refugees, Türkiye currently hosts over 4 million migrants, the majority of whom are Syrians, according to the Presidential Directorate of Communications.

XINHUA

JUBA — South Sudan on Friday imposed a curfew across the country in the wake of targeted revenge attacks on Sudanese nationals triggered by graphic footage on social media of South Sudanese nationals being killed in Sudan.

The curfew, which will come into force from 6 p.m. local time (1600 GMT), is aimed at preventing any violations of public and private property, the Inspector General of the South Sudan National Police Service, Abraham Manyuat Peter, announced on state television.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and call on citizens to report any criminal violations,” he said. “The police will not tolerate any violations that harm public security and will deal with them according to the law.”

Peter said four people were injured Thursday night in clashes between security forces and rioters, who attacked, looted, and vandalized businesses owned by Sudanese nationals in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

The riots came after video clips circulating on social media platforms of Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) soldiers executing unarmed civilians, including South Sudanese nationals, in Wad Medani, Al Gezira State, Sudan.

There have since been attacks on Sudanese nationals in Juba, Aweil, and Warrap State, according to reports.

South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation on Wednesday summoned the Sudanese Ambassador to South Sudan, Isam Mohamed Hassan Karar, to protest the killing of its nationals.

John Samuel Bwogo, undersecretary in South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has requested that the Sudan Sovereign Council allow a high-level committee from Juba to visit Wad Madani, where the alleged attacks took place.

He urged both the Sudan Sovereign Council and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to protect South Sudanese nationals caught up in the violence.

The Sudanese ambassador to South Sudan said an investigation committee has been formed to investigate the killings in Wad Madani, which happened after the SAF retook the area from the rebels.

“There are many nationalities engaging in war within Sudan. The investigation committee will work closely with the undersecretary and ambassador of South Sudan based in Port Sudan, and we will update South Sudanese and the public on the situation of citizens in Al Gezira,” he said.

XINHUA

LUSAKA — Zambia has confirmed three new mpox cases, bringing the total number to seven, authorities said on Thursday.

Minister of Health Elijah Muchima said in a press briefing that the new cases were detected between Jan. 10 and 16, with two cases from the capital city Lusaka, and one from the Copperbelt province.

The ministry has intensified investigations and contact tracing in the affected areas to control the spread of the disease, while also launching awareness campaigns in communities, said the minister.

In October 2024, Zambia reported its first mpox case, which involved a Tanzanian national visiting the country.

XINHUA