World Echo

Jubilant crowds began bidding farewell to the hottest year on record Sunday, closing a turbulent 12 months marked by clever chatbots, climate crises and wrenching wars in Gaza and Ukraine. The world's population -- now more than eight billion -- will see out the old and usher in the new, with many hoping to shake the weight of high living costs and global tumult. In Sydney, the self-proclaimed "New Year's capital of the world", more than a million partygoers packed the harbour foreshore, with city officials and police warning that all vantage points were full. Sydneysiders gathered through the day at prominent sites, defying uncharacteristically dank weather, and they were not disappointed when the Harbour Bridge and other landmarks were garlanded in light and colour by eight tonnes of fireworks. Sydney's spectacular show lit the fuse on 2024, a year that will bring elections concerning half the world's population and a summer Olympiad celebrated in Paris. The...

The bodies of the two remaining people missing in the aftermath of China's most serious earthquake in nearly a decade were found on Sunday, a tragedy that has renewed concern over exposed populations in seismically active zones. That raises official fatalities from the magnitude 6.2 quake that rocked the northwestern provinces of Qinghai and Gansu almost two weeks ago to 151. The final bodies were found in Qinghai at 1:16 a.m. (1716 GMT Saturday), state media reported. The earthquake, whose epicentre straddled Qinghai and Gansu, was the most serious in China since a magnitude 6.5 temblor struck the southwestern province of Yunnan in 2014 and killed 617 people. The tragedy in disaster-hit Qinghai and Gansu, home to many Hui people, a tight-knit ethnic minority characterised by its distinctive Muslim identity, has renewed concern over outdated and poorly built homes. Many of the homes destroyed were made of earth-wood or brick-wood structures. Their load-bearing walls were constructe...

Less than a month before a grand Hindu temple opens, India's northern town of Ayodhya is buzzing with activity as finishing touches are put on a project seen as the centrepiece of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's re-election campaign. Once a sleepy temple town in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, Ayodhya has received a new airport and roads in a $6-billion facelift as Modi prepares to inaugurate the temple to Lord Ram, one of Hinduism's most revered deities. A day before Modi was set to inaugurate the airport and a renovated train station, workers decorated the streets with flowers, amid a swarm of police. "Soon our Lord will be in his original place," said Girish Sahastrabhojane, who worked on the design of the temple, which forms part of a sprawling 70-acre (28-hectare) complex of carved pink sandstone and white marble. "Our Lord Ram was born here and the Hindus of India, and also abroad, have been waiting for it since 1992," the engineer involve...

South Africa asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday for an urgent order declaring that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its crackdown against the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza. The ICJ, sometimes known as the World Court, is the United Nations venue for resolving disputes between states. Israel's foreign ministry said in a reaction that the suit was "baseless." South Africa's filing alleged Israel was violating its obligations under the treaty, drafted in the wake of the Holocaust, which makes it a crime to attempt to destroy a people in whole or in part. It asked the court to issue provisional, or short-term, measures ordering Israel to stop its military campaign in Gaza, which it said were "necessary in this case to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people." No date has been set for a hearing. Read  Fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces ...

Fierce Israeli tank fire and aerial bombing struck Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Friday night, residents said, after nearly 200 Palestinians were killed in 24 hours in Israel's brutal campaign of retribution. Gaza health authorities said 187 Palestinians were confirmed killed in Israeli strikes in the 24-hour period, raising the overall toll to 21,507 - about 1% of Gaza's population. Thousands more bodies are feared to be buried in the ruins of neighbourhoods. ⚡️WATCH: Hamas published a brand new video showing scenes of targeting IOF soldiers & targeting military vehicles penetrating into the Al-Tuffah and Al-Daraj neighborhoods in Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/TRkClp7nbB — Arya - آریا 🇮🇷 (@AryJeay) December 29, 2023 Israeli aircraft also carried out a series of air strikes on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, according to medics and Palestinian journalists. Israeli forces have been pounding Khan Younis in preparation for an anticipated further advance into the main sout...

China on Thursday sought “resolute” efforts against an “attempt to roll back" globalisation and called for an orderly multipolar world. “China calls for an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation,” according to a statement released at the end of a Central Conference on work relating to China’s Foreign Affairs in Beijing. In his address, Xi presented a systematic review of the historic achievements and valuable experience of major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in the new era, gave a profound exposition on the international environment and historical mission of China's external work on the new journey, and made comprehensive plans for China's external work for the present and coming periods. “In the decade of the new era, we have seen high winds and choppy waters and overcome various difficulties and challenges in China's external work. We have opened up new prospects in major-country diplomacy...

Vishnu Dabad attributes his rise from poverty to powerful local politician to an animal: the cow. The 30-year-old is one of many Gau Rakshaks, or cow protectors: activists who have taken Indian laws banning cattle slaughter and beef consumption into their own hands since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 at the head of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Scores of cow protectors in recent years have been accused of using violence to carry out extra-judicial activities, often finding themselves at odds with law enforcement, even as many won acclaim for defending the Hindu faith. Now some of these operatives are transferring their clout into grassroots political power, where they are pursuing a hardline majoritarian agenda, according to interviews with more than 90 activist-vigilantes, as well as senior leaders of the BJP and other parties, government officials and political analysts. They described how cow vigilantism has become a finishing school for th...

India has launched an investigation into how 303 Indians ended up on a chartered flight that was grounded in France last week because of suspected human trafficking, authorities in the western Indian state of Gujarat said on Wednesday. Tipped off by an anonymous informant, French authorities on Friday prevented the plane from flying to its listed destination of Nicaragua from a refuelling stopover at Vatry airport in northeastern France. It had taken off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with 11 unaccompanied minors among the passengers, 276 of whom returned to India on Tuesday. Many of the Indians onboard hailed from Gujarat, officials said. Sanjay Kharat, a senior Gujarat police official, said authorities had obtained the names and addresses of 21 persons from the state who were on the flight, and that investigators were trying to determine who facilitated their travel. Read Pending human trafficking inquiry: Passengers leave France for India "Our ...

US President Joe Biden hoped to present a firm international response to Yemen's Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping by launching a new maritime force, but a week after its launch many allies don't want to be associated with it, publicly, or at all. Two of America's European allies who were listed as contributors to Operation Prosperity Guardian - Italy and Spain - issued statements appearing to distance themselves from the maritime force. The Pentagon says the force is a defensive coalition of more than 20 nations to ensure billions of dollars' worth of commerce can flow freely through a vital shipping chokepoint in Red Sea waters off Yemen. But nearly half of those countries have so far not come forward to acknowledge their contributions or allowed the US to do so. Those contributions can range from dispatching warships to merely sending a staff officer. The reluctance of some US allies to link themselves to the effort partly reflects the fissures created by the confli...

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei led prayers on Thursday at the funeral of Sayyed Razi Mousavi, a senior Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) adviser killed in what Iran said was an Israeli air strike in Syria. State television said Khamenei paid tribute "to this martyr's tireless struggle and called for his companionship with the guardians of God." Mousavi was one of the most experienced and effective commanders of the resistance front, said Major General Hossein Salami, chief commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). "Our revenge for the martyrdom of Sayyed Razi will be nothing less than the removal of the Zionist regime," Salami said in a televised funeral speech, adding that he had defended the Muslim nation for almost 33 years. "I am hopeful that soon, God permitting, the great and honorable Palestinian fighters will wipe out the geographical and political name of this evil and fake regime." Mourners chanted "Death to America, Death to...

Israeli forces pounded central Gaza by land, sea and air and Palestinian authorities reported dozens more deaths, with the UN health agency saying thousands of people were trying to flee the fighting. The Gaza health ministry said the recorded toll in the enclave was 21,110 killed and 55,243 wounded in barbaric Israeli attacks. Nearly all of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes. Israeli planes carried out three strikes in Al Nuseirat in central Gaza, killing seven people and wounding several others, medics said late on Wednesday. The UN World Health Organization said its staff had seen tens of thousands of people fleeing heavy strikes in Khan Younis and the Middle Area on foot, on donkeys or in cars. Makeshift shelters were being built along the road, it said on Wednesday. On the diplomatic front, where international pressure on Israel has grown, French President Emmanuel Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a call of the need to...

Lee Sun-kyun, a South Korean actor who drew global attention with his performance as the wealthy patriarch in the Oscar-winning film "Parasite", was found dead on Wednesday in an apparent suicide in a Seoul park, officials in the capital said. Lee, 48, who met a gory end in the 2019 film, South Korea's first to win any Oscar, had faced police questioning three times over accusations of illegal drug use amid a government crackdown, with one session running 19 hours over the weekend. The actor had said he was tricked into taking drugs by a bar hostess trying to blackmail him, the Yonhap news agency reported. Authorities found Lee in a search triggered by a missing person report, a fire official told Reuters on condition of anonymity, as the matter is a sensitive one. Lee was found in a car at a park in Seoul, after his manager told police the actor had left home, leaving behind an apparent suicide note, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Read  Actor...

 Ten people were killed in Australia after severe thunderstorms battered the country's east over the Christmas holidays, authorities said on Wednesday, with tens of thousands of properties still without power. Wild weather lashed the states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland on Dec. 25 and 26 bringing large hailstones and torrential rains. Strong winds blew off roofs and brought down trees in some of the worst-affected areas. More than 90,000 households are still without power. Three men were killed after a yacht with 11 on board capsized near Green Island in Moreton Bay during the storm, Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carrol told reporters. Two women were found dead near the town of Gympie, about 180 kms (112 miles) north of the state capital of Brisbane, after they were swept away in flooded stormwater drains, police said. A nine-year-old girl was found dead after going missing in a stormwater drain in Brisbane's south. Authorities warned fast-rising rivers ...

Pakistan's huge deportation drive has forcibly repatriated scores of Afghans awaiting resettlement in the United States, an advocacy group and Afghan applicants say, adding that Pakistani authorities often ignored US embassy letters of protection. That complicates the efforts of such Afghans, as the US has shuttered its embassy in Kabul and they must also grapple with human rights restrictions and stubborn financial and humanitarian crises in their homeland. Islamabad began expelling more than a million undocumented foreigners, mostly Afghans, on Nov. 1, amid a row over accusations that Kabul harbours Pakistani militants, a charge the ruling Taliban deny. More than 450,000 Afghans have returned home, the United Nations says, many now living in difficult winter conditions near the border. At least 130 Afghans being processed for US special immigration visas or refugee resettlement in the United States have been deported, said Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, the main coalit...

China warned that remnants of a rocket would hit an area in the South China Sea on Tuesday, following the sixth deployment of its most powerful launch vehicle eleven days ago. Rocket debris, which generally burns up in the atmosphere on re-entry, is expected to fall off the coast of China's island province of Hainan between 11:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) and noon (0400 GMT), said the China Maritime Safety Administration. China launched a Long March 5 rocket on December 15 from Hainan's Wenchang launch site, a sixth launch of the rocket type since its first flight in 2016. A variant of the rocket, the Long March 5B, was previously used to launch China's probe to Mars and also modules of its space station. A 2021 launch of the Long March 5B caused particular anxiety due to speculation over where remnants would land. In 2020, debris from a Long March 5B fell on Ivory Coast, damaging several buildings. Read  US, China top military officials speak for first time in over a year The Long...

The Indian army has launched an investigation into the deaths of three civilians allegedly in military custody in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), and moved senior officers from the disputed area, a military official said on Monday. Residents in the occupied area said the civilians had been detained for questioning after separatists ambushed Indian army vehicles on Thursday, killing four soldiers. The inquiry was ordered as a result of the civilians' deaths, said the official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media. The ambush in the woods of Poonch district of IIOJK was the fifth major attack on Indian troops in recent months in the occupied region, with 24 security force personnel killed. Indian army chief Manoj Pande visited Poonch on Monday to review the operational preparedness of the troops, said defence spokesperson Suneel Bartwal. "I have no knowledge about the inquiry ordered into deaths of civilians in P...

Thousands gathered in the centre of Belgrade in an anti-government protest on Sunday to demand the annulment of parliamentary and local elections a week ago that international observers said were unfair. The populist ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won 46.72% of the votes in snap parliamentary elections last weekend, according to state election commission preliminary results. An international monitoring mission on Monday said the SNS gained an unfair advantage through media bias, the improper influence of President Aleksandar Vucic and voting irregularities such as vote buying. Vucic said the elections were fair. On Sunday, police fired pepper spray, a Reuters witness said, after a crowd tried to break into the Belgrade town hall where the local election commission is based. Some of the protesters climbed the building and broke windows. Some threw stones at windows, breaking glass. "Vucic thief," protesters chanted. Read European countries tighten borders...

A drone launched from Iran struck a chemical tanker in the Indian ocean early on Saturday, the US Department of Defense said. "The motor vessel CHEM PLUTO, a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned, and Netherlands-operated chemical tanker was struck at approximately 10 a.m. local time (6 a.m. GMT) today in the Indian Ocean, 200 nautical miles from the coast of India, by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran," a Pentagon spokesperson told Reuters. The incident highlights escalating regional tensions and new risk to shipping lanes after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The Iranian government, as well as its allied militant forces in Yemen, have publicly criticized the Israeli government's military operation in Gaza. Thousands of Palestinian citizens have been killed in the ongoing conflict, according to aid monitors. Read also: Israel-affiliated merchant vessel hit by aerial vehicle off India The Pentagon statement said this was the "seventh Iranian attack on commercial sh...

Several cities in the central Chinese province of Henan are facing a winter heating supply crunch after a cold wave swept through a swathe of areas, bringing blizzards and sending temperatures to near historic lows. Persistent cold snaps have put thermal power suppliers under strain in Jiaozuo, a city in Henan, with a breakdown of heating boilers in one of the major suppliers leaving some areas in urgent need of more heat supply. JiaoZuo WanFang Aluminum Manufacturing, the supplier, is scrambling to fix the malfunction and expects to resume supply on Dec. 26, state media reported on Sunday, without specifying the number of boilers that have broken down. JiaoZuo WanFang Aluminum did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from Reuters. Read China allocates $140b for public investment The city will suspend heat supply for most businesses except essential service providers such as hospitals and senior centres to prioritise residential heat usage. However, some r...

Israeli strikes in Gaza killed more than 200 people in 24 hours, said Gazan authorities, as the United States again pressed its ally to do more to protect civilians. Despite growing calls for restraint and for more aid to reach war-stricken Palestinians, Israel showed little sign of modulating its 11-week-old "Operation Swords of Iron" -- which aims to rout Hamas. Fighting is now centred on Gaza City and the southern city of Khan Yunis, both considered strongholds of the Palestinian resistance group. After reports of heavy Israeli shelling, grey and black smoke rose over the north of the besieged coastal territory and in Khan Yunis. The refugee camp-turned-city is the birthplace of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' leader in Gaza and the man Israel holds most responsible for the October attacks. The Israeli Army chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, visited troops on the ground in Khan Yunis, telling them that the operation had been "very impressive, truly very impressive, both the attac...

An Israel-affiliated merchant vessel was struck by an uncrewed aerial vehicle off India's west coast, British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Saturday, in the first such known attack so far away from the Red Sea since the Gaza war. A fire on the Liberian-flagged tanker was extinguished without crew casualties in the incident 200 km (120 miles) southwest of the Indian city of Veraval, it said, adding some "structural damage was also reported and some water was taken onboard". "Merchant vessels are advised these types of attacks are typically targeted at Israel-affiliated shipping, but have in the past mistakenly hit previously Israel-affiliated vessels," Ambrey said. "This event fell within Ambrey's Iranian UAV heightened threat area." An Indian Navy official told Reuters that it responded to a request for assistance on Saturday morning. Read also: Iran threatens Mediterranean closure over Gaza, without saying how "The safety of crew and ...

Israel battled Hamas fighters on Saturday in pursuit of its elusive interim goal of full control of northern Gaza after the UN Security Council appealed for more aid for the Palestinian enclave but stopped short of demanding a ceasefire. Thick smoke hung over the northern town of Jabalia - which is also home to Gaza's largest refugee camp - and residents reported persistent aerial bombardment and shelling from Israeli tanks, which they said had moved further into the town. Hamas' armed wing Al Qassam Brigades said it had destroyed five Israeli tanks in the area, killing and injuring their crews, after reusing two undetonated missiles launched earlier by Israel. Reuters could not independently verify the report. Israel's chief military spokesperson said on Friday that its forces had achieved almost complete operational control of northern Gaza and were preparing to expand the ground offensive to other areas in the Strip, with a focus on the south. The Israeli Defence Forces ...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and military officials said the country's forces shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft on Friday on the southern front, hailing it as a success in the 22-month-old war. The Russian military made no mention of the incident. But Russian bloggers acknowledged the loss, and analysts suggested US-supplied Patriot missiles had probably been used. Reuters could not independently confirm the reports. "Today at noon in the southern sector -- minus three Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers!" Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat described it on national television as a "brilliantly planned operation." Read also: Zelenskiy makes 11th hour plea for Ukraine war funds in Washington "There haven't been Su-34s for some time in our positive statistics," he said, citing the model as one of Russia's most modern aircraft for bombing and...

At least 35 people have died in rain-related incidents over the past week in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, hit by heavy downpour, officials said on Saturday. Raman S., a senior disaster official in the state, told Anadolu that the incidents have been reported from across different districts of the state since Dec. 17. “The rescue operation is over now. We are providing food to the affected population and kitchens have been opened at several places,” he said. Officials said thousands have been rescued after heavy rainfall hit several districts of the southern state, inundating roads and neighbourhoods. Read also: Hundreds stranded as parts of India's Tamil Nadu flooded after heavy rain Rain and flooding had already thrown daily life out of gear after Cyclone Michaung hit the state earlier this month, killing at least 12 people. The Indian Air Force, currently undertaking a humanitarian assistance disaster relief mission in the state, said Saturday that the operation conti...

An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said the Mediterranean Sea could be closed if the United States and its allies continued to commit "crimes" in Gaza, Iranian media reported on Saturday, without explaining how that would happen. Iran backs Hamas against Israel and it accuses the United States of backing what it calls Israeli crimes in Gaza, where weeks of bombardment have killed thousands of people and driven most of the population from their homes. "They shall soon await the closure of the Mediterranean Sea, (the Strait of) Gibraltar and other waterways," Tasnim quoted Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, coordinating commander of the Guards, as saying. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group has over the past month attacked merchant vessels sailing through the Red Sea in retaliation for Israel's assault on Gaza, leading some shipping companies to switch routes. Read also: Iran warns against proposed US-backed Red Sea force - ISNA The White House on Fri...

India's Maiden Pharmaceuticals, whose cough syrups have been linked to the deaths of children in Gambia, on Saturday denied it had tampered with test samples or bribed officials to do so, as alleged in a complaint under investigation by local health officials. An investigator with the state of Haryana's Food and Drug Administration told Reuters on Friday he was close to finishing a probe into whether a state drug regulator was bribed to switch samples, tested by the Indian government, that contradicted the World Health Organization's findings of toxic substances in the cough syrups. "I have never changed the sample," Maiden founder Naresh Kumar Goyal told Reuters. "There is no evidence and no proof against us. I have not given a bribe." He said that neither he nor any representative of his company had been called to appear in front of the investigator, Gagandeep Singh, joint director of the state agency. Goyal said a competitor was behind the complaint b...

Two Colorado paramedics were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide by a jury on Friday for their role in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a young Black man who died after police roughly detained him, put him in a choke hold, and the medics injected him with a powerful sedative. The trial of paramedics Jeremy Cooper, 49, and Peter Cichuniec, 51, was the last of three involving the death of McClain, 23, who was stopped by police after a bystander reported he looked suspicious. He was not alleged to have committed any crime. In addition to finding both men guilty of criminally negligent homicide - punishable by up to three years in prison - the jury also found Cichuniec guilty of assault in the second degree for the administration of the sedative. Judge Mark Warner ordered that Cichuniec be taken into custody immediately, while Cooper remained free on bond pending a March 1 sentencing. McClain's mother, Sheneen McClain, wept outside the courthouse as a supporter of the McClai...

The United Nations Security Council on Friday approved a toned-down bid to boost humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and called for urgent steps "to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities" after a week of vote delays and intense negotiations to avoid a veto by the United States. Amid global outrage over a rising Gaza death toll in 11 weeks of war between Israel and Hamas and a worsening humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, the US abstained to allow the 15-member council to adopt a resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates. The remaining council members voted for the resolution except for Russia which also abstained. Following high-level negotiations to win over Washington, the resolution no longer dilutes Israel's control over all aid deliveries to 2.3 million people in Gaza. Israel monitors the limited aid deliveries to Gaza via the Rafah crossing from Egypt and the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing. Read more: Israel escal...