Israeli strikes kill 100 in one of war’s deadliest nights, Gaza officials say
At a funeral in Gaza on Dec 25 a line of Palestinians touched the white shrouds containing the bodies of at least 70 people who Palestinian health officials said were killed by an Israeli airstrike targeting Maghazi in the centre of the besieged strip.
The funeral followed one of the enclave’s deadliest nights in the 11-week-old battle between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza. One man hugged a dead child, while others were hysterical.
One man, Ibrahim Youssef, said his wife and four children including a four-month-old baby, were trapped under the rubble after an airstrike hit the house where they were staying in the Maghazi refugee camp.
Russian forces gain control of Maryinka in east Ukraine, defence minister says
Russian forces have gained full control of Maryinka, a town in eastern Ukraine, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin, one of Russia’s most significant gains since the capture of Bakhmut in May.
Most accounts of Maryinka, southwest of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk, describe it as a ghost town.
Putin said control of the town, which was once home to 10,000 people, will allow the Russian forces to move enemy combat units away from Donetsk.
Indian passenger plane held in France takes off: AFP
A plane with close to 300 Indian passengers detained near Paris over suspicions of human trafficking took off Dec 25 for Mumbai after being cleared for departure by French police, an AFP reporter said.
The Airbus A340 carrying 303 Indians had been bound for Nicaragua when it was detained Dec 21 at Vatry airport, east of Paris, where it had stopped for refuelling.
It had arrived from Dubai and there was an anonymous tip-off that it was carrying potential victims of human trafficking.
Russia’s Navalny tracked down to ‘Polar Wolf’ prison in the Arctic
Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been tracked down to a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle, his spokeswoman said on Dec 25, after supporters lost touch with him for more than two weeks.
Navalny was tracked down to the IK-3 penal colony in Kharp in the Yamal-Nenets region, about 1,900 km north east of Moscow, spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said. Navalny’s lawyer managed to see him on Dec 25, Yarmysh said.
“This prison will be much worse than the one that was before,” Yarmysh told Reuters TV in Vilnius via video call. “They are trying to make his life as unbearable as it possibly can be.”
No Russian, Belarusian equestrians in Paris 2024, says FEI
Russian and Belarusian equestrian athletes will not be able to participate at the 2024 Paris Olympics, even as neutral athletes, the sport’s global governing body said.
Earlier this month the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved the participation of Russians and Belarusians who qualify in their sport for the 2024 Olympics as neutrals without flags, emblems or anthems.
Russians and Belarusians had initially been banned from competing internationally following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, for which Belarus has been used as a staging ground.
