GAZA — One civilian was killed today after being targeted by an Israeli drone while riding a bicycle in the Qizan Rashwan area south of Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip.
Earlier today, at least four civilians were killed , including two brothers, and others were injured after the occupation warplanes bombed a house in Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip.
TUBAS — Two Palestinian young men were injured by live ammunition fired by Israeli occupation forces earlier today in the town of Tammoun, located in the occupied West Bank province of Tubas.
The injuries occurred during a renewed raid by Israeli troops into the town, local sources said. The sources reported that the nature of the injuries sustained by the two men remains unclear.
Meantime, the Israeli forces obstructed the work of emergency medical teams and attempted to arrest one of the injured individuals.
Simultaneously, the Israeli forces have surrounded a house within the town and deployed snipers in several locations.
BETLEHEM — Israeli occupation forces today raided the Dhat al-Nitaqayn Girls’ School in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, and sprayed racist graffiti on the facade of one of its classrooms.
The head of the al-Khader Municipal Council, Ahmad Salah, said the occupation forces stormed the school grounds and sprayed racist graffiti on the facade of one of the classrooms.
It is noteworthy that the al-Khader school complex has been subjected to daily attacks by the occupation forces and colonists since October 7, especially during official working hours, due to its location near the separation wall.
GAZA — Several civilians were killed and others were injured on Thursday after the occupation warplanes bombed a house in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Medical sources reported that at least four civilians, including two brothers, were killed and a number of others were injured after the occupation fighter jets targeted a house in the European area east of the city of Khan Yunis.
Since the beginning of the aggression on October 7, 2023, 41,118 people have been killed, most of them children and women, and 95,125 others have been injured.
Rescue teams are still facing great difficulties in reaching thousands of victims who are still under the rubble or on the streets.
HANOI — Typhoon Yagi and the consequent landslides and floods have left 226 dead and 104 missing in Vietnam as of Thursday afternoon, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced.
The hardest-hit province of Lao Cai reported 98 deaths including 47 people in a flash flood in Nu village. Eighty-one others remain missing in the province.
Fatalities also came from Cao Bang province (43), Yen Bai (42) and Quang Ninh (15), among others.
Flood water on the Red River in capital Hanoi has slowly decreased below alert level 2 and above alert level 1 out of 3 since Thursday afternoon, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.
Landslide warnings remain in northern localities, said the center.
Search and rescue efforts are ongoing across the region to overcome the typhoon’s aftermath and soon stabilize local livelihoods, local media reported.
International relief made by partner countries and organizations is being delivered to Vietnam for people affected by the flash floods and landslides following Typhoon Yagi, Vietnam News reported.
NEW DELHI — General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury passed away at the age of 72 in New Delhi on Thursday.
He was admitted to a government hospital after he suffered from an acute chest infection.
A Communist leader in Indian politics for several decades, Yechury served as a lawmaker in Indian parliament’s upper house Rajya Sabha during 2005-2017.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed condolences over his demise.
A view shows a damaged civilian cargo vessel, carrying wheat grain to Egypt, which was hit by a Russian missile strike after it left Ukrainian maritime border in the Black Sea on Sept. 12, 2024. (Reuters)
KYIV — A Russian missile on Thursday morning hit an Egypt-bound cargo ship in the Black Sea carrying wheat, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The Black Sea is a crucial trading route for Ukraine, one of the world’s largest agricultural producers and exporters, but was turned into a naval battleground when Russia invaded Ukraine.
“Russian missile against a wheat cargo bound for Egypt … Russia launched a strike on an ordinary civilian vessel in the Black Sea right after it left Ukrainian territorial waters,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.
There were no casualties from the attack, Zelensky added, urging global condemnation after the strike.
“Domestic stability and normal life in dozens of countries around the world are dependent on the normal and unhindered operation of our food expert corridor,” he said.
Moscow last year pulled out of a UN-brokered deal guaranteeing safe passage for Ukraine’s agricultural exports on the Black Sea, but Kyiv has carved out a maritime corridor allowing trade to continue.
Over 5,000 ships have sailed through the grain corridor since it was created, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Wednesday.
Global food prices shot up when Russia invaded Ukraine amid fears conflict in the Black Sea would hobble global food supplies.
Sweden’s government said Thursday it would drastically increase grants for immigrants who choose to leave the country, in order to encourage more migrants to make the choice. (Reuters/File)
STOCKHOLM — Sweden’s government said Thursday it would drastically increase grants for immigrants who choose to leave the country, in order to encourage more migrants to make the choice.
As of 2026, immigrants who voluntarily return to their home countries would be eligible to receive up to 350,000 Swedish kronor ($34,000), up from the current 10,000 kronor, the right-wing government, which is propped up by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, said in a statement.
A cargo truck of the International Committee of the Red Cross burns after a Russian military strike in the village of Viroliubivka, near a front line in Donetsk region, on Sept. 12, 2024. (Reuters)
KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian attack on vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Thursday in his country’s east had killed three people.
“Today, the occupier attacked the vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian mission in Donetsk region,” Zelensky said.
Artillery shelling killed three Ukrainian citizens working for the ICRC and wounded another two, the Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights Dmytro Lubinets said.
The attack took place in the village of Virolyubivka, a dozen of kilometers away from the front line in Donetsk.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which routinely says it only hits military targets.
The UN Humanitarian mission to Ukraine said 50 workers were killed or injured in Ukraine in 2023, including 11 killed in the line of duty.
“Since the beginning of the year, this repeated pattern of attacks appears to have intensified,” the UN humanitarian coordinator Denise Brown said in a statement in February.
A truck carrying bells is parked outside Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, in Paris, on Sept. 12, 2024. (AP)
PARIS — Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is getting its bells back, just in time for the medieval landmark’s reopening following a devastating 2019 fire.
A convoy of trucks bearing eight restored bells — the heaviest of which weighs more than 4 tons — pulled into the huge worksite surrounding the monument Thursday on an island in the Seine River.
They are being blessed in a special ceremony inside the cathedral before being hoisted to hang in its twin towers for the Dec. 8 reopening to the public.
Cathedral Rector Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, wearing a hardhat as he prepared to enter the cathedral and bless the bells, called them ‘’a sign that the cathedral will again resonate, and that its voice will be heard again. A sign of the call to prayer, and a sign of coming together.”
The bells will be raised one by one and tested out, but they won’t ring in full until the day of the reopening, said Philippe Jost, overseeing the massive Notre Dame reconstruction project. He called the bells’ arrival ‘’a very beautiful symbol of the cathedral’s rebirth.”
While construction on the cathedral started in the 12th century, the bronze bells damaged in the fire are from the 21st century.
They were built according to historical tradition to replace older bells that had become discordant, to mark the monument’s 850th anniversary.
The cathedral’s roof and spire, which collapsed in the fire, have been replaced, and scaffolding is being gradually removed from the site.