Bird flu virus shows mutations in first severe human infection in US, CDC says

Mutations are rare but have been reported in some cases in other countries and most often in extreme infections

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday its analysis of samples from the first severe case of bird flu in the country last week showed mutations not seen in samples from an infected backyard flock on the patient’s property.

The CDC said the patient’s sample showed mutations in the hemagglutinin (HA) gene, the part of the virus that plays a key role in it attaching to host cells.

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Five Palestinian journalists killed in Israeli strike on van in Gaza

Men were asleep in marked press vehicle, say witnesses, as renewed hostage negotiations reach impasse

Five Palestinian journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their vehicle in central Gaza, their employer has said, while Israel has also struck several areas in Houthi rebel-controlled Yemen in air raids.

Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, Ayman al-Jadi, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Khalil, Fadi Hassouna and Mohammed al-Lada’a were sleeping in their broadcasting truck, marked as press, when it was targeted in a direct strike by the Israeli military, witnesses told Palestinian media. Another 32 people were killed in other Israeli pre-dawn strikes across the territory, the local health ministry said.

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At least 6,000 inmates escape Mozambique jail amid post-election riots

Police chief says 33 prisoners dead and 15 others injured after confrontation with security forces

At least 6,000 inmates escaped from a high-security prison in Mozambique’s capital Maputo on Christmas Day after a rebellion, the chief of police has said, as widespread post-election riots and violence continue to engulf the country.

The police general commander, Bernardino Rafael, said 33 prisoners had died and 15 others were injured during a confrontation with the security forces.

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Scientists explore longevity drugs for dogs that could also ‘extend human life’

Researchers say drugs may be able to increase lifespan by extending health and thus shortening the rate of ageing

Not for nothing are dogs called man’s best friend: they are good for their owners’ mental and physical health, and some studies have shown that if you’re looking for a date and want to seem more attractive, it might be time to get a canine companion.

So what would it be like if dogs could live for ever – and what if that secret could help their owners live longer, healthier lives too?

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Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh dies aged 92

The ex-politician was admitted to hospital on Thursday after his health deteriorated

India’s former prime minister, Manmohan Singh, widely regarded as the architect of India’s economic reform program and a landmark nuclear deal with the US, has died aged 92.

Singh was admitted to New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences late Thursday after his health deteriorated due to “sudden loss of consciousness at home”, the hospital said in a statement, adding that he was “being treated for age-related medical conditions”.

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Finnish coastguard boards tanker suspected of causing power and internet cable outages

Cook Islands-registered Eagle S was carrying Russian oil in the Baltic Sea

Finnish authorities have seized a ship carrying Russian oil in the Baltic Sea on suspicion it caused the outage of an undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia a day earlier, and that it also damaged or broke four internet lines.

A Finnish coastguard crew boarded the Cook Islands-registered ship, named by authorities as the Eagle S, on Thursday. The crew took command and sailed the vessel to Finnish waters, a coastguard official told a press conference.

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Painstaking work to conserve Ireland’s oldest paper documents begins

Delicate 650-year-old pages to be preserved are some of the island’s most important historical texts

Work has begun to conserve and digitise one of the oldest paper documents still in existence on the island of Ireland.

The ecclesiastical register, which dates back to the medieval period, is about 650 years old. It belonged to the former archbishop of Armagh Milo Sweteman.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Ukraine claims it struck military facility in Russia – as it happened

Airforce hits military industrial facility in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, in Russia’s Rostov region, says Ukrainian military

Russia and Kazakhstan have sought to temper speculation about the cause of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash, with the Kremlin urging people to wait for the results of the investigation, writes the Guardian’s European community affairs correspondent Ashifa Kassam and Pjotr Sauer, the Russia affairs correspondent.

A Ukrainian national security official has claimed that the crash, which killed 38 people on Christmas Day, was caused by Russian air defence fire.

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Ceremonies held across Asia to mark 20 years since Boxing Day tsunami

Waves towering up to 30 metres killed more than 220,000 people in 15 countries in deadliest tsunami in history

Ceremonies have been held in countries across Asia to remember the more than 220,000 people who were killed two decades ago in the Indian Ocean tsunami, the most deadly tsunami in history.

On 26 December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia’s Sumatra island, triggering huge waves that slammed into coastal communities across the Indian Ocean. The waves, which towered as high as 30 metres, killed 227,899 people across 15 countries.

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Trump nominates Miami-Dade official as Panama ambassador amid canal row

Announcement comes as Trump has threatened to reassert control over canal, which US handed to Panama in 1999

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated the Miami-Dade county commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera to serve as ambassador to Panama.

Trump described Cabrera as “a fierce fighter for America First principles” who he said has been instrumental in driving economic growth and fostering international partnerships.

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France rescues 107 people trying to cross to UK on Christmas Day

Authorities carry out series of operations off northern coast, as 451 people arrive in England on 11 boats

French maritime authorities carried out 12 rescue operations along the coast of northern France on Christmas Day, rescuing 107 people in distress from small boats trying to cross to the UK.

On Christmas morning, 30 passengers were rescued from a boat near Dunkirk, while the others onboard wished to continue their journey and were taken into British custody once they reached UK waters, said the French Channel and North Sea maritime prefect’s office.

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South Korea opposition moves to impeach acting president in new political twist

If motion is successful, it would be country’s second impeachment of a head of state in less than two weeks

South Korea’s opposition has said it has filed an impeachment motion against the acting president, Han Duck-soo, in an escalating row over the composition of the constitutional court which will decide whether to remove his predecessor from office.

South Korea fell into a political crisis when President Yoon Suk Yeol, currently suspended, declared martial law on 3 December.

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Cambodian opposition leader jailed after conviction for inciting disorder

Sun Chanthy also barred from running for office, in latest case to target critics of government

The leader of a Cambodian opposition party has been sentenced to two years in jail and banned from running for office after he was found guilty of inciting social disorder, in the latest legal case to target government critics.

Sun Chanthy, the president of the Nation Power party, was found guilty of the charge at a court in Phnom Penh. He also faces a fine of 4m riel (£800) and has been stripped of his right to vote or stand for election.

AFP contributed to this report

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17 reported killed in Syrian clashes after attempted arrest of former prison officer

Security personnel and three armed men killed in clashes in Tartus province, a former Assad stronghold, say monitors

Fourteen security personnel from Syria’s new authorities and three armed men were killed in clashes in Tartus province after forces tried to arrest an officer linked to the notorious Sednaya prison, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based monitoring group said the clash broke out in Tartus, a stronghold of the ousted president, Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority, on Wednesday, and was sparked by the attempted arrest of the former prison official.

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Baby girl freezes to death in Gaza while Israel and Hamas argue over ceasefire

Three-week-old Sila is the third baby to die from the cold in Gaza’s tent camps in recent days, according to doctors

A baby girl froze to death overnight in Gaza, while Israel and Hamas accused each other of complicating ceasefire efforts that could wind down the 14-month war.

The three-week old baby was the third to die from the cold in Gaza’s tent camps in recent days, doctors said.

The deaths underscore the squalid conditions there, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crammed into often ramshackle tents after fleeing Israeli offensives.

Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.

The offensive has caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

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Dozens killed in Mozambique prison riot on Christmas Day

Unrest at maximum security prison in the capital, Maputo, reportedly left 33 people dead and 15 injured

Dozens of people were killed in a prison riot in Mozambique on Christmas Day, authorities have said.

The riot, reportedly at the maximum security prison in the capital Maputo, left 33 people dead and 15 injured, according to police general commander Bernardino Rafael.

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Officials report 29 survivors and 38 killed as plane crashes in Kazakhstan

Aircraft carrying 62 passengers and five crew was en route from Baku to Grozny in Chechnya

Twenty-nine people have survived after a passenger plane operated by Azerbaijan Airlines burst into flames as it crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after veering hundreds of miles off its planned route.

The flight was carrying 62 passengers and five crew members with 38 killed in the crash, according to Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister, Kanat Bozumbayev.

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Russian cargo ship’s owner says sinking in Mediterranean was ‘act of terrorism’

Three explosions caused Ursa Major to sink off Spanish coast, says company linked to Russian defence ministry

A Russian cargo ship that sank on Tuesday in the Mediterranean Sea was the target of an “act of terrorism”, according to the vessel’s owner.

The Ursa Major sank while it was sailing through international waters between Spain and Algeria, leaving two crew members missing,

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Finland-Estonia power cable hit in latest Baltic Sea incident

The Finnish electricity grid’s head of operations says sabotage can’t be ruled out

An undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia broke down on Wednesday, Finland’s prime minister said, the latest in a series of incidents involving cables and energy pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

The Finnish electricity grid’s head of operations, Arto Pahkin, told the public broadcaster Yle that sabotage could not be ruled out.

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Russia launches major Christmas Day attack on Ukraine’s energy system

Zelenskyy describes cruise and ballistic missile strikes, which caused blackouts in several regions, as ‘inhuman’

Christmas morning in Ukraine was overshadowed by a massive Russian aerial attack using cruise missiles to target energy infrastructure across the country, which Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned as “inhuman”.

“Today, Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhuman? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than a hundred attack drones,” the Ukrainian president said on Telegram.

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