OSLO, Dec 20 — Sweden will no longer fund the United Nations’ refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) but instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Nordic country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, told Swedish broadcaster TV4 today.

KYIV, Dec 20 — As the future of warfare pivots towards artificial intelligence (AI), Ukraine is sitting on a valuable resource — millions of hours of footage from drones that can be used to train AI models to make decisions on the battlefield.

NEW YORK, Dec 20 — Thousands of Amazon workers in the United States walked off the job early yesterday to pressure the company into union contract negotiations, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, as reported by German news agency dpa.

TOKYO, Dec 20 — Some unions are born of necessity, others from convenience.

MOSCOW, Dec 20 — Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that he was ready to compromise over Ukraine in possible talks with US President-elect Donald Trump on ending the war and had no conditions for starting talks with the Ukrainian authorities.

DAMASCUS, Dec 20 — Syria will remove all references to the former ruling Baath party from its educational system as of next week but will not otherwise change school curricula or restrict the rights of girls to learn, the country's new education minister said.

CAIRO/JERUSALEM, Dec 20 — Israel launched strikes against ports and energy infrastructure in Houthi-held parts of Yemen yesterday and threatened more attacks against the Iran-aligned militant group, which has launched hundreds of missiles at Israel over the past year.

MOSCOW, Dec 19 — Russian President Vladimir Putin today suggested a missile “duel” with the United States that would show how Russia’s new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile could defeat any US missile defence system.

AVIGNON, Dec 19 — A French court found Dominique Pelicot guilty today of repeatedly drugging and raping his wife for almost a decade, and inviting dozens of strangers to rape her unconscious body in a case that has horrified the world.

PENNSYLVANIA, Dec 13 — Luigi Mangione, the suspect indicted on murder charges in the shooting of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson, will now face federal charges that could attract the death penalty, the New York Times reported late yesterday.

KOFU, Dec 19 — Climbers using the most popular trail on Mount Fuji are expected to be charged a doubled fee of ¥4,000 (RM115) from next summer as the Yamanashi prefectural government seeks to address overcrowding, a source close to the matter said today.

BRUSSELS — Apple has hit out at Meta Platforms, saying its numerous requests to access the iPhone maker's software tools for its devices could impact users' privacy and security, underscoring the intense rivalry between the two tech giants.

PARIS, Dec 18 — Around late September, staff manning the phones at 3919, France’s main anonymous hotline for women who are victims of violence, began noticing a new type of case.

CAIRO, Dec 18 — The United States, joined by Arab mediators, sought today to conclude a deal between Israel and Hamas to halt the 14-month-old war in the Gaza Strip, where medics said Israeli strikes killed at least 20 Palestinians overnight.

PARIS, Dec 18 — Bitcoin’s soaring value has caught the attention of high-end fashion brands and retailers, prompting further interest in offering cryptocurrencies as a means of payment to tap into fresh pockets of wealth and build loyalty with crypto investors.

NEW YORK, Dec 18 — The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) yesterday adopted a resolution affirming Palestinians’ right to self-determination by an overwhelming majority, Palestine News and Information Agency (WAFA) reported.

WASHINGTON, Dec 18 — A bipartisan group of United States lawmakers yesterday proposed three bills aimed at cracking down China’s role in the US fentanyl crisis, with measures that would set up a US task force to disrupt narcotics trafficking and pave the way for sanctions on China entities.

NEW YORK, Dec 18 — Luigi Mangione sought to “sow terror” by shooting dead UnitedHealth Group executive Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street this month, a New York prosecutor said yesterday in announcing Mangione had been indicted for murder.

TOKYO, Dec 18 — Honda and Nissan are in talks to deepen ties, two people said on Wednesday, including a possible merger, the clearest sign yet of how Japan's once seemingly unbeatable auto industry is being reshaped by challenges from Tesla and Chinese rivals.

QUTAYFAH, Syria — Dec 18 — An international war crimes prosecutor said on Tuesday that evidence emerging from mass grave sites in Syria has exposed a state-run "machinery of death" under toppled leader Bashar al-Assad in which he estimated more than 100,000 people were tortured and murdered since 2013.