Reuters: World

Gunmen in Ecuador storm TV studio in wave of violence Gunmen with explosives stormed a TV station on-air in Ecuador on Tuesday during a wave of violence around the nation that prompted President Daniel Noboa to name 22 gangs as terrorist organizations to be hunted by the military. Police eventually rescued the TV staff and arrested the 13 men who burst into TC's studio during a live broadcast with long-range guns, grenades and dynamites, according to witnesses in the coastal city of Guayaquil. read more

Gabriel Attal becomes France's youngest prime minister as Macron seeks reset Gabriel Attal promised to be bold and act fast to help the middle class weather the rising cost of living, after President Emmanuel Macron, seeking to breathe new life into his second term, on Tuesday made him France's youngest ever prime minister. The appointment of Attal, 34, a popular and media-savvy rising star of French politics, signals a desire by Macron to move beyond divisive reforms and improve his centrist party's chances in European Parliament elections in June. read more

Alaska 737 cockpit voice recorder data erasure renews industry safety debate The cockpit voice recorder data on the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet which lost a panel mid-flight on Friday was overwritten, U.S. authorities said, renewing attention on an industry call for longer in-flight recordings. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chair Jennifer Homendy said on Sunday no data was available on the cockpit voice recorder because it was not retrieved within two hours - when recording restarts, erasing previous data. read more

No passengers seated near failed Boeing 737 MAX 9 fuselage: NTSB The head of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said no passengers were seated next to a cabin panel that blew out on an Alaska Airlines (ALK.N) Boeing 737 MAX 9, forcing an emergency landing Friday in a potentially "tragic" incident. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told a press conference late on Saturday the two seats next to the portion of fuselage that blew out were unoccupied. "We are very, very fortunate here that this didn't end up in something more tragic," Homendy said. Parts of the seat next to the fuselage, including the head rest, were missing. read more

Islamic State claims responsibility for deadly Iran attack, Tehran vows revenge Islamic State claimed responsibility on Thursday for two explosions in Iran that killed nearly 100 people and wounded scores at a memorial for top commander Qassem Soleimani. In a statement posted on its affiliate Telegram channels, the militant Sunni Muslim group said two IS members had detonated explosive belts in the crowd that had gathered at the cemetery in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman on Wednesday. read more

Runway safety concerns in focus as Japan probes Tokyo crash Japanese investigators are preparing to probe the collision of two airplanes at Tokyo's Haneda airport, weeks after the global airline industry heard fresh warnings about runway safety. All 379 people aboard a Japan Airlines (9201.T) Airbus A350 escaped after a collision with a De Havilland Dash-8 Coast Guard turboprop that killed five of six crew on the smaller aircraft. People familiar with the investigation said the Japan Safety Transport Board (JTSB) would lead the probe with participation from agencies in France, where the airplane was built, and Britain where its two Rolls-Royce engines were manufactured. read more

All passengers, crew escape fireball on Japan Airlines plane after airport collision All 379 passengers and crew of a Japan Airlines plane miraculously escaped from a fire following a collision with a Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo's Haneda airport on Tuesday, but five of the six crew of the coast guard plane were killed. The Coast Guard said the collision involved one of its planes that was headed to Niigata airport on Japan's west coast to deliver aid to those caught up in a powerful earthquake that struck on New Year's Day, killing at least 48 people. "I felt a boom like we had hit something and jerked upward the moment we landed," a passenger on the Japan Airlines flight told Kyodo news agency. "I saw sparks outside the window and the cabin filled with gas and smoke." read more

Powerful earthquake slams Japan, residents flee some coastal areas A powerful earthquake struck central Japan on Monday, killing at least one person, destroying buildings, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and prompting residents in some coastal areas to flee to higher ground. The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 triggered waves of about 1 metre along Japan's west coast and neighbouring South Korea, with authorities saying larger waves could follow. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued tsunami warnings for the prefectures of Ishikawa, Niigata and Toyama. A major tsunami warning - the first since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan - was initially issued for Ishikawa but later downgraded. Russia and North Korea also issued tsunami warnings for some areas. read more

Denmark's Queen Margrethe II announces surprise abdication on live TV Denmark's Queen Margrethe II, Europe's longest-serving monarch, will abdicate on Jan. 14 after 52 years on the throne and will be succeeded by her eldest son Crown Prince Frederik, she announced on Sunday. The 83-year-old queen, who ascended the throne in 1972, made the surprise announcement on live TV during her traditional New Year's Eve speech, which is viewed by many in the country of 5.9 million people. read more

South Africa files genocide case against Israel at World Court 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." read more

US military's secretive spaceplane launched on possible higher-orbit mission The U.S. military's secretive X-37B robot spaceplane blasted off from Florida on Thursday night on its seventh mission, the first launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket capable of delivering it to a higher orbit than ever before. The Falcon Heavy, composed of three liquid-fueled rocket cores strapped together, roared off its launch pad from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in a spectacular liftoff carried live on a SpaceX webcast. read more

Actor Lee of Oscar-winning 'Parasite' found dead amid drugs probe 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. read more