+ Nobel-winning former US president Carter dies at 100
+ South Korea mourning 179 killed in worst plane crash
+ Azerbaijan demands Russia admit to shooting at plane
+ Syrian new leader says maybe four years to elections
+ Liverpool pounds West Ham 5-0 to stretch league lead
US-politics-Carter,WRAP
WASHINGTON
Jimmy Carter, the 100-year-old former US president and Nobel peace laureate who rose from humble beginnings in rural Georgia to lead the nation from 1977 to 1981, has died, his nonprofit foundation says.
750 words 0130 GMT by Susan Stumme. File picture. File video
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SKorea-aviation-accident,WRAP
MUAN, South Korea
Flags fly at half-mast as South Korea mourns 179 people killed in the worst ever aviation disaster on its soil, after a Jeju Air plane crash-landed and burst into flames.
750 words 0200 GMT by Kang Jin-kyu with Hieun Shin in Seoul. Picture. Video. Graphic
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Azerbaijan-Russia-plane-crash-president,WRAP
BAKU
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev demands that Russia admit that it fired at an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet before it crashed, accusing Moscow of initially trying to cover up the cause of the fatal disaster.
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Syria-conflict,WRAP
DUBAI
Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa says that elections could take four years, according to Al Arabiya TV, and noted the importance of ties with Iran and Russia, while calling for the United States to lift sanctions.
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Fbl-ENG-PR,WRAP
LONDON
Rampant Liverpool smashes West Ham 5-0 to stretch their lead at the top of the Premier League to eight points as Manchester City returned to winning ways at troubled Leicester.
650 words moved by John Weaver. Picture
— JIMMY CARTER —
US-politics-diplomacy-Carter,OBIT
WASHINGTON
Jimmy Carter arguably wielded his greatest influence not during his 1977-1981 term in the White House, but in the decades following, when he served as a global mediator, rights activist and elder statesman.
900 words moved by Jerome Cartillier and Michael Mathes. File picture. File video
– Please see our special advisory for full coverage details on Jimmy Carter’s death –
— ASIA —
SKorea-aviation-accident,REPORTAGE
MUAN, South Korea
The stench of gasoline hangs over Muan International Airport. Behind a police cordon, plane seats, suitcases and twisted bits of metal are scattered, close to the wrecked fuselage of Jeju Air flight 2216.
750 words moved by Kang Jin-kyu. Picture. Video
Japan-earthquake-Noto,FOCUS
WAJIMA, Japan
Before the earthquake changed everything, 83-year-old Sueko Naka from Japan’s remote Noto Peninsula wished to live out her life at home, watched over by an altar to her ancestors.
750 words 0300 GMT by Hiroshi Hiyama. Picture. Video
— EUROPE —
Germany-politics-attack-Christmas,WRAP
BERLIN
German security and intelligence chiefs are due to face questioning Monday about the car-ramming attack that killed five people and wounded more than 200 at a Christmas market 10 days ago.
500 words 0300 GMT by Frank Zeller. File Picture
Croatia-vote,WRAP
ZAGREB
Croatia’s President Zoran Milanovic will face conservative rival Dragan Primorac in an election run-off in two weeks’ time after the incumbent narrowly missed out an outright victory, according to official results.
650 words moved by Lajla Veselica. Picture. Video
Turkey-Kurds-conflict-politics-Ocalan,WRAP
ISTANBUL
Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), is ‘ready to make a call’ to back a new initiative by the Turkish government to end decades of conflict, Turkey’s pro-Kurd party says.
550 words moved by Fulya Ozerkan. File picture
— MIDDLE EAST —
Israel-Palestinians-conflict-Gaza-hospital,lead
JERUSALEM
Israel’s military says forces killed about 20 Palestinian militants in a raid on the last major hospital in northern Gaza which health and UN officials say has been forced out of service.
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Israel-Palestinians-conflict-India-construction,FOCUS
BEER YAAKOV, Israel
Wearing a helmet and work boots, Raju Nishad navigates the scaffolding, hammering blocks that will form part of a new neighbourhood in central Israel built by Indian labourers like him, to replace Palestinians barred during the Gaza war.
750 words 0300 GMT by Ruth Eglash. Picture. Video
Egypt-tourism-shark,2ndlead
CAIRO
A shark attack off Egypt’s Red Sea coast kills a tourist and injures another, both Italians, according to a Rome foreign ministry source.
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— AMERICAS —
US-Panama-politics-trade,REPORTAGE
AGUA CLARA, Panama
For dozens of US tourists watching a cargo ship pass along the Panama Canal, Donald Trump’s threat to possibly wrest back control of the waterway is nonsensical.
640 words moved by Juan Jose Rodriguez. Picture. Video
Brazil-deaths-cake-family
RIO DE JANEIRO
Brazilian police are investigating three deaths and several hospitalizations resulting from a family eating an arsenic-laced Christmas cake, local media report.
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— AFRICA —
Nigeria-Calabar-carnival,REPORTAGE
CALABAR, Nigeria
Revellers dressed in glitzy, colourful costumes danced down the streets of Calabar, southern Nigeria, this weekend as giant speakers blasted out Afrobeats for one of West Africa’s most prestigious carnivals.
400 words moved by Tonye Bakare with Yasmine Canga-Valles. Picture. Video
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