South Korea's Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun emphasised Wednesday that the government will prioritise removing uncertainties in the semiconductor sector by closely engaging with the incoming US administration under Donald Trump.

"As the US is a major semiconductor market and a key investment destination for Korean companies, we must closely monitor any shifts in US policy and thoroughly prepare for all possibilities," Ahn said during a meeting with officials from major South Korean chipmakers, including Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc, news agency reported.

"We will work to resolve uncertainties by maintaining close communication with the new US administration through various diplomatic and trade channels," he added.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa held a meeting in Brazil to discuss cooperation on supply chains for critical minerals and security issues, Yoon's office said.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro to focus on strengthening trade and investment, and the energy sector ties between the two nations, news agency reported.

The two leaders agreed to strengthen collaboration in the critical minerals sectors to address instability in the global supply chain.

Yoon introduced a plan to launch the Korea-Africa critical minerals dialogue at Mining Indaba, an African mining conference set to take place in South Africa in February, and asked for Ramaphosa's support for the initiative, the office said.

Eight countries in the Horn of Africa region are set to receive more than usual rainfall leading to floods, the Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) announced.

"More than usual rainfall expected in most parts of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan," the ICPAC said on Tuesday, advising the communities in high-risk areas to exercise caution during this period.

Affected areas in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi would receive over 200 mm of rain, reports news agency, quoting ICPAC.

Three Palestinian men were killed in clashes with Israeli forces after they were surrounded near the town of Qabatiya in Jenin, West Bank.

"We were informed by the General Authority for Civil Affairs that three young men were killed by Israeli forces' bullets near Qabatiya," the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry said in a press statement.

The ministry identified the victims as 24-year-old Raed Hanaysheh, 25-year-old Anwar Sabaaneh, and 32-year-old Suleiman Tazaza.

Jenin Governor Kamal Abu al-Rab told that Israeli forces assassinated three men from the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, after besieging a house where they were holed up, and their bodies were detained.

He added that the Israeli forces fired several shells at the house amid heavy gunfire.

Billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX has successfully aced the sixth test flight of its huge Starship rocket early on Wednesday. However, it failed to repeat the “booster catch”.

The huge 30-foot-wide, 397-foot-tall rocket blasted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas at 5:00 p.m. EST (3.30 IST), where US President-elect Donald Trump was also present.

The fifth test flight, last month, made a historical catch of the booster with the “chopstick arms”. However, during the sixth flight, the catch was called off just four minutes into the test flight for unspecified reasons. It was directed to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

"We tripped a commit criteria," SpaceX's Dan Huot said during the webcast.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a policy-based loan of $200 million to help Sri Lanka strengthen its financial sector.

On Tuesday, the ADB said that the second subprogram of its Financial Sector Stability and Reforms Program built on the stabilisation and crisis management measures put in place under the first subprogram approved in 2023, news agency reported.

Policy reforms under the second subprogram will improve the Central Bank of Sri Lanka's (CBSL) regulatory supervision of banks to ensure financial stability.

Fiji's Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Protection has raised the alarm at the rising number of child abuse and child neglect cases recorded by the Child Welfare Act National Database.

A total of 1,477 child abuse and child neglect cases were reported in the country last year, according to statistics from the database.

Speaking at a World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse event on Tuesday, Acting Permanent Secretary Salaseini Daunabuna said among the cases, 68 percent were of child neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse, and 73 percent of the perpetrators are known to the victims.

The statistics also revealed that child abuse and neglect often occur within a child's safe space, she added.

Israel's military announced on Tuesday that the commander of Hezbollah's medium-range rocket unit was killed in an airstrike on Monday in southern Lebanon.

In a statement, the military said Ali Tawfiq Dweiq was killed by the Israeli Air Force in the village of Kfar Jouz, near the town of Nabatieh.

Dweiq had commanded Hezbollah's medium-range rocket array since September 2024, replacing the previous commander, who was also killed by Israel. The Israeli military said Dweiq was responsible for launching more than 300 projectiles toward Israel, including strikes on Haifa and central Israel.

More than 427,000 people have been internally displaced within Somalia in the first 10 months of 2024, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said Tuesday.

According to the UNHCR-led Protection and Solutions Monitoring Network (PSMN), the rate of internal displacement due to conflict and insecurity increased significantly in October, with Gedo, Bay and Banadir regions in southern Somalia recording the highest inflows of displaced populations.

The PSMN, which has been tracking internal displacement trends for the past 17 years, recorded about 66,000 internal displacements in October, of which 50,000 were attributed to conflict and insecurity, while 3,000 were due to climate-induced shocks such as drought and floods, the UNHCR said in its operational update released in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.

Wintry weather brought snowfall and freezing temperatures to the United Kingdom (UK) on Tuesday, causing school closures, difficult travel conditions and health alerts across many parts of the country.

According to the Met Office, Monday night saw sub-zero temperatures for much of the UK, reaching as low as minus 11.2 degrees Celsius in Aberdeenshire. On Tuesday morning, 12 cm of lying snow was reported in Nottinghamshire.

The national meteorological service has issued yellow severe weather warnings for snow and ice for the next few days, covering northern Scotland, Northern Ireland and the eastern coasts of England, as well as parts of Wales.

Ecuador has declared a 60-day national emergency to tackle wildfires, water shortages and drought afflicting the South American country, said Energy Minister Ines Manzano.

Seventeen active fires and five controlled ones were reported in different parts of the country, with the southern provinces of Azuay and Loja being the hardest-hit provinces, said the minister in a press release, news agency reported.

The National Risk Management Secretariat "is leading the coordination of resources to support the work of firefighters in both provinces," it said.

Twenty people were killed in a security operation east of Rafah, southern Gaza, which was supported by Hamas and targeted gangs accused of looting aid trucks entering Gaza, according to Al-Aqsa TV channel of Hamas.

Sources in the local authorities told Al-Aqsa TV that the operation, in cooperation with tribal committees, marks the beginning of a broader security campaign targeting those involved in stealing aid trucks, news agency reported.

The campaign "does not target specific tribes but aims to eradicate the phenomenon of truck thefts that have significantly impacted the community and caused famine-like conditions in southern Gaza," the sources said.

Hamas has denied reports that some of its leaders have moved from Qatar to Turkey.

In an official statement, sources within Hamas said on Monday that the claims spread by Israeli media were "pure rumours that Israel periodically attempts to promote."

On Sunday, Israeli media reported that several Hamas leaders based abroad had recently moved from Qatar to Turkey, a shift that could impact the course of negotiations on a ceasefire and the release of hostages, news agency reported.

A youth was killed by Israeli army gunfire in the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

The ministry said in a press release that 18-year-old Nour Arafat died from gunshot wounds to his chest, abdomen, and shoulder after being shot in the al-Masaken al-Sha'biya neighborhood of Nablus, new agency reported.

Local sources and eyewitnesses told that clashes erupted after Israeli military forces raided the neighborhood in eastern Nablus, during which soldiers fired live ammunition.

Arafat, critically injured in the clash, was later transported to hospital, where he was pronounced dead, said the sources.

A homeless man killed two people and critically wounded another one in a series of random stabbing in Manhattan, said New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

The 51-year-old man, who had been arrested eight times before, was arrested shortly after his attack on the third victim, news agency reported.

Investigation is going on and law enforcement departments in New York City are not looking for any additional suspects at this time, according to Adams.

"It is a clear, clear example of the criminal justice system, mental health system that continues to fail New Yorkers," Adams said.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said 604 migrants were intercepted and returned off the coast of Libya in the past week.

The migrants intercepted between November 10-16 include 34 women and 11 children, IOM said in a statement, adding that seven bodies of migrants were recovered while 54 others remain missing, news agency reported.

So far this year, 20,231 migrants have been intercepted, while 515 died and 830 others went missing off the Libyan coast, it said.

At least 10 people were killed and 25 others injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting a residential apartment in central Beirut, al-Jadeed local TV channel reported.

The airstrike targeted an area densely populated in the Zkak Blat area. Ambulances rushed to transport victims to hospitals, calling upon citizens to donate blood of all types, news agency reported.

The airstrike, marking the second day in a row that Israel attacks central Beirut, caused fear among citizens, with many of them leaving their houses to seek safer shelters elsewhere.

The target of the airstrike has not yet been identified.

On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike struck the office of Syria's Ba'ath Party located between the area of Ras al-Nabaa and the Sodeco Square commercial center in central Beirut with two air-to-surface missiles, killing Hezbollah Media Chief Mohammad Afif and seven other people.

Google is committing $20 million in cash and $2 million in cloud credits to a new funding initiative designed to help scientists and researchers unearth the next great scientific breakthroughs using artificial intelligence (AI), Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis said.

The announcement via Google.org said it will help Google ingratiate itself with some of the leading scientific minds, through direct cash injections and by providing infrastructure to power their projects, news agency reported.

The winning applicants should be using "AI to address increasingly complex problems at the intersections of different disciplines of science," according to a blog post from Maggie Johnson, Google VP and global head of Google.org.

Farmers took to the streets across France to protest against the trade agreement that the European Union (EU) plans to sign by the end of the year with the South American trade bloc Mercosur.

France's largest farmer union, the National Federation of Agricultural Holders' Unions (FNSEA), announced on Monday evening that 85 demonstrations have been organized across the country, but without blockades on motorways, news agency reported.

The goal of the demonstrations was not to annoy the public, but to remind them of the urgent and dramatic situation facing the country's agriculture, the FNSEA said.

The EU and Mercosur states - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay - reached a comprehensive trade agreement in 2019.

A top Iranian maritime official strongly condemned the sanctions imposed earlier in the day by Britain and the European Union (EU) on Iran's shipping sector over its alleged transfer of missiles and drones to Russia, the official news agency IRNA reported.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), a new target on Europe's sanctions list, is completely a commercial institution that carries commercial goods from Iran and other countries and is among the biggest shipping companies in West Asia, Managing Director of the Ports and Maritime Organisation of Iran Ali Akbar Safaei told IRNA in London, news agecy reported.

Calling the accusations by the EU and Britain "completely baseless," Safaei said IRISL's efforts in the Caspian Sea were entirely focused on importing essential goods to Iran.

Apparently, the Europeans were repeating the behavior of imposing sanctions the US was used to, Safaei said, stressing that Iran's maritime authorities would double their efforts to enable IRISL to continue its activities as in the past.

Authorities warned on Monday that a bushfire in Australia that has destroyed at least one home could continue burning for several weeks.

The bushfire near the town of Kadnook, over 300 km west of Melbourne, was one of several that ignited in southern Australia amid hot and windy conditions on Saturday, forcing evacuations of residents across the western part of the state of Victoria.

At least one home was destroyed by the fire and authorities believe two more may have burnt down in addition to agricultural losses.

The situation eased on Sunday night as temperatures dropped and some rain fell in the area but a "watch and act" warning remained in place on Monday, with residents told it is not yet safe to return.

Local mayor Tim Meyer said on Monday that the fast-moving fire caught locals by surprise on Saturday.

Twenty-one cabinet ministers were sworn in before Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Monday morning at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo.

Deputy ministers will be sworn in later, it was announced at the event.

After Dissanayake won the September 21 presidential election, he governed with a cabinet composed of Harini Amarasuriya and Vijitha Herath, reports news agency.

The new cabinet ministers were chosen among the 159 members of parliament from the National People's Power (NPP) elected in the November 14 parliamentary election.

This is the first time a political party has won two-thirds of the majority in parliament since the introduction of the proportional representation system.

Japan experienced a sharp temperature drop on Monday due to a strong cold wave, following unseasonably warm weather a day before.

The Japan Meteorological Agency warns that the cold weather will intensify, with the potential for snow in lowland areas of northern Japan, possibly affecting transportation.

The chill is expected to deepen, bringing midwinter-level cold in some areas through Wednesday, reports news agency.

Snowfall is currently affecting mountainous regions in Hokkaido, Tohoku, and parts of Kanto due to winter pressure patterns. Northern Japan, in particular, faces the risk of accumulating snow in lowland areas.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) will continue incremental interest rate hikes to align with the nation's economic and price improvements, its Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Monday.

Speaking at a financial meeting in Nagoya, Ueda emphasised that the timing of future rate hikes would depend on various factors, including global economic conditions, particularly developments in the United States, and domestic wage trends, reports news agency, quoting Nikkei.

He noted a shift in Japan's inflation drivers from import costs to domestic wage growth and highlighted October's Tokyo consumer price index as evidence of this change.

Adjusting the interest rates would support sustainable economic growth and help achieve long-term inflation targets, he explained.

 A damaging storm swept across Australia's most populous state of New South Wales (NSW) Sunday night, leaving several properties destroyed, over 20 flights cancelled, and a part of the Sydney Harbour Bridge dislodged.

Winds exceeding 100 km per hour and heavy rain hit Sydney and much of NSW Sunday night, and widespread blackouts affected people across the state, reports news agency.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) forecast more severe thunderstorms for northeast NSW on Monday.

The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) said on Monday that it was called out to 278 incidents across the state, 81 of which were in Sydney.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Monday that it has approved a policy-based loan of $100 million to help accelerate and sustain investment in climate action in Mongolia.

The Accelerating Climate Investment Program will "help Mongolia anchor climate action in national plans and budgets and catalyse public and private climate finance to accelerate a low-carbon, inclusive, and resilient economy," said ADB's Country Director for Mongolia Shannon Cowlin.

Mongolia is vulnerable to climate-related hazards and is particularly at risk of the impacts of global warming, reports, citing the ADB press release.

Japan's core machinery orders fell a seasonally adjusted 1.3 per cent during the July-September period compared to the previous quarter, government data showed on Monday.

Excluding volatile shipbuilding and power-related orders, total machinery orders from domestic firms amounted to 2.585 trillion yen (about $16.7 billion) during the period, marking the second consecutive quarter of decline, news agency reported, quoting the Cabinet Office.

By sector, manufacturing orders fell 7.2 per cent, with a decline in electrical machinery contributing significantly, while non-manufacturing sector orders rose 1.4 per cent, driven by increased demand for construction machinery.

South Korea's standards agency said on Monday it plans to develop 39 new international standards in the semiconductor sector by 2031 to bolster its competitive edge in the field.

The road map was unveiled by the Korea Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) during an industry forum, as part of a broader strategy aimed at gaining an early lead in the global semiconductor market.

KATS outlined its objective to develop more than 15 new international standards in semiconductor technologies by 2027, with a total of 39 standards to be established by 2031.

"We will support the efforts of experts from academia, industry and research to secure South Korea's technological leadership in semiconductors through active international standardization efforts," said Oh Kwang-hae, the head of KATS.

A new long-range radar system developed with homegrown technology has been approved for combat suitability, South Korea's arms procurement agency said Monday.

Its equipment is expected to bolster surveillance of aircraft in the country's air defence identification zone (KADIZ).

The new radar system is capable of conducting around-the-clock surveillance in KADIZ and transmitting real-time data to the Air Force's Master Control and Reporting Center, news agency reported quoting the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).

The approval comes after DAPA signed an agreement with South Korean defence firm LIG Nex1 in February 2021 to develop the homegrown long-range radar system and conducted an 18-month-long assessment for combat suitability.

Gabonese voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new a constitution, authorities said.

Over 91 per cent of voters approved the new constitution in a referendum on Saturday, Interior Minister Hermann Immongault announced in an official statement. And the voter turnout was 53.54 per cent, news agency reported.

The referendum came more than one year after the military junta seized power in the oil-rich country in a coup.

The new constitution aims for transition from the current semi-parliamentary system to a presidential regime. If enacted, it will abolish the position of Prime Minister, and strip the National Assembly of its power to censure the government. Meanwhile, the president will gain the power to dissolve the National Assembly once during his term.

At least five people were killed and three others injured in Israeli attacks on the town of al-Mari in the Hasbaya District in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese military and medical sources.

At least two Lebanese soldiers were killed and two others wounded in Israeli artillery shelling targeting a Lebanese army post in al-Mari, a responsible source in the Lebanese army intelligence told.

The Lebanese army also confirmed the attack in a statement, news agency reported.

Sixty people were poisoned due to chlorine gas leakage in the central Iranian province of Isfahan, the official news agency IRNA reported.

At 13:40 local time, on Sunday it was reported that a semi-trailer truck carrying chlorine gas cylinders had overturned on an intercity road in Shahreza County, 80 km south of the provincial capital Isfahan, news agency reported.

Following the accident, rescue teams were immediately sent to the scene, Mansour Shishehforoush, director general of the provincial crisis management department, was quoted as saying.

Due to the chlorine gas leakage from one of the cylinders, 60 people in nearby areas suffered pulmonary toxicity and were immediately transferred to medical centers, said Shishehforoush.

Turkey has denied Israeli President Isaac Herzog's airplane access to Turkish airspace on his way to Azerbaijan, the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.

The Israeli government had requested permission for Herzog's plane to use Turkish airspace en route to the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Baku, which kicked off on November 11, news agency reported.

However, Turkish authorities rejected the request, Anadolu reported, citing an anonymous Turkish official.

Herzog canceled his visit to Azerbaijan on Saturday due to "security considerations," the Times of Israel reported.

North Korea sent what appear to be balloons carrying trash toward South Korea on Monday, the military here said, resuming its balloon campaign after about a three-week hiatus.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said these trash bundles are expected to move toward the Seoul metropolitan area and surrounding Gyeonggi Province, considering the direction of the wind, news agency reported.

North Korea had last floated balloons on October 24. It has done so on 31 occasions since late May in retaliation against anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets sent across the border by activists in the South.

Voters in Libreville, Gabon's capital, participated in a referendum Saturday on a draft constitution proposed by the military government that assumed power after a coup in August 2023.

"I arrived as early as 6:30 am to be among the first to vote," said Jean Nze, a man in his 50s, at the Damas 2 Public School polling station in the capital's 4th district.

The station opened at 8:15 am local time (0715 GMT), and the process was orderly, with security ensured by police and military personnel.