While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Feb 22
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A Palestinian man holds the body of his daughter, who was killed in an Israeli air strike, at a hospital in Rafah.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Israel intensifies strikes on Gaza’s Rafah
Israel intensified its bombardment of Rafah in Gaza’s south and over a dozen members of one family were killed in an air strike, residents said, as the ruined Palestinian enclave’s health ministry announced 29,313 deaths in the war so far.
In Jerusalem, Israeli war Cabinet member Benny Gantz cited “promising early signs of progress” on a new deal to release hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza amid talks conducted by the United States, Egypt and Qatar to secure a pause in the war.
The Israeli army (IDF) said it had stepped up operations in Khan Younis, a city just north of Rafah.
It made no mention of attacks on Rafah itself in its daily summary of events in Gaza and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
15 dead as truck falls into Philippines ravine
AFP
Fifteen people were killed on Feb 21 after a truck plummeted down a ravine in the central Philippines, a rescue official said.
The vehicle was carrying people on their way to a livestock market on Negros island, Mr Michael Cabugnason, a rescue official from Mabinay municipality told AFP.
“Witnesses said the truck went out of control towards the sharp bend of the road,” he said, adding the mountainous area near Mabinay was a frequent scene of road accidents.
Russian military blogger dies after criticising army losses
A pro-war Russian military blogger died on Feb 21, his lawyer said, after the blogger wrote that the country’s military pressured him to remove a post exposing the scale of its losses in a recent battle in Ukraine.
The blogger, Andrei Morozov, claimed in his post that Russia had lost 16,000 men and 300 armoured vehicles in its assault on the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, which the Russians captured last week.
He deleted the post on Feb 20, after what he said was a campaign of intimidation against him.
Ukraine arrests father, son in Lockbit cybercrime bust
Police in Ukraine said on Feb 21 they had arrested a father-son duo who belonged to the cybercrime gang Lockbit, which was disrupted by an international law enforcement operation led by Britain’s National Crime Agency and the FBI earlier this week.
The father and son, neither of whom were named by police, were wanted for carrying out attacks using ransomware, malicious software used to digitally extort victims, against “enterprises, state institutions and health care institutions in France,” the National Police of Ukraine said, in a statement.
On Feb 20, the NCA, FBI, US Department of Justice and Europol said a joint law enforcement operation dubbed “Operation Cronos” had disrupted the core activities of Lockbit, one of the world’s most damaging cybercrime organisations.
Ratcliffe wants Man United to knock ‘enemies’ off perch
Manchester United’s new co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said the English giants have much to learn from “enemies” Manchester City and Liverpool as he echoed Alex Ferguson by vowing to knock the pair “off their perch” within three years.
Ratcliffe, 71, completed the purchase of a 27.7 per cent stake in the club on Feb 20, but the terms of the deal will delegate control of football operations to his company INEOS as he seeks to rekindle United’s former glories.
City and Liverpool have been the dominant forces in English football over the past decade, while United’s fortunes have faded since celebrated former manager Ferguson retired in 2013.
