While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Oct 14
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A Merkava battle tank carrying Israeli soldiers at an area along the border with Gaza, southern Israel.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
‘Only the beginning’: Israel makes first raids into Gaza
Israeli infantry made their first raids into the Gaza Strip on Friday since Hamas fighters rampaged through southern Israel, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a campaign of retaliation had only just begun.
Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas after its fighters burst out of Gaza a week ago and stormed through towns and villages, killing 1,300 Israelis, mainly civilians, and making off with scores of hostages.
Since then Israel has placed the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, under a total siege and bombarded it with unprecedented air strikes. Gaza authorities say 1,900 people have died.
On Friday, Israel gave more than a million residents of the northern half of Gaza 24 hours to flee to the south to avoid an onslaught. Hamas vowed to fight to the last drop of blood and told residents not to go.
Reuters journalist dead, others wounded in south Lebanon
AFP
A Reuters journalist was killed on Friday and six others from AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera were wounded while working in southern Lebanon, the three news organisations said.
A group of journalists from different media outlets were near the village of Alma al-Shaab close to the border with Israel when they were caught up in cross-border shelling, one of the two wounded AFP correspondents said.
A Lebanese security source had told AFP that initial Israeli shelling followed an infiltration attempt by a Palestinian faction from the Lebanese side of the border.
Hardliner Jim Jordan nominated for US House speaker
EPA-EFE
Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Friday nominated hardliner Jim Jordan for speaker, setting up a vote that will test whether he can surmount the party divisions that led Steve Scalise to abandon his bid.
Representative Elise Stefanik, a member of the chamber’s Republican leadership, said on social media that Mr Jordan had won the closed-door vote, which had pit him against Mr Austin Scott, a Georgia lawmaker who has kept a relatively low profile in his 12 years in Congress.
Republican infighting has left the House paralysed for 10 days, as lawmakers have deadlocked over a successor to Mr Kevin McCarthy, who was forced out by a small group of Republican insurgents on Oct 3.
North Korea has sent arms to Russia for use in Ukraine
North Korea has delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia in recent weeks for use in Ukraine, the White House said on Friday.
The statement comes a month after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un travelled to Russia’s far east and met President Vladimir Putin, sparking concern among Kyiv’s allies over the possibility of a potential arms deal.
“We condemn the DPRK for providing Russia with this military equipment, which will be used to attack Ukrainian cities, kill Ukrainian civilians, and further Russia’s illegitimate war,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters, using North Korea’s official name.
Nasa launches spacecraft to explore asteroid Psyche
Nasa on Friday launched a spacecraft from Florida on its way to Psyche, the largest of the several metal-rich asteroids known in our solar system and believed by scientists to be the remnant core of an ancient protoplanet, offering clues about Earth’s formation.
The Psyche probe, folded inside the cargo bay of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, blasted off under partly cloudy skies from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral on a planned journey 3.5 billion km through space. The spacecraft, roughly the size of a small van, is due to reach the asteroid in August 2029.
The launch, shown live on Nasa TV, marks the latest in a series of recent Nasa missions seeking insights about the origins of our planet about 4.5 billion years ago by sending robotic spacecraft to explore asteroids - primordial relics from the dawn of the solar system.
