KYIV, 07 December 2022, (TON): Ukraine warned there would be emergency blackouts once again in several regions as it repaired damage from missile attacks it said destroyed homes and knocked out power, while Moscow accused Kyiv of attacking deep inside Russia with drones.

A new Russian missile barrage had been anticipated in Ukraine for days and it took place just as emergency blackouts were due to end, with previous damage repaired.

The strikes, which plunged parts of Ukraine back into freezing darkness with temperatures below zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit), were the latest in weeks of attacks hitting critical infrastructure and cutting off heat and water to many.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “at least four people were killed.”

President added that most of some 70 missiles were shot down.

DOHA, 07 December 2022, (TON): State news agency reported “Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah headed to Qatar on Tuesday to attend a FIFA World Cup match in Doha.”

His visit came in response to the invitation from his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Khaled bin Khalifa Al Thani.

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan visited Doha where he held talks with Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

SEOUL, 07 December 2022, (TON): North Korea’s military says it has ordered frontline units to conduct artillery firings into the sea for the second consecutive day in a tit-for-tat response to South Korean live-fire drills in an inland border region.

The statement by the North Korean People’s Army’s General Staff came a day after the North fired about 130 artillery rounds into waters near its western and eastern sea boundaries with South Korea in the latest military action raising tensions between the rivals.

An unidentified North Korean military spokesperson said the planned artillery firings Tuesday were meant as a warning to the South after the North detected signs of South Korean artillery exercises in the border region.

BEIRUT: Commercial brakes produced by a Dutch company to be used in ambulances in Turkiye instead ended up in missiles used by Turkiye in attacks in northeastern Syria, a report released Tuesday said.

The report said “between September 2021 and June 2022, field investigators with London-based Conflict Armament Research analyzed the remnants of 17 air-to-surface missiles used in strikes in northeast Syria.”

An analysis of the components of the wreckage found that the missiles were manufactured by Roketsan, a Turkish defense manufacturer.

KYIV, 07 December 2022, (TON): President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the frontline region of Donetsk in east Ukraine, describing fighting in the area as difficult with Russian forces pushing to capture the industrial city of Bakhmut.

The visit came as Russian President Vladimir Putin convened his security council in the wake of the latest spate of drone attacks on military-linked facilities inside Russian territory.

The focus of fighting in Ukraine has shifted to Donbas after Kyiv’s forces recaptured the southern city of Kherson last month following a Russian retreat from the regional capital.

DHAKA, 07 December 2022, (TON): Unesco and Sesame Workshop Bangladesh, the producer of the popular children's program Sisimpur, are collaborating to promote and popularize Unesco's three world heritage sites in Bangladesh among children the Sundarbans, Mosque City of Bagerhat and Ruins of the Buddhist Vihara at Paharpur.

Under this collaboration, Sisimpur will popularize these three world heritage sites through Sisimpur's entertaining and informative program.

In addition to the production of edutainment content comprising Sisimpur's popular characters, the initiative will also involve interactive activities to engage the audience more.

MONTREAL, 07 December 2022, (TON): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres slammed multinational corporations for turning the world’s ecosystems into playthings of profit and warned failure to correct course would lead to catastrophic results.

He said “with our bottomless appetite for unchecked and unequal economic growth, humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction.”

Since taking office in 2017, Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, has made climate change his signature issue.

DHAKA, 07 December 2022, (TON): Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate 28 development projects and lay the foundation stones for four others in Cox's Bazar.

A press release from the Prime Minister's Office said “the total cost of the projects that would be inaugurated is about Tk1392.37 crore.”

The development schemes to be opened by the Prime Minister include Bakkhali River flood control, drainage, irrigation and dredging Project (1st Phase), dam reconstruction and protection work in the sea dike section at Shah Porirdwip, rehabilitation project of damaged polders in Cox's Bazar district and upgradation of link road-Laboni intersection road to a four-lane.

Other development projects include 399-metre long MP and Ambassador Osman Sarwar Alam Chowdhury Bridge over Bankkhali River on Ramu Kalghar Bazar-Rajarkul UP road, six union land office buildings in the district and four upazila parishad complex buildings.

MOSCOW, 07 December 2022, (TON): Russia rained long-range missiles on Ukraine, killing two people, destroying homes in the southeast and causing power outages, but Kyiv said its air defences had limited the damage.

Air raid sirens blared across the country and men, women and children huddled in the capital’s cavernous metro system to take cover during the latest big wave of missile strikes since its Feb 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow has been targeting Ukraine’s power grid in intense waves of attacks since October, and state energy company Ukrenergo, which operates the national power grid, said more infrastructure had been hit Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal later said energy facilities had been hit in the regions of Kyiv, Vinnytsia in west-central Ukraine and Odesa in the south, but that Ukraine’s energy system was still functioning.

The air force said that over 60 of the more than 70 missiles fired at Ukraine had been shot down.

LONDON, 07 December 2022, (TON): Britain’s opposition Labour Party vowed on Monday to scrap the unelected and “indefensible” House of Lords as part of a constitutional revamp to redistribute economic growth after Brexit.

Labour looks set to take power in the next election, due by January 2025, streaking far ahead of the governing Conservatives in opinion polls after a tumultuous period politically and economically.

Labour leader Keir Starmer promised “the biggest ever transfer of power from Westminster to the British people”, arguing that many voters in 2016 opted to quit the European Union because of a sense of lack of democratic control.