WASHINGTON, 31 December 2022, (TON): President Joe Biden on Thursday signed off on a $1.7 trillion spending bill that will keep the US government funded through the next fiscal year notably including another big package for Ukraine’s war effort.

Biden, vacationing over the New Year’s holiday on Saint Croix in the US Virgin Islands, tweeted a picture of himself signing the bill into law.

“It’ll invest in medical research, safety, veteran health care, disaster recovery” and funding for programs combating violence against women, Biden tweeted. It also “gets crucial assistance to Ukraine. Looking forward to more in 2023.”

WASHINGTON, 31 December 2022, (TON): US military said “a Chinese fighter jet flew dangerously within 20 feet of a much larger US air force surveillance aircraft over the South China Sea.”

In the December 21 incident, a Chinese Navy J-11 fighter pilot “performed an unsafe maneuver during an intercept of a US Air Force RC-135 aircraft,” the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.

The Chinese pilot flew in front of and within 20 feet of the nose of the US aircraft, “forcing the RC-135 to take evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision.”

US command said ”the RC-135, was lawfully conducting routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace.”

DAMASCUS, 31 December 2022, (TON): An attack in eastern Syria killed 10 oil field workers, state news agency reported.

The report said “in addition to the dead, “two others have been wounded in a terrorist attack that targeted three buses transporting workers from Al-Taim oil field in Deir Ezzor” province.”

SANA did not provide any information on the nature of the attack or who may be behind it, but a British-based war monitor accused “cells of the Daesh group” of carrying out the assault near the oil field.

“The attack began with explosive devices that went off as the buses drove by, and then the group’s militants shot at them,” Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.

BRUSSELS, 31 December 2022, (TON): This Friday, a military-controlled court in Myanmar delivered its final verdicts against detained President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, concluding a series of purely politically motivated trials conducted in the course of the past thirteen months.

These trials were carried forward with no respect for due legal procedure or necessary judicial guarantees and are a clear attempt to exclude democratically elected leaders from political life.

Win Myint and Aung San Suu Kyi face a total of 12 and 33 years’ imprisonment respectively, including 3 years of hard labour, representing another blatant violation of human rights in Myanmar.

The European Union strongly condemns these trials, verdicts and the overall dismantlement of democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar.

NEW DELHI, 31 December 2022, (TON): India’s health minister and the company said “the Indian maker of a cough syrup that was linked to the death of 19 children in Uzbekistan has halted production of all medicines after an inspection by the drug regulator.”

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said investigations were continuing, and production was suspended at the Marion Biotech unit in Noida, outside Delhi, while a senior executive for the firm said they were awaiting reports following the inspection.

Mandaviya wrote on Twitter "all manufacturing activities of Marion Biotech at Noida unit have been stopped yesterday night, while further investigation is ongoing.”

Neither Marion Biotech or the health ministry immediately responded to a Reuters request for comment on media reports that inspectors had found some deviation from rules on manufacturing at one of the firm’s production units.

JOHANNESBURG, 31 December 2022, (TON): The health ministry said “the death toll from a fuel tanker explosion in a South African city east of Johannesburg last week has climbed to 34.”

A truck carrying liquefied petroleum gas became stuck under a bridge in Boksburg, triggering a leak and blast that instantly killed 10 people.

“The death toll from Boksburg explosion incident has risen to 34,” the ministry said, after 24 people died over the following days of severe burns or other wounds.

Among the victims were people who had approached to see the truck stuck under the bridge before being caught in the blast, as well as “11 health workers” at the nearby Tambo Memorial Hospital, it said.

TEHRAN, 31 December 2022, (TON): Iran has summoned the Italian ambassador to protest “interventionist” policies, the foreign ministry said, a day after Rome called in Tehran’s envoy over its response to nationwide protests.

The Islamic republic has been gripped by protests since the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, following her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the strict dress code for women.

Iran says hundreds of people have been killed in the unrest, including members of the security forces, and thousands have been arrested nationwide.

WASHINGTON, 30 December 2022, (TON): The Navy’s next amphibious assault ship will be named after the city of Fallujah, which saw some of the bloodiest battles in the Iraq war when US Marines fought Al-Qaeda extremists in deadly house-to-house combat.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said the USS Fallujah will commemorate what have become known as the “First and Second Battles of Fallujah,” following the tradition of naming the assault ships after Marine Corps battles or other early sailing ships and aircraft carriers.

Del Toro said in a statement “it is an honor to memorialize the Marines, soldiers, and coalition partners that fought valiantly and those that sacrificed their lives during both battles of Fallujah.”

Located about 65 kilometers from Baghdad, the city became the base for an anti-government Sunni insurgency after the US-led invasion in 2003 toppled Saddam Hussein.

SARAJEVO, 30 December 2022, (TON): Vildana Mutevelic huddled in her apartment with her two young children and elderly cousins. They had no heat, electricity or running water as artillery shells tore the roof off their building and almost took their lives. To survive, she improvised.

Mutevelic made a lamp out of used engine oil, water and a shoelace for a wick. She cooked on a fire fueled by books, furniture, shoes or clothes. A plastic spoon, she discovered, when lit, worked well as a temporary flashlight if she ventured outside. Plastic sheets covered the blown-out windows, a flimsy buffer against the bitter cold.

Her news of the world came from a neighbor who powered a radio with a car battery. “The electricity failed right away,” Mutevelic, 70, said through a translator. “And everything we had in our freezers, it melted. Those were our stocks, basically. That’s all.”

DUBAI, 30 December 2022, (TON): Iran’s military  kicked off its annual drill in the coastal area of the Gulf of Oman and near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, state TV reported, even as the authorities continue their crackdown on anti-government protests that have been underway for over three months.

The strait is located at the mouth of the Arabian Gulf and is crucial to global energy supplies, with about a fifth of all oil traded at sea passing through it.

The TV report said “commandos and airborne infantry would participate in the wargames, dubbed “Zolfaghar-1401,” along with drones, fighter jets, helicopters, military transport aircraft and submarines. Iran’s military is to fire missiles and air defense systems as well.”