Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday that Israel was responsible for nearly half of all journalists killed this year worldwide, with 29 Palestinian reporters slain by its forces in Gaza.

In its annual report, the Paris-based media freedom group said the total number of journalists killed reached 67 globally this year, up from 66 killed in 2024.

Israeli forces accounted for 43 percent of the total, making them "the worst enemy of journalists", RSF said in its report, which documented deaths over 12 months from December 2024.

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday cleared the way for ​a Tufts University PhD student and pro-Palestinian activist ​Rumeysa Ozturk to work on campus after ordering the Trump administration to restore her status in a ⁠key database used to track foreign students.

The parents of the last hostage in Gaza have been waiting for over two years for the return of their son, whom they described as "fighting to the last bullet" during Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Now the mother of Ran Gvili says there is consensus in Israel that his body must be returned before the second phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip begins.

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - A set of tough U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria under its former leader Bashar al-Assad could be lifted within weeks, after their repeal was included in a sweeping defense policy bill unveiled during the weekend and due for votes in Congress within days.

The widow of slain Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi Monday filed a legal complaint in France accusing Saudi Arabia of using Israeli spyware to steal data from her phones before he was killed, her lawyers said.

Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, whose husband was murdered at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate in October 2018, alleged her data was in part stolen in France, where she landed repeatedly while working as an air hostess, according to a copy of the complaint seen by AFP.

Dec 8 (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned on Monday an Israeli raid on the East Jerusalem compound of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.

“This compound remains United Nations premises and is inviolable and immune from any other form of interference,” Guterres said in a statement.

“I urge Israel to immediately take all necessary steps to restore, preserve and uphold the inviolability of UNRWA premises and to refrain from taking any further action with regard to UNRWA premises.”

BUDAPEST, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban have agreed that Turkey will guarantee that Russian gas can continue to flow to Hungary, Orban said on Monday.

Hungary has maintained its reliance on Russian energy since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, prompting criticism from several European Union and NATO allies.

By Pesha Magid and Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Israeli authorities entered the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency's East Jerusalem offices on Monday and raised Israel's flag, in a raid they said was ordered over unpaid taxes but was condemned by the agency as a challenge to international law.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has been accused of bias by Israel, has not used the building since the start of this year after Israel ordered it to vacate all its premises and cease its operations.

By Julia Payne

BRUSSELS, Dec 8 (Reuters) - EU countries on Monday agreed their final negotiating positions for several proposed migration laws on new asylum rules, a common EU list of "safe countries of origin" and an EU-wide policy for illegal migrant returns, statements from the Council of the European Union said.

Despite strong criticism from more than 200 organisations, the key elements of the European Commission's proposals will likely become law.

By Alexander Dziadosz

CAIRO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Quadcopters, electromagnetic rifles and an AI-powered navigation system were among the wares displayed at one of Africa and the Middle East’s biggest arms expos, as defence companies jostle to break into regional markets increasingly defined by drone warfare.