A raft of proposed measures from Israel's ruling coalition targeting the media has sparked outrage, with critics warning the planned reforms would deliver a blow to press freedom.
Suggested changes to public broadcasting, coupled with a bid to give permanent powers to the government to ban foreign TV channels which are deemed a threat, come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to seek another term next year.
Iranian authorities have freed a woman who was condemned to hanging over the killing of her husband who she married while a child, in a case that sparked international concern over the plight of women sentenced to death in the Islamic republic, rights activists said on Friday.
Iranian authorities confirmed the freeing of Goli Kouhkan from prison in the northern Golestan province after her death sentence was revoked earlier this week under an accord with the dead man's family.
By Steve Holland and Michelle Nichols
WASHINGTON/UNITED NATIONS, Dec 12 (Reuters) - International troops could be deployed in the Gaza Strip as early as next month to form a U.N.-authorized stabilization force, two U.S. officials told Reuters, but it remains unclear how Palestinian militants Hamas will be disarmed.
BEIJING, Dec 12 (Reuters) - China said on Friday it had driven away a Philippine aircraft and multiple vessels near disputed atolls in South China Sea, in the latest in a series of confrontations in the strategic waterway in recent years.
The Chinese military said it issued strong warnings and "expelled" a Philippine aircraft that "invaded" airspace above the Scarborough Shoal, without giving a date for the incident.
By Dave Sherwood and Marianna Parraga
HAVANA/HOUSTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - A U.S. move this week to seize an oil tanker out of Venezuela is poised to make a bad situation worse for a crisis-stricken Cuba already struggling to source enough oil to power its ailing economy and electrical grid.
The Communist-run nation, a nearby neighbor and long-time foe of the United States, suffers daily, hours-long rolling blackouts that have decimated productivity and tested the patience of its exhausted residents.
Former Iraqi president Barham Salih is set to become the next United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, according to a document seen by AFP on Friday, taking over an agency tackling swingeing budget cuts.
Salih, 65, was president of Iraq from 2018 to 2022. He will replace Filippo Grandi, who is leaving at the end of December after 10 years as the UN refugees chief.
By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans face flooding of their tents and shelters by heavy rains, and materials for shelters and sandbags are not being allowed to enter the enclave, the UN International Organization for Migration said on Friday.
Torrential rain swept across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, flooding hundreds of tents sheltering families displaced by two years of war, and leading to the death of a baby girl due to exposure, local health officials said.
GENEVA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Iraq's former president Barham Salih has been chosen as the next high commissioner for refugees for the United Nations, a letter showed on Friday.
The letter signed by United Nations Chief Antonio Guterres and dated Dec. 11 says Salih has been appointed for a five-year term beginning January 1, 2026.
The appointment is provisional and needs to be approved by UNHCR's Executive Committee, the document showed.
(Reporting by Emma Farge, Editing by Friederike Heine)
ANKARA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Turkey and the United States are discussing the U.S. sanctions and obstacles to Ankara rejoining the F-35 jet programme but nothing has changed with respect to its possession of Russian S-400 air defences, the defence ministry said on Friday.
The NATO allies have been at loggerheads since 2020 when Washington removed Ankara from Lockheed Martin's fighter jet programme and imposed sanctions over Turkey's acquisition of the S-400s, which Washington calls a security threat.
By John O'Donnell and Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Ireland’s planned curbs on trade with Israeli settlements will be limited strictly to goods, a minister told Reuters, offering the first clear signal on the scope of the contested legislation and rejecting accusations that the country is antisemitic.
Ireland has been preparing a law to curb trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, facing pressure at home to widen the scope of the ban from goods to services, while Israel and the United States want the bill scrapped.
