*) UAE intercepts 'Houthi ballistic missiles' over Abu Dhabi

The United Arab Emirates has intercepted two ballistic missiles that it said were fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels targeting the capital Abu Dhabi, state-run news agency reported.

"The remnants of the intercepted ballistic missiles fell in separate areas around Abu Dhabi," the WAM news agency reported.

The Emirates "is ready to deal with any threats and takes all necessary measures to protect the state from all attacks", WAM quoted UAE Defence Ministry as saying.

*) US asks diplomats' families to depart Ukraine over Russia threats

The United States has ordered the families of its diplomats in the Ukrainian capital Kiev to leave the country "due to the continued threat of Russian military action".

Washington also authorised the "voluntary" departure of its embassy employees and urged US citizens in the Eastern European country to "consider departing now using commercial or other privately available transportation options".

The security situation around Ukraine''s borders, in Russia-occupied Crimea and in Russia-controlled eastern Ukraine, are unpredictable and can deteriorate with little notice, said the statement.

*) Taliban and Afghan civil society 'break the ice' in Norway

A meeting between the Taliban and Afghan civil society members has served as an "icebreaker" in Norway on the eve of talks between Taliban members and Western diplomats.

"It was a positive icebreaking meeting," feminist activist Jamila Afghani said.

“The Taliban displayed goodwill. They listened patiently and responded to most of our concerns. Let's see what their actions will be, based on their words," Afghani said.

*) Burkina Faso denies military takeover after heavy gunfire heard at bases

Burkina Faso's government has denied that the army had seized control of the country after exchanges of gunfire took place at multiple army barracks, including two in the capital.

"Information on social media would have people believe there was an army takeover," a government spokesperson said in a statement.

"The government, while recognising the validity of shootings in some barracks, denies this information and calls on the population to remain calm" the statement said.

*) ‘Spider-Man’ becomes sixth highest grossing film of all time globally

After spending one weekend in second place, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” has proved it still has some fight left.

Sony's superhero juggernaut swung back to first place in its sixth weekend in theatres and became the sixth highest grossing film of all time.

The film topped the North American charts with $14.1 million, according to studio estimates.

Globally, it's now grossed nearly $1.7 billion, passing the total earnings of both “Jurassic World" and “The Lion King”.

*) ‘No minor incursion’: Biden clarifies comments on Russia, Ukraine tensions

US President Joe Biden said any Russian troop movements across Ukraine’s border would constitute an invasion, and that Moscow would “pay a heavy price” for such an action.

The statement was the latest US effort to clear up confusion over an earlier suggestion by the US president that a "minor incursion" could invite a lesser response.

“I’ve been absolutely clear with President Putin, he has no misunderstanding. Any, any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion,” Biden said.

"Let there be no doubt at all, that if Putin makes this choice, Russia will pay a heavy price," the US president added.

*) China, Russia block US bid to impose UN sanctions on North Koreans

China and Russia blocked a US push to impose United Nations sanctions on five North Koreans in response to recent missile launches by Pyongyang.

The six-month block will hold off sanctions levied against North Koreans linked to the country's ballistic missile program.

The United States quickly expressed its displeasure at the block, with ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield saying any opposition to sanctions gives Pyongyang “a blank check".

*) Internet down in Yemen after Saudi-led air strike on telecom building

Yemen has lost its connection to the internet nationwide after Saudi-led air strikes targeted a site in the contested city of Hudaida, plunging the war-torn nation offline.

The air strike was reportedly on the TeleYemen site in Hudaida, which has a monopoly on the country's internet, and caused several injuries and deaths.

The Saudi-led coalition battling Houthi rebels acknowledged carrying out air strikes around Hudaida's port, but did not immediately acknowledge striking a telecommunication target.

*) Ghana explosion kills more than dozen, destroys 500 buildings

At least 17 people have been killed and nearly 60 injured in an explosion that devastated part of a town in western Ghana after a truck carrying explosives collided with a motorcycle.

Officials said the blast in the southwestern Apiate area between the towns of Bogoso and Bawdie levelled 500 buildings.

Francis Abeiku Yankah, the coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation for Prestea Huni-Valley district, reported the complete devastation of the Apiate community.

And finally …

*) Turkiye to help build El Salvador its first satellite

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has said Turkiye will help the Latin American country build its first satellite while both sides signed six deals during his first visit to Turkiye.

Bukele is meeting various Turkish defence and technology companies and is keen to send his country's first satellite into space with Turkish technology.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the six agreements covered defence, trade, tech, economy, education and diplomacy, while President Bukele said the agreements are "only for starters".

Turkiye will also help El Salvador build a dry canal, ports and a power plant.

*) US warns of Russia's incursion into Ukraine as tensions soar

US President Joe Biden has predicted that Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a move into Ukraine, but he thinks the Kremlin does not want a full-scale war with Kiev.

Biden warned a full-scale invasion would trigger a massive response. He suggested that the US would limit Russia's access to the international banking system in case of a full-scale war with Ukraine, which would "be a disaster for Russia."

Russians might ultimately prevail, but their losses are "going to be heavy," Biden added.

*) North Korea hints at resuming nuclear, long-range missile tests

North Korea has hinted it could resume nuclear and long-range weapons tests as it prepares for "a long-term confrontation" with Washington.

When the US imposed fresh sanctions last week, Pyongyang said it was a "provocation" and ramped up conventional weapons tests, vowing a "stronger and certain" response to efforts to rein it in.

"The hostile policy and military threat by the US have reached a danger line that cannot be overlooked anymore," a report on a meeting of the country's Politburo in state media said.

*) Pentagon releases first video of Kabul air strike that killed civilians

The Pentagon has released video footage of a US drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians in the final hours of the chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

It marks the first public release of video footage of the August 29 strike, which the Pentagon initially defended but later called a tragic mistake.

The footage shows the scene of the strike prior to, during and after a missile struck a civilian car in a courtyard on a residential street.

The botched strike killed 10 civilians, including aid worker Zemari Ahmadi, his relatives and children.

*) Turkiye to run 'charity train' to Afghanistan as hunger worsens

Turkiye will send a "charity train" to Afghanistan carrying emergency goods, as the country faces a harsh winter with a deteriorating economy that has plunged millions into poverty.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the train, carrying 700 tonnes of food, clothing, and health and emergency goods, will be sent with the support of 10 NGOs coordinated by Turkiye's disaster agency AFAD.

The move comes in contrast to Western nations, led by the United States, that have frozen billions of dollars worth of Afghan banking assets and cut off development funding.

*) Aid begins to arrive in tsunami-hit Tonga as main airport opens

Aircraft carrying much-needed humanitarian supplies have begun arriving in tsunami-affected Tonga, as the South Pacific island finally made contact with the rest of the world after being hit.

The first flight carrying aid to Tonga was able to make it to the Pacific nation's main airport, once the runway was cleared of volcanic ash after five days.

Australia and New Zealand have sent humanitarian supplies including temporary shelters, generators, hygiene kits, and communications equipment to the tsunami-hit pacific nation.

*) Russia amasses 127,000 troops in 'almost complete' build-up

Russia has reportedly deployed more than 127,000 troops and "almost completed" its build-up, Ukraine has said, raising fears of an imminent invasion of the eastern European country.

The assessment said the current situation in the region is "difficult" and added that it believes Moscow is "trying to split and weaken the European Union and NATO".

Ukraine's assessment also said that Russia was using its ally Belarus to "expand aggression" against Kiev.

*) Israel demolishes Palestinian home in Sheikh Jarrah

Israeli police have destroyed the home of a Palestinian family in the sensitive occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

Before dawn, Israeli officers went to the home of the Salhiya family, according to a video posted online by the police on Wednesday.

Israeli police had created a barrier around the Salhiya home, blockading dozens of Palestinians on the inside before the demolition, according to local sources.

*) EU condemns violence against anti-coup protesters in Sudan

The European Union’s foreign policy chief has said Sudan’s military rulers have shown an unwillingness to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the country's ongoing crisis.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday that repeated calls for Sudanese authorities to refrain from violence against protesters “have fallen on deaf ears”.

His statement comes a day after security forces opened fire on anti-coup protesters in the capital, killing at least seven people.

*) Houthi general among civilians killed in Saudi-led strikes in Yemen

The Saudi-led coalition has killed nearly two dozen people in air strikes on Yemen's rebel-held capital after an attack by Houthi rebels on the United Arab Emirates sent regional tensions soaring.

Coalition strikes around the city killed a total of about 20 people, said the deputy foreign minister for the Houthi administration, which holds much of northern Yemen.

Among those killed in coalition air strikes was a high-ranking Houthi military official, including his wife and son.

And finally …

*) Arabic oud icon seeks to 'change soul' of Iraq with music

Long uprooted from his native Iraq, Naseer Shamma, an icon of the Arabic oud, returned home to help rekindle the flame of Iraqi music, snuffed out by decades of conflict.

"When you are in your own country, you feel very high emotions with the audience," the master string player said.

"Now we're playing to help education. My new project is called 'education first'. We need to help Iraqi schools," Shamma added.

*) Sudan anti-coup rally turns deadly as security forces fire 'live bullets'

Sudanese security forces have killed seven protesters among thousands rallying against last year's military coup.

Three protesters "were killed by live bullets" by "militias of the putschist military council," anti-coup medics said on the Facebook page of Khartoum state's Health Ministry.

The independent Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said four more demonstrators were killed "during a massacre by the coup authorities who were seeking to disperse the protests."

*) China calls for end to 'Cold-War mentality' in veiled swipe at US

Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned that confrontation between major powers could have "catastrophic consequences" in a speech to world leaders at an all-virtual Davos forum.

He presented himself as the defender of multilateralism and also gave sober warnings for the future as relations between major powers plunge.

"Our world today is far from the tranquil, rhetoric that stokes hatred and prejudice abound," he said, according to an official translation of the speech which was streamed online.

*) Turkiye hands over hundreds of housing units for Albania quake victims

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has handed over more than 500 housing units a Turkish agency built for earthquake victims in Albania.

"We are crowning the friendship between Turkiye and Albania with the handover of these houses," Erdogan said.

A total of 522 housing units, worth about $48 million, have been built for the northwestern town of Lac, which was struck by a deadly quake in November 2019.

*) Winter storm halts motorists, grounds planes in US and Canada

A major winter storm has blanketed a swathe of North America in snow as it sliced up the US east coast into Canada, disrupting travel and cutting power to thousands of homes.

About 120,000 American customers were without power, with the largest concentration in the mid-Atlantic state of West Virginia and North and South Carolina and Georgia.

Large parts of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario remained under winter storm or blizzard warnings, according to a Canadian government website.

*) Lewandowski wins FIFA best player vote ahead of Messi and Salah

Robert Lewandowski was voted the best men’s player in the world, retaining the FIFA award he won last year despite being left off the ballot paper filed by runner-up Lionel Messi.

The Bayern Munich forward overturned the result last month of the Ballon d’Or prize where he placed second behind Messi. Mohamed Salah of Liverpool placed third.

“I am very honored to win this trophy,” Lewandowski said on a video link from Munich. The trophy was presented by club officials during the online ceremony hosted at FIFA headquarters in Zurich.

*) US accuses Russia of ‘preparing sabotage’ to justify Ukraine invasion

The United States accused Russia of sending saboteurs trained in explosives to stage a pretext to invade Ukraine, where government websites were knocked out in a cyber attack linked to Moscow.

The allegations and incident mark a new escalation in tensions over Ukraine, just after a week of talks between the West and Russia that sought a diplomatic solution.

Detailing intelligence findings, the White House said that Russia was "laying the groundwork to have the option of fabricating a pretext for invasion" by blaming Ukraine.

*) Military flights assess damage from Pacific volcano

New Zealand and Australia sent military surveillance flights to Tonga to assess the damage caused by a huge undersea volcanic eruption in the Pacific island nation.

A towering ash cloud had prevented earlier flights. New Zealand hopes to send essential supplies, including much-needed drinking water, on a military transport plane.

Communications with Tonga remained extremely limited. Underwater communications cables were likely severed in the eruption and repairs could take weeks.

​​​*) Lebanon slams Israeli media reports of gas deal as 'completely untrue'

The Lebanese government denied media reports about an agreement to be supplied with gas from Israel.

Israeli media reported the country had reached an agreement with the United States to supply Lebanon with gas.

However, the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water described the Israeli media report in a statement as “totally and completely untrue."

*) Sudanese doctors protest attacks by security forces in anti-coup rallies

Sudanese doctors protested against violent attacks by security forces targeting medical personnel during pro-democracy rallies following last year's military coup.

"During every protest they fire tear gas inside the hospital where I work," one doctor, Houda Ahmad, said at the rally in Khartoum.

"They even attack us inside the intensive care unit," she added at the rally, where medical personnel carried pictures of colleagues they said had been killed.

*) Prince's estate valued over $156 million after six-year legal tussle

The six-year legal battle over pop superstar Prince’s estate has ended, meaning the process of distributing the artist's wealth could begin next month.

The Internal Revenue Service and the estate’s administrator agreed to value Prince's estate over $156 million, a figure that the artist's heirs have also accepted.

The valuation dwarfs the estate’s administrator’s earlier $82.3 million appraisal. The Internal Revenue Service in 2020 had valued the estate at $163.2 million.

Prince, who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2016, did not leave a will.

*) Russia considering sending troops to Latin America if tensions with West rise

Russia has raised the stakes in its dispute with the West over Ukraine and NATO expansion after a top diplomat refused to rule out a military deployment to Latin America if tensions with the United States and its allies escalate.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said he could "neither confirm nor exclude" the possibility of Russia sending military assets to Cuba and Venezuela.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan dismissed the statements about a possible Russian deployment to Latin America as "bluster in the public commentary".

*) US arrests far-right militia chief for role in Capitol invasion

Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, has been arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy in the attack on the US Capitol.

10 other people were also charged in connection with the attack on January 6, 2021, when members of the extremist group raided Washington to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.

These are the first charges of seditious conspiracy that the US Department of Justice has brought in connection with the attack led by supporters of former president Donald Trump.

​​​*) UN calls for release of Afghanistan funds to avoid destitution

The United Nations has urged the United States and the World Bank to unfreeze Afghan funds, locked since the Taliban's return to power.

"We must ... rapidly inject liquidity into the economy and avoid a meltdown that would lead to poverty, hunger and destitution for millions," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

He called on Washington to take the lead in helping the country avoid a collapse "because the major part of the world financial system works in dollars".

Washington seized nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank also suspended activities in the country.

*) North Korean hackers stole $400m in cryptocurrency in 2021

North Korea launched at least seven attacks on cryptocurrency platforms that extracted nearly $400 million worth of digital assets last year, blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis reported.

"From 2020 to 2021, the number of North Korean-linked hacks jumped from four to seven, and the value extracted from these hacks grew by 40 percent," the report read.

Pyongyang was accused of using stolen funds to support its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes to circumvent sanctions by a United Nations panel of experts.

North Korea does not respond to media inquiries, but has previously released statements denying allegations of hacking.

And finally …

*) Queen Elizabeth strips Prince Andrew of military roles and HRH title

Queen Elizabeth II's second son Prince Andrew, often called the Queen's "favourite son", has been effectively stripped of his position in royal life as he faces a US civil case for sexual assault.

He will no longer use the "His Royal Highness" title, which designates senior members of the royal family, in any capacity.

Andrew faces a US civil case for sexual assault brought by Virginia Giuffre who said he sexually assaulted her in 2001 when she was 17. She said she was delivered to Andrew by Jeffrey Epstein

Andrew strenuously denies the allegation, claiming to have no memory of meeting Giuffre.