World News Roundup: US links Indian official to murder plot that India calls 'contrary to policy'; COP28 opens with plea to work together on fossil fuels and more

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Nikhil Gupta, 52, worked with the Indian government employee, whose responsibilities included security and intelligence, on the plot to assassinate the New York City resident who advocated for a sovereign Sikh state in northern India. COP28 opens with plea to work together on fossil fuels The incoming COP28 president, Sultan al-Jaber, opened this year's U.N. climate summit on Thursday by urging countries and fossil fuel companies to work together to meet global climate goals.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

US links Indian official to murder plot that India calls 'contrary to policy'

An Indian government official directed an unsuccessful plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist on U.S. soil, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday, in announcing charges against a man accused of orchestrating the attempted murder. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Nikhil Gupta, 52, worked with the Indian government employee, whose responsibilities included security and intelligence, on the plot to assassinate the New York City resident who advocated for a sovereign Sikh state in northern India.

COP28 opens with plea to work together on fossil fuels

The incoming COP28 president, Sultan al-Jaber, opened this year's U.N. climate summit on Thursday by urging countries and fossil fuel companies to work together to meet global climate goals. Governments are preparing for marathon negotiations on whether to agree, for the first time, to phase out the world's use of CO2-emitting coal, oil and gas, the main source of warming emissions.

Israel, Hamas extend Gaza truce by one day in last-minute deal

Israel and Hamas struck a last-minute agreement on Thursday to extend their ceasefire for a seventh day, while mediators pressed on with talks to extend the truce further to free more hostages and let aid reach Gaza. The truce has let some humanitarian aid into Gaza after much of the coastal territory of 2.3 million people was reduced to wasteland by seven weeks of Israeli bombardment in retaliation for a deadly rampage by Hamas militants on Oct. 7.

Shane MacGowan, hard-drinking poet of The Pogues, dies at 65

Shane MacGowan, the London-Irish punk who transformed Irish traditional music with The Pogues and penned some of the 1980s most haunting ballads before sinking into alcohol and drug addiction, died on Thursday. He was 65. MacGowan brought Irish traditional music to a huge new audience in the late 1980s by splicing it with punk, and achieved mainstream success with his bittersweet, expletive-strewn 1987 Christmas anthem "Fairytale of New York".

North Korea says it will not negotiate sovereignty with 'double-faced' US

North Korea said it would never negotiate its sovereignty with the United States, criticising Washington as "double-faced" for offering talks while ramping up military activities in the region, state media KCNA reported on Thursday.

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a senior official, said the United States showed "extreme double standards" at this week's meeting of the U.N. Security Council over North Korea's recent launch of its first spy satellite.

Russian missile strikes kills one, wounds 10 in east Ukraine, Kyiv says

One person was killed, 10 were wounded and four appeared to be trapped under rubble following overnight Russian missile attacks in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian interior minister Ihor Klymenko and regional officials said on Thursday. Russia fired six missiles at three settlements in the region, most of which is occupied by Russian forces, Klymenko said on Telegram messaging app.

In Gaza, call to prayer rings out from bombarded mosque

Balanced on a steep slab of fissured concrete with rods of twisted metal poking out and the remnants of a dome slanted at a 45-degree angle behind him, a young muezzin in a baseball cap called Muslims to prayer from atop a bombarded mosque in Gaza. The minaret, where the muezzin would usually stand, was still upright but appeared precarious, with a chunk missing from the balustrade at the top and the base resting on the jumbled ruin of the Al-Touba Mosque in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

'Let us be a lesson', say Kazakhs wary of return to nuclear testing

As Russia warns of the rising risk of nuclear war, and relations with the United States sink into a deep freeze, communities close to the vast Soviet-era nuclear testing site in northern Kazakhstan have a message for leaders: "Let us be a lesson." Hundreds of tests were carried out between 1949 and 1989 on the barren steppe near the city of Semey, formerly known as Semipalatinsk, close to the Kazakh-Russian border. The effect of radiation had a devastating impact on the environment and local people's health, and continues to affect lives there today.

Henry Kissinger, American diplomat and Nobel winner, dead at 100

Henry Kissinger, a diplomatic powerhouse whose roles as a national security adviser and secretary of state under two presidents left an indelible mark on U.S. foreign policy and earned him a controversial Nobel Peace Prize, died on Wednesday at age 100. Kissinger died at his home in Connecticut, according to a statement from his geopolitical consulting firm, Kissinger Associates Inc. No mention was made of the circumstances.

Democrats have no Biden backup plan for 2024, despite age concerns

The Democratic Party has no Plan B if President Joe Biden decided for any reason to halt his 2024 re-election campaign, and a sudden need to replace him as its standard-bearer would spark a messy intraparty battle. Despite weak poll numbers and questions, including from some Democrats, about his age, Biden has stuck to his plan to seek a second term after clearing the field of serious Democratic primary challengers when he announced in April that he was running again.