World News Roundup: Fighting between Hamas and Israel rages on, Palestinian death toll passes 22,000; Russia pounds Ukraine with missiles and drones, five dead and more

The Coast Guard said the collision involved one of its planes that was headed to Niigata airport on Japan's west coast to deliver aid to those caught up in a powerful earthquake that struck on New Year's Day, killing at least 48 people. Only 15% of Israelis want Netanyahu to keep job after Gaza war, poll finds Only 15% of Israelis want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stay in office after the war on Hamas in Gaza ends, though many more still support his strategy of crushing the militants in the Palestinian enclave, according to a poll published on Tuesday.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Russia pounds Ukraine with missiles and drones, five dead

Russia fired scores of missiles and drones at the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Tuesday, killing at least five civilians, wounding dozens and causing widespread damage, officials said. The third successive day of air strikes on Ukraine followed a warning by President Vladimir Putin on Monday that a Ukrainian air attack on the Russian city of Belgorod, which Moscow said killed 25 civilians, would "not go unpunished".

Fighting between Hamas and Israel rages on, Palestinian death toll passes 22,000

Israel said on Tuesday its troops had killed dozens of militants in the north of the Gaza Strip in the past day, while its aircraft and tanks stepped up strikes in the south of the Palestinian enclave. Residents said heavy fighting was also raging in central areas, citing shelling by Israeli tanks of parts of the Al-Bureij refugee camp.Some 207 Palestinians were killed and 338 were wounded in the past 24 hours, the Gaza health ministry said, bringing the total recorded Palestinian death toll to more than 22,000 in nearly three months of warfare in the Hamas-ruled enclave.

Myanmar's 'watermelons': Soldier on the outside, rebel inside

For about two years, says 24-year-old Yan, a former Myanmar police officer, he risked his life pretending to serve the military junta while secretly spying for the armed resistance. “I freed myself from unfair orders,” he told Reuters from a room in a town near the Myanmar border where he said he was taking refuge after fleeing the country in April. Yan declined to give his full name because of the threat to his life.

All passengers, crew escape blaze on Japan Airlines plane after Tokyo airport collision

All 379 passengers and crew of a Japan Airlines plane miraculously escaped from a fire following a collision with a Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo's Haneda airport on Tuesday, but five of the six crew of the coast guard plane were killed. The Coast Guard said the collision involved one of its planes that was headed to Niigata airport on Japan's west coast to deliver aid to those caught up in a powerful earthquake that struck on New Year's Day, killing at least 48 people.

Only 15% of Israelis want Netanyahu to keep job after Gaza war, poll finds

Only 15% of Israelis want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stay in office after the war on Hamas in Gaza ends, though many more still support his strategy of crushing the militants in the Palestinian enclave, according to a poll published on Tuesday. Netanyahu promised to crush Hamas after its Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 240 abducted to Gaza. Israeli forces have laid much of Gaza to waste in their nearly three-month retalitory offensive.

Explainer-What will happen to Oscar Pistorius when he is released from jail?

Former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius will be released from prison on Friday after he was granted parole nearly 11 years after killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Here is a look at what will happen to Pistorius after his release under South Africa's so-called restorative justice programme.

Hong Kong tycoon Lai pleads not guilty in national security trial

Hong Kong tycoon and pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in a landmark trial, where he is accused of endangering China's national security, as prosecutors laid out details of what they said was collusion with foreign forces. Lai, a leading critic of the Chinese Communist Party, faces two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces - including calling for sanctions against Hong Kong and Chinese officials - under a China-imposed national security law.

South Korea opposition chief stabbed in neck, in intensive care

South Korean opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck during a visit to the southern city of Busan on Tuesday and was airlifted to Seoul after receiving emergency treatment, party and emergency officials said. The suspect, wearing a paper crown with Lee's name on it, approached and asked for an autograph as Lee spoke among a throng of supporters and reporters. He then lunged forward and attacked him, video footage showed.

Japan quake toll nears 50 with many feared trapped in freezing cold

A powerful earthquake that hit Japan on New Year's Day killed at least 48 people, with rescue teams struggling in freezing temperatures on Tuesday to reach isolated areas where many people are feared trapped under toppled buildings. In Suzu, a coastal town of just over 5,000 households near the quake's epicentre, 90% of houses may have been destroyed, according to its mayor Masuhiro Izumiya.

Factbox-Bangladesh's tangles with Yunus, Nobel winner and microloan founder

A Bangladesh court has sentenced the country's only Nobel laureate, Mohammad Yunus, to six months in jail over labour law violations, a crime he says he did not commit, days ahead of a Jan. 7 general election boycotted by the main opposition party. Below is a summary of key facts in Yunus' tangles with the law in Bangladesh, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina often criticising the 83-year-old, who won the peace prize in 2006 for his work in making microloans accessible to the impoverished: