Reuters World News Summary

The United Nations' food agency on Thursday said the latest violence, which broke out in early February and has forced nearly 10,000 people to flee their homes in just 10 days, has prevented the agency from reaching over 370,000 people in the most urgent need of food. Gaza doctors measure children for malnutrition Medical workers held strips of plastic around the upper arms of small children in a Rafah tent, measuring the circumferences of their arms for signs of wasting flesh as a hunger crisis hits Gaza after months of Israel's military campaign there.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Israel raids main Gaza hospital as Rafah concerns grow

Israeli forces said on Thursday they had raided the biggest functioning hospital in Gaza as footage showed chaos, shouting and gunfire in dark corridors filled with dust and smoke. Israel's military called the raid on Nasser Hospital "precise and limited" and said it was based on information that Hamas militants were hiding and had kept hostages in the facility, with some bodies of captives possibly there.

Greece legalises same sex marriage in landmark change

Greece's parliament approved a bill allowing same-sex civil marriage on Thursday, a landmark victory for supporters of LGBT rights that was greeted with cheers by onlookers in parliament and dozens gathered on the streets of Athens. The law gives same-sex couples the right to wed and adopt children and comes after decades of campaigning by the LGBT community for marriage equality in the socially conservative country.

Analysis-Russia seen as highly unlikely to put a nuclear warhead in space

The space-based weapon U.S. intelligence believes Russia may be developing is more likely a nuclear-powered device to blind, jam or fry the electronics inside satellites than an explosive nuclear warhead to shoot them down, analysts said on Thursday. The intelligence came to light on Wednesday after Representative Mike Turner, Republican chair of the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee, issued an unusual statement warning of a "serious national security threat."

Madeleine McCann suspect to face trial on separate sex assault charges

The main suspect in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann goes on trial in Germany on Friday on separate charges relating to child sexual abuse crimes in Portugal. Christian Brueckner, who is already behind bars in Germany for raping a woman in the part of Portugal's Algarve region where McCann went missing, faces three charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse of children committed between 2000 and 2017.

Russia using thousands of SpaceX Starlink terminals in Ukraine, WSJ says

Russian troops in Ukraine are using thousands of Starlink satellite communications terminals made by Elon Musk's SpaceX, the Ukrainian military intelligence chief told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Thursday. Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov said that Russian troops have been communicating over the Starlink system "for quite a long time" and acquired the terminals from private Russian firms that purchased them from intermediaries.

Ukraine withdraws units from parts of Avdiivka, sends in crack brigade

Ukraine said on Thursday it was withdrawing troops from some parts of the eastern town of Avdiivka to better positions after months of heavy fighting, and battle-hardened reserve fighters from a crack brigade have joined the battle. Russia is trying to encircle and capture Avdiivka nearly two years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Kyiv's foothold in the town appears increasingly shaky, with its supply lines threatened.

Haiti gang wars block aid routes for most vulnerable, U.N. agency says

A recent spike of violence in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, is preventing the World Food Programme (WFP) from reaching hundreds of thousands of people in urgent need of supplies, as conflicts between armed gangs worsen an escalating humanitarian crisis. The United Nations' food agency on Thursday said the latest violence, which broke out in early February and has forced nearly 10,000 people to flee their homes in just 10 days, has prevented the agency from reaching over 370,000 people in the most urgent need of food.

Gaza doctors measure children for malnutrition

Medical workers held strips of plastic around the upper arms of small children in a Rafah tent, measuring the circumferences of their arms for signs of wasting flesh as a hunger crisis hits Gaza after months of Israel's military campaign there. One small girl of two and a half years had tiny arms, the skin already starting to hang loose after her weight plummeted from 11kg before the conflict to just 7kg now, said her mother Hana Tabash.

Hezbollah fires rockets at northern Israel in reprisal for deadly day

Hezbollah said on Thursday it fired dozens of rockets at a northern Israeli town in a "preliminary response" to the killing of 10 civilians in southern Lebanon, the deadliest day for Lebanese civilians in four months of cross-border hostilities. The United Nations urged a halt to what it called a "dangerous escalation" of the conflict, which has played out in parallel to the Gaza war and fuelled concerns of a wider confrontation between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.

Kansas City police link Super Bowl rally shooting to dispute, not extremism

A quarrel among several people sparked the shooting spree in Kansas City, Missouri, that killed a woman and wounded 22 people after a celebration of the city's NFL Super Bowl victory, police said on Thursday, ruling out any apparent link to extremism. Two minors and an adult have been detained as "subjects" in the investigation, Police Chief Stacey Graves said at a press conference, the day after gunfire erupted in the vicinity of the city's historic downtown rail station.

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