World News Roundup: Japan earthquake: race against time to find survivors; Iran vows revenge after biggest attack since 1979 revolution and more

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Exclusive-Doomed Japan plane on third quake mission when runway disaster hit A Coast Guard plane was making its third emergency trip to an earthquake zone within 24 hours when it collided with a passenger jet at a very busy Haneda airport, a Coast Guard official told Reuters.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Exclusive-Doomed Japan plane on third quake mission when runway disaster hit

A Coast Guard plane was making its third emergency trip to an earthquake zone within 24 hours when it collided with a passenger jet at a very busy Haneda airport, a Coast Guard official told Reuters. The official declined to be named due to an ongoing investigation into the runway crash between the De Havilland Dash-8 turboprop and a Japan Airlines Airbus A350 passenger jet. Five of the six Coast Guard crew died but all 379 people on the JAL plane escaped.

Hundreds of motorists stuck in snow overnight in southern Sweden, Denmark

Rescue services on Thursday evacuated motorists from hundreds of cars stuck overnight on Swedish and Danish roads as heavy snowfall, strong winds and icy conditions led to big traffic jams. In Sweden, the military mobilised tracked vehicles to aid the evacuation and bring food and water to those who were stranded on a motorway in southern Sweden.

Gaza's child amputees face further risks without expert care

Eleven-year-old Noor's left leg was almost entirely torn off when her home in Jabalia, Gaza was hit by an explosion in October. Now her right leg, fitted with a heavy metal bar and four screws drilled into the bone, may have to be amputated. "It hurts me a lot ... I'm afraid that they'll have to cut off my other leg," she said from her hospital bed, staring at her clunky fixation device.

Exclusive-Russian hackers were inside Ukraine telecoms giant for months - cyber spy chief

Russian hackers were inside Ukrainian telecoms giant Kyivstar's system from at least May last year in a cyberattack that should serve as a "big warning" to the West, Ukraine's cyber spy chief told Reuters. The hack, one of the most dramatic since Russia's full-scale invasion nearly two years ago, knocked out services provided by Ukraine's biggest telecoms operator for some 24 million users for days from Dec. 12.

Israel focuses assault on southern Gaza amid concern over spread of war

Israeli shelling killed 14 Palestinians on Thursday in Khan Younis in a southern coastal area of the Gaza Strip packed with people who had fled attacks in other parts of the enclave, Gaza health ministry officials said. The dead included nine children, an official told Reuters.

In the ruins of a historic market, a Japanese artisan looks for his cats

Kohei Kirimoto, an 8th-generation lacquerware artisan, walked through the ruins of his century-old workshop in the Japanese coastal town of Wajima on Thursday, concerned only for his missing cats. The workship, renowned worldwide for its traditional lacquerware, lay in a smouldering heap following the New Year's Day earthquake and subsequent fire that engulfed it.

Egypt plans expansion of new capital as first residents trickle in

Egypt is preparing to spend billions doubling the size of a lavish new capital it is building in the desert 45 km (28 miles) east of Cairo, where the first residents are trickling in, the head of the company overseeing the project said. The city is the biggest of a series of mega-projects that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi says are needed for economic development and to accommodate a growing population of 105 million, but critics say divert resources and increase Egypt's debt burden.

Japan earthquake: race against time to find survivors

Thousands of rescuers pressed on in a search for survivors of a New Year's Day earthquake that killed at least 84 people in Japan, hoping to save as many as possible despite a three day survival window that ended on Thursday afternoon. "We must continue putting all of our efforts into rescuing people, even beyond 72 hours after the disaster," Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a news conference.

Israeli forces search house to house in West Bank city

Israeli forces searched houses in the Nour al-Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm on Thursday, detaining hundreds of people suspected of militant activities, the military said. Tulkarm, location of one of the main crossing points between the West Bank and Israel, has seen repeated raids by security forces since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.

Iran vows revenge after biggest attack since 1979 revolution

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber vowed revenge on Thursday for explosions that killed nearly 100 people at a ceremony to commemorate top commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. drone in 2020 in Iraq. "A very strong retaliation will be handed to them on the hands of the soldiers of Soleimani," Mokhber told reporters at a hospital were some of the wounded were receiving treatment for the bloodiest attack since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.