World News Roundup: Taiwan slams Chinese balloons as safety threat, psychological warfare; Congo election commission cancels 82 candidates over fraud in December polls and more

In the early hours of Saturday, Rami, his wife and two of their sons were killed, along with other relatives, when a strike hit the apartment where they were staying in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Taiwan slams Chinese balloons as safety threat, psychological warfare Taiwan's defence ministry accused China on Saturday of threatening aviation safety and waging psychological warfare on the island's people with a recent spate of balloons spotted near or over the island, days before key Taiwanese elections.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Exclusive-US intelligence confirms Islamic State's Afghanistan branch behind Iran blasts -sources

Communications intercepts collected by the United States confirmed that Islamic State’s (ISIS) Afghanistan-based branch carried out twin bombings in Iran that killed nearly 100 people, two sources familiar with the intelligence told Reuters on Friday. "The intelligence is clear-cut and indisputable," one source said.

Congo election commission cancels 82 candidates over fraud in December polls

The Congolese election commission said it had cancelled votes cast for 82 out of 101,000 candidates in legislative and local polls held in December for their involvement in alleged fraud and other issues that disrupted the general election. Those struck off include contenders for national, provincial and municipal assemblies, the results of which are yet to be published amid the messy fallout from the Dec. 20 poll that threatens to further destabilise Democratic Republic of Congo, a top producer of cobalt and Africa's second-largest country.

Blinken meets Turkey's Erdogan as Gaza diplomacy tour begins

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was meeting the leaders of Turkey and Greece on Saturday at the start of a week-long trip aimed at calming tensions that have spiked across the Middle East since Israel's war with Hamas began in October. The Biden administration's most senior diplomat began in Istanbul, meeting Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan, a strong critic of Israel's military actions in Gaza, for talks.

Russia fires North Korean missiles at Ukraine for first time - Kyiv official

Russia has hit Ukraine with missiles supplied by North Korea for the first time during its invasion, a senior Kyiv official said on Friday, corroborating an earlier assertion by the U.S. White House. The statement on social media platform X came after the governor of the northeastern region of Kharkiv said that his region had been struck by missiles fired by Russia that were not Russian-made.

Japan earthquake death toll exceeds 100, with hundreds still missing

The confirmed death toll from the New Year's Day earthquake in Japan reached 110 on Saturday as a search for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings entered a sixth day. The magnitude 7.6 quake struck the west coast, destroying infrastructure and snapping power links to 22,000 homes in the Hokuriku region. Rain hampered efforts to sift the rubble for survivors as more than 30,000 evacuees awaited aid.

War, weather put ocean shippers on notice for rough seas in 2024

Recent hostilities in the Red Sea have thrown global shippers of vital goods for a loop - but it is hardly the only issue that big carriers are facing as 2024 kicks off. Giants like Maersk say the industry, which handles 90% of global trade, faces the possibility of significant disruptions, from ongoing wars to droughts affecting key routes like the Panama Canal. Complex vessel schedules are likely to be knocked out of sync for giant container ships, fuel tankers and other commodity haulers throughout the year.

Anti-racists slam blackface use in Spain's Epiphany parades

Anti-racism activists in Spain have called for a ban on the use of blackface seen in many of the country's traditional Epiphany celebrations. Rita Bosaho, the first Black woman in Spain's parliament, said the practice - part of annual Jan. 5 parades on the eve of Epiphany that depict the biblical Three Kings who brought gifts to Jesus - tarnish the memory of enslaved people and disempower Black children.

Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire across Lebanon border amid concern over Gaza war spillover

Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah group said on Saturday it had fired rockets at Israel and its arch-foe said it had struck a "terrorist cell" in retaliation, as top U.S. and EU diplomats visited the region to seek ways to halt spillover from the war. Shortly after rocket sirens sounded across northern Israel, the Israeli military said that "approximately 40 launches from Lebanon toward the area of Meron in northern Israel were identified".

Boy survives Gaza strike that kills family after futile search for tents

Fearful of Israeli air strikes on buildings, Rami Awad spent days looking for tents so that he could move his family to the relative safety of an outdoor camp in Rafah, southern Gaza, but he could not find any, according to his brother Mohammed Awad. In the early hours of Saturday, Rami, his wife and two of their sons were killed, along with other relatives, when a strike hit the apartment where they were staying in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Taiwan slams Chinese balloons as safety threat, psychological warfare

Taiwan's defence ministry accused China on Saturday of threatening aviation safety and waging psychological warfare on the island's people with a recent spate of balloons spotted near or over the island, days before key Taiwanese elections. The potential for China to use balloons for spying became a global issue in February when the United States shot down what it said was a Chinese surveillance balloon. China said the balloon was a civilian craft that accidentally drifted astray.

(With inputs from agencies.)