TEHRAN, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Wednesday that he and his accompanying delegation will not be able to take part in a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on the Israel-Palestine crisis in New York later in the day due to the delay in visa issuance of the U.S. government.

LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Former U.S. marine Paul Whelan has been attacked by another inmate in a Russian prison while serving a 16-year sentence on espionage charges, Russia's prison service said on Wednesday, after Whelan's brother publicised the incident.

Whelan, who denies spying on Russia, was punched in the face and forced to defend himself at a sewing workshop in a high security penal colony in Russia's Mordovia region southeast of Moscow, his brother Dave Whelan said in a statement.

ANKARA, November 29. /TASS/: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone down in history as the "butcher of Gaza," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

"Since October 7, our brothers and sisters in Gaza have been subjected to the most treacherous attacks in human history. Their mosques have been bombed. Their schools have been reduced to rubble. The refugee camps where they have sought shelter have been deliberately targeted. Netanyahu has went down in history as the butcher of Gaza," the Turkish president said in a speech to parliament.

28 November 2023; MEMO: Muhammad Nezzal, a Palestinian child released as part of a prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas, said some prisoners lost consciousness due to beatings by Israeli forces in prison, Anadolu Agency reports.

Nezzal, who was arrested three months ago in Kabatiye, affiliated with Jenin in the West Bank and placed under “administrative detention” for six months, spoke to Anadolu after being released in the fourth group of the agreement.

TEHRAN, Nov 29 (NNN-IRNA) – The Iranian Army has tracked and identified a U.S. aircraft carrier, in the Gulf of Aden and the Sea of Oman.

“The intelligence systems of the Navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), tracked and identified the aircraft carrier through the exchange of information, with the army’s naval forces and thanks to their complete dominance over the Strait of Hormuz,” it said.

TOKYO (AP) — A crew member who was recovered from the ocean after a U.S. military Osprey aircraft carrying eight people crashed Wednesday off southern Japan has been pronounced dead, coast guard officials said.

The cause of the crash and the status of the seven others on board were not immediately known, coast guard spokesperson Kazuo Ogawa said.

28 November 2023; MEMO: The number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in the Occupied West Bank since 7 October has exceeded the number of Palestinians killed in the last year, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Anadolu Agency reports.

It said,

"the army and settlers have since killed 242 Palestinians in the West Bank, including Occupied East Jerusalem"

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors says pretax earnings took a $1.1 billion hit this year due to a six-week strike by autoworkers, but the company expects to absorb increased labor costs and have enough left to buy back stock worth nearly one quarter of the company’s $44 billion market value.

The Detroit automaker on Wednesday said it would increase its dividend by one-third in January to 12 cents per share and buy back $10 billion worth of stock, with $6.8 billion being acquired immediately.

29 November 2023; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today that Israel must be held accountable in international courts for the war crimes it has committed in Gaza, Reuters has reported.

GENEVA, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Wednesday called for the international community to move towards a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, saying Jerusalem should serve as the capital of both states.

"It is long past time to move in a determined, irreversible way towards a two-state solution, on the basis of United Nations resolutions and international law," said Tatiana Valovaya, Director-General of the U.N. office in Geneva, delivering a speech authored by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

MOSCOW/HELSINKI, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Any decision by Finland to allow a "concentration" of troops on its border with Russia would be viewed by Moscow as a threat, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after Poland offered to send military advisers to help Helsinki police the frontier.

The head of the Polish National Security Bureau, Jacek Siewiera, said in a post on social media X late on Tuesday that Poland would send military advisers to its NATO ally Finland, in response to "an official request for allied support in the face of a hybrid attack on the Finnish border".

JERUSALEM (AP) — It has become an Israeli mantra throughout the latest war in Gaza: Hamas is ISIS.

Since the bloody Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that triggered the conflict, Israeli leaders and commanders have likened the Palestinian militant group to the Islamic State group in virtually every speech and public statement. They point to Hamas’ slaughter of hundreds of civilians and compare their mission to defeat Hamas to the U.S.-led campaign to defeat IS in Iraq and Syria.