SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Hamas fighters likely fired North Korean weapons during their Oct. 7 assault on Israel, a militant video and weapons seized by Israel show, despite Pyongyang’s denials that it arms the militant group.

South Korean officials, two experts on North Korean arms and an Associated Press analysis of weapons captured on the battlefield by Israel point toward Hamas using Pyongyang’s F-7 rocket-propelled grenade, a shoulder-fired weapon that fighters typically use against armored vehicles.

ROME, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will become an honorary citizen of Rome by early next year following a vote this week by its local assembly, the city's former mayor Virginia Raggi said on Thursday.

Assange, 52, has been in London's high-security Belmarsh prison since 2019 and is wanted in the United States over the release of confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables in 2010.

His supporters see his prosecution as a politically motivated assault on journalism and free speech.

WOODBINE, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia deputy fatally shot a Black man at point-blank range during a traffic stop after the man, who had been wrongfully imprisoned years ago, grabbed the officer by the neck and was forcing his head backward, according to video released by a sheriff Wednesday.

MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — A 22-year-old driver was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after a crash in Malibu killed four college students and injured two other people, officials said Wednesday.

The six pedestrians were struck around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday along Pacific Coast Highway about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Pepperdine University, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Four women were pronounced dead at the scene and two others were taken to a hospital but there was no word Wednesday on their conditions.

GAZA/JERUSALEM, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops gathered at the Gaza border on Thursday that they will soon see the Palestinian enclave "from inside", suggesting an expected ground invasion with the aim of annihilating Hamas could be nearing.

Israel pounded Gaza with more air strikes following the Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas gunmen who killed 1,400 Israelis, as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak followed U.S. President Joe Biden with a visit to demonstrate Western support for the war against Hamas militants.

CAIRO, October 19. /TASS/: The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks since the beginning of another round of escalation has exceeded 3,700 people, with over 12,000 people injured, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

"A total of 3,785 killed and 12,493 injured in the continued Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip," the Ministry said.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A court in Amsterdam sentenced a Polish-Canadian national to two months in prison on Thursday for projecting a message alluding to an antisemitic conspiracy theory onto the Anne Frank House museum.

Robert Wilson was charged with insulting a group and inciting discrimination for using a laser projector in February to display the words “Ann (sic) Frank invented the ballpoint pen” on the side of the canal house where the Jewish teenager hid with her family during the Holocaust.

ROME, October 19. /TASS/: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi has noted a decrease in the number of attacks in the vicinity of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).

He noted that the IAEA is fulfilling a containing role, acknowledging, however, that it had failed to achieve the more ambitious goal of completely demilitarizing the area around the ZNPP.

GAZA, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- A senior female member of Hamas was killed on Thursday by an Israeli airstrike targeting her house in Gaza, Palestinian security sources said.

Hamas said in a press statement that Jameela Shanti, the only female member of the movement's political bureau, the highest-ranking body of the group, was killed during the intense Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian sources said 41 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, Khan Younis, and the central area of the Gaza Strip on Thursday.

ROME, Oct 19 (NNN-XINHUA) — Italy on Wednesday temporarily suspended the European Union’s Schengen rules for open travel, reactivating dormant border controls with Slovenia amid heightened tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

As of late Wednesday, some other European Union (EU) states also announced similar moves, due to concerns over extremist violence and migration.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A military base in southern Syria where U.S. troops have maintained a presence to train forces as part of a broad campaign against the Islamic State group was attacked by drones on Thursday, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

One drone was shot down, but another caused in minor injuries, said one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter before an official announcement about the incident.

VIENTIANE, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Delegates from ASEAN police forces met in the Lao capital Vientiane, vowing to continue their fight against transnational crimes as well as strengthen the relations between ASEAN police forces, dialogue partners and observer countries.

The pledge was made at a meeting of the heads of the ASEAN Police Delegation and negotiating partners, as part of the 41st ASEANAPOL Conference held in Vientiane on Tuesday, chaired by Lao Deputy Minister of Public Security Khamking Phouilamanivong.