JAKARTA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway (HSR), the first of its kind in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, has set a target to serve 31,000 passengers per day throughout this year, said PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China (KCIC), a joint venture consortium between Indonesian and Chinese state-owned firms that constructs and runs the HSR.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Ukraine is locked in an existential battle for its survival almost two years into its war with Russia and Western armies and political leaders must drastically change the way they help it fend off invading forces, a top NATO military officer said on Wednesday.

At a meeting of the 31-nation alliance’s top brass, the chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, also said that behind President Vladimir Putin’s rationale for the war is a fear of democracy, in a year marked by elections around the world.

SANAA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- A landmine killed a boy in Hodeidah province, western Yemen, on Wednesday, local authorities said.

The boy stepped on the explosive device in Al-Zaafran village, in the southern part of the war-torn province on the Red Sea coast.

Landmines and other explosive devices have killed or injured thousands of civilians, especially children, in Yemen since the conflict began in late 2014, when the Houthis ousted the internationally-recognized government from the capital Sanaa.

TEHRAN, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani said Wednesday that the country's armed forces will not set limits when defending the nation's interests and people, after launching missile strikes on targets in Syria and Iraq.

"We see no limit when it comes to defending our national interests and people," and Iran's reaction to threats will be "proportionate, decisive and harsh," the official IRNA news agency cited him as saying.

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated the need for a “pathway to a Palestinian state” during a talk Wednesday at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, saying Israel would not “get genuine security absent that.”

TOKYO, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Japan's automaker Daihatsu Motor Co. on Wednesday said it plans to recall two mini-vehicles with a door defect.

The recall, which would potentially involve about 320,000 units, was announced a day after Japan's transport ministry instructed the company to consider recalling the Cast model sold under the Daihatsu brand and the Pixis Joy sold under the marque of its parent Toyota Motor Corp. following the scandal that the company had rigged safety tests for most of its models.

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces a test of his authority and his nerve on Wednesday as he tries to subdue a Conservative Party rebellion and win parliamentary approval for his stalled plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Multiple U.S. media outlets on Monday night projected former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is the front-runner in the Republican presidential race, will win the 2024 Iowa Republican caucuses.

CBS News, NBC News, the Associated Press, Fox News and CNN, among others, made the projection just a little over half an hour after Iowa caucuses had opened for first vote in the 2024 White House race.

MOSCOW, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Ukraine's statehood could suffer an "irreparable blow" if the pattern of the war continued, and Russia would never be forced to abandon the gains it had made.

Putin made his televised comments a day after Switzerland agreed to host a global summit at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Putin dismissed "so-called peace formulas" being discussed in the West and Ukraine and what he called the "prohibitive demands" they entailed.

NEW YORK (AP) — After a big victory in the Iowa caucus, former President Donald Trump is expected in court Tuesday to face another legal challenge: a trial to determine how much more he owes the writer E. Jean Carroll for denying that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and accusing her of lying about her claims.

Jury selection begins Tuesday morning at a federal court in Manhattan. Opening arguments could take place by afternoon in what is essentially a second penalty phase of a legal fight Carroll has already won.

Iowa (AP) —Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination on Monday and endorsed former President Donald Trump after finishing a distant fourth in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses.

Ramaswamy said he made the decision after determining there was no path forward for him in the race, “absent things that we don’t want to see happen in this country.”

WASHINGTON, January 16. /TASS/: European Union countries are less than thrilled about the prospect of ex-US President Donald Trump returning to the White House following the upcoming presidential election, Bloomberg reports.