DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired their largest-ever barrage of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the Red Sea, forcing the United States and British navies to shoot down the projectiles in a major naval engagement, authorities said Wednesday. No damage was immediately reported.

DAMASCUS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Four children have been killed and eight others wounded by landmine explosions in Syria since the start of the year, a war monitor said Wednesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said three children were killed and six wounded by mines in government-held areas, while one was killed and two wounded in areas controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — X Corp., the owner of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has slashed its global trust and safety staff by 30% including an 80% reduction in the number of safety engineers since billionaire Elon Musk took over in 2022, Australia’s online safety watchdog said on Thursday.

Australia’s eSafety Commission, which describes itself as the world’s first government agency dedicated to keeping people safer online, released summaries of answers provided by X to questions about how its policies about hateful conduct were enforced.

BERLIN (AP) — The German government has approved the export of air-defense missiles to Saudi Arabia, underlining a softening of its hard line of recent years toward arms exports to the kingdom.

Government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit on Wednesday confirmed a report by news magazine Der Spiegel that Germany’s Security Council, made up of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and several other ministers, approved the export of 150 air-to-air missiles for the Iris-T air defense system at the end of 2023.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A storm packing high winds and heavy rain was sweeping through the Northeast early Wednesday, while wild winter weather elsewhere brought tornadoes and deadly accidents in the Midwest and South, flood threats in Florida and blizzards in the Northwest.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon and New York City officials evacuated nearly 2,000 migrants housed at a sprawling tent complex ahead of predicted wind speeds that could top 70 mph (112 kph) at times.

WASHINGTON/LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - U.S. and British naval forces shot down 21 drones and missiles fired by Yemen-based Houthis on Tuesday towards the southern Red Sea, the United States said, with Britain hinting at further measures to protect international shipping lanes.

British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said it was the largest attack in the area by the militants to date as the three-month-long war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza spills over into other parts of the Middle East.

BEIT RIMA, West Bank (AP) — Security camera video from a West Bank village shows a young man standing in a central square when he is suddenly shot and drops to the ground. Two others rushing to his aid are also hit, leaving a 17-year-old dead, moments before Israeli military jeeps roll in.

An Associated Press review of the video and interviews with the two wounded survivors showed Israeli soldiers opened fire on the three when they did not appear to pose a threat. One of the wounded Palestinians was shot a second time after he got up and tried to hop away.

MANILA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines and Indonesia on Wednesday agreed to strengthen energy cooperation to safeguard energy security.

Energy ministers of the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on energy cooperation at the presidential palace in Manila, where Indonesian President Joko Widodo was received by his Philippine counterpart Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos.

Widodo arrived in Manila on Tuesday night for a three-day official visit.

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — It was a day like any other at the TC Television studio in Ecuador, with its mid-afternoon newscast underway, when masked gunmen burst in, unleashing at least 15 minutes of threats and fear — all broadcast live.

First, a man with a pistol appeared in the middle of the public TV station’s live transmission, followed by a second man with a shotgun, then a third and more. With the show’s “After the News” title behind them, station employees were brought onto the set and ordered to lie down. Screams could be heard followed by the sound of gunshots.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Climate-altering pollution from greenhouse gases declined by nearly 2% in the United States in 2023, even as the economy expanded at a faster clip, a new report finds.

The decline, while “a step in the right direction,’' is far below the rate needed to meet President Joe Biden’s pledge to cut U.S. emissions in half by 2030, compared to 2005 levels, said a report Wednesday from the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm.

VIENTIANE, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Laos is willing to promote cooperation in various areas with China to build a high-quality Laos-China community with a shared future, said General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith on Wednesday.

The Lao leader made the remarks when meeting with Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee here.

DAR ES SALAAM, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The government of Tanzania on Tuesday thanked the Chinese government for dispatching medical teams to help improve healthcare for people in the East African country.

Over the last six decades, more than 1,500 members of the Chinese medical team have been dispatched to Tanzania, said Paschal Ruggajo, director of Curative Services in the Ministry of Health, stressing that they have saved the lives of more than 20 million Tanzanians suffering from complicated ailments and have helped address various technological gaps in local hospitals.