KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s recent escalation of missile and drone attacks is stretching Ukraine’s air defense resources, a Ukrainian air force official said Tuesday, leaving the country vulnerable in the 22-month war unless it can secure further weapons supplies.

“Intense Russian air attacks force us to use a corresponding amount of air defense means,” air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat told national television. “That’s why we need more of them, as Russia keeps increasing its (air) attack capabilities.”

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: Three civilians have been injured as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack on fuel and energy sector facilities in Orel, governor of the Orel Region Andrey Klychkov said.

"During an attack of enemy unmanned aerial vehicles on fuel and energy sector facilities in the Orel Region, three people were hurt. They are receiving necessary assistance," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Two of these three refused to be taken to hospital.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — At least three people were hospitalized after mistakenly eating colorful pods of liquid laundry detergent that were distributed as a campaign freebie in Taiwan’s presidential race, according to Taiwanese media reports.

One of the victims said she thought the pods were candy, the Central News Agency reported.

MANILA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said on Tuesday her country is ready to work with other Southeast Asian nations to finalise a long-delayed code of conduct for the South China Sea, where many of its neighbours have overlapping claims with China.

PARIS, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Gabriel Attal promised to be bold and act fast to help the middle class weather the rising cost of living, after President Emmanuel Macron, seeking to breathe new life into his second term, on Tuesday made him France's youngest ever prime minister.

The appointment of Attal, 34, a popular and media-savvy rising star of French politics, signals a desire by Macron to move beyond divisive reforms and improve his centrist party's chances in European Parliament elections in June.

JERUSALEM, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz confirmed on Monday evening that Israel was behind the assassination of an elite Hezbollah commander, Wissam Hassan Tawil, in Lebanon, reported Israeli media.

"Regarding the elimination in southern Lebanon, we took responsibility for it," Katz said, cited by Israel's Ynet news website. The minister said the killing was part of the ongoing conflicts on the Israel-Lebanon border.

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: World Health Organization representative Melita Vujnovic, who wraps up her mission to Russia, believes that the world will become better in 2024, and diplomacy will prevail.

"I hope that the world will become better in 2024. I am an irredeemable optimist. And I hope that diplomacy will once again be able to speak louder than something else," she told TASS.

She added that not everything depends on Russia in this business, but admitted that the high standards of the Russian diplomacy make her optimistic.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday set a mid-March special election date to fill the U.S. House seat vacated by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

In a statement, Newsom set the March 19 primary date for the 20th Congressional District contest. If no candidate wins a majority of the vote, the top two vote-getters would advance to a May 21 matchup to fill the seat.

QUITO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa on Monday declared a state of emergency for 60 days a day after the country's most-wanted prisoner disappeared from the jail where he was being held.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

The state of emergency and surrounding events are among the first big security tests for Noboa, a young businessman who took office in November promising to crack down on soaring levels of violence in the South American country.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Federal investigators say a door panel slid up before flying off an Alaska Airlines jetliner last week, and they are looking at whether four bolts that were supposed to help hold the panel in place might have been missing when the plane took off.

The comments Monday from the National Transportation Safety Board came shortly after Alaska and United Airlines reported separately that they found loose parts in the panels — or door plugs — of some other Boeing 737 Max 9 jets.

OTTAWA, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- The first "impactful" winter storm of the year is expected to hit the Canadian capital Ottawa late Tuesday, following a record year of heat, wildfires, and flooding.

Environment Canada, the country's weather agency, said heavy snow associated with a major winter storm is to arrive on Tuesday afternoon and continue into Wednesday.

Snow will likely change to ice pellets or freezing rain on Tuesday night. Several hours of freezing rain are possible, particularly in the Ottawa Valley. Some locations may see 10 to 20 cm of snow, the agency said.

CARACAS, January 9. /TASS/: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro reaffirmed Venezuela’s historical territorial rights to Guyana Essequibo, the disputed border region controlled by neighboring Guyana, as he approved a plan for the South American country’s parliament to pass a law in the second reading for establishing Venezuela’s 24th state in the territory.