MOSCOW, Dec 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Russia has redirected its oil exports from Europe to China and India, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said, almost two years after Moscow was hit by Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict.

After President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries hit Russia with a slew of sanctions including a European Union embargo on its seaborne oil deliveries.

“We previously supplied a total of 40 to 45 percent of oil and oil products to Europe,” said Novak, who is in charge of energy policy.

MOSCOW, Dec 28 (Reuters) - A Soviet-era Antonov-24 aircraft carrying 30 passengers landed on a frozen river near an airport in Russia's far east on Thursday because of pilot error, transport prosecutors said.

The Polar Airlines An-24 landed safely on the Kolyma river near Zyryanka in the Yakutia region, the prosecutors said.

"According to preliminary information, the cause of the aviation incident was an error by the crew in piloting the aircraft," a spokesperson for the Eastern Siberian transport prosecutor said in a statement.

DAMASCUS, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- A fresh Israeli missile attack targeted the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus on Thursday night, triggering a response from the Syrian air defense system, reported the Syrian state-owned TV.

The Syrian army said in a statement that the "Israeli enemy" carried out an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, targeting some points in the southern region, without elaborating on the targeted sites.

It added that the Syrian air defense forces intercepted most of them, with losses limited to material damages.

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/: Growing traffic jams at crossings on the Russian-Lithuanian border, caused by Vilnius’ obstruction, ultimately stem from the inability of Lithuania and the EU to comply with existing agreements on the transit of goods, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary.

BANGKOK, Dec 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Floods in southern Thailand have killed at least six people and affected tens of thousands of households, authorities said.

The floods, which began on Dec 22, have hit more than 70,000 homes across the provinces of Satun, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, regional officials said.

Six people including an 89-year-old woman and a toddler were killed in Narathiwat, deputy provincial governor Preecha Nualnoi said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Thursday imposed sanctions on a group of money exchange services from Yemen and Turkey alleged to help provide funding to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who have been launching attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the southern Red Sea.

Included in the sanctions are the head of a financial intermediary in Sana’a, Yemen, along with three exchange houses in Yemen and Turkey. U.S. Treasury alleges that the people and firms helped transfer millions of dollars to the Houthis at the direction of sanctioned Iranian financial facilitator Sa’id al-Jamal.

(AP) --- A Pennsylvania man who was sentenced in secret for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot cooperated with authorities investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and an unrelated case, according to court documents unsealed this week.

The documents provide insight into the unusual secrecy in the case of Samuel Lazar, who had been released from federal custody in September after completing his sentence in his Capitol riot case. His case remained under seal even after his release, so there was no public record of a conviction or sentence.

DENVER (AP) — Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert announced Wednesday she is switching congressional districts, avoiding a likely rematch against a Democrat who has far outraised her and following an embarrassing moment of groping and vaping that shook even loyal supporters.

(AP) --- Michigan’s Supreme Court is keeping former President Donald Trump on the state’s primary election ballot.

The court said Wednesday it will not hear an appeal of a lower court’s ruling from groups seeking to keep Trump from appearing on the ballot.

It said in an order that the application by parties to appeal a Dec. 14 Michigan appeals court judgment was considered, but denied “because we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court.”

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday accepted new Georgia congressional and legislative voting districts that protect Republican partisan advantages, saying the creation of new majority-Black voting districts solved the illegal minority vote dilution that led him to order maps to be redrawn.

BOSTON (AP) — Workers in several New England states are looking forward to a bump up in the minimum wage in 2024 while advocates in Massachusetts are pushing a ballot question aimed at phasing out the state’s subminimum wage of $6.75 per hour for tipped workers.

In Rhode Island, the state’s current $13 minimum wage will jump by $1 to $14 an hour on Jan. 1. It is the next step in a phased-in increase that will reach $15 in 2025.

RAMAT GAN, Israel (AP) — Igor Tudoran spent just 12 hours inside the Gaza Strip before a missile slammed into his tank, leaving him with a life-altering injury.

“Already within the tank, I understood from the condition of my leg that I would lose it. But the question was how much of it will I lose,” he said, seated on a bed in the hospital where he has been treated since he was wounded last month.