1. Qatar-based satellite TV network Al Jazeera says 14 people have been killed in Israel’s overnight bombardment targeting areas near an evacuation zone in southern Gaza. Al Jazeera says that many of the victims of the Israeli strike outside the city of Khan Younis on Wednesday and Thursday were children.
2. Russia and Ukraine have conducted their largest exchange of prisoners of war since Russia’s invasion began in 2022. Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday that 230 people, including soldiers and six civilians, returned home. The Russian defense ministry said 248 military personnel returned to the country.
3. Officials in Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan say that 84 people have been confirmed dead after the magnitude 7.6 earthquake that struck on New Year’s Day. The cities of Wajima and Suzu accounted for the majority of the confirmed total. As of Thursday, 48 deaths had been reported in Wajima, and 23 in Suzu. A total of 305 people are reportedly injured in the prefecture.
日: 2024年1月4日
January 3, Wednesday, 2024
1. Japan Airlines officials are shedding light on the dramatic evacuation of a plane that collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft on Tuesday at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. They say all passengers and crew had escaped 18 minutes after landing. They say Flight 516 arrived from New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, landing on runway C at around 5:47 p.m. The officials say the aircraft collided with the Coast Guard plane immediately after landing, and caught fire. The plane stopped after traveling about one kilometer, and the people on board escaped from three emergency exits.
2. Japanese seismologists have estimated that a recent earthquake observed in Ishikawa Prefecture was almost as powerful as the mega quake that generated violent jolts and massive tsunami off eastern Japan in 2011. Monday’s quake shook Shika Town with the intensity of 7, the highest on Japan’s scale.
3. More than 60 people are confirmed dead in Monday’s devastating earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan. Tens of thousands are still without electricity. Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio says emergency teams are in a race against time to save lives.