Day: December 14, 2023

At least 16 people died and six more were seriously injured after a fiery 17-vehicle pile-up on a highway in Venezuela, the country’s fire chief Juan Gonzalez told AFP on Wednesday, Report informs, citing foreign media sources.

Israel has confirmed the death of two more people captured by Palestine’s radical Hamas movement

According to the official exchange rates of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan for today, the US dollar remained unchanged at 1.7000 manat, euro increased by 1.01% to 1.8527 manat, and the Russian ruble went up by 0.53% to 0.0190 manat.

The Senate of the US Congress approved the country’s draft defense budget for fiscal year 2024, worth record $886.3 billion, according to a live broadcast of the vote, Report informs via TASS.

The US welcomes the exchange of detained military personnel between Azerbaijan and Armenia

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is ready to support Azerbaijan in organizing COP29, Azernews reports, citing EBRD’s First Vice President Jürgen Rigterink telling at the meeting with Azerbaijan’s Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov in the United Kingdom.

Former IDP, Lachin resident Gulsum Valiyeva, who was sent to her homeland from the Garadagh district of Baku on 14 December, told local mass media in an interview that she is very happy to return to her native land and will soon visit the graves of her family members, Azernews reports.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, the top government spokesperson, submitted his letter of resignation on Thursday, as the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)’s funds scandal escalates, local media reported.

Matsuno, embroiled in the political fundraising scandal, is suspected of receiving more than 10 million yen (69,000 U.S. dollars) from kickbacks from fundraising events hosted by his party faction, Kyodo News said, citing investigative sources.

The LDP has recently been under heavy scrutiny amid accusations that its largest faction, namely Seiwaken, or the Seiwa policy study group previously led by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, failed to declare hundreds of millions of yen in fundraising events revenue in political funding reports, possibly pooling secret funds.

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ichiro Miyashita and Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Junji Suzuki, all of whom are members of the Abe faction, submitted their resignations earlier in the day, according to media reports.

The mass resignations leave the LDP in the very unusual situation of having no representatives from the party’s largest faction within the Cabinet, the report said

NPR News: 12-14-2023 1AM EST

How dangerous is Qatar-owned Al-Jazeera?

78% of Palestinians agree that killing civilians, women and children, is a war crime. 52% of Palestinians agree that taking civilians as prisoners of war is a war crime.

However, only 10% of Palestinians think that Hamas committed war… pic.twitter.com/zmAhhvM2J7

— George Deek (@GeorgeDeek) December 14, 2023