PALESTINE: Twenty-one critically ill children were set to leave Gaza today in the first medical evacuation since Israel shut down the territory’s only border crossing for travellers in May.

Israel’s nearly nine-month war on Gaza has devastated its health sector and forced most hospitals to shut down.

Family members bid a tearful goodbye to the children as they and their escorts left the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis bound for the Kerem Shalom freight crossing with Israel. It was not clear where they would receive treatment.

SPAIN: Authorities have intercepted another submarine suspected of transporting drugs to Europe from South America and arrested four Colombian nationals who were crewing the vessel.

Police rescued the occupants after they had scuttled the 65-foot-long submarine 312 miles west of Cadiz on Tuesday as it headed for the mainland.

Due to the characteristics of the boat and the crew’s behaviour, authorities believed that it carried cocaine, the Civil Guard said in a statement on Wednesday.

SUDAN: United Nations human rights experts have accused the country’s warring parties of using food and starvation as a weapon, amid mounting warnings of imminent famine.

The 14-month war between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed more than 14,000 people and wounded 33,000, according to the world body’s Special Procedures, the largest body of independent human rights experts.

“The extent of hunger and displacement we see in Sudan tomorrow is unprecedented,” experts said.

MYANMAR: Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral today of a senior monk who was killed by soldiers in an incident that could undermine the junta’s relationship with the Buddhist clergy.

The body of 78-year-old Bhaddanta Munindarbhivamsa was carried on a vehicle through crowds from a temple in the city of Bago, where it had been kept for the past week for people to pay their respects.

His killing drew outrage, especially because the military government initially lied and blamed it on resistance fighters opposed to army rule.