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ISTANBUL (AP) — Two gunmen took seven hostages at a factory owned by U.S. company Procter & Gamble in northwest Turkey on Thursday, according to media reports, apparently in protest of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Turkish media published an image of one of the purported suspects inside the factory, a man wearing what appeared to be a rudimentary explosives belt and holding a handgun.

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Private news agency DHA said the suspects entered the main building of the facility in Gebze in the province of Kocaeli, at around 3 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) and took seven members of the staff hostage.

It claimed the suspects’ actions were to highlight the loss of life in the Palestinian enclave. Some 27,000 have been killed in Israel’s military operation since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.

Ismet Zihni said his wife Suheyla was among the hostages. Speaking from near the factory, he told DHA that he had called her. "She answered ‘We’ve been taken hostage, we’re fine’ and she hung up," he said.

Police sealed off surrounding roads at the factory and were said to be trying to negotiate with the hostage-takers.

P&G’s head office in Cincinnati confirmed an ongoing incident. A spokesperson said: "The safety of P&G people and our partners is our top priority. Earlier today, we evacuated our Gebze facility and are working with local authorities to resolve an urgent security situation."

P&G Turkey employs 700 people at three sites in Istanbul and Kocaeli, according to the company’s website. It produces cleaning and hygiene brands such as Ariel washing powder and Oral B toothpaste.

Public feeling against Israel and its main ally the U.S. has risen in Turkey since the conflict began, with regular protests in support of the Palestinian people in major cities and calls for an immediate cease-fire.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been particularly outspoken, referring to Israeli "war crimes" and comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara issued a warning in November about demonstrations "critical of U.S. foreign policy" and calls for boycotts of U.S. businesses. The advice followed protests and attacks on outlets such as McDonald’s and Starbucks over the conflict in Gaza.

The photograph of the suspect carried in the Turkish media shows him with a black-and-white Arabic headscarf covering his face. He is standing next to a graffitied wall showing the Turkish and Palestinian flags with the slogan "The gates will open. Either musalla or death for Gaza." A musalla is an open prayer area for Muslims, usually used for funeral rites.

DHA also published a photograph of some of the hostages celebrating a birthday. It reported that the staff had brought a cake into work for one of their colleagues and the hostage-takers allowed them to celebrate.

PANAMA CITY (AP) — A Roman Catholic cardinal disappeared this week in western Panama near the border with Costa Rica and investigators are searching for the missing cleric, authorities announced Thursday.

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Prosecutors in the state of Chiriqui said they opened an investigation Wednesday, a day after Spanish Cardinal José Luis Lacunza was last seen. Lacunza, 79, is the bishop for the David archdiocese in Chiriqui.

The archdiocese confirmed in a statement that Lacunza had not been seen since Tuesday afternoon and said it had reported his disappearance to authorities.

Panama's interim attorney general, Javier Caraballo, told reporters in Panama City that investigators were travelling from the capital to Chiriqui to conduct interviews.

Lacunza is the only Catholic cardinal in Panama.

Moroccan authorities arrested 30 people this week in the city of Fes on multiple charges as part of a wide-ranging case involving blackmail, threats and trafficking of newborn babies.

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The North African country's state-run news agency, MAP, reported on Wednesday that the suspects — including law enforcement agents, doctors, nurses and other health professionals — were arrested earlier this week. They are accused of working with unwed mothers to sell babies to families wishing to adopt.

Their scheme, the report said, also involved blackmail, fraud and theft of medications that are not sold without a prescription. Some suspects are accused of helping facilitate abortions, which are illegal outside of emergencies in Morocco.

Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen on Thursday launched three separate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. 

Around 5 a.m., U.S. Central Command forces shot down a drone over the Gulf of Aden. There were no injuries. 

Later Thursday, CENTCOM forces destroyed a Houthi explosive uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) in the Red Sea. U.S. forces identified the USV heading toward the international shipping lane and determined it presented an "imminent threat" to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region, CENTCOM said. 

CENTCOM said the strike resulted in "significant secondary explosions." There were no injuries or damage reported. 

Later that afternoon, two anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen toward a Liberian-flagged, Bermuda-owned cargo ship. The missiles landed in the water without hitting the ship. There were no injuries or damage reported to the vessel. 

Iran-backed Houthi militants, stationed in Yemen, have for months been firing upon commercial vessels passing through the Red Sea. The militants say the attacks are in support of Palestinians killed in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Thursday represented the 42nd, 43rd, and 44th such attacks since November 19th.

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The latest strikes come just days after three U.S. soldiers were killed in Jordan. The Biden administration has blamed the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah. 

Earlier this month, two U.S. Navy SEALs, went missing during a mission in the Red Sea and have since been declared dead. 

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday it's time to further disable Iran-backed militias like the Houthis that have struck at U.S. forces and ships in the Middle East. He said the U.S. is preparing to take significant action in response to the soldiers’ deaths. 

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For days the U.S. has hinted strikes are imminent. The threat of retaliation for Sunday's deaths has driven some militant groups to say they were stopping hostilities. But the latest strikes by Houthi rebels cast doubt on those claims. 

"At this point, it's time to take away even more capability than we've taken in the past," Austin said Thursday in his first press conference since he was hospitalized on Jan. 1 due to complications from prostate cancer treatment.

Previous U.S. strikes have not deterred the attacks. Since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October, Iranian-backed militant groups have struck U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria at least 166 times with rockets, missiles, and one-way attack drones, drawing about a half-dozen U.S. counterstrikes on militant facilities in both countries. The U.S. military also has carried out airstrikes targeting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

While Iran has denied involvement, Austin said Thursday that "how much Iran knew or didn't know, we don't know. But it really doesn't matter because Iran sponsors these groups."

The Pentagon has the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower in the region, along with at least a half dozen other major U.S. warships, U.S. Air Force fighter jets and radar aircraft. It has already been regularly using those assets to conduct strikes and defend ships.

Police and student protesters clashed in the center of the Greek capital on Thursday after a demonstration against government plans to allow private universities.

Demonstrators in Athens attacked police cordons, set fire to trash dumpsters and threw stones at riot police near parliament and later during clashes along the capital’s narrow streets. Police responded with tear gas and made several arrests.

The center-right government wants to legalize privately-run universities in a bill that is due to go before parliament this month, arguing that the reform would prevent skilled people from leaving the country and make higher education more relevant to the labor market.

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But the plan has sparked several protests, including an ongoing campaign to occupy university buildings in protest, which has disrupted classes and forced some academic authorities to reschedule upcoming exams.

In the northern city of Thessaloniki late Thursday, police joined by officers from a special forces unit entered the grounds of the city's public university where protesters had occupied the principal's office.

The protesters left the building peacefully, but scuffles broke out between police and a crowd gathered outside.

Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has urged university administrators to seek police assistance to counter what he described as "illegal actions" by student protesters.

"It is as if 10 people got together and took a vote to rob the grocery store next door," he said in a radio interview earlier this week.

Opponents of the reforms argue that the changes would undermine state universities and ultimately limit access to higher education for people from low-income families.

The left-wing main opposition party, Syriza, said that the university bill would be a "tombstone" for public education, noting that Greece doesn't have any fee-paying public universities unlike many other European countries.

A smaller Socialist opposition party says that it's seeking stronger guarantees to ensure that the nonprofit status of the new universities comes with strong protections.

Protests were held Thursday in several Greek cities and more were planned for next week.

Austrian prosecutors are appealing a court's recent decision to move Josef Fritzl, dubbed the "monster of Amstetten," who held his daughter captive for 24 years and fathered seven of her children, to regular prison.

The decision came down last week, when a court ruled that Fritzl, 88, could be transferred from a psychiatric ward to a regular prison, reportedly marking the first step of his expected parole bid.

Ferdinand Schuster, a spokesperson for the state court in Krems, on Thursday confirmed via broadcaster ORF that a Vienna court will now have to decide whether Fritzl may be transferred to regular prison after prosecutors challenged last week's ruling, according to the Austria Press Agency.

Austrian law allows prisoners sentenced to life in prison to apply for parole after serving 15 years, which Fritzl will reach in March, since he was initially sentenced in 2009.

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"In summary, the court has come to the conclusion that it is indeed the case that he is no longer dangerous," Fritzl's lawyer, Astrid Wagner, told The Associated Press of the court's decision last week.

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Fritzl reportedly has dementia, and a psychiatric evaluation suggested that he does not pose any future threats to the public. Thursday's court decision overturned a 2022 ruling rejecting Fritzl's request to be moved to a regular prison. 

In 1984, Fritzl kidnapped his 18-year-old daughter, Elisabeth, and kept her locked in a sound-proof basement in their Amstetten home, where he fathered seven of her children over more than two decades.

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She was found in 2008 after 24 years of captivity and brutal abuse in the windowless basement. Elisabeth's mother was apparently oblivious to her daughter's captivity in her own home, according to Austrian authorities.

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When asked about her whereabouts, Fritzl would reportedly say she had run away. In 2008, authorities charged Fritzl with incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, enslavement and negligent homicide after he had killed one of the sons he had fathered with his captive daughter soon after the baby was born.

The court agreed to move Fritzl into a regular prison upon the condition that he undergo psychotherapy and psychiatric evaluations over a 10-year probation period, the Austria Press Agency reported.

In a 2009 statement, the St. Poelten provincial prosecutors’ office said that Fritzl had "forced Elisabeth into slave-like conditions . . . shut her away in the cellar and made her totally dependent on him, forcing her into sexual acts and treating her as if she was his own property," according to Reuters.

Prosecutors also alleged that Fritzl had threatened to kill Elisabeth and gas their children to death.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LONDON (AP) — Climate activist Greta Thunberg spoke defiantly about her mission outside court Thursday on the first day of her trial for refusing to leave a protest that blocked the entrance to a major oil and gas industry conference in London last year.

Thunberg, 21, was among more than two dozen protesters arrested on Oct. 17 after preventing access to a hotel during the Energy Intelligence Forum, attended by some of the industry’s top executives.

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"Even though we are the ones standing here ... climate, environmental and human rights activists all over the world are being prosecuted, sometimes convicted, and given legal penalties for acting in line with science," she said. "We must remember who the real enemy is. What are we defending? Who are our laws meant to protect?"

The Swedish environmentalist, who inspired a global youth movement demanding stronger efforts to fight climate change, and four other protesters are in the middle of a two-day trial in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on a charge of breaching a section of the Public Order Act that allows police to impose limits on public assemblies. She and four Fossil Free London protesters have pleaded not guilty.

Thunberg and other climate protesters have accused fossil fuel companies of deliberately slowing the global energy transition to renewables in order to make more profit. They also oppose the U.K. government’s recent approval of drilling for oil in the North Sea, off the coast of Scotland.

Thunberg sat in court in a black T-shirt and black pants, taking notes as a police officer testified about efforts to disperse demonstrators who had blocked several exits and entrances for hours outside the luxury InterContinental Hotel in central London.

"It seemed like a very deliberate attempt ... to prevent access to the hotel for most delegates and the guests," Superintendent Matthew Cox said. "People were really restricted from having access to the hotel."

Cox said protesters were lighting colorful flares and drummers were creating a deafening din outside the hotel as some demonstrators sat on the ground and others rappelled from the roof of the hotel. When officers began arresting people, other protesters quickly took their places, leading to a "perpetual cycle" that found police running out of officers to make arrests.

The protest had gone on for about five hours when police issued an order for demonstrators to move to an adjacent street, Cox said.

Thunberg was outside the front entrance of the hotel when she was given a final warning she would be arrested if she didn't comply, prosecutor Luke Staton said. She said she intended to stay where she was.

If convicted, the protesters could receive fines of up to 2,500 pounds ($3,170).

Outside the courthouse before the trial began, protesters held signs saying "Make Polluters Pay," and "Climate protest is not a crime."

Thunberg rose to prominence after staging weekly protests outside the Swedish Parliament starting in 2018.

Last summer, she was fined by a Swedish court for disobeying police and blocking traffic during an environmental protest at an oil facility. She had already been fined for the same offense previously in Sweden.

A Conservative lawmaker in Britain said Thursday he will step down when an election is called later this year because of abuse and death threats he says are linked to his support for Israel.

Mike Freer said an arson attack on his office in December was the "final straw."

He told the BBC that when people go into politics, "we kind of sign up for it, we take it on the chin. … But it’s not fair on our families."

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Freer represents the London constituency of Finchley and Golders Green, which has a large Jewish population.

Freer said he had received death threats from a group called Muslims Against Crusades and began wearing a stab-proof vest after learning his office had been staked out by Ali Harbi Ali, an Islamic State group supporter who stabbed Conservative lawmaker David Amess to death in 2021.

Amess was the second British lawmaker murdered in the past decade. Labour legislator Jo Cox was killed in 2016 by a far-right attacker.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson, Max Blain, said the abuse and threats aimed at Freer were "an attack on British democracy."

House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle urged lawmakers to set an example and "turn down the heat" of their often-fiery debates.

"People reflect how we treat each other, and that’s why I want us to have a nicer politics within the House," Hoyle told Sky News.

A man and a woman appeared in court on Thursday over an arson attack on Freer’s office. They are scheduled to stand trial later this year. Police say they are not treating it as a hate crime.

A Chinese father and his mistress have been executed by authorities in China after he threw his children out of a high-rise apartment window to their deaths in 2020, reports say. 

Zhang Bo, the father, and Ye Chengchen were found guilty of committing premeditated murder following a review of their case by the Supreme People’s Court, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper. 

It reported that the pair viewed the children as an obstacle to their relationship and staged an "accidental" fall in Chongqing in November 2020, resulting in the deaths of the two-year-old girl and one-year-old boy. 

The children fell from the 15th floor of a residential building in the city, according to the AFP. 

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The news agency reported that Ye had started an affair with Zhang and had been unaware at first that he was married and had children. 

She then encouraged him to kill the children, arguing that they would be a "burden on their future life together," the AFP quoted a statement from the Chongqing No. 5 Intermediate People's Court as saying. 

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The same court issued a death sentence for the pair in December 2021, which ultimately was carried out Wednesday following a series of appeals, according to China Daily. 

In its decision to uphold the death penalty, the Supreme People's Court ruled that the motive for the killings was despicable and deserving of a severe punishment. 

A Brazilian man who feasted on one of the most poisonous fishes in the world has died after spending five weeks in hospital fighting for his life, according to reports.

Magno Sergio Gomes, 46, and his friend ate a toxic pufferfish – known to be 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide – over Christmas after receiving the fish as a present, according to Newsflash via the New York Post. 

Gomes, a father of three, and his pal gutted the fish, removed its liver and then boiled it and ate it with lemon juice in Aracruz, Espirito Santa, in eastern Brazil.

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However, less than an hour later, both Magno and his friend fell seriously ill, his heartbroken sister Myrian Lopes told Newsflash, adding that her brother had never cleaned a pufferfish before.

"Magno started to feel numb in his mouth, then he went with his wife to the hospital, driving his car," Lopes said, according to Newsflash.

"When he got there, his mouth was even more numb, and he felt sick. Soon after, he had a cardiac arrest that lasted eight minutes."

Lopes said that Gomes was intubated and put on life support but never recovered. He died on Jan. 27. 

"The doctors told our family that he died from poisoning, which had quickly traveled to his head," Lopes said.

"Three days after being admitted, he had several seizures, which greatly affected his brain, leaving little chance of recovery."

Lopes said her brother's friend survived the ordeal but is having trouble with his legs. It was not clear if the friend was the same pal who gifted Gomes the pufferfish.

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Pufferfish are extremely dangerous to eat since they contain the deadly toxins tetrodotoxin (TTX) and/or saxitoxin, which can cause severe illness and death, according to the FDA.

"These are central nervous system toxins and are more deadly than cyanide," the FDA states on its website.

"Symptoms start within 20 minutes to two hours after eating the toxic fish. Initial symptoms include tingling of the lips and mouth, followed by dizziness, tingling in the extremities, problems with speaking, balance, muscle weakness and paralysis, vomiting, and diarrhea. In severe intoxications, death can result from respiratory paralysis."

The toxins are found in the livers, gonads, skin and intestines of pufferfish.

Pufferfish are considered the second most poisonous vertebrate in the world, after the golden poison frog. Pufferfish are also known as puffer, bok, blowfish, globefish, swellfish, balloonfish or sea squab, according to the FDA. 

Despite the dangers of eating pufferfish, they are considered a delicacy in Japan, where they are known as fugu. Expert Japanese fugu chefs learn to safely chop out parts of the fish that contain TTX. 

The fish is also popular in China and Korea.

Due to the potential health hazard, commercial importation of pufferfish into the U.S. is heavily restricted while personal importation is prohibited, according to the FDA.

There is enough TTX in one pufferfish to kill 30 humans. 

Gomes’ sister said she does not know where the fish her brother ingested came from, or whether it was caught or farmed, according to Newsflash. 

Brazil is reportedly home to 20 species of pufferfish. It is unclear what type of pufferfish Gomes ate.

A United Kingdom citizen was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to procure a high-powered microwave system and counter-drone system from the United States to Iran, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.

U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves said Saber Fakih, 48, conspired with Bader Fakih, 43, of Canada, Altaf Faquih, 72, of the United Arab Emirates, and Alireza Taghavi, 48, of Iran, to export and attempt to export an industrial microwave system (IMS) and counter-drone system to Iran.

"The potential military uses of the IMS could include high-power microwave-based directed-energy weapon systems. The counter-drone system, which has both commercial and military uses, can be used to stop, identify, redirect, land or take total control of a target unmanned aerial vehicle," the attorney’s office said.

Graves argued that Saber Fakih posed a significant risk to national security when he conspired to procure the systems to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. Graves also said his actions violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and Iranian Transactions and Sanctions regulations.

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After serving his prison sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich ordered Saber Fakih to serve three years of supervised release.

During the government’s investigation, it found Saber Fakih and his co-conspirators attempted to export the systems to Iran in 2017 and 2018. In a plea agreement. Saber Fakih admitted he was the primary liaison between the Iranian purchaser and the U.S.-based seller of the IMS.

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Saber Fakih also said he was instrumental in placing a bid with the Massachusetts vendor, overseeing an inspection of the machine, and corresponding with the vendor on Taghavi’s behalf. He also admitted to fully knowing it was ultimately destined for Iran, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

In connection with the same scheme, the U.S. separately charged a co-conspirator, Iranian national Jalal Rohollahnejad, 46, with smuggling, wire fraud and related offenses.

Rohollahnejad facilitated the sending of approximately $450,000 from Iran to the UAE, where Faquih was to then convert the sum into U.S. dollars. Faquih then wire transferred the money to Bader Fakih in Canada. Bader Fakih then transferred the money to the U.S.

Saber Fakih and Bader Fakih also conspired to purchase two counter-drone systems worth nearly $1 million from a Maryland-based company on behalf of Taghavi.

The U.S. issued an extradition request and Saber Fakih was arrested in the United Kingdom in February 2021.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, HSI’s Baltimore Field Office, and the Washington Field Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce. It is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice's National Security Division’s Counterespionage and Export Control Section.

Authorities searched for migrants missing off Puerto Rico’s northwest coast Thursday after a crowded boat capsized, killing at least two people.

Puerto Rico police said officers rescued 20 occupants of the boat that capsized Wednesday near the coastal town of Quebradillas. 

Two of them were hospitalized for unspecified reasons.

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It wasn’t immediately clear how many people the boat carried when it turned over or from where they departed, although the vast majority of migrants who try to reach Puerto Rico are from Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The number of people traveling to the U.S. territory from the Dominican Republic on rickety and crowded vessels has increased as Haiti struggles with a spike in gang violence and deepening poverty.

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Crossing the 92-mile Mona Passage, a strait between the island of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico is treacherous, with dozens of migrants reported drowned in recent years. , The Dominican Republic and Haiti share Hispaniola.

The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) revealed Thursday that the organization will likely shut down operations by the "end of February" if funding does not resume. 

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote in a post on X that "a number of donor countries suspended US$ 440 million worth of funding" for the group following allegations from Israel that some of its members were involved in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack that launched the war in Gaza. 

"If funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by end of February not only in Gaza but also across the region," Lazzarini said. 

"At the time the International Court of Justice calls for more humanitarian assistance, it is the time to reinforce not to weaken UNRWA," he added. "We are the largest aid organization in one of the most severe and complex humanitarian crises in the world." 

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The agency said in its own statement that "When presented with serious allegations by Israeli authorities that some UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October abhorrent attacks on Israel, UNRWA Commissioner-General took the decision to immediately terminate the appointment of these staff in the interest of the Agency and seized the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services in New York, which launched an investigation." 

"Full accountability and transparency are expected out of this process, should the allegations be substantiated," it declared. 

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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on member countries earlier this week to resume their funding to UNRWA. 

"While I understand their concerns – I was myself horrified by these accusations – I strongly appeal to the governments that have suspended their contributions to, at least, guarantee the continuity of UNRWA's operations," Guterres said in a statement on Sunday. 

"The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences. But the tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized. The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met," Guterres said. 

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report. 

An Australian toddler was rescued from inside a claw machine over the weekend after the boy took matters into his own hands and climbed through the prize chute to claim a stuffed toy.

The 3-year-old boy named Ethan got stuck inside a "Hello Kitty" claw machine on Saturday while out with his family at a shopping center in Capalaba, Queensland, police said.

Police bodycam footage shows Ethan sitting among the stuffed toys behind the glass of the machine.

Ethan’s father, Timothy Hopper, told reporters that he had turned to speak to his other children when in "a split second" the toddler had crawled into the machine, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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"I had zero chance to react to it, it was unbelievable how fast he climbed up there," Hopper said.

After the initial shock and learning Ethan wasn’t hurt, Hopper said his family found the ordeal amusing.

"But then reality sunk in – how am I going to get him out?" the father said. 

"I messaged my old man, and he asked me how many $2 coins I had, we can try and win him back," Hopper said. 

After calling the claw machine company, police arrived at the shopping center. 

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Officers had Ethan’s family direct the toddler to a back corner of the machine and cover his eyes so officers could smash the glass case.

After busting the glass, an officer plucked Ethan from the pile of stuffed animals and out of the machine to safety. 

"Don’t worry, Dad, I won't do it again," Ethan told his dad. 

The toddler, however, did not go home empty-handed. To mark the rescue, officers gave Ethan a stuffed koala dressed as a police officer, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

A South Korean judge convicted a man of murder Thursday for an unprovoked car-and-stabbing rampage that killed two people and injured 12 others in a city near Seoul last year.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for 23-year-old Choi Won-jong, who was arrested in August after he rammed his car into pedestrians in a bustling leisure district in Seongnam and then stepped out of the crashed vehicle and stabbed people at random at a nearby shopping mall. Two of the five people who were hit by the car died of their injuries, while nine others were treated for stab wounds.

Judge Kang Hyun-koo of the Suwon District Court’s Seongnam branch gave Choi a life prison sentence, rejecting defense lawyers’ appeal for leniency based on the defendant’s mental health problems.

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Choi had been diagnosed for schizoaffective disorder, which the court acknowledged fueled his delusional beliefs that he was being secretly watched by a gang of stalkers.

The court also ordered Choi to wear an electronic tracking device for 30 years, seeing him as a potential risk for committing similar crimes in the future. Under South Korean law, a person sentenced to life in prison becomes eligible for parole after 20 years.

The judge said Choi’s crime had damaging social consequences as it "created fear that anyone could become a target of a terror attack in a public place."

Choi was found guilty on charges of murder, attempted murder and also premediated murder. A day before the attacks, Choi rode the subway in Seongnam with concealed knives, with an aim to kill people who looked like stalkers to him, although he didn’t harm anyone that day, according to his actions described in the verdict.

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The court said Choi's mental health problems were not grounds for leniency given his adequate intelligence and communication skills, his history of refusing medication and the fact that, prior to the attacks, he had searched online for information on reduced punishments for criminal defendants with mental illnesses.

Choi has seven days to appeal his conviction and sentence.

His attacks came weeks after a knife-wielding man stabbed at least four pedestrians on a street in South Korea’s capital, killing one person. While the country tightly controls gun possession, there aren’t meaningful restrictions applying to knives.

Following the incident in Seongnam, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol increased the deployment of law enforcement officials in crowded areas and expanded the monitoring of social media and online message boards to detect threats.

Indonesia’s top security minister said Thursday that President Joko Widodo had accepted his resignation from the Cabinet before this month's election.

Mohammad Mahfud M.D. announced on Wednesday that he was resigning to focus on his vice presidential bid on Feb. 14. Mahfud is the running mate of former Central Java Gov. Ganjar Pranowo.

"Today I officially and respectfully submitted my resignation to the president," Mahfud said at a news conference after a meeting with Widodo. "Due to political developments, I had to focus on other duties and had to resign from the Cabinet."

HERE’S WHY INDONESIA IS MOVING ITS CAPITAL – AND WHY IT’S SO CONTROVERSIAL

Observers said that Mahfud resigned because he became increasingly uncomfortable as Pranowo criticized Widodo’s administration while campaigning.

Mahfud's resignation came amid speculation and reports in local media about other potential Cabinet resignations before the election. The vote is a three-way race between Pranowo, former Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, who is considered the frontrunner and picked the president's son as his running mate.

The election will determine who will succeed Widodo, who is serving his second and final term.

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"Mahfud’s resignation could be a provocation or trigger for other ministers to do the same thing," said Adi Prayitno, the executive director of Indonesian Political Parameters, one of Indonesia’s reputable opinion poll institutions.

The country’s Constitutional Court made an exception to the minimum age requirement of 40 for vice presidential candidates that allowed Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Widodo’s 36-year-old son to run. Later, the chief justice, who is Widodo’s brother-in-law, was removed by an ethics panel for failing to recuse himself and making last-minute changes to election candidacy requirements.

The ruling has been a subject of heated debate in Indonesia, and Raka’s candidacy is widely seen as implicit support from Widodo for Subianto’s third bid for the presidency. Subianto has vowed to continue the president’s development plan, in what experts view as an attempt to draw on Widodo’s popularity.

A U.S. official confirmed to Fox News Digital the drone that killed three American soldiers and injured more than 40 others at Tower 22 in Northeast Jordan on Sunday was manufactured by Iran.

While the attack was launched by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq, President Biden's administration had previously said that it ultimately holds Iran responsible for the incident. Reuters first reported that the U.S. found Iran made the drone itself, citing multiple officials.

The officials did not offer any details regarding the model of the drone beyond stating that it was Iranian-made. They said the U.S. was able to confirm the origin thanks to shrapnel recovered at the site of the attack.

The Iraqi group, Kata’ib Hezbollah, said on Tuesday that it is halting military operations under pressure from the Iraqi government and the group's backers in Iran.

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Kata'ib Hezbollah, which translates to "Brigades of the Party of God," is responsible for a large majority of the more than 160 attacks against U.S. forces operating in Iraq and Syria since mid-October.

IRAN SAYS CLAIMS IT IS LINKED TO JORDAN DRONE ATTACK, DEATHS OF US SOLDIERS ARE ‘BASELESS’

"We announce the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces — in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government," the group's leader, Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, said in a statement late Tuesday.

Nevertheless, Biden's administration says it has already decided on retaliatory measures to take against Iran and its proxy groups over the attack. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has declined to offer details about the form or timeline of the response, however.

34 AMERICAN SERVICE MEMBERS INJURED, 8 EVACUATED FROM JORDAN FOLLOWING ATTACK

Iran has likewise vowed to respond to any attack against it in kind.

Iran has long been known to support terrorist groups operating throughout the Middle East. In addition to the Iraqi group, Iran also supports Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, among others.

This is a developing story. Check back soon for updates.

The European Union needs to do more in Yemen to pressure the Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group to stop attacking merchant ships traveling in the Red Sea, according to Yemen's foreign minister.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak said Thursday that the 27-nation EU needs to increase pressure on the Houthis and said physical attacks on their forces or their facilities "won’t do enough."

"The EU has the wrong approach," Awad bin Mubarak told reporters ahead of a meeting with EU officials. "Just striking the Houthis won't do enough. We need mid and long-term solutions."

He added: "They need to exercise more pressure on the Houthis, such as by designating them as a terrorist group. Their argument is that if they adopt this, then it will worsen the humanitarian situation. But this approach didn't work. The Houthis are still blackmailing the international community and the humanitarian situation has not improved."

US TAKES ‘SELF-DEFENSE’ STRIKE AGAINST HOUTHI PROJECTILES POISED TO LAUNCH AT COMMERCIAL SHIP IN RED SEA

The EU intends to launch its own Red Sea naval mission by mid-February to defend ships traveling through the vital and robust trade route.

Yemen’s foreign minister also called for more EU support for building Yemeni institutions such as the coast guard and for additional humanitarian aid.

US STRIKES HOUTHI ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILE INSIDE YEMEN, OFFICIAL SAYS

"Houthis will never stop... They have the ideology that as a group they have a divine right (to rule) in Yemen," Awad bin Mubarak said, noting Europe and the U.S. lack a "clear path" to ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which has emboldened "all the extremists groups in our region."

Houthi militants have launched dozens of attacks, which include the use of drones and missiles, at various vessels traveling through Egypt's Suez Canal since November. The victims of such attacks include commercial vessels and U.S. military warships.

The attacks are in solidarity with the Palestinians being killed in Gaza, they have said.

The 27 countries in the EU are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Plastic jugs in hand, Joan Torrent takes a path into the woods in search of drinking water. He fills them at a natural spring and then hauls them back to his home in Gualba, a picturesque village near Barcelona that like many towns in Spain is bearing the worst of a record drought.

For Torrent, making this walk for water several times a week with the 2-gallon jugs is a minor inconvenience, but one that may become more common as Spain and the rest of the Mediterranean adapt to climate change.

"Gualba used to be full of springs. Now I think this is the only one left," Torrent, a 64-year-old retiree, said while making his way to the fountain connected to the spring. "I don't think we are aware of what is in store for all of us. ... People don’t want to hear about there being a lack of water."

SPAIN'S PRIME MINISTER SAYS DROUGHT HAS BECOME ONE OF COUNTRY'S LEADING CONCERNS

Officials in Spain’s northeast region of Catalonia declared a drought emergency on Thursday, with reservoirs that serve 6 million people, including the population of Barcelona, at under 16% of their capacity, a historic low.

The emergency, which takes effect on Friday, limits daily amounts of water allowed for residential and municipal purposes to 53 gallons per person. Catalonia’s water agency says the average resident uses 30 gallons a day at home.

"We are entering a new climate reality," Catalonia’s regional president Pere Aragonès said on announcing the emergency. "It is more than likely we will see more droughts that will be both more intense and more frequent."

However, Gualba and other small towns and villages across the Catalan countryside have been in crisis mode for months. So while Barcelona’s population has yet to feel the drought's impact beyond not being able to fill up private pools and wash cars, thousands living in small communities that depend on wells now running dry are experiencing difficulties getting water fit for consumption.

Gualba's name, according to local lore, means "white water" — for the streams flowing down from the Montseny Mountain overlooking the village. The village of some 1,500 residents has been without drinking water since December, when the local reservoir fell so low that water became undrinkable and only good for washing clothes and dishes.

Most residents have to drive to another town to buy bottled water.

"We have always had abundant water," said Jordi Esmaindia, deputy mayor of Gualba. "Nobody imagined we would be like this."

Spain has seen three years of below-average rainfall amid record high temperatures, and conditions are only expected to get worse thanks to climate change, which is predicted to heat up the Mediterranean area faster than other regions.

The reservoirs fed by the Ter and Llobregat rivers in northern Catalonia have fallen to 15.8% of their capacity, while their 10-year average is 70%. Only the Guadalete-Barbate river basin in southern Andalusia, which faces similar shortages and restrictions, is worse off, at 14.6%.

Barcelona has avoided water shortages thanks to boosting its costly desalination and water purifying systems, which now account for 55% of all water use in Catalonia. Even so, regional authorities in Barcelona and Sevilla, the seat of southern Andalusia, are both contemplating to have drinking water shipped in.

Catalan authorities in Barcelona are threatening to fine municipalities if their residents, farmers and businesses don’t meet the water restrictions. They are also urging them to raise water bills so they can pay to modernize pipes.

"Some municipalities lose 70-80% of their water through leaks," Catalan government official Laura Vilagrà told Spanish national radio RNE. "That is not sustainable."

Experts in water management fear the countryside will continue to suffer the most. The restrictions have slashed water for pigs and other herd animals to 50% and for crop irrigation by 80% — a big blow to the rural economy.

"It is telling that this drought makes headlines simply because it affects Barcelona … when we have villages in the Pyrenees that have endured water shortages and have needed to get water brought in by truck for several months," said Dante Maschio, spokesman for the Catalan non-profit Aigua és vida, or Water Is Life organization.

"If the drought is not managed correctly, it can lead to greater inequality and tension between cities and rural areas," Maschio said.

RECORD-BREAKING HEATWAVE, DROUGHT PLAGUE SPAIN, THREATENING ECOSYSTEMS AND AGRICULTURE

Many towns are having water brought by tanker trucks often at huge expense. The Catalan government has shared $4.3 million — of a total of $206 million dedicated to fighting the drought — among 213 municipalities to help pay for transporting water.

Still, some towns have to cut off the taps, like Espluga de Francolí, which shuts off the water supply daily from 8 p.m. until 10 a.m. to allow its wells to recover overnight.

Eva Martínez is mayor of Vallirana, a town of 15,000 just over half an hour west of Barcelona. For months now, her municipality has had periods when it has had to bring in water by trucks which park in neighborhoods for residents to fill up bottles and buckets.

"We understand that it is frustrating for citizens when we have problems with water and when we cannot provide water in the quantity and quality that is required," Martínez said. "We see that it does not rain. The situation is desperate."

Several thousand people from a Russia-friendly party protested in front of Moldova's parliament building on Thursday to demand the resignation of the pro-Western government.

The rally by the Revival Party against the governing Party of Action and Solidarity called for early elections and for President Maia Sandu to step down. Moldova is to hold presidential elections later this year and parliamentary elections in 2025.

The Revival Party currently holds four seats in Moldova’s 101-seat legislature in the country of about 2.5 million people.

MOLDOVA'S FOREIGN MINISTER RESIGNS AFTER ADVANCING COUNTRY TOWARD EUROPEAN UNION MEMBERSHIP

The demonstration is the latest in a series of anti-government protests held over the past 18 months, mostly by the Moscow-friendly Shor Party, which was declared unconstitutional last June by the Constitutional Court. Authorities accused the Shor Party — which held six seats in Parliament — of trying to destabilize the country.

Some senior members of the outlawed Shor Party took part in Thursday’s protest. Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor, the head of the Shor Party who resides in exile in Israel and was sentenced in absentia last year to 15 years in jail on fraud charges, also shared a video of the protest on his Facebook page.

The rally comes after Moldova’s Intelligence and Security Service, SIS, warned last month of fresh "disinformation and manipulation" campaigns to try to destabilize Moldova and undermine its relations with neighboring Ukraine and the European Union.

In June 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, former Soviet republic Moldova was granted official candidate status for EU membership. Those aspirations were further buoyed last December when Brussels said it would open accession negotiations for Moldova to the 27-nation bloc, alongside Ukraine.

"The frequency and extent of such demonstrations will increase during the years 2024-2025, targeting the reform processes, the electoral processes … but especially the process of negotiations for EU accession," SIS said in a statement last month.

Scores of people responded to the Revival Party’s protest on Thursday by holding a counter rally in Chisinau, where many waved EU flags and expressed support for Sandu.

MOLDOVA EXPELS 45 RUSSIAN DIPLOMATS FOR 'UNFRIENDLY ACTIONS,' 'ATTEMPTS TO DESTABILIZE' COUNTRY

Days before local elections last year, Moldovan authorities banned another pro-Russia party, the Chance Party, from taking part, which removed about 600 candidates from the ballot — a decision that was later overturned. Days before the election, SIS alleged that the party had received Russian money that was channeled by Shor and used to destabilize the country and "buy" voters.

Since the war in Ukraine started on Feb. 24, 2022, Moldova has faced a long string of problems including a severe energy crisis after Moscow dramatically reduced gas supplies, skyrocketing inflation, and several incidents of missile debris found on its territory from the war next door.

In February last year, President Sandu spoke publicly about an alleged plot by Moscow to overthrow Moldova’s government with the aim of putting the nation "at the disposal of Russia" and to derail it from joining the EU. Russia denied the accusations.