UKRAINE WAR: KYIV REJECTS PUTIN'S 'TRIVIAL' CHRISTMAS TRUCE

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his defence minister to impose a 36-hour ceasefire on the Ukrainian frontline, beginning on Friday.

The ceasefire, scheduled to start at 12:00 Moscow time (09:00 GMT), will coincide with the Russian Orthodox Christmas.

Mr Putin asked Ukraine to reciprocate, but Kyiv quickly rejected the request.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the truce was an attempt to stop his country's military advances.

The Kremlin statement appeared to stress that President Putin ordered his troops to stop fighting not because he was de-escalating - Putin never de-escalates - but because he had listened to an appeal from the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Patriarch Kirill had, earlier in the day, called for a Christmas truce to allow believers to attend church services for Orthodox Christmas.

The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas Day on 7 January, according to the Julian calendar.

A Kremlin statement said: "Taking into consideration the appeal by [Kirill], the president hereby instructs the minister of defence of the Russian Federation to impose a ceasefire regime along the entire line of contact in Ukraine" for the 36-hour period.

Mr Putin's order called on Ukraine to reciprocate so that the "large numbers of Orthodox believers [who] reside in areas where hostilities are taking place" could celebrate Christmas Eve on Friday and Christmas Day on Saturday.

But in his nightly video address, President Zelensky said that Russia wanted to use the truce as a cover to stop Ukrainian advances in the eastern Donbas region and bring in more men and equipment.

"What will that give them? Only yet another increase in their total losses," he added. Unusually he delivered this part of the address in Russian instead of Ukrainian.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Dmitro Kuleba, said Moscow repeatedly ignored President Zelensky's propositions for peace. He pointed to Russia's shelling of Kherson on 24 December and strikes on New Year's Eve as evidence of Moscow's inability to cease hostilities during religious holidays.

US President Joe Biden believes Mr Putin was simply "trying to find some oxygen"

IRAN PROTESTS CHARLIE HEBDO'S KHAMENEI CARTOONS

Following the publication of cartoons depicting Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted:

"The insulting and indecent act of a French publication in publishing cartoons against the religious and political authority will not go without an effective and decisive response. We will not allow the French government to go beyond its bounds. They have definitely chosen the wrong path."

Iran closed on Thursday a Tehran-based French research institute in protest against the cartoons, according to press agency AFP.

Reuters also reported that Iranian authorities summoned France's envoy in Tehran to protest against the cartoon.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran does not accept insulting its Islamic, religious, and national sanctities and values in any way," Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told the French envoy on Wednesday, according to state TV.

Reacting to the events in an interview with French news broadcaster LCI on Thursday, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna dismissed the Iranian demands, stating that freedom of the press rules in France and pointing out that Iran should first look at what is going on at home before criticizing French journalists.

CHINA DEFENDS ITS COVID RESPONSE AFTER CRITICISM

WHO, US, France, Germany Express Concern Over Data; Beijing Says All Info Shared Transparently, And Quickly

Beijing/Shanghai : China defended on Thursday its handling of its raging Covid-19 outbreak after US President Joe Biden voiced concern and the WHO said Beijing was under-reporting virus deaths. The WHO’s emergencies director, Mike Ryan, said on Wednesday that Chinese officials were under-representing data on several fronts, some of the UN agency’s most critical remarks to date.

China scrapped its stringent Covid controls last month after protests against them. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular media briefing in Beijing that China had transparently and quickly shared Covid data with the WHO and said China’s “epidemic situation is controllable”. “Facts have proved that China has always, in accordance with the principles of legality, timeliness, openness and transparency, maintained close communication and shared relevant information and data with the WHO in a timely manner,” Mao said.

China reported one new COVID death in the mainland for Wednesday, compared with five a day earlier, bringing its official death toll to5,259. Ryan said China’s numbers under-represented hospital admissions, intensive care unit patients and deaths, and said Beijing’s definition of Covid-related deaths was too narrow. Hours later, Biden raised concern about China’s handling of a Covid outbreak that is filling hospitals and overwhelming some funeral homes. “They’re very sensitive . . . when we suggest they haven’t been that forthcoming,” Biden told reporters. The French health minister voiced similar fears, while German health minister Karl Lauterbach voiced concern about a new Covid subvariant linked to growing US hospitalisations.

China, which criticised such border controls, said its border with its special administrative region of Hong Kong would reopen on Sunday. Ferry services between the city and the gambling hub of Macau would also resume on the same day, the Hong Kong government announced late on Thursday. Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways said on Thursday it would more than double flights to mainland China.

AFGHAN TALIBAN ADMIN TO SIGN OIL EXTRACTION DEAL WITH CHINESE CO

Kabul : Afghanistan’s Talibanled administration is to sign a contract with a Chinese company to extract oil from the Amu Darya basin in the country's north, the acting mining minister said on Thursday.

The contract would be signed with Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Co (CAPEIC), officialssaid. It will be the first major public commodities extraction deal the Taliban administration has signed with an foreign company since taking power in 2021. It underscores neighbouring China’s economic involvement in the region even though Islamic State militant group has targeted its citizens in Afghanistan. “The Amu Darya oil contract is an important project between China and Afghanistan,” China’s ambassador, Wang Yu said. China has not formally recognised Taliban administration but it has significant interests in a country at the centre of a region important for its Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. The Chinese company will invest $150 million a year in Afghanistan, the spokesperson for the Taliban-runadministration, Zabihullah Mujahid, said.

LAHORE HC BARS POLL BODY FROM REMOVING IMRAN AS PTI CHIEF

Lahore : A top court on Thursday stopped the Election Commission from removing ousted PM Imran Khan as the PTI party’s chairperson. The top election body last month initiated the process to remove 70-year-old Khan as chairman of his party following its verdict in the Toshakhana (national depository) case. It had disqualified the ousted premier under Article 63(1)(p) of the Constitution for making “false statements and incorrect declaration”.

Khan on Wednesday filed a petition in the HC against the electoral body’s move.

The Lahore HC took up the petition of Khan and stopped the Election Commission from initiating the process to strip him of the chairmanship of his party after listening to the arguments of his counsel, Senator Ali Zafar. Lahore HC judge Justice Jawad Hassan also issued a notice to the ECP to file its reply on the issue on January 11.

PRINCE HARRY MAKES SERIES OF SENSATIONAL CLAIMS IN NEW MEMOIR

A stream of sensational claims and accusations from Prince Harry's autobiography, Spare, have been leaked.

The book outlines grievances and bitterness in the Royal Family, such as a claim he and Prince William urged their father not to marry Camilla.

But one of the most striking claims from Harry, first reported by the Guardian newspaper, was how he was physically attacked by his brother.

Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace have both said they will not comment.

The Guardian obtained a copy of the book and published an extract in the early hours of Thursday.

The Sun newspaper and others also obtained a Spanish version after it was published in Spain ahead of its official release date - which is on 10 January.

Further allegations from the book have been made public since the Guardian's first article.

Among them are Harry's claim that William and Catherine, now the Prince and Princess of Wales, laughed after seeing him dressed in a Nazi uniform for a party.

There are also accounts of Harry's drug-taking and experiences as an Army helicopter pilot in the Afghanistan conflict.

Reconciliation and compromise are not on the agenda, at least according to the leaked extracts. So far there is a tone of unresolved grief, grievance and accusation in Harry's claims.

It is intensely personal too, about his closest family, brother, step-mother, sister-in-law, father. There is an angry cloud hanging over these claims and it is going to be impossible for that to be ignored the next time Harry is seen with the Royal Family.

The coronation is only a few months away and the run-up could become a will-he, won't-he come story about Harry.

DEADLY RIOTS GRIP MEXICAN STATE AFTER ARREST OF EL CHAPO'S SON

Three security force members have died in clashes in the state of Sinaloa after the arrest of a son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin "El Chapo".

Ovidio Guzmán-López - himself alleged to be a leader of his father's former cartel - was captured in Culiacán and transferred to Mexico City.

Furious gang members set up road blocks, set fire to vehicles and attacked a local airport.

Two planes were hit by gunfire - one while preparing to take off.

More than 100 flights were cancelled at three Sinaloa airports.

The state governor said earlier 18 people had been admitted to hospital.

Mr Guzmán-López - nicknamed "The Mouse" - is accused of leading a faction of his father's notorious Sinaloa cartel, Defence Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said. It is one of the largest drug-trafficking organisations in the world.

Hi father, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, is serving a life sentence in the US after being found guilty in 2019 of drug trafficking and money laundering. His trial revealed some of the brutal details of how Mexico's drug cartels operate.

The six-month surveillance operation to capture Mr Guzmán-López had the support of US officials, Defence Minister Sandoval added.

Videos on social media show burning buses blocking roads in Culiacán.