Following is a summary of current world news briefs.
Analysis: Ukraine's new weapon will force a Russian shift
With the United States expected to send a new longer-range weapon to Ukraine, it has answered President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's plea for rockets that can strike deep behind the front lines of the nearly year-long conflict with Russia. Now Russian forces will need to adapt or face potentially catastrophic losses.
Russian missile wrecks apartment block, killing 3, as EU leaders visit Kyiv
A Russian missile destroyed an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, killing at least three people before top European Union officials arrived in Kyiv for talks seen as key to Ukraine's pivot towards the West. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed more anti-corruption measures as authorities continued raids ahead of the meetings with the EU, reflecting his determination to show that Kyiv can be a reliable steward of billions of dollars in aid.
Israel's attorney-general tells Netanyahu to stay out of judicial change push
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must stay out of his government's push to overhaul the Israeli judicial system, the country's attorney-general said on Thursday. Netanyahu faces a potential conflict of interest, Gali Baharav-Miara said in a statement, citing the prime minister's corruption trial in which he has denied wrongdoing.
Lula's Amazon pledge looks distant as Brazil battles deforestation
Brazil's environmental enforcement agents set out in January on their first mission this year to combat illegal deforestation, with renewed energy after the election of a president who has promised to stop surging Amazon rainforest destruction. But, after years of dwindling funding and staff at the environmental agency Ibama under former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, only two of the 12 agents on the mission near the town of Uruara had any experience with field operations.
Pakistan mosque attacker wore police uniform, breached security - police chief
Pakistani police have identified the suicide bomber who attacked a mosque in Peshawar this week, the provincial police chief said on Thursday, adding that the attacker had breached security by wearing a police uniform. The attack, which took place on Monday in a heavily fortified area called Police Lines, killed more than 100 people, all but three of them policemen.
Australia's radioactive capsule en route to storage as investigation begins
A lost radioactive capsule found after a search along a 1,400 km stretch of the arid Western Australian outback is due to arrive in Perth on Thursday evening as investigators work on piecing together just how it fell from a truck. The capsule - 6mm in diameter and 8 mm long or about the size of a tic-tac sweet - was found in the state's remote northwest on Wednesday. The week-long search retracing the truck's journey involved 100 people from at least five government agencies using specialised radiation detection equipment.
Israeli drones use free-falling bombs, can carry up to a tonne
Israeli armed drones use gravity bombs that produce no noise or smoke as they fall, making them hard for enemies to anticipate or evade, and the largest model of the aircraft can carry up to a tonne of munitions, the military says. After more than two decades of secrecy, Israel in July went public with the existence of armed drones in its arsenal. In November, an Israeli general detailed the two corps - air force and artillery - that operate the systems in combat.
Russia vows to push Ukrainian army back in response to longer-range rockets
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Russian forces would respond to the delivery of longer-range Western weapons to Kyiv by trying to push Ukrainian forces further away from its borders to create a safe buffer zone. Lavrov told state TV that everybody wanted the conflict in Ukraine - which Moscow calls a "special military operation" - to end, but that the West's support for Kyiv was playing an important role in how Russia approached the campaign.
Philippines grants U.S. greater access to bases amid China concerns
The Philippines has granted the United States greater access to its military bases, their defence chiefs said on Thursday, amid mounting concern over China's increasing assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea and tension over self-ruled Taiwan. The United States would be given access to four more locations under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Philippines' Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez said in a joint news conference at the Philippine military headquarters in Manila.
North Korea says U.S. drills threaten to turn region into 'critical war zone'
North Korea said on Thursday that drills by the United States and its allies have reached an "extreme red-line" and threaten to turn the peninsula into a "huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone." The Foreign Ministry statement, carried by state news agency KCNA, said Pyongyang was not interested in dialogue as long as Washington pursues hostile policies.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

This data comes from MediaIntel.Asia's Media Intelligence and Media Monitoring Platform.