Russia Destroys Three Ukrainian Uncrewed Boats off Crimea 

Damaged boats at a sailing school, hit by debris of a downed drone in Odesa, Ukraine, 17 October 2023. (EPA)
Damaged boats at a sailing school, hit by debris of a downed drone in Odesa, Ukraine, 17 October 2023. (EPA)
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Russia Destroys Three Ukrainian Uncrewed Boats off Crimea 

Damaged boats at a sailing school, hit by debris of a downed drone in Odesa, Ukraine, 17 October 2023. (EPA)
Damaged boats at a sailing school, hit by debris of a downed drone in Odesa, Ukraine, 17 October 2023. (EPA)

Russian naval forces destroyed three uncrewed Ukraine-launched boats in the northern part of the Black Sea off the Crimean Peninsula, Russia's defense ministry said on Tuesday.

"Anti-sabotage missiles and bombs hit the area where the unmanned boats were detected," the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

It added that an anti-mining and an "anti-sabotage" operation was being carried out off Sevastopol port, which is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

It was not immediately clear whether the incident caused any casualties or damage.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

Ukraine has intensified its attacks on Crimea since midsummer, trying to undermine Russia's efforts in the 20-month-long war. Russia seized and annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

In September, Kyiv said it damaged two naval vessels and struck Sevastopol's port infrastructure in what appeared to be the biggest attack of the war there.

The Kremlin uses Sevastopol and the Black See Fleet to project power into the Middle East and Mediterranean and - during the war in Ukraine - to impose a de facto blockade on Ukraine's seaborne food exports via the Turkish straits.



China Discovers Cluster of New Mpox Strain

A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
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China Discovers Cluster of New Mpox Strain

A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
A woman walks on the Youyi Bridge at the Liangmahe river in Beijing, China on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Chinese health authorities said on Thursday they had detected the new mutated mpox strain clade Ib as the viral infection spreads to more countries after the World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency last year.
China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention said it had found a cluster outbreak of the Ib subclade that started with the infection a foreigner who has a history of travel and residence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Reuters reported.
Four further cases have been found in people infected after close contact with the foreigner. The patients' symptoms are mild and include skin rash and blisters.
Mpox spreads through close contact and causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body. Although usually mild, it can be fatal in rare cases.
WHO last August declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that spread to neighboring countries.
The outbreak in DRC began with the spread of an endemic strain, known as clade I. But the clade Ib variant appears to spread more easily through routine close contact, including sexual contact.
The variant has spread from DRC to neighboring countries, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, triggering the emergency declaration from the WHO.
China said in August last year it would monitor people and goods entering the country for mpox.
The country's National Health Commission said mpox would be managed as a Category B infectious disease, enabling officials to take emergency measures such as restricting gatherings, suspending work and school, and sealing off areas when there is an outbreak of a disease.