UK: Iran Shares Responsibility for Preventing Red Sea Attacks

British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Cameron speaks during a press conference with Egypt's Foreign Minister in Cairo, Egypt, 21 December 2023. EPA/MOHAMED HOSSAM
British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Cameron speaks during a press conference with Egypt's Foreign Minister in Cairo, Egypt, 21 December 2023. EPA/MOHAMED HOSSAM
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UK: Iran Shares Responsibility for Preventing Red Sea Attacks

British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Cameron speaks during a press conference with Egypt's Foreign Minister in Cairo, Egypt, 21 December 2023. EPA/MOHAMED HOSSAM
British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Cameron speaks during a press conference with Egypt's Foreign Minister in Cairo, Egypt, 21 December 2023. EPA/MOHAMED HOSSAM

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Sunday he had made clear in a call with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian that Iran shared responsibility for preventing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

"I made clear that Iran shares responsibility for preventing these attacks, given their long-standing support to the Houthis," he said in a post on social media site X, adding that the attacks "threaten innocent lives and the global economy".

US Navy helicopters sank three of four small boats used by the Houthis to attack a merchant vessel in the southern Red Sea on Sunday, US central command (CENTCOM) said on X.

Helicopters from the USS Eisenhower and USS Gravely, responding to distress calls from the Maersk Hangzhou, returned fire on the Houthi boats in self-defense and sank three of the vessels with no survivors.

The fourth boat fled the area.



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.