WAJIMA, Japan (AP) — A series of powerful earthquakes that hit western Japan have left at least 55 people dead and damaged thousands of buildings, vehicles and boats. Officials warned Tuesday that more quakes could lie ahead. Aftershocks continued to shake Ishikawa prefecture and nearby areas a day after a magnitude 7.6 temblor slammed the area.

TOKYO (AP) — A passenger plane and a Japanese coast guard aircraft collided on the runway at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Tuesday and burst into flames, with five people on the smaller plane killed, officials said. All 379 people on Japan Airlines flight JAL-516 got out safely before the plane was engulfed in flames, Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito confirmed.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's two largest cities came under attack Tuesday from Russian missiles that killed at least five people and injured almost 100, officials said, as the war approached its two-year mark and the Kremlin stepped up its winter bombardment of urban areas.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was attacked and injured by an unidentified man during a visit Tuesday to the southeastern city of Busan, emergency officials said. Busan’s emergency office said Lee was attacked as he visited the construction site of a new airport in the city.

WAJIMA, Japan (AP) — A series of powerful earthquakes hit western Japan, leaving at least 30 people dead and damaging buildings, vehicles and boats, with officials warning people in some areas on Tuesday to stay away from their homes because of a risk of more strong quakes.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Thousands of Israeli soldiers are being shifted out of the Gaza Strip, the military said Monday, in the first significant drawdown of troops since the war began as forces continued to bear down on the main city in the southern half of the enclave. The troop movement could signal that fighting is being scaled back in some areas of Gaza, particularly in the northern half where the military has said it is close to assuming operational control.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a record 90 Shahed-type drones over Ukraine during the early hours of the new year, the Ukrainian air force said Monday, while Russia also reported Ukrainian attacks. A 15-year-old boy was killed and seven people wounded after falling debris from one of 87 downed drones hit a residential building in the city of Odesa, the head of the region's military administration, Oleh Kiper, said. Debris also sparked a number of small fires, including at the city's port.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his military should “thoroughly annihilate” the United States and South Korea if provoked, state media reported Monday, after he vowed to boost national defense to cope with what he called an unprecedented U.S.-led confrontation. North Korea has increased its warlike rhetoric in recent months in response to an expansion of U.S.-South Korean military drills.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan dropped its highest-level tsunami alert, issued following a series of major earthquakes on Monday, but told residents of coastal areas not to return to their homes as deadly waves could still come. The quakes, the largest of which had a magnitude of 7.6, started a fire and collapsed buildings on the west coast of Japan’s main island, Honshu. It was unclear how many people might have been killed or hurt.

Revelers counted down to midnight on New Year's Eve across the globe Sunday as fireworks and festive lights offered a hopeful start to 2024. In Australia, more than 1 million people watched a pyrotechnic display centered around Sydney’s famous Opera House and harbor bridge — a number of spectators equivalent to one in five of the city’s residents.

Israeli strikes in central Gaza killed at least 35 people Sunday, hospital officials said, as fighting raged across the tiny enclave a day after Israel’s prime minister said the war will continue for “many more months,” resisting international calls for a cease-fire.

The barren desert plain among the mountains of eastern Afghanistan is filled with hundreds of thousands of people.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a fresh drone assault on Ukraine after promising that strikes on the Russian border city of Belgorod that killed 24 people Saturday “would not go unpunished.”

Sydney and Auckland were among the world's first major cities to ring in 2024, with revelers cheering spectacular fireworks displays that lit up the skies over Sydney Harbor and New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower.

The U.S. military said Sunday that its forces opened fire on Houthi rebels after they attacked a cargo ship in the Red Sea, killing several of them in an escalation of the maritime conflict linked to the war in Gaza.

Russian officials on Saturday accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the Russian border city of Belgorod, a day after an 18-hour aerial Russian barrage across Ukraine killed at least 39 civilians.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched 122 missiles and dozens of drones against Ukrainian targets, officials said Friday, killing at least 24 civilians across the country in what an air force official said was the biggest aerial barrage of the war.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A light-water reactor at North Korea’s main nuclear complex will likely be formally operational by next summer, South Korea’s defense minister said, amid suspicions that the North may use it as a new source of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli officials are stepping up threats against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, warning that Israel is running out of patience as the two sides continue to trade fire along Israel's volatile northern border.

The world population grew by 75 million people over the past year and on New Year's Day it will stand at more than 8 billion people, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — President Nicolás Maduro ordered Venezuela’s armed forces to conduct defensive exercises in the Eastern Caribbean after the United Kingdom sent a warship toward Guyana’s territorial waters as the South American neighbors dispute a large border region.

RAMAT GAN, Israel (AP) — Igor Tudoran spent just 12 hours inside the Gaza Strip before a missile slammed into his tank, leaving him with a life-altering injury. “Already within the tank, I understood from the condition of my leg that I would lose it. But the question was how much of it will I lose,” he said, seated on a bed in the hospital where he has been treated since he was wounded last month.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Weeks before Taiwan holds elections for its president and legislature, China renewed its threat to use military force to annex the self-governing island democracy it claims as its own territory.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran held a funeral Thursday for a high-ranking general of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who was killed by an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel launched heavy strikes across central and southern Gaza overnight and into Wednesday after broadening its offensive against Hamas to more areas where the military had told Palestinians to seek shelter earlier in the war. Residents reported heavy bombing in the built-up Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, in the southern city of Khan Younis and in the southern town of Rafah, areas where tens of thousands have sought refuge as much of northern Gaza was pounded to rubble.