Tel Aviv (AFP) – Protesters gather in Tel Aviv following the fatal shooting of three Israeli hostages in Gaza by the Israeli soldiers who mistakenly identified them as a threat. The Israeli army revealed later that the three hostages were carrying a white flag and cried for help in Hebrew when they were mistakenly fired on by Israeli troops.
Gréasque (AFP) – Fabien Accidini couldn’t believe his ears when 17-year-old Alex Batty told him he’d been “kidnapped”. “I had to ask him to repeat” what he was saying, chiropractic student Fabien Accidini tells AFP during a game of pétanque with a friend in the village of Gréasque, 30 km from Marseille. The British teenager who had been missing for six years was picked up by Accidini in the middle of the night on a remote road in a mountainous area of southern France.
Belgrad (AFP) – Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic casts his vote in parliamentary and local elections at a polling station in Belgrade. Speaking to the press after voting, Vucic – who is not on the ballot himself – says, “I expect a good turnout, I expect a landslide victory” for his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). Vucic has led the Balkan country for more than ten years, and the elections are largely seen as a referendum on his government.
Acapulco (AFP) – Cliff divers resume their legendary jumps in Acapulco, southern Mexico, in front of a handful of tourists after the devasting passage of Hurricane Otis in October.
Vatikanstadt (AFP) – Pope Francis deplores the death of two women in a Catholic parish in Gaza, where he says “defenceless civilians are being bombed and shot at”. Speaking at the end of his Angelus prayer, the 87-year-old pontiff says “I continue to receive very serious and painful news from Gaza,” after the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said on Saturday that a Christian mother and daughter were shot dead by an Israeli soldier on the grounds of the Gaza Strip’s only Catholic church.
Stockbridge (AFP) – A million holiday lights shimmer at the Naumkeag public garden in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Manila (AFP) – Filipinos attend a pre-dawn mass ahead of Christmas at a church in Manila.
Naperville (AFP) – A family in Illinois who are fans of American popstar Taylor Swift decorate their home for Christmas with dozens of the singer’s photographs and song names.
Baqa al-Gharbiya (AFP) – With the war in Gaza, the Palestinian labourers working the greenhouses of Marwane Abou Yassine, a farmer in the predominantly Arab city of Baqa al-Gharbiya, are no longer allowed to leave the West Bank, so volunteers come to help him with his harvest. “It helps in a way, but it’s not what we need. But what can we do?” says fellow farmer Ibrahem Mawasi. N°347U72V
Breda (AFP) – Cannabis smokers in two Dutch cities, Tilburg and Breda, can now light up legally for the first time as authorities roll out a trial selling weed from government-approved suppliers for the first time.
