DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Desperation grew Thursday among Palestinians largely cut off from supplies of food and water as Israeli forces engaged in fierce urban battles with Hamas militants. Strikes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah sowed fear in one of the last places where civilians could seek refuge.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A deputy U.S. Marshal was charged in the United Kingdom on Thursday with entering an aircraft while drunk, after being arrested on allegations of misconduct aboard a flight from New York, London police said.

Michael Brereton, 39, was arrested when he landed at Heathrow Airport. The flight crew had contacted officers to report onboard disruptions from the federal agent, London police said in a statement. He is expected to appear in court Friday.

(AP) --- A woman sentenced to life in an Idaho prison for murdering her two youngest children and another woman has pleaded not guilty to charges in Arizona of conspiring to kill her estranged husband and her niece’s ex-husband.

Lori Vallow Daybell, dressed in an orange jail uniform, stated her name and birthdate when a judge asked her to do so during a five-minute arraignment hearing Thursday in state court in Phoenix. Her trial is scheduled for April 4.

After the hearing, Keith Terry, Vallow Daybell’s attorney, declined a request to comment on his client’s behalf.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Moscow court extended on Thursday pre-trial detentions for three lawyers who once represented imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The three were arrested in October on charges of participating in an extremist group, a case widely seen as a means to ramp up pressure on the politician.

The Basmanny District Court ruled that Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser will remain behind bars at least until March 13.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The 42-year-old son of U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer crashed into a North Dakota sheriff’s vehicle during a police chase, pushing it into a deputy and killing him, according to authorities and the Republican senator’s family.

Ian Cramer, of Bismarck, was arrested and jailed following Wednesday’s crash, and charges are pending, the North Dakota Highway Patrol said in a news release. The name of the Mercer County deputy who was killed has not been released, and the sheriff’s office didn’t immediately respond to a Thursday voicemail seeking further information.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — At least three-fourths of Africans can’t afford a healthy diet, and a fifth are undernourished due to an “unprecedented food crisis,” United Nations agencies said in a report released Thursday with the African Union Commission.

The continent’s 1.4 billion people are confronting high levels of hunger and malnutrition as the hit on world grain supplies from Russia’s war in Ukraine compounds the ills of African conflicts, climate change and the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Thursday he would “do what is necessary” to revive a blocked deal to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda, even if it means ignoring U.K. human rights laws.

During a hastily scheduled news conference, Sunak vowed to press on with a plan that has roiled the governing Conservative Party and threatened his leadership.

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian girl shot several classmates at school Thursday, killing one person and wounding five others before killing herself, state news agencies and authorities said.

The shooting happened at a school in Bryansk, a city in a region of the same name that borders Ukraine, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.

One of the people wounded was in serious condition, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said.

(AP) --- Lawmakers in Russia set the country’s 2024 presidential election for March 17, moving Vladimir Putin a step closer to a fifth term in office.

Members of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, voted unanimously Thursday to approve a decree setting the date.

“In essence, this decision marks the start of the election campaign,” Valentina Matviyenko, the chamber’s speaker, said.

RIYADH/DUBAI, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has asked the United States to show restraint in responding to attacks by Yemen's Houthis against ships in the Red Sea, two sources familiar with Saudi thinking said, as Riyadh seeks to contain spillover from the Hamas-Israel war.

The Iran-aligned Houthis have waded into the conflict that has spread around the Middle East since war erupted on Oct. 7, attacking vessels in vital shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles at Israel itself.

5 December 2023; MEMO: A week after US lawmakers expressed frustration in having to vote for yet another pro-Israel resolution, the House is expected to vote again this week to declare anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, in a new bill which critics say will further undermine free speech protected by the US constitution.

5 December 2023; MEMO: Hamas, on Monday, dismissed Israeli rape accusations against its fighters as a “desperate attempt” to distort the group’s humane treatment of Israeli hostages, Anadolu Agency reports.

"We reject the Israeli lies about raping, which aim to distort the Resistance and tarnish our humanity and moral treatment of captives" Hamas said in a statement.