World

Ever since Hamas's deadly October 7 attack on southern Israel, the father of 17-year-old hostage Mia Leimberg had been praying for her safe release from captivity in Gaza -- and the return of the family pet.

To Moshe Leimberg's great joy, his daughter was finally freed on Tuesday as part of a group of hostages 12 -- 10 Israelis and two Thais -- that also included her mother and aunt.

From Hamas's brutal attacks in Israel, and the fierce retribution it provoked, to the kiss that caused a revolt in Spanish football, here are 10 events that marked a tumultuous 2023:

Israel-Gaza war

On October 7, hundreds of Hamas gunmen pour across the border from Gaza, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 people hostage in the worst attack in Israel's history, traumatizing the country and stunning the world.

Pope Francis presided over his weekly audience Wednesday despite the flu that caused him to scrap a trip to Dubai, but asked an aide to deliver his reading for him.

The Argentine pontiff, 86, looked tired and sounded breathless as he told the audience at the Vatican that "I'm still not well with this flu".

On the outskirts of the eastern German town of Wittenberg, a corrugated iron gate painted with green leaves welcomes visitors to the "Koenigreich Deutschland" (Kingdom of Germany).

Those who step through the gate to the cluster of buildings on the other side are entering place that styles itself a country, complete with its own flag, laws, currency and ID cards.

With the world hurtling toward catastrophic temperature rise, "Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is overseeing a sweeping global investment program" intended to "ensure that emerging economies across Africa and Asia become vastly more dependent on oil" even as the international community tries to phase out planet-heating fossil fuels.

That's according to a sixth-month undercover investigation by the U.K.'s Center for Climate Reporting (CCR) and Channel 4 News, based on regulatory filings, documents from Saudi officials, and secret recordings.

Cheers and jubilation erupted as rescuers in India on Tuesday brought out 41 construction workers who were trapped in a collapsed tunnel in the Himalayas for 17 days, hours after drilling through the debris of rock, concrete and earth to reach them.

"I am completely relieved and happy as 41 trapped laborers in the Silkyara Tunnel Collapse have been successfully rescued," Minister of Road Transport Nitin Gadkari said in a statement. "This was a well-coordinated effort by multiple agencies, marking one of the most significant rescue operations in recent years."

With his approval ratings in the tank, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly been lobbying members of his Likud party in a bid to keep their support, claiming he is "the only one who will prevent a Palestinian state" in Gaza and the West Bank.

Netanyahu's remarks, first reported by the Israeli public broadcaster Kan, fly in the face of the Biden administration's continued push for a two-state solution as the "only way to guarantee the long-term security of both the Israeli and the Palestinian people."

For years, former President Donald Trump has avoided agreeing with intelligence assessments that Russian President Vladimir Putin interfered on his behalf during the 2016 presidential election.

Most infamously, Trump rejected the American intelligence community's assessment about Russia's actions at a press conference in Helsinki, Finland where he stood next to Putin and said, "President Putin says it's not Russia, I don't see any reason why it would be."

Far-right, anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders sought to kick-start the arduous process of forming a coalition on Tuesday, still reeling from the collapse of initial efforts before talks had even begun.

Wilders, whose stunning general election win on Wednesday sent shock waves through the Netherlands and the whole of Europe, put forward a fresh candidate for a "scout" to oversee the coalition horse-trading.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his "displeasure" Monday over UK counterpart Rishi Sunak's last minute cancellation of a bilateral meeting set to discuss their long-running dispute over the Parthenon Marbles.

The two leaders were due to hold talks midday Tuesday in London, where Mitsotakis has been visiting since Sunday, before news of their axing emerged late Monday amid an apparent spat over the so-called Elgin Marbles.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Monday she was quitting Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, which she described as a "global sewer" and a tool to disrupt democracy.

"I've made the decision to leave X," Hidalgo said in an op-ed in French newspaper Le Monde. "X has in recent years become a weapon of mass destruction of our democracies", she wrote.

From Italy's ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi to rock queen Tina Turner and Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, here are some of 2023's most notable deaths.

- January -