News in Brief -2023-12-04)

Russia eases attacks in eastern Ukraine
KYIV, Dec 03: Russian forces eased attacks on the beleaguered eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka on Saturday and unofficial reports from the region suggested they had failed to capture the devastated town of Maryinka to the southwest. Russia's military has focused on eastern Ukraine since abandoning an advance on Kyiv in the first days after the February 2022 invasion. Since mid-October, the military has set its sights on seizing Avdiivka and its vast coking plant. Russian reports on Friday suggested Moscow's troops had taken control of Maryinka, 40 km (25 miles) to the southwest, engulfed in fighting for well over a year. But unofficial Ukrainian reports on Saturday said its forces were holding some districts. — Reuters
Biden destroyer of democracy: Trump
CEDAR RAPIDS, Dec 03: Former President Donald Trump on Saturday attempted to turn the tables on his likely rival in November, President Joe Biden, arguing that the man whose election victory Trump tried to overturn is "the destroyer of American democracy." Trump's allegations about Biden, a Democrat, echo the ones that Biden has been making for years against his predecessor. As Trump has dominated the Republican presidential primary and talked about targeting his rivals and the news media if he wins the White House again, Biden has stepped up his own warnings, contending Trump is " determined to destroy American democracy." — AP
Nine dead in attack on Peru gold mine
LIMA, Dec 03: Nine people were killed and more than a dozen injured in an attack on a gold mine in northern Peru, authorities said on Saturday. A group of "armed criminals" raided the Poderosa mine in the province of Pataz, Peru's interior ministry said in a statement on social media platform X, "violently confronting the company's internal security." The ministry said that seven attackers had been apprehended and that police had "taken control of the situation." Among the dead were seven security guards who tried to repel the attack and two miners. — AFP
One dies in attack near Eiffel Tower
PARIS, Dec 03: One person died and two others were injured after a man attacked tourists in central Paris near the Eiffel Tower, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Saturday. Police quickly arrested the 26-year-old man, a French national, using a Taser stun gun, Darmanin told reporters. The suspect had been sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 for planning another attack and was on the French security services' watch list, and was also known for having psychiatric disorders, the interior minister added. — Reuters