World News Roundup: Palestinians protest against soaring prices ahead of strike; Russia strikes Kyiv again after weeks, Putin warns West on missile supplies and more

Lawyers said at least‮ ‬nine people had been detained and police removed a number of tents set up in the street by protesters, who are calling for a general strike in Hebron, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Russia strikes Kyiv again after weeks, Putin warns West on missile supplies Russia struck Kyiv with missiles for the first time in more than a month, while President Vladimir Putin warned he would strike new targets in the country if western nations supplied Ukraine with longer-range missiles.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Palestinians protest against soaring prices ahead of strike

Palestinian police made a number of arrests on Monday as protests against soaring prices for food and other necessities spread a day ahead of a planned strike to demand action from the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority. Lawyers said at least‮ ‬nine people had been detained and police removed a number of tents set up in the street by protesters, who are calling for a general strike in Hebron, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Russia strikes Kyiv again after weeks, Putin warns West on missile supplies

Russia struck Kyiv with missiles for the first time in more than a month, while President Vladimir Putin warned he would strike new targets in the country if western nations supplied Ukraine with longer-range missiles. In Sievierodonetsk, the main battlefield in the east where Russia has concentrated its forces recently, Ukraine officials said a counter-attack had retaken half of the city.

Suspected Islamists kill at least 18 in east Congo attack

Suspected Islamists killed at least 18 people in a village raid in eastern Congo on Sunday night, local sources said, while fighting resumed with the M23 rebel group in a neighboring province. Fighters believed to be from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killed residents and burned down houses in the village of Otomabere, in Irumu territory, Ituri province, said a witness, a local chief and a local human rights group.

Ukraine rebases businesses from war front to shield vital producers

Oleg Averyanov's factory produced fire trucks and employed 600 people until it was forced to halt operations and close its doors as a Russian invasion force poured over the border into his region in northeastern Ukraine on Feb. 24. Months later, the 44-year-old is gearing up to restart some of the plant's operations 700 km (435 miles) away in the western city of Lviv, where he has moved some staff and 20 rail cars of equipment and production lines that weighed hundreds of tonnes.

Angry UK lawmakers trigger confidence vote in PM Johnson

Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a confidence vote on Monday after a growing number of lawmakers in his Conservative Party questioned the British leader's authority over what has been dubbed the "partygate" scandal. Johnson, who scored a sweeping election victory in 2019, has been under growing pressure after he and his staff held alcohol-fuelled parties at the heart of power when Britain was under strict lockdowns to tackle the spread of COVID-19.

S.Korea, U.S. launch eight missiles in response to N.Korea missile tests

South Korea and the United States said they fired eight surface-to-surface missiles early on Monday off South Korea's east coast, responding to a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles launched by North Korea on Sunday. The action is a demonstration of "the capability and readiness to carry out precision strikes" against the source of North Korea's missile launches or the command and support centers, South Korea's Yonhap news agency cited the South Korean military as saying.

Don't close the embassy, U.S. ambassador tells Russia

Russia should not close the U.S. embassy despite the crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine because the world's two biggest nuclear powers must continue to talk, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow was quoted as saying on Monday. President Vladimir Putin has cast the invasion of Ukraine as a turning point in Russian history: a revolt against the hegemony of the United States, which the Kremlin chief says has humiliated Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Ryanair forces South Africans to prove nationality with an Afrikaans test

Ryanair is requiring South African passengers to prove their nationality before traveling by completing a test in Afrikaans, a language used by just by 12% of the population that has long been identified with apartheid and the white minority. Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers, which does not operate flights to and from South Africa, said it required any UK-bound passengers from the country to fill in the "simple questionnaire" due to what it described as a high prevalence of fraudulent South African passports.

Pain and horror follow massacre in Nigerian Catholic church

Survivors of an attack by unknown assailants on a Catholic church in Nigeria lay weeping and writhing in pain at a local hospital on Monday after suffering what a doctor described as lacerations, bullet wounds, and blast injuries. At least 50 people including children were killed, according to media reports, during the attack on St Francis Catholic Church in the town of Owo, which took place during Sunday mass as worshippers were celebrating the Christian holiday of Pentecost. Police have yet to release a death toll.

Bangladesh battles to douse blaze at container depot that killed 41

Firefighters in Bangladesh battled for a third day on Monday to stamp out a massive fire that killed 41 people at a container depot in an incident that spotlights the South Asian nation's poor safety record. Drone footage showed thick columns of smoke and rows of burnt-out containers as Saturday's fire persisted after a huge blast and shipping container explosions at Sitakunda, 40 km (25 miles) from the southeastern port city of Chittagong.