World News Roundup: Ukrainian troops near Bakhmut expect to fight until war ends; Putin's anti-war challenger faces likely exclusion from election and more

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she was "appalled", while observers expressed shock at the severity of the sentence for Yang, an Australian citizen born in China, three years after a closed-door trial on espionage charges. Ukrainian troops near Bakhmut expect to fight until war ends Some soldiers in the east of Ukraine say they will have little choice but to fight until the war is over, despite attempts by the government in Kyiv to mobilise more troops to replace those serving long stints at the front.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Analysis-China's harsh sentence for Australian writer tests limits of rebound in ties

The suspended death sentence handed to Australian writer Yang Hengjun in Beijing on Monday is unlikely to derail Australia-China ties but will test the limits of Canberra's push to put relations back on track after years of tensions, analysts say. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she was "appalled", while observers expressed shock at the severity of the sentence for Yang, an Australian citizen born in China, three years after a closed-door trial on espionage charges.

Ukrainian troops near Bakhmut expect to fight until war ends

Some soldiers in the east of Ukraine say they will have little choice but to fight until the war is over, despite attempts by the government in Kyiv to mobilise more troops to replace those serving long stints at the front. Draft legislation aimed at replenishing Ukraine's depleted and exhausted armed forces is stalled in parliament, but one of the proposed changes is to ensure soldiers who have fought for three years can be discharged.

Putin's anti-war challenger faces likely exclusion from election

Russian anti-war presidential candidate Boris Nadezhdin said on Monday that a working group of Russia's Central Election Commission had found 15% of the supporters' signatures he submitted to back his election bid to be invalid. That figure, if confirmed, is three times higher than the allowable error rate and would provide grounds for the commission to disqualify Nadezhdin from running against President Vladimir Putin in March.

Samsung chief Jay Y. Lee cleared of charges in 2015 merger case

Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee was found not guilty of accounting fraud and stock manipulation by a Seoul court on Monday in a case about a 2015 merger that prosecutors said was designed to cement his control of the tech giant. The ruling, which was a surprise to at least some analysts who had expected a suspended sentence, could help give Lee a freer rein in steering the country's biggest conglomerate.

'Like being in hell': Chile mourns as wildfire death toll hits 112

Chile began an official two-day mourning period on Monday for the 112 so far killed in the South American country's deadliest wildfires in recent history, while authorities continued to battle blazes fanned by high temperatures and strong winds. Fires that broke out in central Chile late last week gathered momentum throughout the weekend, ravaging the coastal cities of Vina del Mar and Valparaiso. Hundreds of people remain missing and some 14,000 homes have been damaged.

China court gives Australian writer Yang Hengjun suspended death sentence

A Beijing court on Monday handed Australian writer Yang Hengjun a suspended death sentence on espionage charges, threatening a recent rebound in bilateral ties that followed several years of strained relations between Beijing and Canberra. The sentence, handed down five years after Yang was detained in China and three years after his closed-door trial on espionage charges, shocked his family and supporters.

El Salvador's Bukele re-elected as president in landslide win

President Nayib Bukele on Sunday secured a thumping victory in El Salvador's elections after voters cast aside concerns about erosion of democracy to reward him for a fierce gang crackdown that transformed security in the Central American country. Thousands of Bukele's supporters clad in cyan blue and waving flags thronged San Salvador's central square to celebrate his re-election, which the 42-year-old leader termed a "referendum" on his government.

Israeli hostage families gain clout as political landscape shifts

When pollsters asked a representative sample of the Israeli public in January to name anyone they would like to see entering politics, relatives of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were among the names that cropped up most often. The previously unreported survey, seen by Reuters, shows the families' appeal to Israelis who would like to see political change, at a time when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's popularity is at rock bottom.

Palestinians hope Blinken visit can deliver Gaza truce before Rafah assault

Palestinians huddling under bombardment in Gaza said on Monday they hoped a visit to the region by the U.S. secretary of state would finally deliver a truce, in time to head off a threatened new Israeli assault on the last refuge at the enclave's edge. Antony Blinken was in the air headed to the Middle East for his first trip since Washington brokered an offer with Israeli input for the first extended ceasefire of the war.

Six US-backed Kurdish fighters killed in drone attack on US base in Syria

U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces said on Monday that six of their fighters had been killed in an explosive drone attack by Iran-backed armed groups that came from areas of Syria's Deir al Zor under the control of the Syrian government. Farhad Shami, a spokesperson for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said in a post on X that the drone struck an SDF commando academy at a U.S. base at Al-Omar oilfield, resulting "in the martyrdom of six of our Commando fighters."