World News Roundup: Thailand to ban recreational cannabis use by year-end, says health minister; Iran election seen as legitimacy test for rulers as dissent grows and more

Turkey's highest court ruled in October that Can Atalay's ongoing imprisonment violated his right to hold office after he was elected to parliament from his jail cell in May's general election. Thailand to ban recreational cannabis use by year-end, says health minister Thailand will ban the recreational use of marijuana by the end of this year, but continue allowing its use for medical purposes, the health minister told Reuters in an interview.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Poland may ban Russian agricultural imports, says PM Tusk

Poland doesn't rule out introducing a ban on agricultural products from Russia, the prime minister said on Thursday during a visit to Warsaw by his counterpart from Latvia, which has already implemented such a ban. Like much of Europe, Poland has been gripped by protests in recent weeks as farmers demonstrate against European Union environmental regulations and what they say is unfair competition from Ukraine since the bloc waived duties on imports in 2022.

Brazil Justice Moraes warns political candidates not to use AI against opponents

The head of Brazil's electoral authority Alexandre de Moraes said that candidates in upcoming municipal elections who use artificial intelligence (AI) to attack their opponents could lose their right to run or have their mandate revoked. Moraes' comments on the risk to democracy posed by artificial intelligence carry weight.

Erdogan's government seeks way to curb Turkey's top court- sources

President Tayyip Erdogan's government is seeking ways to curb the influence of Turkey's Constitutional Court, prompted by its rulings to free a jailed opposition parliamentarian, according to a senior official and two legislators in the governing alliance. Turkey's highest court ruled in October that Can Atalay's ongoing imprisonment violated his right to hold office after he was elected to parliament from his jail cell in May's general election.

Thailand to ban recreational cannabis use by year-end, says health minister

Thailand will ban the recreational use of marijuana by the end of this year, but continue allowing its use for medical purposes, the health minister told Reuters in an interview. Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to decriminalise cannabis, initially for medicinal use and research in 2018, then for general growing and consumption in 2022.

Iran election seen as legitimacy test for rulers as dissent grows

Iran holds a parliamentary election on Friday seen as a test of the clerical establishment's popularity at a time of growing dissent over an array of political, social and economic crises. The vote will be the first formal gauge of public opinion after anti-government protests in 2022-23 spiralled into some of the worst political turmoil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

As Gaza death toll passes 30,000, grave-digger longs to build houses again

The mounting death toll from Israel's military offensive on the Gaza Strip is a concrete, daily reality for Ibrahim Ahmed: instead of building houses as he did before the war, he digs graves. Displaced from his home, like most of Gaza's population of 2.3 million, Ahmed spends his days at Tal Al-Sultan cemetery in the Rafah area, preparing rows of graves in the sandy terrain and marking them with cement blocks for lack of gravestones.

Gaza health authorities say Israeli fire kills 104 waiting for aid

Health authorities in Gaza said on Thursday Israeli fire on people waiting for aid near Gaza City had killed 104 Palestinians and wounded 280, with one hospital saying it had received 10 bodies and dozens of injured patients. A spokesperson for Israel's military said there was no knowledge of shelling at that location. The military later said dozens of people were hurt as a result of pushing and trampling when aid trucks arrived in northern Gaza.

Putin warns West of risk of nuclear war, says Moscow can strike Western targets

President Vladimir Putin told Western countries on Thursday they risked provoking a nuclear war if they sent troops to fight in Ukraine, warning that Moscow had the weapons to strike targets in the West. The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Putin has previously spoken of the dangers of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, but his nuclear warning on Thursday was one of his most explicit.

Top Slovak court halts big part of government's criminal law overhaul

Slovakia's Constitutional Court has halted a significant part of the populist government's criminal law overhaul that aimed to significantly reduce punishment for crimes such as corruption and fraud. The court, however, said on Thursday it had rejected other complaints by Slovakia's liberal president and opposition, meaning that a plan to scrap the special prosecutors' office (USP) which has dealt with serious crime including high-level graft will go ahead.

Keys to lost homes in Gaza become latest symbols of Palestinian displacement

Palestinians displaced by Israel's military offensive on Gaza are holding onto keys to damaged or destroyed homes as a symbol of their loss, a tradition dating back to the mass displacement of 1948. Most people in Gaza are refugees or descendants of refugees who fled or were driven from their homes during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation, an event known to Palestinians as the "Nakba", or catastrophe.

(With inputs from agencies.)