Mizoram police of India have arrested five people, including a top leader of the Myanmar-based separatist group Chin National Front (CNF), while smuggling a large cache of arms and ammunition into Bangladesh.  The recovered items include six AK-47 rifles, 10,050 rounds of ammunition, and 13 magazines. Mizoram police arrested the people in a joint operation conducted by intelligence agencies on Wednesday, in the Saithah village area under the West Phaileng police station in Mamit district, near the Myanmar border. The state police confirmed the matter on Thursday, according to reports published in Indian newspapers. The weapons were being smuggled into Bangladesh through northeastern India. A senior Mizoram police officer said that intelligence had been monitoring an arms smuggling deal between separatist groups from Myanmar and Bangladesh. The recovered weapons were reportedly being handed over by CNF to the United People's Democratic Front (UPDF-P), a separatist group in the Chattogram Hill Tracts. One of the arrested individuals is suspected to be a senior leader of CNF, said police officials.  Another police official said the operation sends a strong message to illegal arms traders and separatist groups in the region.  A case has been filed at the West Phaileng police station, and efforts are underway to dismantle the smuggling network.

Israel's security cabinet approved in a vote on Friday a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal that should take effect this weekend, the prime minister's office said. The agreement, which must now go to the full cabinet for a final green light, would halt fighting and bombardment in Gaza's deadliest-ever war. It would also launch on Sunday the release of hostages held in the territory since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Under the deal struck by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, the ensuing weeks should also see the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Israeli strikes have killed dozens of people since the deal was announced. Israel's military said on Thursday it had hit about 50 targets across Gaza over the past day. The full cabinet will convene later Friday to approve the deal. The ceasefire would take effect on the eve of Donald Trump's inauguration as US president. Saying the proposed deal "supports achieving the objectives of the war", the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the security cabinet recommended that the government approve it. His office had earlier said the release of hostages would begin on Sunday. Even before the start of the truce, Gazans displaced by the war to other parts of the territory were preparing to return home. "I will go to kiss my land," said Nasr al-Gharabli, who fled his home in Gaza City for a camp further south in the territory. "If I die on my land, it would be better than being here as a displaced person." In Israel, there was joy but also anguish over the 251 hostages taken in the deadliest attack in the country's history. Kfir Bibas, whose second birthday falls on Saturday, is the youngest hostage. Hamas said in November 2023 that Kfir, his four-year-old brother Ariel and their mother Shiri had died in an air strike, but with the Israeli military yet to confirm their deaths, many are clinging to hope. "I think of them, these two little redheads, and I get shivers," said 70-year-old Osnat Nyska, whose grandchildren attended nursery with the Bibas brothers. - 'Confident' - Two far-right ministers had voiced opposition to the deal, with one threatening to quit the cabinet, but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he believed the ceasefire would go ahead on schedule. "I am confident, and I fully expect that implementation will begin, as we said, on Sunday," he said. Gaza's civil defence agency said Israel pounded several areas of the territory, killing more than 100 people and wounding hundreds since the the deal was announced on Wednesday. Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned that Israeli strikes were risking the lives of hostages due to be freed under the deal, and could turn their "freedom... into a tragedy". The war began with the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. Of the 251 people taken hostage, 94 are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead. Israel's retaliatory campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,788 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable. - Trump and Biden - The ceasefire agreement followed intensified efforts from mediators after months of fruitless negotiations, and with Trump's team taking credit for working with US President Joe Biden's administration to seal the deal. "If we weren't involved in this deal, the deal would've never happened," Trump said in an interview on Thursday. A senior Biden official said the unlikely pairing had been a decisive factor in reaching the deal. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, announcing the agreement on Wednesday, said an initial 42-day ceasefire would see 33 hostages released, including women, "children, elderly people, as well as civilian ill people and wounded". The Israeli authorities assume the 33 are alive, but Hamas has yet to confirm that. Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza's densely populated areas and allow displaced Palestinians to return "to their residences", he said. Two sources close to Hamas told AFP three Israeli women soldiers would be the first to be released on Sunday evening. The women may in fact be civilians, as the Hamas group refers to all Israelis of military age who have undergone mandatory military service as soldiers. Once released they would be received by Red Cross staff as well as Egyptian and Qatari teams, one source said on condition of anonymity. They would then be taken to Egypt where they would undergo medical examinations and then to Israel, the source said. Israel "is then expected to release the first group of Palestinian prisoners, including several with high sentences", the source added. Egypt was on Friday hosting technical talks on the implementation of the truce, according to state-linked media. French President Emmanuel Macron said French-Israeli citizens Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi were on the list of 33 hostages to be freed in the first phase. Biden said the second phase could bring a "permanent end to the war". In aid-starved Gaza, where nearly all of its 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once, aid workers worry about the monumental task ahead. "Everything has been destroyed, children are on the streets, you can't pinpoint just one priority," Doctors Without Borders (MSF) coordinator Amande Bazerolle told AFP.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian solidified military ties on Friday by signing a 20-year strategic partnership, a move expected to heighten Western concerns. The agreement outlines expanded cooperation between the two nations, including intelligence-sharing, joint military exercises, reciprocal warship port visits, and officer training programs. According to the pact, neither country will permit its territory to be used for actions that threaten the other, nor will it assist any aggressor targeting its counterpart. The agreement also emphasizes collaborative efforts to address shared military threats. But it did not include a mutual defence clause of the kind included in a treaty between Russia and North Korea, which the West says has seen North Korean troops deployed to fight in Ukraine, something Moscow has neither confirmed nor denied. There was also no mention of arms transfers, a topic of particular concern to the US and its allies, though the two sides said they would develop "military-technical cooperation." Pezeshkian, on his first Kremlin visit since winning the presidency last July, hailed the treaty as an important new chapter in bilateral relations, while Putin said Moscow and Tehran shared many views on international affairs. "This (treaty) creates better conditions for bilateral cooperation in all areas," said Putin, emphasising the upside for economic ties and trade, which he said was mostly carried out in the two countries' currencies. "We need less bureaucracy and more concrete action. Whatever difficulties are created by others, we will be able to overcome them and move forward," Putin added, referring to Western sanctions on both countries. Putin said Russia regularly informed Iran about what was going on in the Ukraine conflict and that they closely consulted on events in the Middle East and the South Caucasus region. Russia and Iran, key military backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, now face challenges following his recent ousting and flight to Moscow. Meanwhile, Western nations accuse Iran of supplying missiles and drones used in Russian strikes on Ukraine. Both Moscow and Tehran deny these allegations, asserting that their growing alliance is not aimed at any third country. President Vladimir Putin noted progress on a proposed gas pipeline to transport Russian gas to Iran via Azerbaijan, despite logistical challenges. He also acknowledged delays in constructing new nuclear reactors for Iran but expressed openness to further nuclear collaborations. 'MULTI-POLAR WORLD' Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking through Russian state media translators, hailed the treaty as evidence of independence from Western influence. “The agreements we reached today are a catalyst for the emergence of a multi-polar world,” he declared, expressing hope for a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine war. “War is never the ideal path to solve disputes, and we would welcome negotiations to achieve peace between Russia and Ukraine,” he added. Since the onset of the Ukraine conflict, Moscow has strengthened ties with nations antagonistic to the U.S., including strategic pacts with North Korea and Belarus, and a partnership agreement with China. Iran has played a pivotal role, with its drones reportedly used extensively in Ukraine. The U.S. accused Tehran in September of providing short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, an allegation Iran denies. While the Kremlin has not confirmed receiving Iranian missiles, it admits cooperation with Iran in "highly sensitive areas." Russia has previously supplied Iran with S-300 air defence missile systems. Iranian media has speculated about potential interest in advanced Russian systems like the S-400 and modern fighter jets. Pezeshkian’s visit comes amid Iran’s declining influence in the Middle East, following Assad’s fall in Syria and intensified Israeli strikes on Iran-backed groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. The fate of Russia’s two major military facilities in Syria remains uncertain as the post-Assad landscape evolves.