UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps on Wednesday warned Iran-backed Huthi rebels to end their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Shapps told Sky News there was "no doubt" Tehran was involved and providing weapons and intelligence. "Enough is enough," he said. "We must be clear with the Huthis that this has to stop and that is my simple message to them today: Watch this space".
Three private rooms, as many budgies and an Xbox: the lawsuit brought by Anders Behring Breivik against the Norwegian state's prison regime details conditions that would make many prisoners envious.
Since 2022, Breivik has been serving his sentence in the high-security wing of Ringerike prison, on the shores of the lake that surrounds the island of Utoya where he killed 69 people, most of them teenagers, on July 22, 2011.
Mere hours earlier, he had detonated a bomb in Oslo, killing eight others.
The 44-year-old right-wing extremist now has three personal rooms to himself: a living room, a study room and a small gym.
On the floor below -- which he shares with another prisoner, though never at the same time -- he has access to a kitchen, a TV lounge with a games console, a dining room and a room for visits.
"Breivik has much more space than any other inmate in Ringerike prison," the facility's director Eirik Bergstedt told Norwegian news agency NTB in December.
Although the decor is relatively plain, the gym includes several exercise machines and the lounge has a large flat screen TV and several armchairs so he can play Xbox with the guards.
Despite these conditions, Breivik, who in 2012 was sentenced to 21 years in prison -- which can be extended indefinitely -- has taken the Norwegian state to court this week to protest against his prison regime.
In a tearful address to the court on Tuesday he said authorities are trying to "push me to suicide".
It is not the first time Breivik has used strong words to protest his conditions: in a letter to AFP in 2014, he threatened to go on hunger strike in prison if he did not get, among other things, a Playstation 3 instead of the older Playstation 2.
However, it is not the material conditions of his detention that he is protesting.
Held apart from other inmates in high-security facilities for almost 12 years, Breivik claims his extended isolation is a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits "inhuman" and "degrading" treatment.
A 'dungeon'
"They built a dungeon around me" to "wall me in", Breivik complained on Tuesday.
"I'm not a hamster, I need real human relationships," he said.
He is not totally isolated, and in addition to his contacts with the guards -- with whom he can play cards, cook or share a meal -- Breivik is allowed to see a pastor, a physiotherapist, a psychiatrist and a Red Cross visitor with a dog that he can pet.
He himself ended contact with a visitor appointed by the authorities, but for one hour a week he is allowed to meet another prisoner, also carefully hand-picked, with whom he can socialise with, for instance with activities such as making waffles.
Mostly, these meetings take place around a table, which he calls "Putin's table", with several guards sitting between the two prisoners for security reasons.
Or a 'palace'
In addition to activities such as basketball, walks or visiting the prison library, authorities have given him three budgies to comply with his request for a pet.
"I had asked for a dog, a goat or a miniature pig with which you can make empathetic contacts, which can be a good substitute for people in isolation", commented Breivik, adding that "budgies are better than nothing."
Larger mammals "are not very practical in a high-security area", state lawyer Kristoffer Nerland retorted.
"Moreover, veterinary authorities might have something to say about it."
On social media, some users have commented on the conditions of detention, comparing them to "a hotel" or "a palace".
"The Norwegian system is the way it is, but as a mother whose daughter he killed, it's hard to see him complaining with his nice flat," Lisbeth Kristine Royneland, head of a support group for families of the victims, told AFP.
Royneland who lost her 18-year-old daughter on Utoya.
"But at least he's behind bars and he'll never get out again," she added.
Byrnihat in Meghalaya topped the list of the most polluted cities in India in 2023, closely followed by Begusarai in Bihar and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, according to a report released on Wednesday.
Delhi, known for its persistently high air pollution levels during winter, ranked as the eighth most polluted city, the report by independent think tank Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said.
Sunil Dahia, South Asia's analyst at CREA, said 227 cities with air quality data available for over 75 per cent of the days in 2023 were studied.
Among these cities, 85 were included under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). The data showed that 78 out of the 85 NCAP cities had PM10 levels exceeding the NAAQS (60 microgrammes per cubic metre).
The NCAP, initiated in 2019, aims for a 20-30 per cent reduction in PM2.5 and PM10 concentration by 2024 in 131 cities that hadn't met prescribed air quality standards from 2011 to 2015.
The government has now set a new target of achieving a 40 percent reduction in particulate matter concentration in these cities by 2026.
"After five years of the NCAP implementation, only 44 cities out of the 131 non-attainment cities have concluded the source apportionment studies," Dahia said.
"Due to the absence of these studies, 64 per cent of the funds allocated under NCAP have been utilised solely for dust mitigation and ineffective solutions like smog guns, resulting in inefficient use of public funds," he added.
The CREA report revealed that only 37 NCAP-covered cities achieved PM10 levels below the annual targets set by the programme. Interestingly, in 2023, 118 cities not yet part of NCAP breached the national air ambient quality standards for PM10.
"This indicates that cities not included in NCAP aren't necessarily cleaner," Dahia emphasised.
Only seven of the 20 most polluted cities in India are currently under NCAP.
Byrnihat, covered under NCAP, registered the highest annual average PM10 concentration at 301 microgrammes per cubic metre, while Silchar in Assam reported the lowest PM10 level at 29 microgrammes per cubic metre in 2023.
Begusarai in Bihar (average annual PM10 level of 265 microgrammes per cubic metre) and Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh (228 microgrammes per cubic metre) secured the second and third positions among the most polluted cities.
Among the top 50 polluted cities, 18 are in Bihar, eight in Haryana, and eight in Rajasthan.
The report highlighted that PM10 concentration in the top 10 polluted cities was notably 3-5 times higher than Indian NAAQS and exceeded WHO limits by 13-20 times.
