Toxicology tests on the ingredients of drinks consumed by seven tourists who fell ill in Fiji showed “no methanol or illicit substances,” authorities on the South Pacific island said Wednesday.

Deputy Prime Minister Viliame R. Gavoka delivered the update with an apology to the tourists that their holiday to the luxury destination had ended “on such a note.”

Fiji has been in damage-control mode since seven tourists, including four Australians, suffered nausea, vomiting and “neurological symptoms” after reportedly drinking piña colada cocktails at a bar inside the upscale Warwick Fiji resort on Saturday.

It’s still not clear what caused their illness, but Gavoka, who is also the island’s tourism minister, said all seven tourists – ages 18 to 56 – had since been discharged from medical care and had “fully recovered.”

The case comes just weeks after six tourists died from methanol poisoning in Laos, in a case that prompted safety warnings about consuming alcohol abroad, and heightened alert among travelers about the content of locally brewed spirits.

Sydney resident David Sandoe told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation earlier this week that he’d received a call saying his daughter and granddaughter were among those hospitalized. He said they were among a group of people who drank a piña colada cocktail before falling ill.

“There was a group of them in the lounge of this resort and they had a similar cocktail and unfortunately, seven people came down with the symptoms that have been talked about,” Sandoe said. His relatives have since returned home.

Gavoka assured travelers earlier this week that the incident was “extremely isolated.”

“No other incidents have been reported either at the resort, or across Fiji. The resort has been operating in Fiji successfully for many years and holds a strong reputation, particularly among our Australian visitors,” he said in a statement.

The Warwick Hotels and Resorts operates luxury accommodation worldwide, including in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

In a statement Tuesday, Warwick Resort Management said the incident was “unprecedented” during the 40 years it had been operating in Fiji.

“We want to reassure all our visitors that we maintain the highest standards of food and beverage safety,” the statement said.

Almost one million tourists visit the remote Pacific Island each year to experience its tropical beaches. It’s generally considered a safe place to travel, though after the incident Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs updated its advice to warn visitors to the island about the danger of drink spiking and methanol poisoning.

In November, the deaths of two Australian teenagers, a British woman, an American man and two Danish women after drinking shots in Laos, in Southeast Asia, prompted warnings from several Western nations about the potentially fatal consequences of drinking tainted alcohol.

Ukraine has developed a laser weapon capable of shooting down targets from more than a mile away, the country’s drone force commander has claimed

Speaking at a defense summit in Kyiv this week, Vadym Sukharevskyi, Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems said, “Today, we can already shoot down aircraft with this laser at an altitude of over 2 kilometers (1.2 miles).”

“It truly works, it truly exists,” he said, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported, adding that efforts were being made to enhance the weapon’s scale and capabilities.

The laser is named the Tryzub, or Ukrainian for “trident,” a nod to Ukraine’s national symbol representing independence, strength, and unity.

“This is particularly achievable by using commercial, off-the-shelf welding lasers combined with other available technologies,” Senft said, pointing to the US Navy’s Laser Weapons System (LaWS) that has operated at comparable ranges since 2014.

Senft explained that laser directed-energy weapons (DEW) were particularly effective against slow, low-flying drones deployed by Russia, as those drones consist of comparatively fragile components that are vulnerable to heat.

Low-flying UAVs, like the Shahed-136/Geran-2 one-way-attack drones’ low altitude and steady flight pattern “make them particularly susceptible to sustained laser exposure,” Senft said, “as the weapon can concentrate energy on a specific point to destroy critical components.”

Senft added that such weapons had two key limitations, related to how fast their target is traveling and how the lasers lose energy the farther they travel. Faster-moving or heat-resistant targets (e.g., artillery shells, ballistic missiles) are much harder to neutralize and demand a more advanced system, he said.

Fabien Hoffmann of the Oslo Nuclear Project (ONP) said there were several technical challenges to deploying an effective laser system to counter drones or missiles.

“These challenges include overcoming issues related to laser beam strength and the cooling of the system, atmospheric absorption and reflection of the laser beam (e.g., due to clouds or rain), and a phenomenon known as ‘thermal blooming.’ Thermal blooming occurs when the laser beam heats the surrounding air, causing it to spread out, which reduces its power and effectiveness at damaging the target,” he said.

“To assess how effective it is in a missile defense role, we’ll need to see how it performs in practice,” Hoffmann added.

Only a few countries are understood to be in possession of laser weapons, including the US, China and Israel.

The UK is also currently developing its own laser weapons system, called the DragonFire, which is set to be operational in 2027.

In April, former Defense Minister Grant Shapps said that the DragonFire could potentially be used in Ukraine to counter Russian drones, Reuters reported.

Israel’s military struck Houthi targets in Yemen early on Thursday, just hours after the Iran-backed militant group launched its latest attack on Israel.

The Israeli airstrikes, including on ports and energy infrastructure in the capital Sanaa, were retaliation for Houthi missile and drone attacks on Israel over the past year, most of which were intercepted, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV said the Israeli strikes targeted the Heyzaz and Dhahban power stations near the capital, and the Hodeidah port and Ras Isa oil facility, where casualties were reported.

Tensions between Israel and the Houthis have escalated for months as Israel wages its war on Hamas in Gaza following the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attacks – with world leaders warning of the potential for a wider Middle East conflict.

Earlier Thursday, sirens were heard in central Israel after the Israeli military intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, the IDF said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A teen charged with killing three girls and wounding 10 other people in a stabbing rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England this summer remained silent in court Wednesday as not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, who has refused to speak in each court appearance, was read the charges of three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and additional charges related to possessing the poison ricin and for having an al-Qaida manual.

Justice Julian Goose ordered a clerk to enter the pleas in Liverpool Crown Court as Rudakubana stayed mum during a video appearance from a London prison where he is held.

His trial is scheduled for Jan. 20.

It was the first time in a court appearance that the teen did not pull his sweatshirt collar over his nose to obscure his face.

He appeared to smile as an officer confirmed that the court proceeding could be heard at the prison. The judge noted that Rudakubana was not responding. He swayed from side to side as the charges were read and bent forward at one point.

Rudakubana was charged in August with murdering three girls — Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6 — and stabbing 10 other people on July 29 in the seaside town of Southport in northern England.

The attack at a small dance and yoga studio on the first day of summer vacation sparked rioting across England and Northern Ireland fueled by far-right activists that lasted a week.

The violence, which injured more than 300 police officers and led to fiery attacks on hotels housing migrants, began after Rudakubana — then unnamed –-was falsely identified as an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in Britain by boat.

Rudakubana was born in Wales to Rwandan immigrants.

More than 1,200 people were arrested for the disorder that lasted a week and hundreds have been jailed for up to nine years in prison.

A report released Wednesday was critical of police for failing to recognize the threat of violent disorder after a number of smaller incidents across the U.K. in the previous two years.

The report from the Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services said there were also lapses in gathering intelligence from social media and the dark web.

Rudakubana was charged in October with additional counts for production of a biological toxin, ricin, and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism for having the manual in a document on his computer.

Police have said the stabbings have not been classified as acts of terrorism because the motive is not yet known.

Wellington, New Zealand (AP) — Vanuatu’s capital was without water on Wednesday, a day after reservoirs were destroyed by a violent magnitude 7.3 earthquake that wrought havoc on the South Pacific island nation, with the number of people killed and injured expected to rise.

The government’s disaster management office said early Wednesday that 14 deaths were confirmed, but hours later said nine had been verified by the main hospital. The number was “expected to increase” as people remained trapped in fallen buildings, a spokesperson said. About 200 people have been treated for injuries.

Two of those killed were Chinese nationals, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, which cited Gu Zihua, an official at the Chinese embassy in Vanuatu.

Frantic rescue efforts that began at flattened buildings after the quake hit early Tuesday afternoon continued 30 hours later, with dozens working in dust and heat with little water to seek those yelling for help inside. A few more survivors were extracted from the rubble of downtown buildings in Port Vila, also the country’s largest city, while others remained trapped and some were found dead.

A near-total telecommunications collapse meant people struggled to confirm their relatives’ safety. Some providers began to reestablish phone service but connections were patchy.

Internet service had not been restored because the submarine cable supplying it was damaged, the operator said.

The earthquake hit at a depth of 57 kilometers (35 miles) and was centered 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of the capital of Vanuatu, a group of 80 islands home to about 330,000 people. A tsunami warning was called off less than two hours after the quake, but dozens of large aftershocks continued to rattle the country.

The Asia-Pacific head of the International Federation of Red Cross, Katie Greenwood, speaking to the Associated Press from Fiji, said it was not clear how many people were still missing or killed.

“We have anecdotal information coming from people at the search and rescue site that are fairly confident that unfortunately those numbers will rise,” she said.

The capital’s main medical facility, Vila Central Hospital, was badly damaged and patients were moved to a military camp. Clement Chipokolo, Vanuatu country director at the Christian relief agency World Vision, said health care services, already strained before the quake, were overwhelmed.

No water in the capital

While power was out in swathes of Port Vila, the biggest fear among aid agencies was the lack of water. Two large reservoirs serving the capital were totally decimated, the National Disaster Management Office said.

Resident Milroy Cainton said people were joining large queues to buy water in stores, but could only purchase two or four bottles at a time. “People are not really concerned about electricity, they’re just concerned about water,” he said.

UNICEF was recording a rise in diarrhea among children, a sign that they had begun to drink tainted water, said the chief of the Vanuatu office, Eric Durpaire. Officials told residents of areas where water had been restored to boil it.

At least 10 buildings sustained major damage, many in a busy downtown area full of lunchtime shoppers when the quake hit. An unknown number of people were trapped inside, and Cainton, the resident, said rescuers had been forced to target their efforts to where they believed people could be saved.

Michael Thompson, who runs a tourism business in Vanuatu, was among the rescuers and posted a video on Facebook of the frenzied efforts and dust-covered survivors on gurneys along with pleas for people to bring tools and water to the site.

Officials said Wednesday night that Port Vila appeared to be the worst-hit area, but some nearby villages and offshore islands had experienced landslides. Three bridges were “at high risk of collapse” in heavy rain, the government said.

A building housing a number of diplomatic missions in Port Vila — including those of the United States, Britain, France and New Zealand — was destroyed, with a section of the building cleaving off and flattening the first floor. Windows were buckled and walls crumbled.

The US State Department said its embassy staff were safe, but the building was no longer functional. The office opened in July as part of a push by the US to expand its Pacific presence to counter China’s influence in the region.

New Zealand’s foreign ministry said officials have accounted for all embassy staff. Australia’s foreign ministry said its workers were safe.

Damage to the seaport and airport is likely to hamper aid efforts and economic recovery in a country dependent on agricultural exports and tourism. The airport was closed to commercial flights for a further 72 hours from Wednesday.

But the runway was deemed functional for humanitarian flights by French engineers who arrived by helicopter. Military craft from Australia and New Zealand were due to begin arriving Wednesday night, carrying search and rescue personnel and equipment, as well as relief supplies.

Dan McGarry, a journalist living in Vanuatu, said there had been a “massive landslide” at the international shipping terminal. The government said the main wharf was closed.

Vanuatu’s position on a subduction zone — where the Indo-Australian tectonic plate moves beneath the Pacific Plate — means earthquakes of greater than magnitude 6 are not uncommon, and the country’s buildings are intended to withstand quake damage.

China and India agreed on Wednesday to work on easing their long-running border dispute, as the two Asian giants resumed a formal high-level dialogue for the first time in five years.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met in Beijing on Wednesday, the first time they held formal talks as their countries’ special representatives on border issues since late 2019.

The meeting follows an agreement the two countries reached in October on military disengagement and patrolling arrangements along parts of their contested border, where the two nuclear-armed rivals have engaged in a tense standoff since a deadly clash in 2020.

A statement from China’s Foreign Ministry said Wang and Doval reaffirmed their commitment to seek a package of solutions to the border dispute that were “fair, reasonable and acceptable to both sides.”

They vowed to continue to implement the disengagement agreement and emphasized that the dispute should be handled properly, to “avoid impacting the development of bilateral ties.”

“Both sides agreed to continue taking measures to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas and to promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations,” the Chinese statement said.

The two officials also agreed to strengthen cross-border exchanges, including the resumption of trips by Indian pilgrims to Tibet, cross-border river cooperation and border trade at Nathula, a mountain pass in the Indian state of Sikkim, according to the statement.

A statement from India’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the broad details of the meeting, adding that the ministers “emphasised the need to ensure peaceful conditions on the ground so that issues on the border do not hold back the normal development of bilateral relations.”

“Drawing on the learnings from the events of 2020, they discussed various measures to maintain peace and tranquility on the border and advance effective border management,” the Indian statement added.

The latest effort to ease tensions between the two neighbors comes amid China’s diplomatic charm offensive to mend ties with several American allies and partners, including Japan and Australia, in the lead-up to US President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Ties between China and India have been strained severely since June 2020, when a bloody hand-to-hand battle in the Galwan Valley killed at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.

Both India and China maintain a significant military presence along their 2,100-mile (3,379-kilometer) de facto border, known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which has never been clearly defined and has remained a source of friction since a bloody war between the two countries in 1962.

The clash four years ago along the disputed border between Indian Ladakh and Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin caused the conflict’s first known fatalities in more than four decades.

Since then, the two sides have held rounds of border talks to defuse tensions, but friction points have remained, including in areas that both sides previously patrolled but which have since become so-called buffer zones.

The border patrol agreement reached in October is seen by experts as a positive development. It was struck just days before Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in Kazan, Russia, on the sidelines of a BRICS summit.

During their meeting on Wednesday, Wang told Doval that the “hard-won” resumption of their dialogue was a “timely and powerful measure” to implement the consensus reached by Xi and Modi in October.

“The two leaders of the two countries emphasized viewing China-India relations from a strategic and long-term perspective. At a critical moment, they recalibrated the course and clarified the direction for the recovery and development of China-India relations,” Wang was quoted as saying in a separate statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Israel captured the strategically important mountain, Syria’s highest peak, following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime to a rebel-led coalition earlier this month. Israeli officials including Netanyahu had initially characterized the advance as a temporary security measure.

The source said Netanyahu’s order was intended to keep forces in place long enough for the political-security situation in Syria to stabilize. He is also waiting, the source said, for clarity on whether Syria’s new leaders intend to honor a 1974 agreement that created a buffer zone along the shared border, on which Mount Hermon’s summit sits. Until the takeover, the summit was demilitarized and patrolled by UN peacekeepers – their highest permanent position in the world.

Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, accused Israel of crossing “the lines of engagement” with its actions in Syria. Meanwhile, several Arab states have accused Israel of exploiting instability in Syria to execute a land grab and “occupy more Syrian territories.”

Netanyahu however has doubled down on the security need for control of the area saying that “Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities” in the occupied Golan Heights, an area in southwestern Syria that abuts Mount Hermon and which Israel captured and later annexed in 1981.

Just this past Sunday, the Israeli government approved a plan by Netanyahu to expand settlements in the Golan Heights, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office, saying that was “out of a desire to double the population” there.

Mount Hermon is a strategic position that overlooks Lebanon, Syria and Israel. It’s also just over 35 kilometers (about 22 miles) from Damascus, which means that control of its Syrian foothills – also currently in the hands of Israeli troops – put the Syrian capital within artillery range.

Mostafa Salem and Nadeen Ebrahim contributed to this report.

French President Emmanuel Macron has landed on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, days after the French overseas territory was hit by a devastating cyclone.

At least 31 people have been confirmed dead so far, but local officials fear the complete toll could be much higher, reaching hundreds or even thousands.

Many parts of Mayotte remain inaccessible after Cyclone Chido – the worst to hit the territory of just over 300,000 in at least 90 years – struck last weekend. The powerful storm flattened neighborhoods, knocked out electrical grids, crushed hospitals and schools and damaged the airport’s control tower.

Mayotte lies in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, just west of Madagascar. Made up of two main islands, its land area is about twice the size of Washington DC.

The extent of the damage has been difficult to ascertain, in part because of the prevalence of undocumented migrants living in informal dwellings. An estimated 100,000 undocumented migrants, many from neighboring Comoros and Madagascar, live in Mayotte, according to France’s interior ministry.

Mayotte has struggled with poverty, unemployment, violence and a deepening migration crisis, which France has responded to with police crackdowns and mass deportations.

The government activated a state of “exceptional natural disaster” on Wednesday evening, a measure that has never been used, to help manage the crisis, according to the French overseas minister. Authorities also froze the price of consumer goods, such as food and hygiene products, amid shortages.

Local officials have warned that a lack of safe drinking water and poor sanitation conditions could lead to a disease outbreak.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said Tuesday it had lost contact with 200 of its volunteers in Mayotte and that it was racing to deliver aid, including water and medical supplies, to impacted communities.

French authorities distributed 120 metric tons of food Wednesday ahead of Macron’s visit, news agency Reuters reported. On Thursday, the president’s plane also transported more than four tons of food and health aid, Macron said on social media.

Cyclone Chido, a Category 4 storm, tore through the southwestern Indian Ocean over the weekend, impacting northern Madagascar before rapidly intensifying and slamming Mayotte with winds above 220 kilometers per hour (136 miles per hour), according to France’s weather service.

Bruno Garcia, a resident of Mamoudzou, Mayotte’s capital, told BFMTV the destruction was “catastrophic” and “apocalyptic.”

“There is nothing left. It’s as if an atomic bomb fell on Mayotte,” Garcia said.