News Headlines - 17 December 2013

▽BBC News - Russia offers Ukraine major economic assistance

Russia has given Ukraine a discount of almost a third on Russian gas and said it would buy billions of dollars' worth of Ukrainian government bonds. The moves come amid Russian attempts to stop Ukraine moving towards the EU.

▽Dr Abbas Khan: British doctor ‘murdered in jail’ by Syrian regime | Metro News

Syria has been accused of murdering a British surgeon who died in jail days before he was due to be released. Dr Abbas Khan ‘committed suicide’ by hanging himself by his pyjamas in his cell, the Syrian government said. But the British government and his family, who say he was ‘happy and looking forward to coming home’, rejected the claim.

▽Six years in a Peruvian jail for British women found with ￡1.5m of cocaine - The Independent

Two British women caught smuggling ￡1.5m of cocaine out of Peru have each been sentenced to six years and eight months in jail after apparently cutting a last-minute plea deal in a Lima court. Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum, both 20, had faced maximum prison terms of 15 years. Despite acknowledging they knowingly attempted to board a plane with the drugs at Lima’s Jorge Chavez airport in August, they went into the sentencing hearing not knowing whether their admissions – made as part of the plea deal – would be fully accepted by prosecutors.

▽Japan unveils defence plan to counter China - FT.com

Japan has unveiled a more assertive defence strategy that includes increased military spending and a build-up of naval forces to counter China, in the most detailed expression yet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s vision of his country as a stronger and more independent military power.

▽BBC News - Severed hand kept alive on man's ankle

Chinese doctors have saved a man's severed hand by grafting it to his ankle, it is reported. Xiao Wei lost his right hand in an accident at work but could not have it reattached to his arm right away. Instead, the hand was kept alive by stitching it to Mr Wei's left ankle and "borrowing" a blood supply from arteries in the leg. A month later, surgeons were able to remove the hand and replant it back on his arm, according to Rex Features.