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Kremlin denies role in plane crash believed to have killed Russian mercenary leader Prigozhin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:34 GMT

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, on Friday rejected allegations that the Kremlin was behind a plane crash that is presumed to have killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose brutal fighters were feared in Ukraine, Africa and Syria and conducted a brief but shocking mutiny in Russia two months ago.Prigozhin, who was listed among those on board the plane, was eulogized by Putin, even as suspicions grew that the Russian leader was behind a Wednesday crash that many saw as an assassination.A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that the plane was downed by an intentional explosion. One of the U.S. and Western officials who described the initial U.S. assessment said it determined that Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, did not offer any details abou...

Lebanon’s interim central bank chief vows not to lend money to government, calls for economic reform

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:34 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s interim central bank governor called on the country’s ruling class Friday to quickly implement economic and financial reforms warning that the central bank won’t offer loans to the state and does not plan on printing money to cover the huge budget deficit to avoid worsening inflation.Wassim Mansouri’s comments came nearly a month after he took over the leadership at the central bank after the term of his predecessor, Riad Salameh, ended on July 31.Lebanon is in the grips of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. Since the financial meltdown began in October 2019, the country’s political class — blamed for decades of corruption and mismanagement — has been resisting economic and financial reforms requested by the international community.Since taking office, Mansouri has been urging the government to pass some reforms, cautioning that the central bank cannot continue to spend money to fund the government’s budget deficit.“Every day...

Australian, US, Filipino forces practice retaking an island in a drill along the South China Sea

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:34 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Australian and Filipino forces, backed by U.S. Marines, practiced retaking an island seized by hostile forces in a large military drill Friday on the northwestern Philippine coast facing the disputed South China Sea.President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and visiting Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles watched the mock beach landings, assaults and helicopter insertion of forces on a Philippine navy base with 1,200 Australians, 560 Filipinos and 120 U.S. Marines participating.On Monday, Australian, Filipino and American forces conducted air assault maneuvers in Rizal town in western Palawan province, which also faces the South China Sea.The three countries are among the most vocal critics of China’s increasingly aggressive and confrontational actions in the disputed waters, but the Philippine military said Beijing was not the envisioned target of the combat drills, the largest so far between Australia and the Philippines.“It’s an important aspect...

French former President Nicolas Sarkozy to go on trial over Libya financing for 2007 campaign

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:34 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French investigative magistrates on Friday ordered former president Nicolas Sarkozy and 12 others to go on trial on charges that his 2007 presidential campaign received millions in illegal financing from the government of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.The national financial prosecutor, Jean-François Bohnert, announced that the decade-long investigation has been formally closed. The trial will run from January to April 2025, the statement said.The case is the biggest and most shocking of multiple corruption investigations involving Sarkozy. He has been convicted in two others. He denies wrongdoing in all cases.In the Libya case, he is charged with illegal campaign financing, embezzling, passive corruption and related counts.Sarkozy has been under investigation in the Libya case since 2013. Investigators examined claims that Gadhafi’s government secretly gave Sarkozy 50 million euros for his winning 2007 campaign. The sum would be more than double the legal campaign ...

AP Election Brief | What to expect in Mississippi’s runoff primaries

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:34 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Think of it as the Mississippi Primaries: The Sequel. On Tuesday, voters in the Magnolia State will head back to the polls to resolve a handful of state legislative contests from the Aug. 8 primaries in which no candidate reached the vote majority needed to advance to the November general election.Six runoff primaries, three apiece for Republicans and Democrats, will be held in House districts scattered throughout the state, stretching from the northern border with Tennessee to the southern tip of the Gulf Coast.In District 66, located in heavily Democratic Hinds County and including parts of Southwest Jackson, two candidates are vying to replace outgoing Rep. De’Keither Stamps, who is running for the state Public Service Commission. Fabian Nelson, owner of a local real estate firm, faces Roshunda Harris-Allen, an alderwoman for the city of Byrum and a professor at Tougaloo College’s School of Education. Nelson, who would become the state’s first openly gay lawmake...

Taiwan’s vice president accuses China of using trade curbs to influence elections

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:34 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s vice president and frontrunner in the presidential elections has accused China of using “unfair” trade practices to influence the elections.William Lai, in a meeting Friday with foreign press in Taipei, said China has targeted Taiwan’s “agricultural products potentially in an effort to undermine the coming elections.”His comments come after China on Monday announced it would suspend mango imports from Taiwan after import authorities detected “pests” on the fruit. The trade curb is largely believed to be politically motivated.Taiwan is due to hold presidential elections in January 2024. Over the weekend, Beijing launched war games around Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own. China and Taiwan split in 1949 following a civil war that ended with the ruling Communist Party taking control over the mainland.Beijing has never renounced the use of force as a means of retaking Taiwan. China’s political leadership sees Lai and Taiwan’s incu...

Danish government to present draft law making it illegal to burn the Quran or other religious texts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:34 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Danish government on Friday said it will propose a law that would make it illegal to desecrate any holy book in Denmark, where a recent string of public desecrations of the Quran by a handful of anti-Islam activists has sparked angry demonstrations in Muslim countries.Denmark has been viewed as a country that facilitates insult and denigration of the cultures, religions, and traditions of other countries, the government said. The proposal by the center-right government is to extend Denmark’s existing ban on burning foreign flags by also “prohibiting improper treatment of objects of significant religious significance to a religious community,” Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said. “The bill will make it punishable, for example, to burn the Quran or the Bible in public. It will only aim at actions in a public place or with the intention of spreading in a wider circle,” Hummelgaard said, adding that it would be punishable by fines or up to ...

Biden and Harris will meet with the King family on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:34 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will observe Monday’s 60th anniversary of the March on Washington by meeting with organizers of the 1963 gathering and relatives of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial. The Oval Office meeting will be held six decades after President John F. Kennedy and King met at the White House on the morning of the march on Aug. 28, 1963. Biden also will speak later Monday at a White House reception commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan, nonprofit legal organization that was established at Kennedy’s request to help advocate for racial justice. Two White House officials provided details of the Democratic president and vice president’s plans on the condition of anonymity because their schedules have not been officially announced. The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and ...

Dutch Supreme Court confirms immunity of former Israeli officers over a deadly 2014 Gaza airstrike

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:34 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch Supreme Court on Friday upheld a ruling that a Palestinian man cannot sue Israel’s former defense minister and another former senior military officer over their roles in a deadly 2014 Gaza airstrike.The Highest Dutch court confirmed findings by judges in two lower courts that Benny Gantz and former Air Force Commander Amir Eshel are protected from civil proceedings in the Netherlands because they have “functional immunity.”The long-running case was brought by Ismail Ziada, who lost six members of his family in the airstrike that lawyers for the two Israelis argued was part of an Israeli military operation during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Ziada wanted the Dutch court to order Gantz and Eshel to pay damages. His legal team argued that the men didn’t have immunity because their actions amounted to war crimes.Israel’s Justice Ministry told a lower Dutch court that an internal Israeli military investigation determined the airstrike had killed f...

As temperatures climb across the globe, track and field athletes try to keep cool

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:34 GMT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Before her first-round race, Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce climbed on a chair in the waiting area to momentarily feel the refreshing breeze from an air conditioning vent.In an era of rising temperatures and rising risk that comes with competing in them, everyone in track and field — from sprinters to race walkers, from high jumpers to pole vaulters — is constantly looking for ways to keep cool.It’s been baking in Budapest at the world championships, with temperatures pushing 34 degrees Celsius (94 degrees Fahrenheit) and humidity levels that make it feel hotter, all of which could be a glimpse of things to come at next year’s Paris Olympics and beyond.The planet just experienced its hottest July on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Athletes are dealing with weather conditions in unique ways to get them swiftly across the finish line.Some have worn ice vests before races and in training. Others have pr...