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Russia aims more retaliatory strikes at Odesa and other southern Ukraine cities for a third night

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:26 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia pounded Ukraine’s southern cities with drones and missiles for a third consecutive night Thursday, keeping Odesa in the Kremlin’s crosshairs after a bitter dispute over the end of a wartime deal that allowed Ukraine to send grain through the key Black Sea port.The strikes killed at least two people in Odesa. In Mykolaiv, a city close to the Black Sea, at least 19 people were injured, including a child, Ukrainian officials said.Russia has targeted Ukrainian critical grain export infrastructure since it vowed “retribution” this week for an attack that damaged a crucial bridge between Russia and the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula. Russian officials blamed that strike on Ukrainian drone boats.The strikes on Ukraine’s grain export infrastructure have helped drive up food prices in countries facing hunger. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the end of the deal would result in more human suffering, with potentially millions of people affe...

A diplomatic fight breaks out between Iraq and Sweden after a man desecrates the Quran

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:26 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Protesters angered by the planned burning of a copy of the Quran by an Iraqi man in Sweden stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad, overrunning the diplomatic compound and starting a fire Thursday. Hours later, Iraq’s prime minister cut diplomatic ties with Sweden in protest over the desecration of the Islamic holy book.Protesters stormed the diplomatic post early Thursday, waving flags and signs showing the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr, and set a small fire. The attack on the embassy came ahead of a planned burning of the Quran in Stockholm by an Iraqi asylum-seeker who burned a copy of the Islamic holy book during a previous demonstration last month. Following the incident, the Swedish Embassy announced it had closed to visitors, without specifying when it would reopen. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement after meeting with security officials that Iraqi authorities would prosecute those responsible ...

Your paycheck could clear faster now that the FedNow instant payment service for banks has launched

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:26 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve launched a new instant payment service Thursday. FedNow allows banks and credit unions to sign up to send real-time payments so they can offer customers a quicker way to send money between banks. FedNow, which was first announced in 2019, published a list of banks and credit unions that are already signed up to the service. However, it might take longer for customers to be able to use the service with their bank. Here’s what you need to know about FedNow. HOW DOES FEDNOW WORK?FedNow offers instant payment services for banks and credit unions to transfer money for their customers. Unlike other private money-transferring services like PayPal or Venmo, FedNow services are not offered to customers directly through a third-party app or website. The services will only be available through banks or credit unions. However, once banks have adopted FedNow, they’re expected to make it available on their websites and apps. Once a bank offers the F...

Gunman kills 2 in New Zealand before Women’s World Cup starts in what officials call an isolated act

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:26 GMT

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — A gunman opened fire on terrified workers on a construction site in downtown Auckland early Thursday, killing two people hours before New Zealand hosted the first game of the Women’s World Cup. The man was found dead, and authorities said his motive appeared to be connected to his previous work at the site.New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the shooting was an isolated act, and the FIFA tournament opened as scheduled with a game between the home team and Norway, though with tighter security and many jarred in a country where such attacks are rare. A large crowd, including the prime minister, still showed up at the stadium, and a moment of silence was held for the victims of the shooting, which also left a police officer and four civilians injured.“I want to reiterate that there is no wider national security threat,” said Hipkins. “This appears to be the action of one individual.”Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the gunman was a 24-year-o...

Senate Judiciary panel considering ethics rules for the Supreme Court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:26 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee is considering a new ethics code for the Supreme Court, an attempt to respond to recent revelations about justices’ interactions with wealthy donors and others. Republicans are strongly opposed, arguing the ethics bill could “destroy” the high court. The legislation, which the panel is expected to vote on Thursday, would impose new ethics rules on the court and a process to enforce them, including new standards for transparency around recusals, gifts and potential conflicts of interest. Democrats first pushed the legislation after reports earlier this year that Justice Clarence Thomas participated in luxury vacations and a real estate deal with a top GOP donor — and after Chief Justice John Roberts declined to testify before the committee about the ethics of the court. Since then, news reports also revealed that Justice Samuel Alito had taken a luxury vacation with a GOP donor. And The Associated Press reported last week that Justice ...

Public funding for King Charles III and royals has been recalculated due to windfarm deal profits

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:26 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The amount of public funding for King Charles III and the royal family’s official duties has been recalculated for next year because of an unexpected profit boost from offshore wind farms on the monarch’s Crown Estate, the U.K. Treasury said Thursday.Treasury officials say they will halve the proportion of the crown estate’s profits paid to the royals from 25% in recent years to 12% next year. Charles and the royal family receive an annual Sovereign Grant from the Treasury that is based on a proportion of profits from the crown estate, a vast collection of land and property across the U.K. The crown estate is run independently and has assets worth around 16 billion pounds (nearly $18 billion), including some of London’s most expensive properties. The crown estate also manages coastlines and the seabed around the country, and six new offshore windfarm lease deals secured earlier this year have generated a windfall estimated to be worth 1 billion pounds ($1.1...

Russia seeks a 20-year prison term for Kremlin foe Navalny in closed trial, ally says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:26 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian prosecutors asked a court to sentence imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny to 20 years in prison on extremism charges, his ally Ivan Zhdanov said Thursday. According to Zhdanov, the trial against Navalny, which went on behind closed doors in the prison where the politician is serving another lengthy sentence, is scheduled to conclude with a verdict on Aug. 4. Navalny, 47, is President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe who exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests. He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. The authorities sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in prison for parole violations and then to another nine years on charges of fraud and contempt of court. The politician is currently serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison east of Moscow. The new charges relate to the activities of Navalny’s anti-corruption...

Video shows alleged impaired driver in Vaughan arrested at 5 times legal limit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:26 GMT

Police in York Region say they have arrested and charged a driver who was found to have a historic level of alcohol in their system.Officers responded around 10 a.m. on Tuesday after a caller told police a black Honda CRV travelling southbound on Highway 400 had pulled into a gas station south of King Road in Vaughan after it sideswiped concrete barriers on the highway several times, and was driving with its turning signal flashing.The 911 call can be heard in a video released by York Regional Police.“Someone who appears very drunk just pulled into this gas station,” said the caller.Officers arrived to find the vehicle idling in the lot with its front passenger door open. Police allege both the driver and passenger were asleep in the vehicle when they arrived on scene.The video goes on to show officers approaching the vehicle and attempting to speak to the driver. The officer taps on the window and asks the driver to step out.“I slipped a disk in my back and heR...

Mexican volunteer searchers find 27 hacked-up bodies in northern border city

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:26 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Searchers have found 27 corpses in clandestine graves in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, and many of them were hacked to pieces, volunteer searchers said Wednesday. Some of the corpses were buried so recently that bits of skin with tattoos remained, and that has allowed relatives to identify four of the bodies, searchers said. But many were hacked into a half-dozen pieces.Edith González, leader of the search group “For the Love of the Disappeared,” said clandestine burial site was located relatively close to the center of Reynosa. The spot is only about 4 miles (7 kms) from the border. González said some of the 16 burial pits contained two or three bodies, and that the clandestine burial site may have been used by gangs as recently as a month or two ago. Some were covered by only 1 1/2 feet (a half meter) of earth.The prosecutor’s office in the border state of Tamaulipas confirmed the find.Drug and kidnapping gangs use such sites to...

Bosnian Serb lawmakers pass law recriminalizing libel which critics say threatens free speech

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:26 GMT

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — The Bosnian Serb parliament on Thursday passed a law recriminalizing libel which critics say will restrict freedom of expression and silence critical media.Lawmakers approved the law by a 47-16 vote. The assembly in the Serb-run part of Bosnia has 83 lawmakers but not all attended the session.The law was championed by pro-Russian Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik, who has faced U.S. and British sanctions for his separatist policies. It amends the existing criminal law to reintroduce fines of up to 60,000 euros ($64,000) for libel, which is far beyond what most people in the impoverished Balkan nation can pay.A previous law did not consider libel a criminal offense.Journalist organizations in Republika Srpska, the Serb mini-state, and international rights groups demanded that the new law be revoked, but Dodik has ignored their protests. “With today’s approval of the amendments to the Criminal Law, the authorities in Republika Srpska entere...