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Kremlin critic Navalny expects a lengthy prison term as court readies extremism trial verdict

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:47 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is preparing to hear the verdict Friday in his latest trial on extremism charges. The prosecution has demanded a 20-year prison sentence, and the politician himself said he expects to receive a lengthy term. If the court finds Navalny guilty, it would be his fifth criminal conviction, all of which his supporters see as a deliberate Kremlin strategy to silence its most ardent opponent. Navalny is already serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court. He also was sentenced in 2021 to 2 1/2 years in prison for a parole violation. The extremism trial has taken place behind closed doors in the penal colony east of Moscow where he is imprisoned. The 47-year-old Navalny is President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe and has 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 ...

New Jersey to hold three-day state funeral for late Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:47 GMT

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey will send off Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, who died after being hospitalized this week, with a three-day state funeral. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement that Oliver’s remains would lie in state in the Capitol rotunda Thursday, followed by a similar honor in her home county’s historic courthouse on Aug. 11. A funeral is set for Aug. 12 in Newark’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Beginning Friday flags on state buildings will fly half-staff in honor of Oliver for the next month. Oliver died Tuesday, just a day after the governor’s office said she was admitted to a hospital with an undisclosed medical issue. No cause was given for her death in a statement from the governor’s office on behalf of Oliver’s family, which asked for privacy.Her death coincided with Murphy’s vacation in Italy and while she was serving as acting governor. Murphy cut his trip short by 10 days, returning to New Jersey on Thursday. He’s s...

UN closes its human rights office in Uganda as government ends an agreement allowing it to operate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:47 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The United Nations’ human rights office in Uganda will close this weekend after the East African country decided not to renew an agreement allowing it to operate, the U.N.’s top human rights official said Friday.The closure comes amid concern over human rights violations including extrajudicial killings in Uganda and a new law that prescribes the death penalty for some homosexual acts. The office in Kampala will formally cease operations on Saturday, while sub-offices in Gulu and Moroto closed at the end of June and on Monday respectively.“I regret that our office in Uganda had to close after 18 years, during which we were able to work closely with civil society, people from various walks of life in Uganda, as well as engaging with state institutions for the promotion and protection of the human rights of all Ugandans,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement from Geneva.The closure was prompted by the government’s deci...

Ukrainian official says drones hit naval ship in Russian port. It’s the latest attack inside Russia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:47 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian sea drones attacked a major Russian port on the Black Sea on Friday, damaging a naval ship, according to a Ukrainian official, the latest in a series of strikes inside Russia as Kyiv vowed to bring the fight home to them. Moscow claimed it repelled the attack. The strike on Novorossiysk marks the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the 18-month war. The port — which hosts a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal and is key for exports — lies just across the Black Sea from Crimea, where Russia’s Defense Ministry said it thwarted another attack overnight, taking down 13 drones.The Security Service of Ukraine and the country’s navy carried out the attack on Novorossiysk, according to an official with the security service, and the landing ship, Olenegorsky Gornyak, suffered a serious breach. As a result, the ship is unable to carry out its combat missions, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity becaus...

Play it again, Joe. Biden bets that repeating himself is smart politics

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:47 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has his zingers (“This is not your father’s Republican Party”). He’s got patriotism (“This is the United States of America, dammit”). He’s got a geometry-based explanation on how to grow the economy (“from the middle out and the bottom up”). Move over, Beyonce and Taylor Swift. Biden has his own greatest hits and he’s keeping them on repeat.If you’ve heard one of the president’s recent speeches, you’ve basically heard them all — and you’re sure to keep hearing the same refrains in the year-plus leading up to Election Day 2024. People in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah will get to sample the playlist starting Tuesday, when Biden makes a three-day swing through the Southwest.Biden knows where the country is in the arc of history (“at an inflection point”). He knows what the middle class needs (“a little bit of breathing room”). Did you know his wife, Jill, is from Philadelphia? Yep, he “married a Philly girl” and will be “sleeping alone” ...

In Niger, the US seeks to hang on to its last, best counterterrorist outpost in West Africa

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:47 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ten days into a coup in Niger, life has become more challenging for U.S. forces at a counterterrorism base in a region of West Africa known as the world’s epicenter of terrorism.Flights in and out of the country have been curtailed as coup leaders require Americans to seek permission for each flight. Fuel shortages mean the U.S. commander must sign off whenever an aircraft is refueled.And yet, as several European countries evacuate Niger, the Biden administration is showing itself intent on staying. It sees Niger as the United States’ last, best counterterrorism outpost — and until the coup, a promising democracy — in an unstable region south of the Sahara Desert.Abandoning it risks not only a surge in jihadist groups, but even greater influence by Russia’s Wagner mercenary group. In an opinion piece published late Thursday in The Washington Post, democratically elected President Mohammed Bazoum urged the U.S. and others to help Niger restore its constitutional ord...

Damage from clashes could delay start of school year in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian camp, UN says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:47 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Damage to the school complex in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp from recent clashes between factions could delay the start of the school year for some 6,000 children, a United Nations official said Friday.The concern arose after heavy street battles broke out Sunday in Ein el-Hilweh between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party and Islamist groups Jund al Sham and Shabab al Muslim. The clashes erupted after Fatah accused the Islamists of gunning down a Fatah military general, Abu Ashraf al Armoushi, in the camp.The fighting has killed at least 13 people, injured dozens more and displaced thousands from the camp, which is home to more than 50,000 people.Although an uneasy calm has prevailed over the past two days, staff from the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have been unable to access the camp to make a full damage assessment or to provide services. Dorothee Klaus, Director of UNRWA in Lebanon, told The Associated Press that...

Montreal home sales on pace with last July, above historical average: QPAREB

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:47 GMT

MONTREAL — The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says July’s Montreal home sales were little changed from a year ago but remained above the historical average for this time of year.The association says sales for the month totalled 3,098, up one per cent from a year prior.The association sees July as a sign that activity is picking up again after a “disappointing” June.It says July was the first time since the summer of 2021 that the Island of Montreal drove activity in the market as sales of small-income and single-family properties picked up.The average price of a single-family home was up one per cent from a year earlier to $555,000 in July, while condos were almost unchanged at $395,000. Plexes dropped six per cent to $735,000.New listing across the market fell nine per cent from last July to 4,354.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4, 2023.The Canadian Press

Landslide hits Georgia mountain resort, killing seven people and leaving more than 30 missing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:47 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A landslide hit a resort area in the mountains of the country of Georgia, killing at least seven people and leaving more than 30 missing, officials and news reports said Friday.The landslide hit the Shovi area on Thursday. Shovi, about 140 kilometers (85 miles) northwest of the capital Tbilisi, is popular for its mineral springs and rugged mountain vistas and contains cottages and small hotels.Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili visited the region on Friday and said the death toll stood at seven. Georgian news reports cited officials as saying about 35 people remained unaccounted for.Officials said the landslide apparently was triggered by heavy rainfall, aggravated by recent erosion in the area.The Associated Press

Deadly flooding in China worsens as rescues and evacuations intensify

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:50:47 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Heavy rain and high water levels on rivers in northeastern China were threatening cities downstream on Friday, prompting the evacuation of thousands, although the country appears to have averted the worst effects of the typhoon season battering parts of east Asia. Hebei province, which surrounds the capital Beijing on three sides, issued alerts for several of its cities. The province of Heilongjiang to the north was evacuating entire villages in anticipation of life-threatening deluges. Rescue work remains underway. At least 20 people have been reported killed in Beijing’s outer suburbs and another 27 were missing following the weekend storms that quickly overwhelmed drainage systems. Beijing usually has dry summers, but had a stretch of record-breaking heat this year that broke dramatically over the weekend with almost a week of constant rain and drizzle. Power was knocked out in areas, public transport and summer classes were suspended and citizens of the metropolis...