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Clashes continue between factions in Palestinian camp in Lebanon as death toll climbs to 9

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:18:57 GMT

SIDON, Lebanon (AP) — Clashes continued Monday for the third day in a Palestinian camp in Lebanon between members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah group and Islamist factions. The death toll from the fighting rose to nine, officials said. A Lebanese army spokesperson confirmed the latest casualty figures at Ein el-Hilweh camp. Two soldiers stationed outside the camp were lightly wounded, Col. Fadi Abou Eid said. Despite attempts by Lebanese parties and some of the Palestinian factions to broker a cease-fire, “the shooting and shelling have not stopped in the camp until this moment,” said Adnan Rifai, a member of the popular committee that serves as a governing body in the camp.The Lebanese army mans a checkpoint outside and typically does not enter the camp, which is under the control of the Palestinian factions.The clashes erupted on Sunday after Islamic militants shot and killed a Palestinian military general from the Fatah group, Abu Ashraf al Armoushi, and three esc...

1st US nuclear reactor built from scratch in decades enters commercial operation in Georgia

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:18:57 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A new reactor at a nuclear power plant in Georgia has entered commercial operation, becoming the first new American reactor built from scratch in decades.Georgia Power Co. announced Monday that Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta, has completed testing and is now sending power to the grid reliably.At its full output of 1,100 megawatts of electricity, Unit 3 can power 500,000 homes and businesses. Utilities in Georgia, Florida and Alabama are receiving the electricity.A fourth reactor is also nearing completion at the site, where two earlier reactors have been generating electricity for decades. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday said radioactive fuel could be loaded into Unit 4, a step expected to take place before the end of September. Unit 4 is scheduled to enter commercial operation by March.The third and fourth reactors were originally supposed to cost $14 billion, but are now on track to cost their owners $31 billion. That doesn’t include $3.7 b...

China imposes curbs on drone exports, citing Ukraine and concern about military use

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:18:57 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China imposed restrictions Monday on exports of long-range civilian drones, citing Russia’s war in Ukraine and concern that drones might be converted to military use.Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government is friendly with Moscow but says it is neutral in the 18-month-old war. It has been stung by reports that both sides might be using Chinese-made drones for reconnaissance and possibly attacks.Export controls will take effect Tuesday to prevent use of drones for “non-peaceful purposes,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. It said exports still will be allowed but didn’t say what restrictions would apply.China is a leading developer and exporter of drones. DJI Technology Co., one of the global industry’s top competitors, announced in April 2022 it was pulling out of Russia and Ukraine to prevent its drones from being used in combat.“The risk of some high specification and high-performance civilian unmanned aerial vehicles being converted to military use...

Curfew declared in Nigerian state after warehouses and shops are looted

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:18:57 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Residents of northeastern Nigeria’s Adamawa state were prohibited from leaving home Monday as authorities enforced a 24-hour lockdown period in response to what they said was widespread looting of shops and warehouses.Gov. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri declared the around-the-clock curfew Sunday in response to “escalating violence by hoodlums attacking people and businesses” in the state capital, his spokesperson said in a statement.The statement alleged the law-breakers assaulted residents in Yola while breaking into businesses and homes and “carting away property.” Several government policies introduced by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who took office in late May, have further squeezed millions of people battling with hunger and poverty in Africa’s biggest economy. The government ended decades-long gasoline subsidies, more than doubling the price of gas and causing a spike in prices of food and other essential commodities.Images posted on social media appeared to sh...

Russian missiles strike an apartment building, killing at least 4 in Ukrainian leader’s hometown

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:18:57 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles slammed into an apartment complex and a university building in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih Monday, killing four people and wounding scores of others as the blasts trapped residents beneath rubble, Ukraine’s interior minister said.One of the two missiles destroyed a section of the apartment building between the fourth and ninth floors, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. Video showed black smoke billowing from corner units and burned out or damaged cars on a tree-lined street.A 10-year-old girl was among those killed, officials said. Dnipro Gov. Serhii Lysak said 53 people were wounded in the morning attack, which also destroyed part of the four-story university building. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian artillery strike on partially occupied Donetsk province killed two people and wounded six in the regional capital, according to Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed leader of the illegally annexed province. A bus was also hit as Ukrain...

Pakistan buries dead from massive suicide attack at political rally

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:18:57 GMT

KHAR, Pakistan (AP) — Hundreds of mourners attended funerals Monday after a massive suicide bombing killed at least 54 people at an election rally for a pro-Taliban cleric, carrying caskets draped in colorful clothes to burial sites in the hills.No one immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bombing, which killed at least five children and wounded nearly 200 people. The attack appeared to reflect divisions between Islamist groups, which have a strong presence in areas like Bajur, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan. It targeted a political party with ties to the Afghan and Pakistan Taliban.At 1,000 people, according to police, were crowded into a tent near a market for a rally organized by the Jamiat Ulema Islam party as it prepared for fall elections. “People were chanting God is Great as the leaders arrived,” said Khan Mohammad, a local resident who said he was standing outside the tent, “and that was when I heard the deafening so...

Mar-a-Lago worker charged in Trump’s classified documents case will make his 1st court appearance

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:18:57 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — An employee of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, Carlos De Oliveira, is expected to make his first court appearance Monday on charges accusing him of scheming with the former president to hide security footage from investigators probing Trump’s hoarding of classified documents. De Oliveira, Mar-a-Lago’s property manager, was added last week to the indictment with Trump and the former president’s valet, Walt Nauta, in the federal case alleging a plot to illegally keep top-secret records at Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, estate and thwart government efforts to retrieve them. De Oliveira faces charges including conspiracy to obstruct justice and lying to investigators. He’s scheduled to appear before a magistrate judge in Miami nearly two months after Trump pleaded not guilty in the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. The developments in the classified documents case come as Trump braces for possible charges in another federal inve...

Lebanon’s central bank governor ends 30-year tenure under investigation during dire economic crisis

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:18:57 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s embattled central bank governor stepped down Monday under a cloud of investigation and blame for his country’s economic crisis as several European countries probe him for alleged financial crimes.Riad Salameh, 73, ended his 30-year tenure atop the central bank as tearful employees took photos and a band played celebratory music with drums and trumpets.In that same building, his four vice governors, led by incoming interim governor Wassim Mansouri, quickly pivoted to urge fiscal reforms for the cash-strapped country.“We are at a crossroads,” Mansouri said at a news conference. “There is no choice, if we continue previous policy … the funds in the Central Bank will eventually dry up.”Seventy-three-year-old Riad Salameh kicked off his tenure as central bank governor in 1993, three years after Lebanon’s bloody 15-year civil war came to an end. It was a time when reconstruction loans and aid was pouring into the country, and Salameh was widely ce...

Kosovo journalists protest government’s suspension of private television station

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:18:57 GMT

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s journalists on Monday protested against the government’s decision to suspend a private television station’s operations.Authorities made the move last week because they said there were irregularities concerning the registration of Klan Kosova’s business license that violated the country’s constitution.Scores of journalists and members of civil society organizations gathered in downtown Pristina in front of the main government building to protest the suspension of the broadcaster’s operations.The demonstrators said it was a “politically motivated” action taken by the government of Prime Minister Albin Kurti. It was the first closure of a media outlet since the end of Kosovo’s 1998-1999 war, they said, holding a banner that read “Democracy dies in darkness.”Last week, Kosovo’s Ministry of Industry and Trade suspended Klan Kosova’s license, after the documentation of its business registration in neighboring North Macedonia showed ...

Westbound 401 express closed, 1 person in critical condition after crash near Hwy. 400

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:18:57 GMT

One person is fighting for their life after a serious crash that shut down a stretch of Highway 401 during the Monday morning rush.Police tell CityNews the crash involving an SUV and a tractor-trailer happened around 6:45 a.m. in the westbound express lanes west of Highway 400.One person has life-threatening injuries.The westbound 401 express is closed approaching the 400 where all traffic is being forced into the collector lanes.????COLLISION: #WB401 express closed approaching the 400 due to a collision. ????https://t.co/xGrbNN6JMp pic.twitter.com/GuZu1fUDSG— CityNews Toronto Traffic & Weather (@citynews680) July 31, 2023