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Belgium, Iran conduct prisoner swap in Oman, freeing aid worker and diplomat convicted in bomb plot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:29 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Belgium and Iran conducted a prisoner exchange Friday in Oman, with officials saying Tehran released a Belgian aid worker in exchange for an Iranian diplomat convicted of attempting to bomb a meeting of exiles in France. The initial announcement by Oman’s Foreign Ministry did not identify the prisoners being swapped. However, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in a statement that the aid worker, Olivier Vandecasteele, had been freed. Iranian state television later said, in an on-screen graphic, that the diplomat would be freed. “Informed sources report the release of Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat detained in Belgium,” Iranian state TV said. “Further details will be announced.”Oman’s Foreign Ministry said that “those released were transferred from Tehran and Brussels to Muscat today, Friday, in preparation for their return to their countries.” It added that “the sultanate of Oman appreciated the high positive sp...

World Bank approves $300 million financing to help the poor in Lebanon

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:29 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The World Bank approved a $300 million additional financing to Lebanon’s poor, providing cash payments to help families struggling through the country’s historic economic meltdown, institution said in a statement Friday. The new financing comes two years after the World Bank approved a $246 million loan to Lebanon to provide emergency cash assistance to hundreds of thousands in the tiny Mediterranean nation of 6 million people. Lebanon is in the throes of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. The meltdown, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by Lebanon’s ruling class, began in October 2019 and has left more than three quarters of Lebanon’s population in poverty. “The additional financing will enable the Government of Lebanon to continue to respond to the growing needs of poor and vulnerable households suffering under the severe economic and financial crisis,” said Jean-Christophe Carret, World Bank Middle East Country ...

Climate protesters dog oil major TotalEnergies’ shareholder meeting in Paris

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:29 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French police threw a security cordon around a shareholders’ meeting in Paris of oil major TotalEnergies on Friday, spraying tear gas and pushing back climate protesters who chanted, “Be gentle, police officers, we’re doing this for your kids !” Shareholders, some escorted into the meeting by police, ran a gauntlet of the peaceful, earnest and mostly young demonstrators, who waved placards attacking the climate record of the French energy giant that has reaped colossal profits from price surges that have accompanied war in Ukraine.“The last pipeline before the end of the world,” “Listen to the scientists: No more fossil projects,” their placards read.Protesters sat down in surrounding streets and linked arms to block access to the meeting in a famed Paris concert hall. Police officers bodily carried some protesters to move them out of the way. They sprayed tear gas from canisters to force people back.The burning of coal, oil, natural gas and biomass is...

Passenger opens exit door during airplane flight in South Korea; 12 people injured slightly

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:29 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A passenger opened an emergency exit door during a plane flight in South Korea on Friday, causing air to blast inside the cabin and slightly injure 12 people, officials said. The plane landed safely.Some people aboard the Asiana Airlines Airbus A321 aircraft tried to stop the person, who was able to partially open the door, the Transport Ministry said.The person was detained by airport police on suspicion of violating the aviation security law, a ministry statement said. The person’s identity and motive weren’t immediately released.The law bars passengers from handling exit doors and other equipment on board and provides for penalties of up to 10 years in prison, the ministry said.The plane with 194 people aboard was heading to the southeastern city of Daegu from the southern island of Jeju. The flight is normally about an hour, and the incident occurred when the plane was reaching the Daegu airport at an altitude of 700 feet (213 meters).A vide...

Pro-government rally planned in Serbia amid growing discontent after mass shootings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:29 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Tens of thousands of people are expected in the Serbian capital on Friday for a major rally in support of President Aleksandar Vucic, who is facing an unprecedented revolt against his autocratic rule amid the crisis triggered by two mass shootings that stunned the nation.Answering Vucic’s call for what he called “the largest rally in the history of Serbia,” his supporters, many wearing identical T-shirts with his portrait, were being bused to Belgrade from all over the Balkan country as well as neighboring Kosovo and Bosnia. Those working in state firms and institutions were told to take a day off from work to attend the rally in front of the parliament building. Some said that they were warned that they could lose their jobs if they don’t show up on the buses which started arriving hours before the gathering was to start.Serbian officials said the rally promotes “unity and hope” for Serbia. At three large anti-government protests held earlier this mont...

Judge to sentence 2 Oath Keepers members after handing down punishment for group’s founder

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two members of the Oath Keepers who stormed the U.S. Capitol in a military-style formation will be sentenced Friday, a day after the far-right extremist group’s founder received an 18-year prison term for seditious conspiracy and other charges in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta will sentence Army veterans Jessica Watkins and Kenneth Harrelson after handing Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes the longest prison sentence so far in more than 1,000 criminal cases brought in the Jan. 6 riot.Watkins and Harrelson were acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of obstructing Congress in the trial alongside Rhodes and other members of the group that ended in November. One of their other co-defendants, Florida chapter leader Kelly Meggs, was sentenced Thursday to 12 years behind bars. Harrelson was the group’s “ground team lead” when Oath Keepers joined the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and disrupted the joint session of Congress...

Ukraine harasses Russian border regions, Russia strikes Dnipro clinic

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:29 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine came under attack from Ukrainian artillery fire Friday, authorities said, hours after at least one nighttime blast rocked a Russian city in a region next to the annexed Crimea peninsula.The Kremlin’s forces, meanwhile, struck a clinic in Dnipro, in central Ukraine, killing one person and wounding 16, including two children, Ukrainian officials said. Also, a Russian S-300 missile hit a dam in the Karlivka district of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, placing nearby settlements under threat of severe flooding.The Belgorod town of Graivoron, some 7 kilometers (4.5 miles) from the Ukrainian border, was under fire for several hours, with four houses, a store, a car, a gas pipeline and a power line damaged, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported.Closer to the border, a recreation center, a shop and an uninhabited house sustained damage in the village of Glotovo. There were no casualties, according to Gladkov.The Belgorod...

6 migrant traffickers arrested after opening fire on Albanian border police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:29 GMT

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian police on Friday said they have arrested six migrant traffickers for allegedly organizing an illegal border crossing for people from Arab countries and opening fire on border police. No injures were reported.A police statement said that the traffickers were operating late Thursday in Morine village, close to the Kosovo border, 165 kilometers (around 100 miles) north of the capital, Tirana, where they were conducting “criminal activity assisting emigrants from third countries to cross the border illegally … in exchange for financial compensation.”The traffickers responded with gunfire when they were asked to stop, police said.Following hours of pursuit in coordination with neighboring Kosovo counterparts, five Syrians and one Algerian were arrested early Friday, police said, adding that another Algerian suspect is still at large.They are accused of assisting migrants from Arab or Asian countries to illegally cross from Greece to Albania, Kosovo and Ser...

Study finds 1 in 10 get long COVID after omicron, starts identifying key symptoms

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — About 10% of people appear to suffer long COVID after an omicron infection, a lower estimate than earlier in the pandemic, according to a study of nearly 10,000 Americans that aims to help unravel the mysterious condition.Early findings from the National Institutes of Health’s study highlight a dozen symptoms that most distinguish long COVID, the catchall term for the sometimes debilitating health problems that can last for months or years after even a mild case of COVID-19.Millions worldwide have had long COVID, with dozens of widely varying symptoms including fatigue and brain fog. Scientists still don’t know what causes it, why it only strikes some people, how to treat it -– or even how to best diagnose it. Better defining the condition is key for research to get those answers.“Sometimes I hear people say, ’Oh, everybody’s a little tired,'" said Dr. Leora Horwitz of NYU Langone Health, one of the study authors. “No, there’s something different abo...

Indiana doctor reprimanded for talking publicly about Ohio 10-year-old's abortion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:13:29 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana board decided Thursday night to reprimand an Indianapolis doctor after finding that she violated patient privacy laws by talking publicly about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from neighboring Ohio.The state Medical Licensing Board voted that Dr. Caitlin Bernard didn’t abide by privacy laws when she told a newspaper reporter about the girl’s treatment in a case that became a flashpoint in the national abortion debate days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.The board, however, rejected accusations from Indiana’s Republican attorney general that Bernard violated state law by not reporting the child abuse to Indiana authorities. Board members chose to fine Bernard $3,000 for the violations, turning down a request from the attorney general’s office to suspend Bernard’s license. The board issued no restrictions on her practice of medicine. 10-year-old Ohio girl’s abortion prompts discipli...