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A leading politician says victory for Niger’s coup leaders would be ‘the end of democracy’ in Africa

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:28 GMT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — If mutinous soldiers who ousted Niger’s president succeed, it will threaten democracy and security across the region and the continent, a high-ranking member of Bazoum’s political party warned in an interview with The Associated Press.Boubacar Sabo said President Mohamed Bazoum had been “kidnapped” by members of the presidential guard who overthrew him on July 26 and have since kept him under house arrest.“What is happening in Niger, if it succeeds, is the end of democracy in Africa. It’s over. … If we fight today, it is to prevent these kind of things from happening and to ensure a future for our continent,” Sabo said on Thursday. Sabo is deputy secretary general of Bazoum’s Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism. In a region rife with coups, Niger was seen as one of the last democratic countries that Western nations could partner with to beat back a growing jihadi insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. The overth...

UN suspends services in Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon over gunmen inside its facilities

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:28 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says it has decided to suspend all of its services in Lebanon’s largest refugee camp on Friday in protest against the presence of gunmen in its facilities.UNRWA’s decision went into effect shortly before noon Friday at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon. Services will resume Saturday, UNRWA said.Days of street battles took place in the camp between the Fatah group of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and two Islamic militant groups, Jund al Sham and Shabab al Muslim. The clashes broke out on July 30, after Fatah accused its rivals of shooting dead a senior Fatah military official.The fighting killed at least 13 people, injured dozens and caused millions of dollars’ of damage in the camp, according to UNRWA officials.Lebanese security forces don’t operate inside the refugee camps, where security is in the hands of Palestinian factions who often compete for clout.UNRWA said in its statement...

Iran’s foreign minister visits Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince as tensions between rivals ease

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:28 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister met Friday with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as part of his visit to the kingdom, a sign of how the two countries are trying to ease tensions after years of turmoil. Saudi state television aired images of Prince Mohammed sitting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.The state-run Saudi Press Agency offered few substantive details of their conversation, saying merely that they reviewed relations and “future opportunities for cooperation.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry also acknowledged the talks, but provided no details. Amirabdollahian arrived Thursday in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, for meetings with his counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan. The two countries had reached a détente in March mediated by China. Challenges remain, however, particularly over Iran’s advancing nuclear program, the Saudi-led war in Yemen and security across region’s wa...

Former Austrian leader Kurz charged with giving false evidence to a corruption inquiry

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:28 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has been charged with making false statements to a parliamentary inquiry into alleged corruption in his first government, which collapsed in a scandal in 2019, prosecutors said Friday.An indictment against Kurz, his former chief of staff, Bernhard Bonelli, and another unidentified person was filed at the state court in Vienna, the prosecutors’ office that investigates corruption cases said in a statement. The court said Kurz will go on trial on Oct. 18. The charges result from an investigation that was launched in 2021, when Kurz was still chancellor. It centers on his testimony to a parliamentary probe that focused on alleged corruption in the coalition he led from 2017, when his conservative People’s Party formed a government with the far-right Freedom Party, until its collapse in 2019.Kurz pulled the plug on that government after a video surfaced showing the vice chancellor and Freedom Party leader at the time, ...

Woman in life-threatening condition after being struck by vehicle in Scarborough

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:28 GMT

A woman is in hospital with critical injuries after being struck by a vehicle in Scarborough on Friday morning.Emergency crews were called to the area of Eglinton Avenue East and Brimley Road around 6:30 a.m. for reports of a crash.Paramedics tell CityNews a woman was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries.Images from CityNews 680’s traffic helicopter shows police on scene with a black Dodge Ram pickup truck stopped in the westbound lanes.Westbound Eglinton is closed at Brimley for the investigation.This is a developing story. More to come.

North Korea appears to be cracking open its sealed border with dispatch of sports delegation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:28 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — North Korea appears to have cracked open its borders in the first significant way since they were shut at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, with the impoverished nation sending a large group of taekwondo athletes and officials through Beijing to an international competition.The group of around 80 men and women wearing white track suits with the North Korean flag on the front were in the departure hall of Beijing’s international airport. They reportedly arrived Wednesday or Thursday. The group was expected to take an Air Astana flight to Kazakhstan to compete in the International Taekwon-do Federation World Championships, according to Japanese and South Korean media. The competition is being held in Astana through Aug. 30.North Korea has very limited air connections at the best of times, and international travel all but ended when it closed its borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19. How badly North Koreans were affected by the illness is unknown. Mo...

US, Japan and South Korea boosting mutual security commitments over objections of Beijing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:28 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States, Japan and South Korea are set to sign on to a new security pledge, committing the three countries to consult with each other in the event of a security crisis or threat in the Pacific, according to Biden administration officials.Details about the new “duty to consult” commitment emerged as President Joe Biden prepared Friday to welcome South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a summit at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. The move is one of several joint efforts that the leaders are expected to announce at the daylong summit, as the three countries look to tighten security and economic ties amid increasing concerns about North Korea’s persistent nuclear threats and Chinese provocations in the Pacific. Kishida, before departing Tokyo on Thursday, told reporters the summit would be a “historic occasion to bolster trilateral strategic cooperation” with Seoul and Washington.“I believe it i...

Turkish Cypriots attack UN peacekeepers trying to halt road work inside divided Cyprus’ buffer zone

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:28 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Angry Turkish Cypriots punched and kicked a group of international peacekeepers who obstructed crews working on a road that would encroach on a U.N.-controlled buffer zone in ethnically divided Cyprus, the U.N. said Friday.It said the attack happened as peacekeepers stood in the way of work crews building a road to connect the village of Arsos in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north with the mixed Greek Cypriot-Turkish Cypriot village of Pyla, just south of the buffer zone and inside the Greek Cypriot south, where the island’s internationally recognized government is seated.A video seen by the Associated Press showed scores of Turkish Cypriots accosting a much smaller group of Slovak and British U.N. soldiers trying to hold them back from starting work inside the buffer zone. Some peacekeepers suffered blows to the face as they linked arms to push back the advancing Turkish Cypriots. The U.N. said three soldiers had to be treated for minor injuries. The violenc...

Hong Kong judges propose a further delay in the trial of activist publisher Jimmy Lai

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:28 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong judges on Friday proposed a new delay until December in the trial of a prominent activist publisher who was arrested in August 2020 under a sweeping Beijing-imposed national security law.Jimmy Lai, the 75-year-old founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, faces up to life in prison if convicted under the law. He has already been sentenced to five years and nine months in a separate case.His trial, originally scheduled to begin last December, had already been delayed by judges until September while the Hong Kong government appealed to Beijing to block his attempt to hire a British defense lawyer. His arrest under the security law was part of Beijing’s unprecedented crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy camp. More than 260 people have been arrested under the law, including many prominent pro-democracy leaders. In a hearing Friday, Judge Esther Toh suggested that Dec. 18 would be a better time to start the trial because lawyers and...

Friday Forecast: Temps near 80 with mostly sunny conditions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:28 GMT

CHICAGO — Mostly sunny Friday with highs in the mid to upper 70s.  Mostly clear tonight with a low near 60 degrees.  Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here Saturday Forecast: Mostly sunny Saturday with highs in the mid-80s.  Sunday Forecast: Mostly sunny, hot and humid Sunday with inland highs in the lower 90s that feel like 98-105.  Cooler at the lake with highs in the upper 80s.Full forecast details and more at the WGN Weather Center blog