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Pakistan anti-graft court allows questioning of deputy at Imran Khan’s party amid political turmoil

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:31:28 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — An anti-graft tribunal in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Tuesday allowed authorities to interrogate the president of former premier Imran Khan’s political party in a corruption probe, prosecutors and a defense lawyer said.The latest development comes a day after the National Accountability Bureau arrested Pervez Elahi in the garrison city of Rawalpindi after his one-month detention expired. Elahi was detained under a law that allows the government to arrest any suspect to ensure law and order in the country.Elahi is the president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI. Khan, who is imprisoned, is the chairman.Khan was arrested on August 6 after a court sentenced him to three years for corruption in a move that analysts say could halt his future in politics, for now. The court ruled that Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022 but remains the country’s leading opposition figure, had concealed assets after selling state gifts. Khan denies t...

Australian ex-priest has prison sentence extended to 40 years for molesting 72nd child victim

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:31:28 GMT

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian ex-priest convicted of sexually abusing children had another 12 months added to his 39-year prison sentence on Tuesday for molesting a 72nd victim.Gerald Ridsdale, 89, has been in prison since 1994 for a series of convictions for abusing children between 1961 and 1988 while he worked as a Roman Catholic priest in churches and schools across his home state of Victoria.He was sentenced in the Ballarat Magistrates Court to an additional year after he pleaded guilty in June to indecently assaulting a 13-year-old boy while he worked at a Catholic school in Horsham in 1987.It was his 193rd conviction for child abuse.Ridsdale appeared in court via a video link from a hospital prison bed. He kept his eyes closed throughout the hearing.Magistrate Hugh Radford told Ridsdale he had been in a position of trust and should have been providing guidance to his victim.Ridsdale must serve at least 33 years and six months of his 40-year sentence before he is e...

Shawcor sells substantial part of pipeline and pipe services business for $220M

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:31:28 GMT

TORONTO — Shawcor Ltd. has signed a deal to sell a substantial part of its pipe coating division to Tenaris S.A. for about $220 million.Chief executive Mike Reeves says that once complete, the transaction, combined with others and a few remaining non-material actions, will conclude its strategic review process.Shawcor announced a plan last year to change its name to Mattr and launched a strategic review of its pipeline and oilfield asset management divisions. The sale includes operations in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Norway, the UAE and Indonesia, several mobile concrete coating plants, its joint-venture interest in Azerbaijan, research and development operations in Toronto and Norway and intellectual property.The company says the deal does not include its pipeline performance group business in Malaysia, Italy, the United Kingdom and Brazil, that it remains committed to sell.The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, which the company ...

Militia clashes rock Libya’s capital leaving civilians trapped, health ministry say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:31:28 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Clashes between rival militias in the Libyan capital have left residents trapped in their homes unable to escape the violence, the country’s health ministry said Tuesday, in what appears to be the most intense bout of fighting to rock Tripoli this year.According to local media, fighting broke out between the 444 brigade and the Special Deterrence Force late Monday evening. Tensions flared after the head of the 444 brigade was allegedly detained by the other force at an airport in Tripoli earlier Monday, media reported.In a statement, the Libyan Health Ministry called on the warring sides to allow ambulance and emergency teams to enter the affected areas — primarily in the south of the city — and for blood to be sent to nearby hospitals. It remains unclear how many casualties there are. Libya’s Red Crescent has not responded to The Associated Press’ request for comment.OPSGroup, an organization for the aviation industry, said late Monday that a large number o...

Israeli West Bank raid kills 2 Palestinians and a court releases a settler charged in shooting death

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:31:28 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old, in a raid in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Palestinian health officials said, the latest violence to shake the region.Some of that violence has been perpetrated by radical Jewish settlers in the West Bank and on Tuesday, an Israeli court released from detention a Jewish settler allegedly involved in the shooting death of a 19-year-old Palestinian, placing him under house arrest. Yehiel Indore’s release follows the release from detention last week of another settler accused of involvement in the same incident who was also transferred to house arrest. Israel has been carrying out near-nightly raids in the West Bank since last year in response to a spate of Palestinian attacks, fueling tensions in the region and sending the death toll soaring. Tuesday’s developments come amid a spike in attacks on Palestinians by radical Jewish settlers, settlement expansion and as Israel ...

Kenya launches an inquiry into alleged abuses by a British Army training unit – including a murder

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:31:28 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Kenyan parliamentary committee has launched an inquiry into alleged human rights violations and ethical breaches by a British Army training unit active for decades in what the UK calls “our defense partner of choice in East Africa.”Britain’s Ministry of Defense didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.The British have roughly 200 military personnel permanently based in Kenya, most of them training more than 1,000 Kenyan soldiers a year before their deployment to neighboring Somalia to combat al-Qaida’s longtime East Africa affiliate, al-Shabab. The British government invests more than 1.1 billion Kenyan shillings ($9.6 million) every year into the partnership.But some Kenyans have raised concerns about the way British forces treat locals as well as the environment during the military training in arid, bandit-plagued areas north of Mt. Kenya. In late 2021, Kenyan police said they were reopening the case of a local woman, Agnes Wanji...

Poland showcases military might in a parade as war rages in neighboring Ukraine

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:31:28 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland staged a military parade on Tuesday to showcase its state-of-the-art weapons and defense systems, as war rages across its southeastern border in neighboring Ukraine and ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for Oct. 15.Crowds gathered in scorching temperatures expected to reach 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) to see U.S.-made Abrams tanks, HIMARS mobile artillery systems and Patriot missile systems, as well as South Korean FA-50 fighter jets and K9 howitzers.Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Poland’s right-wing government has spent more than $16 billion on tanks, missile interceptor systems and fighter jets, many purchased from the U.S. and South Korea.Poland, a NATO member, supports Kyiv in its war against Russia.The parade was held in Poland’s capital on the anniversary of the 1920 Battle of Warsaw, in which Polish troops defeated Bolshevik forces advancing on Europe.The military upgrades have bolster...

Vast swath of northeastern China threatened by flooding as rivers rise above warning levels

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:31:28 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — A vast swath of northeastern China is threatened by flooding as at least 90 rivers have risen above warning levels and 24 have already overflowed their banks, state media reported Tuesday. Crews are standing by to defend homes and farmland across the Songliao Basin north of Beijing, which encompasses more than 1.2 million square kilometers (482,200 square miles). The area includes parts of four provinces and several major cities with a total population of almost 100 million. Tens of thousands have already been moved to safety. Reservoirs have been partly drained and overflow areas prepared to handle the high waters, the reports said. Ten rivers are already running at historically high levels, they said. Much of China is having a particularly damp summer, with 142 people killed by flooding in July and dozens more this month. In the western city of Xi’an, the death toll from a landslide rose by three to 24 on Tuesday with three others still missing. Rescue teams totalin...

Why tensions have been growing along NATO’s eastern border with Belarus

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:31:28 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland is deploying thousands of troops to its border with Belarus, calling it a deterrent move as tensions between the two neighbors ratchet up. Those tensions between Poland — a NATO and European Union country — and Belarus, which is Russia’s ally in its war on Ukraine, have been building up in recent months on the border. Here is why: ORIGINS OF THE TENSIONSPoland has been backing the Belarusian opposition ever since the 2020 presidential elections, where pro-Russian Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term in a vote that Poland and the wider Western community saw as rigged. In 2021, Belarus began organizing and pushing thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa across the border into Poland. The move is seen by Poland and the EU as planned with the Kremlin and intended to cause instability in Europe. Poland’s right-wing government, hostile to the idea of accepting migrants, built a $400,000 wall that substantially reduced the...

Home Depot tops expectations again, but signs of spending pullback by Americans

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:31:28 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Home Depot topped profit and sales expectations in its most recent quarter, but sales continued to decline as inflation and soaring interest rates play a larger role in the spending choices made by Americans. Second quarter revenue was $42.92 billion, edging out Wall Street expectations for $42.25 billion, according to a survey of industry analysts by Zacks Investment Research. Yet that’s down 2% from the $43.87 billion that nation’s largest home improvement retailer reported during the same stretch last year, and sales have fallen 3.1% through the first half of the year compared with 2022. Despite the stronger-than-expected sales figures, Home Depot on Tuesday stuck to previous guidance for the year, seeing sales decline between 2% and 5%, after lowering its forecast in the last quarter. It’s the first time the chain forecast declining annual sales since 2009 when the U.S. economy was decimated by a massive housing bubble. There are signs that consu...