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Turkish voters weigh final decision on next president, visions for future

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:07:59 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Two opposing visions for Turkey’s future are on the ballot when voters return to the polls Sunday for a runoff presidential election that will decide between an increasingly authoritarian incumbent and a challenger who has pledged to restore democracy.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a populist and polarizing leader who has ruled Turkey for 20 years, is well positioned to win after falling just short of victory in the first round of balloting on May 14. He was the top finisher even as the country reels from sky-high inflation and the effects of a devastating earthquake in February.Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey’s pro-secular main opposition party and a six-party alliance, has campaigned on a promise to undo Erdogan’s authoritarian tilt. The 74-year-old former bureaucrat has described the runoff as a referendum on the direction of the strategically located NATO country, which is at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and has a key say ov...

What about those who can’t flee fighting in Sudan? Many face danger and despair

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:07:59 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Mahmoud almost never leaves his small apartment in east Khartoum. Electricity has been out for most of the past month, so he swelters in the summer heat. When he does venture out to find food, he leaves his mobile phone behind because of looters in the street. Otherwise, he hunkers down in fear, worried that an artillery shell could burst into his home. Exhausted, confused and unable to escape the conflict-ravaged Sudanese capital, the young research technician tries blocking out the reality of his surroundings.“I am reading my book collection for a second time,” he said. One work helping him get by: “Models of the Mind,” a 2021 neuroscience book about how mathematics help explain the workings of the brain.Since the conflict broke out last month, more than 1.3 million people have fled their homes to escape Sudan’s fighting, going elsewhere in the country or across the borders. But Mahmoud and millions of others remain trapped in Khartoum and its sister cities of Bahri ...

Companies find it’s not so simple to leave Russia; some quietly stay put

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:07:59 GMT

When Russia invaded Ukraine, global companies were quick to respond, some announcing they would get out of Russia immediately, others curtailing imports or new investment. Billions of dollars’ worth of factories, energy holdings and power plants were written off or put up for sale, accompanied by fierce condemnation of the war and expressions of solidarity with Ukraine.More than a year later, it’s clear: Leaving Russia was not as simple as the first announcements might have made it seem.Increasingly, Russia has put hurdles in the way of companies that want out, requiring approval by a government commission and in some cases from President Vladimir Putin himself, while imposing painful discounts and taxes on sale prices.Though companies’ stories vary, a common theme is having to thread an obstacle course between Western sanctions and outraged public opinion on one side and Russia’s efforts to discourage and penalize departures on the other. Some international brands such as Cok...

Indiana doctor faces discipline hearing over 10-year-old Ohio girl’s abortion

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:07:59 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana board is set to hear allegations Thursday that an Indianapolis doctor should face disciplinary action after she spoke publicly about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from neighboring Ohio. The Medical Licensing Board’s hearing comes after Indiana’s Republican attorney general accused Dr. Caitlin Bernard of violating state law by not reporting the girl’s child abuse to Indiana authorities. She’s also accused of breaking federal patient privacy laws by telling a newspaper reporter about the girl’s treatment.Bernard and her attorneys maintain that the doctor followed Indiana’s child abuse reporting requirements as the girl’s rape was already being investigated by Ohio authorities. Bernard’s lawyers also say she didn’t release any identifying information about the girl that would break privacy laws.The Indianapolis Star cited the girl’s case in a July 1 article that sparked a national political uproar in the weeks after the U....

California unlikely to run short of electricity this summer thanks to storms, new power sources

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:07:59 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California regulators say the state is unlikely to experience electricity shortages this summer after securing new power sources and a wet winter that filled the state’s reservoirs enough to restart hydroelectric power plants that were dormant during the drought.The nation’s most populous state normally has more than enough electricity to power the homes and businesses of more than 39 million people. But the electrical grid has trouble when it gets really hot and everyone turns on their air conditioners at the same time. It got so hot in August 2020 that California’s power grid was overwhelmed, prompting the state’s three largest utility companies to shut off electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes for a few hours over two consecutive days. Similar heat waves in 2021 and 2022 pushed the state to the brink again. State officials avoided blackouts by encouraging people to conserve energy and tapping some emergency gas-powered ge...

UN peacekeeping on 75th anniversary: Successes, failures and many challenges

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:07:59 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Over the past 75 years, the United Nations sent more than 2 million peacekeepers to help countries move away from conflict, with successes from Liberia to Cambodia and major failures in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Today, it faces new challenges in the dozen hotspots where U.N. peacekeeping has operations, including more violent environments, fake news campaigns and a divided world that is preventing its ultimate goal: successfully restoring stable governments.The organization is marking the 75th anniversary of U.N. peacekeeping and observing the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers on Thursday. There will be a ceremony honoring the more than 4,200 peacekeepers who have died since 1948, when a historic decision was made by the U.N. Security Council to send military observers to the Middle East to supervise implementation of Israeli-Arab armistice agreements. The current commander of that mission, which became the United Nations Truce Supervision Or...

Who is Madeleine McCann and what happened to her?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:07:59 GMT

Portuguese Police searched a reservoir in the vicinity of the spot where Madeleine McCann, a British 3-year-old girl, disappeared in 2007.This was the latest development in the search to find McCann, whose disappearance sixteen years ago sparked a global hunt that attracted huge media attention.WHEN DID MADELEINE MCCANN FALL ABANDONED?Madeleine McCann was three years old when she vanished on May 3, 2007. Her parents Kate and Gerry were eating with friends, who became known as "Tapas 7", at a restaurant nearby.Police in the area concluded that it was a kidnapping after a break-in occurred while Madeleine, her twin babies and their mother were sleeping. The family expressed concern over what they deemed a slow police response at first and the failure to secure a crime scene.WHY IS THIS CASE SO WELL-KNOWN?The case of the missing blonde girl with distinctive blue eyes has been covered in the media around the globe.The McCanns initially turned to the media for help in finding their daugh...

Kazakhstan’s Nonproliferation Model Offers More Security

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:07:59 GMT

As the war in Ukraine rages, several experts have raised the fear that Russia is becoming more likely to launch a nuclear weapon – writes Stephen J. Blank .  Two serious observers, former Defense Attaché to Moscow, BG Kevin Ryan (USA Ret), and the Israeli scholar Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky, have each argued that the nuclear option, despite diminishing fear of its use by the West, is an increasing likely Russian option.  Suppose Russian President Vladimir Putin does follow through with his nuclear threats. In that case, he will have shown that unsatisfied imperial longings could trigger Armageddon and that conventional war cannot be easily deterred from escalating, breaking the nuclear taboo.These “demonstrations” highlight, inter alia, the perpetual insecurity inherent in nuclear weaponry. Their very existence may compel their use, which leads states to believe they can attack non-nuclear states with impunity since nobody wants atomic war. When pleasant illusions flounder on the rocks of...

Russia's Putin meets Bosnian Serb leader Dodik, hails rise in trade

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:07:59 GMT

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik (pictured) in Moscow on Tuesday (23 May) and hailed an increase in trade during a meeting that has angered the European Union.In a transcript released by the Kremlin, Putin told Dodik that bilateral trade with Dodik's Serb Republic region of Bosnia, while relatively small, had increased by 57% last year."This trend should certainly be maintained," he said, adding that Russian and Bosnian Serb companies could achieve even better results.Bosnia receives Russian gas via Serbia and Bulgaria. After the meeting with Putin, Dodik told Russian television that the price the Serb Republic paid for gas would remain low but did not give details.Following a devastating ethnic war in the 1990s, Bosnia was split into two autonomous regions - the Federation shared by Bosniaks and Croats and the Serb Republic, linked via a weak central government. Bosnia has no unified foreign policy.Dodik, a Serb nationalist who has ...

Video captures thief snatching woman's purse from Culver City restaurant

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:07:59 GMT

Video captured the moment a thief swiped a woman's purse while she was dining outside at a Culver City restaurant.Police are searching for at least three suspects involved in the coordinated theft.Officials said the incident happened on May 14 at Akasha where a woman’s purse was stolen from the back of her chair as she was dining.“It was really upsetting,” said Alan Schulman, co-owner of Akasha. “It’s upsetting and it’s a violation. And on Mother’s Day? Really? Come on.”Security video shows the victim dining in the restaurant's front patio with her back facing the sidewalk as her purse hangs on her chair.As a suspect wearing a dark hoodie approaches the woman, he quickly snatches the hanging purse and sprints away.Video captured the moment a thief quickly snatches a woman's purse hanging on a dining chair at a Culver City restaurant on May 14, 2023. (Akasha)Video captured the moment a thief quickly snatches a woman's purse hanging on a dining chair at a Culver City restaurant on May...