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Domestic issues give Turkey’s Erdogan a tough election race

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:50 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has parlayed his country’s NATO membership and location straddling Europe and the Middle East into international influence during two decades in power. Like other world leaders with global ambitions, he finds his tenure imperiled by matters closer to home. Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday are taking place amid rampant inflation and months after a catastrophic earthquake killed over 50,000 people in the country’s south. The government has come under criticism for mismanaging the economy and failing to prepare the quake-prone nation for February’s natural disaster.Polls show Erdogan facing the toughest reelection race of his career. A six-party opposition alliance united behind the candidacy of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the social democratic Republican People’s Party, promising to undo democratic backsliding, repatriate Syrian refugees and to promote the rights of Turkis...

Western weapons, growing experience harden Ukrainian air defenses against renewed Russian onslaught

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:50 GMT

NEAR KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — By the time Kyiv residents hear the air-raid sirens signaling an imminent Russian attack, Ukraine’s air-defense units are already on the move. From camouflaged positions, they dart out by truck to farm fields around the capital, ready to take down enemy drones or missiles.The scramble has become an almost nightly event since Russia resumed regular air attacks on Kyiv on April 28 after a nearly two-month lull. The units have intercepted every drone and missile fired at the capital since then.It’s a vast improvement since the opening days of the war, when waves of Russian missiles and aircraft eluded many Ukrainian defenses and inflicted heavy losses on Kyiv’s air force.With the help of Western weapons and growing experience, Ukraine’s air defenses have made great strides in the past 14 months, saving infrastructure and lives and preventing Russia from achieving air superiority — a critical step as Ukrainians prepare for a counteroffensive.T...

Breakaway Moldovan region suggests Russia deploy more peacekeepers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:50 GMT

Transdniestria, the unrecognized breakaway region in Moldova, said it wants Moscow to increase its small contingent peacekeepers due to what it calls growing security threats, reported Russia's RIA News Agency.Though Moldova doesn't allow Russia to send new troops into Transdniestria after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has hundreds of peacekeepers stationed in the area since the bloody conflict between pro-Russian rebels and Moldovan forces.RIA cited Leonid Manakov, the region's envoy in Moscow, as saying that "Moldova is restricted" from making any military preparations or plans against Trandsniestria as long as Russia continues its peacekeeping mission.He was quoted saying: "Transnistria repeatedly requested an increase in Russian peacekeepers. This is a reasonable option given the increasing security risks ...,".Moldova's relations with Russia are strained at the moment and have rapidly deteriorated over the course of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine, whi...

Sale closed in San Ramon: $1.9 million for a four-bedroom home

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:50 GMT

2471 Palmira Place – Google Street ViewA spacious house located in the 2400 block of Palmira Place in San Ramon has new owners. The 2,202-square-foot property, built in 1975, was sold on April 14, 2023. The $1,850,000 purchase price works out to $840 per square foot. The property features four bedrooms, three baths, an attached garage, and two parking spaces. It sits on a 0.3-acre lot.These nearby houses have also recently changed hands:A 2,518-square-foot home on the 2800 block of Via Cordoba in San Ramon sold in December 2022, for $1,600,000, a price per square foot of $635. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.On Barranca Court, San Ramon, in August 2022, a 2,306-square-foot home was sold for $1,715,000, a price per square foot of $744. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.In June 2022, a 2,008-square-foot home on Bagado Court in San Ramon sold for $1,908,000, a price per square foot of $950. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. 

Yellen advierte de que el impago de EE.UU. amenazaría la economía mundial y socavaría el liderazgo mundial de EE.UU.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:50 GMT

(CNN) — La Secretaria del Tesoro de Estados Unidos, Janet Yellen, instó este jueves al Congreso a elevar el techo de su deuda, advirtiendo de que un impago estadounidense produciría una “catástrofe económica y financiera” que desencadenaría una recesión económica mundial y podría socavar su liderazgo global.“Un impago amenazaría los logros que tanto nos ha costado conseguir en los últimos años en nuestra recuperación de la pandemia. Y desencadenaría una recesión mundial que nos haría retroceder mucho más”, dijo Yellen este jueves en Niigata, Japón, donde habló antes de una reunión de ministros de Finanzas y gobernadores de bancos centrales del G7.“También podría socavar el liderazgo económico mundial de EE.UU. y plantear dudas sobre nuestra capacidad para defender nuestros intereses de seguridad nacional”, añadió.ANÁLISIS | Millones de estadounidenses podrían sufrir si la crisis de la deuda no se resuelve en los próximos 30 díasYellen record...

Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao to stop publishing cartoonist Zunzi after government complaints

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:50 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong newspaper will stop publishing works by the city’s most prominent political cartoonist after his drawings drew government complaints, in another example of hushed speech and media voices after a Beijing-led crackdown.Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao did not elaborate on why it would end its 40-year partnership with Wong Kei-kwan on Sunday in its announcement. Wong, better known by his pen name Zunzi, told The Associated Press the decision was made through mutual consultation.“Everyone knows why publication has to be halted, but no one will ‘confirm’ the reason,” he said in a text message Thursday to the AP with two emojis showing a laughing face.His comic drawings caricatured Hong Kong society’s frustrations since before the then-British colony was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.The newspaper and the government departments that complained about Wong’s drawings have not responded to requests for comment.Wong said he feels the city’s freedoms of speec...

UN human rights body turns attention to Sudan’s conflict as warring generals fight for control

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:50 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations top human rights body is holding a one-day emergency session Thursday on Sudan to draw attention to the killings, injuries and other abuses against civilians since the conflict between its two top generals erupted last month. The Human Rights Council, which is made up of 47 U.N. member states, is set to vote on a resolution that would further scrutinize current human rights violations taking place in Sudan.The call to hold the special session was led by Western countries. Council member states — including Chile, Costa Rica, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan — joined the call for the special session. The main co-sponsors of the draft resolution were all European, in addition to the United States. The fighting in Sudan erupted in mid-April as a result of a power struggle between the chief of Sudan’s military, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and rival Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands a powerful paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.The...

Suspect in Natalee Holloway disappearance faces extradition to US on fraud charges

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:50 GMT

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru’s government will allow the extradition to the United States of the prime suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American student Natalee Holloway on the Dutch Caribbean Island of Aruba, bringing her family hope there will be justice in the case.Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot will face trial on extortion and wire fraud charges, stemming from an accusation that he tried to extort the Holloway family after their daughter’s disappearance.Holloway, who lived in suburban Birmingham, Alabama, was 18 when she was last seen during a trip with classmates to Aruba. She vanished after a night with friends at a nightclub, leaving a mystery that sparked years of news coverage and countless true-crime podcasts. She was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, then 18 years old.Van der Sloot was identified as a suspect and detained, along with two Surinamese brothers, weeks later. Holloway’s body was never found, and no charges were filed in the case. A ju...

Long-haul carrier Emirates sees highest-ever profit in 2022 of $2.9B after pandemic grounded flights

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:50 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Long-haul carrier Emirates saw its most-profit year ever in 2022, earning $2.9 billion after bouncing back from the coronavirus pandemic shutting down global aviation, the airline announced Thursday. The carrier’s revival comes as Dubai, which owns the airline, has seen property prices skyrocket and people flood into the city-state in the United Arab Emirates as it lifted pandemic restrictions quickly and welcomed Russians fleeing Moscow’s war on Ukraine. Emirates’ annual report put revenue for the carrier at $29 billion in 2022, up 81% from 2021’s figures of $16 billion. That drastic swing comes after the airline reported a $1.1 billion loss in 2021. The city-state, one of seven hereditarily ruled, autocratic sheikhdoms that make up the UAE, provided Emirates a nearly $4 billion bailout in the depths of the pandemic. Even today as travel has bounced back, the carrier still has some of its double-decker Airbus A380s still pa...

With ex-PM Imran Khan in custody, Pakistan cracks down on his supporters, arresting hundreds

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:12:50 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — With former Prime Minister Imran Khan in custody, Pakistani authorities on Thursday cracked down on his supporters, arresting hundreds in overnight raids and sending troops across the country to rein in the wave of violence that followed his arrest earlier this week. For this Islamic nation, accustomed to military takeovers, political crises and violence, the turmoil has been unprecedented. It echoed unrest that followed the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto during an election rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Her supporters at the time, outraged by her killing, rampaged for days across Pakistan. Clashes with police since Khan’s dramatic arrest on Tuesday have killed at least eight of his supporters and dozens have been injured. Five of the deaths were reported in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, two in the eastern city of Lahore and one person was killed in the southwestern city of Quetta. More than 200 police officer...