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Greek coast guard defends rescue operation of migrants after boat disaster, as questions mount

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:26 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s coast guard defended its actions Friday in the deadly sinking of a ship carrying hundreds of migrants off the country’s south coast, indicating that a 72-hour rescue operation would be extended. Patrol boats and a helicopter continued to scour the area where the fishing vessel packed with hundreds of people capsized and sank early Wednesday. Rescuers pulled 104 people from the water and later recovered 78 bodies, but the rescue operation has failed to locate any more since late Wednesday. Several hundred others are believed to have gone down with the vessel, which sank while traveling across the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy. The rescue operation has created political controversy as Greece heads to a general election on June 25, and triggered large protests in Athens that turned violent late Thursday and led to 21 arrests. Left-wing opposition leader Alexis Tsipras visited survivors and said the coast guard should have towed the ship to...

China calls hacking report ‘far-fetched’ and accuses the US of targeting the cybersecurity industry

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:26 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s government on Friday rejected as “far-fetched and unprofessional” a report by a U.S. security firm that blamed Chinese-linked hackers for attacks on hundreds of public agencies, schools and other targets around the world.A foreign ministry spokesperson repeated accusations that Washington carries out hacking attacks and complained the cybersecurity industry rarely reports on them.Mandiant’s report came ahead of a visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken aimed at repairing relations that have been strained by disputes over human rights, security and other irritants. Blinken’s visit was planned earlier this year but was canceled after what the U.S. government said was a Chinese spy balloon flew over the United States.The report said hackers targeted email to engage in “espionage activity in support of the People’s Republic of China.”“The relevant content is far-fetched and unprofessional,” said the Chinese spokesperson, Wang ...

Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder dies from injuries suffered in crash during Tour de Suisse

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:26 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder died Friday, one day after crashing and falling down a ravine during a descent at the Tour de Suisse, the Bahrain-Victorious team said.The 26-year-old Mäder crashed on a fast downhill road approaching the end of the mountainous fifth stage into La Punt.“Gino lost his battle to recover from the severe injuries he sustained,” the team said in a statement. “Despite the best efforts of the phenomenal staff at Chur hospital, Gino couldn’t make it through this, his final and biggest challenge, and at 11:30 a.m. we said goodbye to one of the shining lights of our team.”Medical staff who reached Mäder found him motionless in water. They performed CPR before he was airlifted to the hospital.“Our entire team is devastated by this tragic accident, and our thoughts and prayers are with Gino’s family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” Bahrain-Victorious said.The Tour de Suisse is a preparation race ahead of next month’s Tour ...

Finland’s center-right leader says new coalition, including far-right party, is set

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:26 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The head of new NATO member Finland’s center-right conservative National Coalition Party is poised Friday to present a four-party agreement to form a governing coalition that includes an anti-immigration party.NCP leader Petteri Orpo, who is expected to become the Nordic nation’s next prime minister, said that four parties had agreed to form a government. Besides NCP, they are the Finns who came in second in the elections, the Christian Democrats and the Swedish People’s Party of Finland. The parties hold 108 seats out of 200 in the Finnish parliament, Eduskunta.After weeks of sounding out all parties, Orpo said late Thursday that “we all realize that Finland is in a difficult situation, the economy and health care are in crisis, Russia’s war is ongoing, inflation and interest rates have increased.”“The problems are big, and we have to solve them together. The thoroughness of our program facilitates a faster transition,” he said, according to Finnish...

Missiles target Kyiv as visiting African leaders push Ukraine and Russia for peace and grain

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:26 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A delegation of leaders and senior officials from Africa arrived in Ukraine seeking ways to end the invaded country’s nearly 16-month war with Russia and to ensure food and fertilizer deliveries to their continent, though an air raid in Kyiv during their Friday trip provided a reminder of the challenges they face.The delegation including the presidents of South Africa, Senegal, Zambia and the Comoros Islands first went to Bucha, a Kyiv suburb where bodies of civilians lay scattered in the streets last year after Russian troops abandoned a campaign to seize the capital and withdrew from the area. The delegation’s stop in Bucha was symbolically significant, as the town’s name has come to stand for the brutality of Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The Russian occupation of Bucha left hundreds of civilians dead in the streets and in mass graves. Some showed signs of torture.South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said last month that Ukr...

US, Japan, Philippines agree to strengthen security ties amid tensions over China, North Korea

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:26 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — The national security advisers of the United States, Japan and the Philippines held their first joint talks Friday and agreed to strengthen their defense cooperation, as Washington and its partners reinforce their alliances to adapt to growing tensions over North Korea, China and Ukraine, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.Sullivan said he and his Japanese and Philippine counterparts discussed the “turbulent regional security environment and how we can collectively work to enhance peace and stability” in areas including freedom of navigation and economic security.Sullivan, Takeo Akiba of Japan and Eduardo Ano of the Philippines said in a joint statement that they emphasized the importance of enhancing three-way cooperation, building on alliances between Japan and the U.S. and between the Philippines and the U.S. to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, especially in the Taiwan Strait.Sullivan said the “path-breaking” new trilatera...

A US nuclear-powered sub arrives in South Korea, a day after North Korea resumes its missile tests

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:26 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States deployed a nuclear-powered submarine capable of carrying about 150 Tomahawk missiles to South Korea on Friday, a day after North Korea resumed missile tests in protest of the U.S.-South Korean live-fire drills.The USS Michigan’s arrival in South Korea, the first of its kind in six years, is part of a recent bilateral agreement on enhancing “regular visibility” of U.S. strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula in response to North Korea’s advancing nuclear program, according to South Korean officials.With the deployment of the USS Michigan, the U.S. and South Korean navies are to conduct drills on boosting their special operation capabilities and joint ability to cope with growing North Korean nuclear threats, the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement.It said the U.S. submarine arrived at the southeastern port city of Busan but didn’t say how long it would stay in South Korean waters.The USS Michigan is one of the biggest s...

Lawyer: Detained man, Gadhafi’s son, suffers deteriorating health 2 weeks into hunger strike

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:26 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — A son of Libya’s leader Moammar Gadhafi is suffering deteriorating health during the second week of a hunger strike to protest his detention in Beirut without trial, his lawyer said Friday.Hannibal Gadhafi is only drinking small amounts of water, his lawyer Paul Romanos said, adding that his client is suffering from weakness and muscle pains.“Had it not been for his solid will, he would not have been able to continue,” Romanos said about Hannibal Gadhafi. He added that a doctor is doing a daily checkups for the detainee, who has been also suffering from back pain that turned out to be an inflammation in the spine. Romanos said earlier this month that the back pain is due to being held in a small room where he cannot move freely or exercise.Hannibal Gadhafi has been detained in Lebanon since 2015 after he was briefly kidnapped from neighboring Syria, where he had been living as a political refugee. He was abducted by Lebanese militants demanding information on the where...

Amazon’s $1.7 billion deal to buy Roomba maker iRobot gets UK approval

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:26 GMT

LONDON (AP) — British antitrust regulators cleared Amazon’s purchase of robot vacuum maker iRobot on Friday, but the $1.7 billion deal still faces scrutiny in the United States and Europe.The Competition and Markets Authority said it decided not to escalate its initial investigation because it concluded that the deal would not result in a “substantial lessening of competition” within the United Kingdom. Amazon said it was pleased with the result. “We look forward to similar decisions from other regulators soon,” the company said in a statement.Consumer groups have voiced concerns that Amazon’s purchase of Bedford, Massachusetts-based iRobot, which makes the popular Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners, would widen the e-commerce giant’s dominance in the smart home market.The acquisition is still facing a review in the U.S. by the Federal Trade Commission amid worries about Amazon’s growing market power. It’s also under scrutiny by the European Union’s executive arm, which open...

Heather Mack expected to plead guilty in murder of mother in Bali

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:03:26 GMT

CHICAGO — The woman accused of murdering her mother in Bali is expected to plead guilty Friday.Heather Mack, 27, was convicted in Indonesia in 2015 of being an accessory to Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s murder with her then-boyfriend in a bid to gain access to a $1.5 million trust fund. Mack, then 18 and pregnant, covered her mother’s mouth in a hotel room while Tommy Schaefer bludgeoned Wiese-Mack with a fruit bowl, prosecutors say.The body of Wiese-Mack was found badly beaten and stuffed inside a suitcase at an Indonesian resort island.Mack spent seven years in prison in Indonesia before she was deported. She was arrested at O'Hare Airport in 2021 shortly after returning to the U.S., and charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Chicago Police Board fires sergeant in charge of Anjanette Young raid In November of 2022, Mack lost custody of her daughter whom she gave birth to while in prison in Indonesia. A Cook County judge ordered that the child be placed...