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

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:06 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 20:56:06 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 20:56:06 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 20:56:06 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 20:56:06 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 20:56:06 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 20:56:06 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...

Texas bans transgender women, girls from collegiate athletics

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:06 GMT

(The Hill) - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Thursday signed legislation prohibiting transgender women and girls from competing in collegiate athletics, building on a 2021 law that requires public school sports teams through high school to be designated by students’ sex assigned at birth.Texas’s Senate Bill 15, also known as the state’s “Save Women’s Sports Act,” mandates that intercollegiate athletes participate only on sports teams matching their “biological sex" which the legislation defines as that which is “correctly” stated on a student’s original birth certificate.The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which oversees post-secondary education in the state, has been tasked with drafting and adopting rules that ensure compliance with state and federal laws regarding the confidentiality of student health and medical information.The new law, which will take effect in September, makes it simpler for college students in Texas to sue their schools if they continue allowin...

Semi collides with bus carrying seniors to casino in Canada, killing 15

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:06 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — A bus carrying seniors to a casino collided with a semi-trailer truck at a highway intersection in a rural part of the Canadian province of Manitoba Thursday, killing 15 people and injuring 10 more, police said.Rob Hill, Commanding Officer of the Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the bus was carrying 25 people and authorities in Manitoba were deploying all their resources to the scene. Ten people were taken to hospitals.TV broadcasters aired images of what looked like a large van or bus smoldering in a ditch near a transport truck with a smashed engine on a road. The pavement was littered with debris — broken glass, a large bumper and what looked like a walking aid. Seven blue and yellow tarps were stretched out.RCMP Supt. Rob Lasson said “as of right now the drivers of both the bus and truck are alive and in hospital." He did not say if they were among the 10 listed as injured. The dead were mainly seniors.Lasson said the bus was heading south and there wo...

96.4% of Americans had COVID-19 antibodies in their blood by fall 2022

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:56:06 GMT

(The Conversation) - Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, were present in the blood of 96.4% of Americans over the age of 16 by September 2022. That’s according to a serosurvey – an analysis testing for the presence of these immune defense molecules – conducted on samples from blood donors.A serosurvey like this one helps researchers estimate how many people have been exposed to any part of the coronavirus, whether via vaccination or infection. Both can trigger the generation of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. And by identifying which kind of antibodies someone has in their blood, researchers can break down the 96.4% into different types of immunity: infection-derived, vaccine-derived and hybrid.COVID-19 vaccines used in the United States are based on only one part of the virus – the spike, or S, protein. Researchers can tell that a person has been vaccinated and has not been infected if their blood has only anti-S antibodies that target ...