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Finland expels 9 Russian diplomats suspected of spying

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:32:56 GMT

The Finnish government announced Tuesday it was going to expel nine staff members of the Russian embassy in Helsinki who are suspected of spying for the Kremlin.“Finland will expel nine persons working at the Embassy of Russia who are members of intelligence personnel,” the government said in a statement. “Their actions are in breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” it added.European security services have cracked down on alleged Russian spies since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February. Around 400 Russian intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover — about half the total number active in Europe — have been expelled, according to Western intelligence officials who have have spoken to POLITICO on condition of anonymity.In March, Poland said it had broken up an entire Russian spy network, arresting several foreign nationals.

Two winning tickets sold for Tuesday’s $70 million Lotto Max jackpot

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:32:56 GMT

TORONTO — Two lucky lottery ticket holders in British Columbia and Ontario will split the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot.There were 15 available Maxmillion prizes of $1 million each, and five winning tickets were drawn.Two of the tickets are each shared between two winners, splitting the money, while one ticket will claim the entire $1 million prize.Three of the Maxmillion winners are in Ontario, one is in B.C. and the other is in Quebec.The jackpot for the next draw on June 9 will be an estimated $22 million.The Canadian Press

Air India plane flying to San Francisco lands in Russia’s Siberia after engine problem

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:32:56 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — An Air India plane flying from New Delhi to San Francisco landed in Russia after it developed an engine problem, officials said on Wednesday.The plane, a Boeing 777 carrying 216 passengers and 16 crew members, landed safely at Russia’s Magadan airport in Siberia in the country’s far east on Tuesday, Air India said in a statement.The flight “developed a technical issue with one of its engines,” the statement said, adding that the aircraft was undergoing safety checks and the passengers were being provided support on the ground.Vedant Patel, a U.S. State Department spokesman, said that American citizens were likely on the flight but could not immediately confirm how many. He said his understanding was that Air India would be sending a replacement aircraft to Russia so the passengers could continue their travel to the U.S.“We are continuing to monitor the situation,” Patel said.Girvaan Kaahma, 16, was traveling on the flight with his uncle and brother. He s...

Persistent inflation, rising interest rates will weigh on global economy, OECD predicts

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:32:56 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The global economy must steer through a precarious recovery this year and next as inflation keeps dragging on household spending and higher interest rates weigh on growth, banks and markets. That was the takeaway Wednesday from the latest economic outlook by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The group, made up of 38 member countries, raised its growth forecast this year to 2.7% from an estimated 2.2% in November and foresaw only a tiny acceleration to 2.9% next year.The rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic and energy price spike tied to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is likely to be weak by past standards, with average growth of 3.4% recorded in the pre-pandemic years 2013-2019. The path ahead is fraught with risks, from escalation of Russia’s war in Ukraine — with a dam collapse Tuesday that the sides blamed on each other — to debt troubles in developing countries and rapid interest rate hikes having unforeseen ...

In Kenya, lions are speared to death as human-wildlife conflict worsens amid drought

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:32:56 GMT

MBIRIKANI, Kenya (AP) — Parkeru Ntereka lost almost half of his goat herd to hungry lions that wandered into his pen located near Kenya’s iconic Amboseli national park.The 56-year-old’s loss made headlines in the east African country as it led to the spearing to death of six lions in retaliation by the Maasai people, who have co-existed with wild animals for centuries.The killings highlighted the growing human-wildlife conflict in parts of east Africa that conservationists say has been exacerbated by a yearslong drought.At the same time, the predator population within the parks has increased. Hunger and thirst can send them into communities.Ntereka said losing 12 goats is a huge loss for his large family.“I sell these livestock in order to afford school fees. I don’t know how I will afford secondary school fees for some of my children,” said the father of eight.The Big Life Foundation, which runs conservation programs in the area, has been offering compensation to herders who lose t...

Pope appears at general audience after hospital checkup

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:32:56 GMT

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis appeared at his weekly general audience on Wednesday, a day after he went to the hospital for a checkup.The Vatican provided no details about the medical tests Francis underwent on Tuesday at Rome’s Gemelli hospital. Francis, 86, appeared in good form, though, at his audience in St. Peter’s Square, zipping around the square in his popemobile greeting the faithful. He also had two meetings Wednesday morning beforehand, the Vatican said.Francis spent three days at the Gemelli hospital in late March. Initially, the Vatican said he had gone in for scheduled tests, but the pontiff later revealed he had felt pain in his chest and was rushed to the hospital where bronchitis was diagnosed. He was put on intravenous antibiotics and was released April 1, quipping that he was “still alive.”The Argentine pope had part of one lung removed when he was a young man. He also suffers from sciatica nerve pain and has been using a wheelchair and walker for more than a year beca...

Waters continue to swell in flooded southern Ukraine day after dam breach

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:32:56 GMT

KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — Residents of southern Ukraine, some who spent the night on rooftops, braced for a second day of swelling floodwaters on Wednesday as authorities warned that a Dnieper River dam breach would continue to unleash pent-up waters from a giant reservoir. Officials said waters were expected to rise further following Tuesday’s dramatic rupture of the Kakhovka dam about 70 kilometers (44 miles) to the east of the city of Kherson, but were slowing.Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and adjoining hydroelectric power station, which sits in an area Moscow has controlled for more than a year. Russian officials blamed Ukrainian bombardment in the contested area, where the river separates the two sides.Residents sloshed through knee-deep waters in inundated homes as videos posted on social media showed scenes including rescue workers carrying people to safety and what looked like the triangular roof of an entire building that had been uprooted drifting down...

Author Haruki Murakami says pandemic, war in Ukraine create walls that divide people

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:32:56 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese writer Haruki Murakami says walls are increasingly built and dividing people and countries after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic fueled fear and skepticism.“With feelings of suspicion replacing mutual trust, walls are continually being erected around us,” Murakami said in late April at Wellesley College. That speech, “Writing Fiction in the Time of Pandemic and War,” was released Wednesday in The Shincho Monthly literary magazine published by Shinchosha Co.“Everybody seems to be confronted with a choice — to hide behind the walls, preserving safety and the status quo or, knowing the risks, to emerge beyond the walls in search of a freer value system,” he said.Like the protagonist in his new novel. “The City and Its Uncertain Walls” was released in April in Japan and an English translation is expected in 2024. The protagonist, as Murakami described, faces a tough choice between two worlds: an isolated walled city of tranquility with no des...

Indonesia to deport Australian surfer jailed for drunken rampage in conservative province

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:32:56 GMT

MEULABOH, Indonesia (AP) — An Australia surfer who was jailed for attacking several people while drunk and naked in Indonesia’s deeply conservative Muslim province of Aceh will be deported back to his country after he agreed to apologize and pay compensation, officials said Wednesday. Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones, 23, from Queensland, was detained in late April on Simeulue Island, a surf resort in West Aceh regency, after police accused him of going on a drunken rampage that left a fisherman with serious injuries.Risby-Jones walked free on Tuesday after he went through a restorative justice process by offering to apologize for the attack and pay compensation to the fisherman’s family to avoid going to court and face a possible charge of assault that could land him up to five years in prison, said Fauzi, who heads the Immigration Office in Meulaboh, the capital of West Aceh regency.Fauzi, who uses a single name like many Indonesians, declined to disclose the compensation amount the two sid...

In “The Blue Caftan,” Moroccan film director tackles LGBTQ+ love and celebrates embroidery craft

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:32:56 GMT

As Mina gets increasingly sick, her body withering away, her husband dotes on her: He washes her hair, helps her change, brings the sweetness of a fruit to her lips. But underneath the genuinely tender moments shared by this on-screen Moroccan couple simmers a longing — of a forbidden kind.In her latest film, “The Blue Caftan,” Moroccan director Maryam Touzani delicately weaves intricate, overlapping tales of love, both traditional and largely taboo for many in her country and its region as she tells the story of a woman and her secretly gay husband who together run a shop making caftans. The marriage grows more complicated when the couple hires a male apprentice.Wading into socially sensitive subjects is not unfamiliar terrain for Touzani who has won accolades at international film festivals and, just recently, was a jury member at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. “The Blue Caftan,” which had been shortlisted in the international feature film category for the 95th Academy Awards, ...