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Moscow pounds Ukraine with missiles and drones, strikes medical center

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:39:52 GMT

KYIV ­— Russia hit Ukraine with a barrage of missiles and drones overnight, including a strike on a medical center that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy labeled a war crime.The attack started Saturday evening and continued until the early hours of Sunday, Ukraine’s Air Force said in a statement Sunday morning. It followed a Ukrainian assault on a Russian tanker in the Black Sea early Saturday.Ukrainian air defense managed to shoot down 30 missiles and 27 drones, the Air Force said. But Ukrainian officials did not disclose any information about at least five missiles fired against Ukraine last night, including three Kinzhal cruise missiles.“Kinzhals and Kalibr cruise missiles hit Motor Sich [in the Zaporizhzhia region] and hit our Khmelnytskiy region. Our defense forces shot down part of the missiles,” Zelenskyy said in a video statement. Motor Sich is a Ukrainian aircraft-engine manufacturer based in Zaporizhzhia that produces engines for the military-industria...

Man arrested in connection with Myles Standish State Forest shooting in Plymouth

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:39:52 GMT

A man was arrested Saturday in connection with a shooting in Myles Standish State Forest last month that left one man dead. John Geovanni Pires Monteiro Macedo, 20, was arrested in New Bedford without incident.Monteiro Macedo is accused of shooting and killing Robert Aponte-Flores, 25, on July 12. Police said before the shooting, multiple witnesses saw Monteiro Macedo and the victim in an altercation in the state forest.Monteiro Macedo is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Plymouth District Court on one count of murder.

Israel kills 3 suspected Palestinian militants as West Bank violence shows no signs of slowing

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:39:52 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops on Sunday killed three alleged Palestinian militants in the northern West Bank, further escalating a wave of violence in which two other people, including a young Palestinian man believed to have been gunned down by extremist Jewish settlers, were killed in fighting over the weekend.The Israeli army said it shot the three men near the Jenin refugee camp — the site of a large-scale military operation last month. It said the three men had just exited the camp and were on their way to carry out an attack and that an M-16 rifle was recovered from their vehicle.The Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups condemned the killings, though it was not immediately known if the three men belonged to either organization. Israel identified the leader of the group as Naif Abu Tsuik, 26, saying he was a “leading military operative” from the camp.The Jenin camp is known as a militant stronghold. Last month, the army carried out a two-day offensive in the camp, killing ...

Death toll from train derailment in Pakistan rises to 30 with 90 others injured, officials say

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:39:52 GMT

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — A train derailed in southern Pakistan on Sunday, killing 30 people and injuring more than 90 others as rescue operations completed by early evening, officials said. Ten cars of a Rawalpindi-bound train derailed and some overturned, near the Pakistani town of Nawabshah, trapping many passengers, said senior railway officer Mahmoodur Rehman Lakho.Local television showed rescue teams extracting women, children and elderly passengers from damaged and overturned cars. Some of the injured were lying on the ground crying for help while locals gave out water and food. AP photos showed derailed train cars sprawled across or near the tracks.Senior police officer Abid Baloch said from the scene of the accident that the rescue operation was complete: dozens of the injured had been brought to safety and the last flipped car cleared. He said women and children were among the dead and injured.Expressing grief over the loss of life, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif prayed durin...

Ukraine replaces Soviet coat of arms with trident on towering Kyiv landmark

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:39:52 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has replaced the Soviet emblem that once adorned one of the nation’s most recognizable landmarks with the country’s coat of arms.The symbolic move is part of a wider shift throughout Ukraine to reclaim the country’s cultural identity from the Soviet past amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.Erected in 1981 as part of a larger complex housing Ukraine’s national World War II museum, the Mother Ukraine monument stood on the right bank of the Dnipro River in Kyiv, facing eastwards toward Moscow.Created in the image of a fearless female warrior, the 200-foot-tall (61-meter-tall) statue previously held a sword and a shield emblazoned with the Soviet coat of arms: a crossed hammer and sickle surrounded by ears of wheat.On Sunday, that emblem was replaced with the Ukrainian tryzub, the three-pronged trident that was officially adopted as the coat of arms for independent Ukraine on February 19, 1992.Workers began removing the old coat of arms in late July, but poor wea...

DeSantis’ retaliation against Disney hurts Florida, former governors and lawmakers say

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:39:52 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Saying Gov. Ron DeSantis has followed the autocratic examples of governments in Russia and China, a group of mostly Republican former high-level government officials has called the Florida governor’s takeover of Disney World’s governing district “severely damaging to the political, social, and economic fabric of the State.”The group of former governors, U.S. House members and presidential administration officials filed a “friend of the court” brief on Wednesday in Disney’s federal lawsuit against DeSantis and his appointees to the board of Disney World’s governing district. Disney’s lawsuit says the Republican governor violated the company’s free speech rights by taking over the district after Disney publicly opposed Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which banned classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades.The group’s goal in filing the brief last week is to demonstrate “how the path the ...

German police investigate possible antisemitic motive in attack on Israeli tourist in Berlin

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:39:52 GMT

VIENNA (AP) — A 19-year-old Israeli tourist said he was attacked by three men in Berlin and police said Sunday they were investigating a possible antisemitic motive. Berlin police said their state protection office, which is responsible for investigating politically motivated crimes, was looking into the case after the tourist suffered minor injuries to one of his arms and his face Saturday night.The Israeli tourist told police he was walking on a street in the city’s Kreuzberg district together with an 18-year-old woman while speaking on his phone in Hebrew.A car pulled up next to them and three men got out and started talking to the Israeli man in German, which he explained to police he did not understand as he does not speak German.After that, the Israeli man told police that one of the men suddenly began to beat him, knocking him to the ground. The three attackers then continued to beat and kick him, the Israeli man told police. The three attackers then got back into their car a...

Tropical Storm Eugene is strengthening off Mexico’s western Pacific coast

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:39:52 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Tropical Storm Eugene strengthened off Mexico’s Pacific coast Sunday but is expected to stay well away from land. Eugene could briefly reach hurricane strength and bring rain to Baja California. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Eugene was centered about 125 miles (205 kilometers) southwest of the Baja resort of Los Cabos on Sunday morning. Its maximum sustained winds had risen to about 70 mph (110 kph) and it was moving west-northwest at 18 mph (30 kph).The Mexican government warned the system could cause “heavy rains” along the coast, but Eugene was expected to run roughly parallel to land and stay out to sea.It was the fifth named storm of the eastern Pacific hurricane season.The Associated Press

Fort Lauderdale airport temporarily evacuated over security investigation

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:39:52 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Passengers were forced to evacuate a check-in area on Sunday at a terminal of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport because of a security-related law enforcement investigation, officials said.The roadway leading to the upper-level section Terminal 1 was also temporarily closed because of the investigation, airport officials said on social media.Officials encouraged passengers traveling through that area to check with their airlines about the status of their flights and to get dropped off at the lower level.Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is Florida’s third-busiest airport, behind airports in Orlando and Miami.The Associated Press

The bodies of 8 migrants have been found off Tunisia after their boats sank

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:39:52 GMT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Eight bodies of migrants have been recovered over the past two days off the coast of the Tunisian port city of Sfax after their boats sank trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea toward Europe, according to Sfax court’s spokesperson.Faouzi Masmoudi, the spokesperson, said on Sunday that civil protection rescuers and coast guards are finding migrants’ bodies almost every day on the beaches of Sfax, washed up by the waves of a very rough sea in recent days.The comments come as dozens of migrants were dramatically rescued by Italy on Sunday as they foundered in the sea or clung to a rocky reef after three boats launched by smugglers from northern Africa shipwrecked in rough waters in separate incidents over the weekend.Tunisian authorities estimate that some 17,000 sub-Saharan people are concentrated in the Sfax area, which is the starting point for most attempts to cross to Italy, some 190 kilometers (118 miles) away, and to some other parts of Europe.On Thur...