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Biden is showcasing new NATO member Finland as he closes out his Europe trip

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:51:00 GMT

HELSINKI (AP) — President Joe Biden stood alongside Nordic leaders Thursday on the turf of NATO’s newest member, Finland, in a powerful demonstration of the military alliance’s expanding power and influence against Russia. “I’ve been doing this a long time,” Biden said, opening a meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö at the Presidential Palace. “I don’t think NATO has ever been stronger.” Biden also met with the leaders of other Nordic nations including Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Sweden is poised to be admitted as NATO’s 32nd member country after it pledged more cooperation with Turkey on counterterrorism efforts while backing Ankara’s bid to join the European Union. Finland gained NATO membership earlier this year.Both Finland and Sweden abandoned a history of military nonalignment and sought to join NATO alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Biden’s brief stop in the shoreline Finnish capital is the coda to a tour that was carefully s...

Sudan’s neighbors meet in Cairo for summit as Egypt unveils new initiative to end raging conflict

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:51:00 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Leaders from Sudan’s six neighboring countries met in Cairo on Thursday for the most high-profile peace talks since conflict erupted across the northeastern African country in mid-April.The meeting, hosted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, was attended by the leaders of Ethiopia, South Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, the Central African Republic and Libya.Sudan has been rocked by violence since April 15, when tensions between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces burst into open fighting.The conflict has killed more than 3,000 people and wounded more than 6,000 others, Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim said last month. The actual death toll is likely much higher, doctors and activists say.El-Sissi in his opening speech proposed a lasting cease-fire agreement, the establishment of safe humanitarian corridors and a dialogue framework that would include all of Sudan’s political parties and players.The summit comes weeks after talks in the Saudi Ara...

France’s parliament approves big boost in military spending, spurred by Ukraine war

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:51:00 GMT

PARIS (AP) — France’s parliament on Thursday approved a multi-billion-euro boost to military spending through the rest of this decade, spurred by Russia’s war in Ukraine and fast-growing global threats.President Emmanuel Macron pushed for the bigger budget, which would spend 413 billion euros ($450 billion), the most significant spending hike in half a century. The money would modernize France’s nuclear arsenal, augment intelligence spending and develop more remote-controlled weapons.He has argued the boost was needed to ensure “our freedom, our security, our prosperity, our place in the world.” The defense minister has compared it to France’s push in the 1960s to develop nuclear weapons, making the country one of the world’s bigger military powers.The new military plan includes doubling the number of military reservists and reinforcing cyberdefense, as well as increasing weapons production capacity both to help Ukraine and to keep the French military adequately supplied.The new bud...

Helen Mirren visits Jerusalem for new film ‘Golda,’ says she is inspired by anti-government protests

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:51:00 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Helen Mirren, who plays Israel’s first female prime minister in her latest film, says she has been inspired by the widespread protests against the country’s current prime minister.Mirren, who portrays the late Golda Meir during the 1973 war between Israel and a coalition of Arab states in “Golda,” is visiting an Israel similarly beset by crisis as mass demonstrations take place against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the country’s judicial system.Mirren told a news conference before the opening of the Jerusalem Film Festival that she is inspired by the protests.“I’m personally very moved and excited when you see these huge demonstrations,” she said. “I think it’s a pivotal moment in Israeli history.”Netanyahu’s coalition government, which took office in December, is the most hard-line ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox in Israel’s 75-year history. For over six months, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to t...

Amsterdam court needs more Canadian detail before sentence in cyberbullying case

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:51:00 GMT

AMSTERDAM — Judges in Amsterdam said Thursday they need more information from Canadian authorities as they consider the sentence of a Dutch man convicted in Canada last year of crimes, including extortion and harassment of Canadian teenager Amanda Todd.The ruling delayed legal moves to convert Aydin Coban’s 13-year Canadian sentence into a Dutch prison term in the notorious case of online extortion.Coban blackmailed the 15-year-old to expose herself in front of a webcam. She took her own life in 2012 after recounting her ordeal in a YouTube video watched by millions around the world.In a brief court hearing Thursday at which a new sentence was expected to be announced, a judge instead said that the panel at Amsterdam District Court needs clarification from Canada about the most likely date Coban would be released if he were to serve his sentence in a Canadian prison.“We have to take into account when he actually would have been released and Canadian authorities have given a co...

Fire kills nearly every animal at Florida wildlife center

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:51:00 GMT

MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An early morning fire on Thursday killed nearly all the animals at a wildlife center in Florida, officials said.News outlets reported the fire broke out around 3 a.m. Thursday at the Alligator and Wildlife Discovery Center in Madeira Beach, near St. Petersburg on Florida’s Gulf Coast.“We suffered from a tragic fire last night. Nearly all of the animals are gone. We are devastated,” a post on the wildlife center’s Facebook page said.Sonny Flynn, who owns the center, told WTSP that all of the mammals inside the building died and many of the reptiles were injured. Small mammals, lizards, amphibians, turtles and tortoises, fresh and saltwater marine life, and alligators were among the 250 animals at the center.“They didn’t deserve this. This is my whole life,” Flynn said. “They all have names, they all have personality, I come in every morning and talk to them like Dr. Dolittle.”Flynn said about 95% of the animals at the center were “pet surrenders...

Man accused of terrorism over fire at South African Parliament says he ‘burned it intentionally’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:51:00 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A man facing terrorism charges over a fire that badly damaged South Africa’s Parliament building last year said in a courtroom outburst on Thursday that he “burned it intentionally.”Shouting and pointing his finger, Zandile Mafe said he was going to “burn it more” if the Parliament was not moved from Cape Town to either the city of Bloemfontein or Pretoria.The huge blaze badly damaged the historic Parliament complex in January last year as it ripped through various buildings, including the main chamber where lawmakers sit. It hasn’t been fully repaired, with estimates saying it will cost around $120 million and take at least three years.Mafe was arrested in the Parliament precinct soon after the fire started. He was charged with breaking and entering, arson and terrorism, but his case has been held up after a judge ordered him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he is fit to stand trial.The judge overseeing Thursday’s ...

UK government offers millions of public sector workers pay raises in push to end strikes

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:51:00 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The British government offered millions of public sector workers pay raises Thursday in a bid to end an array of strikes, including a five-day walkout from doctors in Britain’s publicly funded health service.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed that the government was accepting the recommendations from pay review bodies, which will see a 7% rise for police, 6.5% for teachers and 6% for the striking junior doctors, who are at the early stages of their careers in the National Health Service.Sunak said the offers, which are not being funded by extra borrowing, are “final” and that there would be no more pay discussions.“We will not negotiate again on this year’s settlements and no amount of strikes will change our decision,” he said. The prime minister said the leaders of the teaching unions have agreed to recommend that instructors stop their strike. The question is how other unions will respond to what is in effect an ultimatum.Junior doctors on the frontline of Thursda...

Thailand’s Move Forward Party leader Pita falls short in parliamentary vote for prime minister

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:51:00 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — The head of the progressive Thai political party that outpaced its rivals to a surprise first-place finish in May’s general election failed Thursday in his initial bid to have Parliament name him the country’s new prime minister.The vote of a joint session of the 500-seat House of Representatives and 250-seat Senate saw Pita Limjaroenrat win 324 votes in the first round of balloting, short of the majority of 376 needed to become prime minister. His Move Forward Party finished first in the May 14 election and afterward assembled an eight-party coalition that together had won 312 seats, a healthy majority in the lower house.But strong opposition in the Senate, whose members are overwhelmingly conservative and generally opposed to the reformist platform of Pita’s party, seemingly doomed his chances in the first vote. Only 13 senators supported Pita’s bid, while 34 voted against him and 159 abstained.Pita told reporters afterwards that he “accepted” the vote but was...

Germany presents long-awaited strategy on China, stresses economic security

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:51:00 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The German government on Thursday presented a long-awaited strategy for relations with China that points to a “systemic rivalry” with the Asian power and a need to reduce risks of economic dependency, but highlights Berlin’s desire to work with Beijing on challenges such as climate change and maintain trade ties.The 64-page document approved by Chancellor OIaf Scholz’s Cabinet builds on Germany’s first national security strategy, issued a month ago. Scholz’s three-party coalition had pledged when it took office in late 2021 to draw up a “comprehensive China strategy.”Germany has Europe’s biggest economy and is the 27-nation European Union’s most populous member. Its strategy is a balancing act; it is keen to maintain good ties with China, its biggest single trading partner in recent years, despite wariness over Beijing’s growing assertiveness and refusal to criticize the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock...