Jerusalem — Israeli police on Sunday opened fire at a pair of suspected attackers who rammed their car into a West Bank checkpoint, fatally shooting a young Palestinian girl in an adjacent vehicle, according to police and medical officials. The two suspects were also shot, while a young police officer was lightly hurt. The Sunday evening incident came hours after nine people were killed in other unrest in the occupied territory, which has experienced a surge of violence since Israel's war against Hamas erupted on Oct. Читать дальше...
LISBON — The new leader of Portugal's ruling Socialist Party (PS) Pedro Nuno Santos pledged Sunday to increase the minimum wage and boost economic competitiveness through more incentives to select sectors, if he wins an election in March. Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa, in office since 2015, resigned on Nov. 7 over an investigation into alleged illegalities in his government's handling of lithium, hydrogen and data center projects. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has called a snap election for March 10. Читать дальше...
London — A strike that threatened to grind London's underground network to a virtual halt for several days was called off at the last minute on Sunday following "positive discussions" in pay talks, the main rail union said. Some 10,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) had been due to walkout in protest at a below-inflation pay offer. "Following further positive discussions today, the negotiations on a pay deal for our London Underground members can now take place on an improved basis," said Mick Lynch... Читать дальше...
Jerusalem — Israel's cabinet is set to approve a 2024 wartime budget Thursday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Sunday, after ministers approved 9 billion shekels ($2.5 billion) in financial support for military reservists. "The state of Israel puts the reservists and their families at the center, and this is the anchor of the budget for 2024 that we will deliver this weekend," Smotrich said in a joint statement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Israel... Читать дальше...
Mexico City — Note: The graphic description of the violence in this story may be disturbing to sensitive readers. Mexican authorities in the violence-plagued southwestern state of Guerrero said they were investigating a gruesome massacre that took place in a part of a remote desert where two rival criminal groups have been fighting for control. Police investigators had found five burned bodies stacked onto a burned vehicle when they arrived in Buenavista de los Hurtado on Friday, the state attorney... Читать дальше...
Rome — Two hikers on snowshoes were killed by an avalanche in the Italian Alps near Switzerland, a rescue service said Sunday. The avalanche occurred around noon Sunday at the 2,200-meter (7,200-foot) level in the Formazza valley in the Piedmont region, said Federico Catania, a spokesperson for Italy's alpine rescue service. The force of the avalanche pushed one of the victims into a lake near the bottom of the slope, while the other body was found in the mass of snow, he said. Despite strong winds... Читать дальше...
BEVERLY HILLS, California — Margot Robbie, Oprah Winfrey and Leonardo DiCaprio will mingle with other top stars on Sunday at the Golden Globe awards, Hollywood's first big celebration since twin strikes shut down most of show business last year. The red carpet, champagne-fueled awards ceremony will honor the best of film and television selected by a new group of 300 entertainment journalists from around the world, part of reforms made after a diversity and ethics scandal among voters. "Barbie,"... Читать дальше...
Seoul, South Korea — North Korea again fired artillery shells near its tense sea boundary with the South on Sunday, as the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un mocked the South's ability to detect its weapons launches. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff dismissed Kim Yo Jong’s statement as “a comedy-like, vulgar propaganda” meant to undermine the South Korean people’s trust in the military and stoke divisions. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired more than more than... Читать дальше...
Islamabad — The United Nations has urged Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to bring to justice the perpetrators of an overnight deadly minibus bombing in Kabul that targeted members of the minority Hazara-Shiite community. Saturday's attack in the western Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood of the Afghan capital killed at least five passengers and wounded more than a dozen others, a Taliban police statement said. An earlier statement put the death toll at two. A regional Islamic State affiliate, known as Islamic State-Khorasan... Читать дальше...
LJUBLJANA — Five people are trapped in a cave in southwestern Slovenia, unable to leave because of high water levels caused by heavy rainfall, authorities said Sunday. The group — a Slovenian family group of three adults and two guides — have been stuck in the Krizna Jama cave since Saturday when water levels rose inside, blocking the way out. Slovenian rescue teams said divers have reached the group, moved them to a safe spot envisaged for such emergencies and set up a heated shelter where they will have to wait for water levels to drop. Читать дальше...
ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday named former environment minister Murat Kurum as the ruling AK Party's candidate in Istanbul's mayoral election in March, bidding to win back control of Turkey's largest city. Kurum will stand against incumbent Ekrem Imamoglu from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), whose election as mayor in 2019 ended 25 years of rule in Istanbul by the AKP and its Islamist predecessors. Last May, Erdogan won re-election as president... Читать дальше...
TASIKMALAYA, Indonesia — After a campaign rally this week, Indonesian presidential contender Anies Baswedan dabbed sweat off his forehead as his convoy inched through a throng of supporters. Suddenly, he jumped out of his van to sign one last autograph for an excited teenage girl. Less than six weeks from the Feb. 14 election to lead the world's third-largest democracy, such spontaneity along with campaign pledges to address what he calls an erosion of democratic values have helped pull the former... Читать дальше...
Washington — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Sunday visited Jordan, where the royal court said King Abdullah II "warned of the catastrophic repercussions" of Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas while calling on the United States to press for an immediate cease-fire. Jordan is the latest stop on Blinken’s tour of the Middle East, where the top U.S. diplomat is attempting to curb the spread of violence to other countries beyond the Israel-Hamas fighting. Jordan and other Arab countries have... Читать дальше...
New Delhi — India has achieved another milestone in space exploration by successfully placing a spacecraft in an orbit from which it will study the sun for five years. India joined a select group of nations already studying the sun four months after it became the first country to land an unmanned spacecraft on the moon's southern polar region, cementing its reputation as a nation that is emerging on the frontlines of space exploration. The Indian Space Research Organization said that the space observatory... Читать дальше...
Geneva — The United Nations' top human rights official voiced alarm on Sunday about rising ethnic tension and calls to violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo following disputed elections. Massive delays and bureaucratic chaos marred the December 20 ballots to choose the president, lawmakers for national and provincial assemblies, and local councilors. So far the election commission has only announced the result of the presidential vote -– a landslide victory for incumbent Felix Tshisekedi that the opposition has rejected as a sham. Читать дальше...
Dhaka — Bangladesh election officials began counting votes Sunday after polls guaranteed to give a fifth term in office to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina closed, following a boycott led by an opposition party she branded a "terrorist organization." Hasina has presided over breakneck economic growth in a country once beset by grinding poverty, but her government has been accused of rampant human rights abuses and a ruthless opposition crackdown. Her party faced almost no effective rivals in the seats it contested... Читать дальше...
ZINDA JAN, Afghanistan — A 6.3 magnitude quake on October 7 killed and injured thousands of people in Afghanistan’s west. Three months on, survivors are struggling to rebuild their lives. Some families are living in canvas-colored tents in Zinda Jan district, the quake’s epicenter in the province of Herat, where every home was flattened. People endure the winter conditions with the help of donations and their Islamic faith, but they’re anxious about what lies ahead. Habib Rahman, 43, was watching... Читать дальше...
COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh — A fire raced through a crammed camp of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh's southern coastal district of Cox's Bazar, gutting more than 1,000 shelters and leaving thousands homeless, a fire official and the United Nations said Sunday. The fire broke out around midnight Saturday at Kutupalong camp in Ukhiya and spread quickly, fanned by strong winds, Shafiqul Islam, head of the Ukhiya Fire Station, told The Associated Press. No casualties were reported, he said. "The fire was big... Читать дальше...
BEIJING — China announced sanctions Sunday on five American defense-related companies in response to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and U.S sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals. The sanctions will freeze any property the companies have in China and prohibit organizations and individuals in China from doing business with them, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted online. It was unclear what impact, if any, the sanctions would have on the companies, BAE Systems Land and Armaments... Читать дальше...
Customized cars that ride low and slow have been part of Mexican American culture since the 1940s. But in California, cruising in these modified vehicles was mostly illegal — until the new year. Genia Dulot has our story from Los Angeles.
