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Chinese minister’s tour underscores closer ties with Russia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:58:22 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — China’s defense minister on Monday toured the top Russian military academy on a visit to the Russian capital that underscored the increasingly close ties between Moscow and Beijing amid the fighting in Ukraine.Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Gen. Li Shangfu in the Kremlin on Sunday, noting that his trip follows a “very productive” three-day state visit to Moscow by Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month.Putin emphasized that defense cooperation, including joint military drills, has helped “strengthen the trust-based strategic relationship” between the two countries.Li told Putin that “relations between our armed forces are growing stronger with every passing day,” adding that “your personal friendship with the president of China plays a major role in this process, and everyone in China knows this.”On Monday, Li visited the military academy of the Russian General Staff, the elite institution for training senior military officers.The Russian Defense Min...

Northern Ireland peacemakers urge end to political impasse

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:58:22 GMT

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — An American architect of Northern Ireland’s historic 1998 peace accord on Monday urged its feuding politicians to revive the mothballed Belfast government, as a current political crisis clouded celebration of the peacemaking milestone.Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell told a conference to mark a quarter century since the Good Friday Agreement that Northern Ireland’s leaders must “act with courage and vision as their predecessors did 25 years ago,” when bitter enemies forged an unlikely peace.Mitchell, who chaired two arduous years of negotiations that led to the accord, joined ex-President Bill Clinton and political leaders from the U.K., Ireland and Northern Ireland at a Belfast conference to mark 25 years since the agreement largely ended three decades of sectarian bloodshed — a moment, Mitchell said, “when history opened itself to hope.”“The people of Northern Ireland continue to wrestle with their doubts, their differences, their disagree...

Nigerian airport workers go on strike; travelers stranded

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:58:22 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Thousands of travelers were stranded in Nigeria Monday as airport union workers began a two-day strike demanding better conditions.The strike canceled flights as employees from across seven unions in Nigeria’s aviation industry blocked access to the country’s largest airports, in Lagos and the capital, Abuja.Strikes are common in Nigeria’s aviation sector. Workers say they have poor conditions and airlines are struggling with rising costs and fuel shortages. It is the second union-organized strike this year and comes after failed attempts by regulators and policymakers to appease workers.Monday’s strike came on the heels of the government’s refusal to release recently reviewed aviation working conditions and adjust pay to match Nigeria’s new minimum wage of $65 per month, according to a strike notice issued on the weekend. Hadi Sirika, Nigeria’s aviation minister, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.So far the delays show no si...

Scholz’s wife steps down as minister in German state

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:58:22 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s wife said Monday that she is stepping down as the education minister of the region where the couple lives, citing disagreement in her party over a policy proposal.Britta Ernst, 62, has been education minister in the eastern state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, since 2017. Like Scholz, she is a member of the center-left Social Democrats.Ernst said it had always been “a great honor and pleasure” to lead her ministry. But she told reporters in the state capital, Potsdam, that “great unity” is needed to deal with the challenges it faces. In a separate, written statement, she pointed to disagreement in the ranks of the local Social Democrats over her proposal to deal with a shortage of teachers. She said she was resigning “so that a new attempt can be made with a new person at the head of the ministry to deal with this challenge for schools in Brandenburg.”Ernst is being replaced as education minister by Steffen Freiberg, who u...

Explosive targeting Japan PM renews worries of homemade arms

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:58:22 GMT

Japanese police have confiscated metal tubes, tools and possible gunpowder from the home of a man suspected of throwing what was believed to be a homemade pipe bomb at Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at a campaign event, rekindling worries about the growing threat of easy-to-make weapons in Japan.Witnesses say they saw an object that looked like a thin metal thermos flying overhead and landing near the prime minister. Kishida was safely evacuated before the device exploded, the crowd fleeing in panic as white smoke surrounded them. Police have confirmed one injury to a police officer. Experts say a pipe bomb likely caused the explosion, and the impact and amount of smoke suggest it probably wasn’t that powerful. The 24-year-old suspect, Ryuji Kimura, was wrestled to the ground at the fishing port of Saikazaki in the western Japanese city of Wakayama on Saturday, just before Kishida was to make a campaign speech for a local governing party candidate.On Monday, police sent Kimura t...

Strike to begin Wednesday if no deal reached: federal public service union

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:58:22 GMT

The country’s largest federal public service union says if a deal isn’t reached with the federal government by 9 p.m. eastern time on Tuesday, it will strike this Wednesday.The Public Service Alliance of Canada says some 155,000 employees are prepared to walk off the job, including 35,000 workers from the Canada Revenue Agency.Mediated contract negotiations between the union and the Treasury Board continued over the weekend in what the union described as the government’s final chance to reach a deal.The biggest sticking point in the talks appears to be pay increases, as the union is calling for raises to keep up with the rising cost of living and historic inflation.The government offered a roughly two per cent average wage increase each year over a five-year period, while the union has pushed for annual raises of 4.5 per cent.The union also wants to put greater limits on contract work, more anti-racism training and provisions for remote work on the table.

Taliban close education centers in southern Afghanistan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:58:22 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghan authorities are closing education centers and institutes supported by non-governmental groups in the south until further notice, officials said Monday. The centers are mostly for girls, who are banned from going to school beyond sixth grade.The Education Ministry ordered the Taliban heartland provinces of Helmand and Kandahar to close education centers and institutes while a committee reviews their activities. It did not provide an explanation for the closures and a ministry spokesman was not immediately available for comment.Mutawakil Ahmad, a spokesman for the Kandahar education department, confirmed that education centers’ activities are suspended until further notice. “The decision was made after people’s complaints,” said Ahmad, without providing further details.Despite initial promises of a more moderate rule than during their previous stint in power in the 1990s, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures since taking over the country in 2021 as U.S. and ...

Why are teen girls in crisis? It’s not just social media

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:58:22 GMT

Anxiety over academics. Post-lockdown malaise. Social media angst.Study after study says American youth are in crisis, facing unprecedented mental health challenges that are burdening teen girls in particular. Among the most glaring data: A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report showed almost 60% of U.S. girls reported persistent sadness and hopelessness. Rates are up in boys, too, but about half as many are affected. Adults offer theories about what is going on, but what do teens themselves say? Is social media the root of their woes? Are their male peers somehow immune, or part of the problem? The Associated Press interviewed five girls in four states and agreed to publish only their first names because of the sensitive nature of the topics they discussed. The teens offered sobering — and sometimes surprising — insight.“We are so strong and we go through so, so much,” said Amelia, a 16-year-old Illinois girl who loves to sing and wants to be a surgeon. She ...

Statistics Canada says wholesale sales down 1.7% at $85.6B in February

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:58:22 GMT

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says wholesale sales fell 1.7 per cent to $85.6 billion in February after hitting a record high in January. The agency says wholesale sales were down in five of the seven subsectors it tracks as a drop in motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts and accessories and the food, beverage and tobacco subsectors helped lead the way lower.Motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts and accessories fell 5.5 per cent to $12.4 billion in February as motor vehicles sales dropped 6.2 per cent.Meanwhile, the food, beverage and tobacco products subsector fell 3.9 per cent to $15.1 billion.The machinery, equipment and supplies subsector rose 1.5 per cent to $18.2 billion in February. In constant dollar terms, overall wholesale sales fell 1.8 per cent in February.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2023.The Canadian Press

Opposition figure’s sentence underlines Russian intolerance

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:58:22 GMT

The 25-year treason sentence imposed on prominent Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza on Monday was a particularly severe show of Russian authorities’ intensifying intolerance for criticism of the war in Ukraine and other dissenting opinions.Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia for years has been closing in on those who challenge the Kremlin, arresting countless protesters, cracking down on independent news media and adding inconvenient organizations to its register of “foreign agents.”The hostility to opposition increased within days of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, when it adopted a law criminalizing the spreading of “false information” about its military. The charges against Kara-Murza, who has been behind bars since his arrest a year ago, stem from his March 2022 speech to the Arizona House of Representatives in which he denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Here is a look at other notable cases of imprisoned opposition figures:ALEXEI NAVALNYThe most p...