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Pakistani police besiege Imran Khan’s home as deadline for him to hand over suspects expires

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:43 GMT

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police kept up their siege around the home of Imran Khan as a 24-hour deadline given to the former premier to hand over suspects allegedly sheltered inside expired on Thursday. The siege and the authorities’ demand for the suspects, wanted in violent protests over Khan’s recent detention, have angered the former prime minister’s many followers and raised concerns about more clashes between them and security forces. Last week, Khan’s supporters attacked public property and military installations after he was dragged out of a courtroom and arrested in a graft case. At least 10 people were killed in clashes with police across the country in the days that followed. The violence subsided only when Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered Khan’s release.The popular opposition leader was freed from custody over the weekend and returned to his home in an upscale district of Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city and the capital of the ...

World leaders land in Hiroshima for G-7 meeting, with Ukraine war high on agenda

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:43 GMT

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — World leaders landed Thursday for a Group of Seven meeting in Hiroshima, the site of the world’s first atomic bomb attack, with Russia’s war in Ukraine expected to be high on the agenda.Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida kicked off his summit diplomacy by meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden after his arrival at a nearby military base. He was due to hold talks with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak a bit later in the day, before the three-day summit opens on Friday. The Japan-U.S. alliance is the “very foundation of peace and security in the Indo- Pacific region,” Kishida told Biden in opening remarks. “We very much welcome that the cooperation has evolved in leaps and bounds,” he said.“When our countries stand together we stand stronger and I believe the whole world is safer when we do,” Biden said. The U.S. president exited Air Force One in heavy rain and briefly greeted troops on arrival at the nearby Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. As G-7 att...

Biden’s reelection campaign sees ‘viable pathways’ to 2024 election win

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden ‘s reelection campaign is vowing to hold the states that won him the White House in 2020 but also compete in places it lost like North Carolina and increasingly Republican-dominated Florida, providing what it says are “a number of viable pathways to the 270 electoral votes” needed to clinch four more years. Offering her first extensive comments on strategy since she was named manager of Biden’s campaign last month, Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote in a memo to “interested parties” that the 2024 race presents “significant opportunities to grow Democratic support.” It was released while Biden was traveling in Japan, but he is skipping previously planned, subsequent stops in Australia and Papua New Guinea to focus on debt limit talks in Washington.Rodriguez said the reelection campaign is planning early investments to try to retain battleground states Biden won in 2020 including Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New Hampshire, a...

China says Ukraine envoy met with Zelenskyy during talks in Kyiv

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:43 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China said Thursday its special envoy met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during talks in Kyiv earlier this week. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the meeting came amid discussions between envoy Li Hui and Ukraine’s foreign minister and other government officials. “There is no remedy to resolve the crisis,” Wang told reporters at a daily briefing. “All parties should create favorable conditions and accumulate mutual trust for the political settlement.” The visit followed an earlier phone call between Zelenskyy and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.Over two days, Li and Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba discussed “ways to stop Russian aggression,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.Kuleba briefed Li, a former Chinese ambassador to Moscow, “about the principles of restoring a stable and just peace based on respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”According to the statement, Kuleba repeated his government’s...

Stock market today: Global stocks, Wall St futures rise on hopes for US debt deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:43 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets and Wall Street futures rose Thursday on hopes U.S. political leaders can reach agreement to avoid a potentially disastrous default on government debt.London and Paris opened higher. Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced. Oil prices edged lower.Wall Street rallied Wednesday after President Joe Biden expressed confidence “America will not default” despite lack of agreement on Republican demands for cuts in aid to poor families in exchange for raising the amount the government can borrow.“Markets are now fully pricing an in-time resolution of the crisis,” said Clifford Bennett of ACY Securities in a report. “No one wants to sell ahead of an announcement of a deal being made.”In early trading, the FTSE in London rose 0.7% to 7,776.24. The DAX in Frankfurt gained 1.5% to 16,187.47 and the CAC 40 in Paris advanced 0.9% to 7,468.73.On Wall Street, futures for the benchmark S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.1%.On Wed...

Hong Kong leader defends removal of politically sensitive books in public libraries

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:43 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s leader said Thursday the city’s public libraries would not recommend books featuring “bad ideologies” to residents after they pulled titles related to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and certain political figures, further shrinking the city’s freedoms. Chief Executive John Lee was addressing a lawmaker’s question about dozens of books in public libraries that were taken down without a clear explanation. Those include publications about the bloody crackdown and others written by pro-democracy politicians and political commentators.Hong Kong is a former British colony that returned to China’s rule in 1997, promising to retain its Western-style freedoms. But the city’s cultural and creative sectors said the city’s freedoms have shrunk since Beijing imposed a tough national security law following massive pro-democracy protests in 2019. Critics said the book pulling would further undermine Hong Kong’s reputa...

India’s top court allows bull-taming sport to continue despite criticism from animal rights groups

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:43 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s top court on Thursday ruled to allow the continuation of the bull-taming sport of jallikattu, which is celebrated as cultural heritage in the southern state of Tamil Nadu but criticized by animals rights groups.Five justices held that the state government was taking sufficient steps to reduce the pain and suffering of the animals, and ruled the sport and other bull races in the country could continue.Animal rights organizations had filed court petitions saying jallikattu is a bloodsport and dangerous, with the bulls often attacking their riders and bystanders as they try to escape crowded areas.The sport, which dates back centuries, is extremely popular in Tamil Nadu during the four-day Pongal harvest festival in January in which hundreds of bull vaulters compete in a carnival-like festival.As drums beat and the crowd cheers, a man leaps onto the back of a large bull and hangs on tightly to its hump as the animal bucks and jumps. If he can hold on for three ...

Judge in abortion pill case asks if Mother's Day is 'celebrating illness'

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:43 GMT

(The Hill) - A federal appeals court judge on Wednesday questioned a lawyer for Danco, the manufacturer of the brand name abortion pill mifepristone, about whether Mother’s Day is “celebrating illness,” during oral arguments over the drug’s approval.Judge James Ho, an appointee of former President Trump, expressed doubts about the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) use of an expedited process to approve mifepristone more than 20 years ago. The accelerated approval process is typically reserved for medications used to treat serious or life-threatening illnesses.“Pregnancy is not a serious illness,” Ho said, later adding, “When we celebrated Mother’s Day, were we celebrating illness?”Danco lawyer Jessica Ellsworth rejected this premise, noting that the FDA has used the words “illness,” “condition” and “disease” interchangeably when discussing the rule for expedited approval.“I agree, your honor, that is the language that is used in the regulation itself,” Ellsworth said. “But as I s...

Judge rejects attempt by Tiger Woods' ex-girlfriend to throw out nondisclosure agreement

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:43 GMT

A Florida judge ruled late Wednesday that the ex-girlfriend of Tiger Woods must abide by a nondisclosure agreement she purportedly signed and resolve her lawsuits seeking millions from the golf superstar through private arbitration behind closed doors.Circuit Judge Elizabeth Metzger, in an 11-page opinion, rejected Erica Herman's attempt to quash the 2017 agreement by saying Woods had committed sexual harassment against her, calling Herman's allegations “vague and threadbare.”“Herman has had the opportunity (to) provide factual specificity for any claim relating to sexual assault or sexual harassment, however, she has not done so,” Metzger wrote.Metzger also said that the evidence shows that a nondisclosure agreement was negotiated between Herman and Woods in 2017, even if her attorney, Benjamin Hodas, now questions whether she actually signed it.At a May 9 hearing, Hodas conceded that Herman signed an agreement, but he said she doesn’t remember ever seeing the one Woods’ attor...

Ten great new restaurants in the east metro suburbs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:32:43 GMT

So many restaurants open and close in a given month that it’s hard for even us to keep up with all the churn, especially in the suburbs.But as always, some new and notable places have opened recently outside the core Twin Cities.In an attempt to showcase them all in one spot, here are some of our favorite east metro suburban restaurants that have opened within the past year.Änna’s BistroRicotta gnocchi and portobello mushroom with roasted vegetables and crispy polenta were on the entree menu at Änna’s Bistro, a new wood-fired restaurant in Marine on St. Croix, on April 14, 2023. The restaurant opened in summer 2022 in the historic Lumberyard building. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)In the new wood-fired kitchen in Marine on St. Croix that celebrates its first birthday this summer, I’ve found one of my new favorite restaurants in the state.The restaurant, in the historic Lumberyard building, has fewer than 30 seats inside. Walking to the bathroom — which, as owner Änna Hagstrom chron...