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Rights group reports war crimes in Sudan, including deliberate attacks on civilians, sexual assault

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s warring parties have committed extensive war crimes in the ongoing conflict, including deliberate killings of civilians and sexual assault, a leading rights group said Thursday.The east African country plunged into chaos in mid-April when monthslong tensions between the military and a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, exploded into open fighting in the capital of Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.Amnesty International’s 56-page report said civilians were killed and wounded in targeted attacks. The group also reported women being raped, with some held in conditions “amounting to sexual slavery” mostly in the capital, Khartoum, and the western region of Darfur.“Sexual violence has been a defining element of this conflict since the beginning,” Donatella Rovera, co-author of the report, told The Associated Press. “Civilians really have no good options. It’s difficult for them to leave. It’s incredibly dangerous for them to stay....

Stock market today: Asia follows Wall St lower after the US government’s credit rating was cut

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets followed Wall Street lower on Thursday after Fitch Ratings cut the United States government’s credit rating.Tokyo’s market benchmark fell almost 1.5%. Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul declined. Oil prices edged higher.Wall Street turned in its biggest one-day decline in months after Fitch Ratings cut the U.S. government credit rating Wednesday by one level. The agency cited rising debt and a “steady deterioration in standards of governance” after Congress pushed Washington close to defaulting before agreeing to raise the amount it can borrow.“This is largely irrelevant despite some initial shock,” said Kristina Hooper of Invesco in a report, noting that this makes the U.S. rating more consistent with other major economies. “The timing was odd, given that it occurred well after the debt ceiling issue was resolved.”The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo tumbled 1.4% to 32,244.08 and the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.2% to 3,254.37. The Hang Seng in Hong ...

China proposes to limit children’s smartphone time to a maximum of 2 hours a day

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s internet watchdog has laid out regulations to curb the amount of time children spend on their smartphones, in the latest blow to firms such as Tencent and ByteDance, which run social media platforms and online games.The Cyberspace Administration of China on Wednesday published the draft guidelines on its site, stating that minors would not be allowed to use most internet services on mobile devices from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and that children between the ages of 16 and 18 would only be able to use the internet for two hours a day.Children between the ages of 8 and 15 would be allowed only an hour a day, while those under 8 would only be allowed 40 minutes.Only certain services, such as apps or platforms that are deemed suitable to the physical and mental development of minors, will be exempted. The CAC did not specify which internet services would be allowed exemptions.The restrictions are Beijing’s latest efforts to attempt to limit internet addiction, a problem ...

108 attendees at the World Scout Jamboree treated for heat-related illnesses in South Korea

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — At least 108 people were treated for heat-related illnesses at the World Scout Jamboree being held in South Korea, which is having one of its hottest summers in years.Most of them have recovered but at least two remain in treatment at an on-site hospital as of Thursday morning, said Choi Chang-haeng, secretary-general of the Jamboree’s organizing committee.The committee, which plans to proceed with the event while adding dozens of more medical staff to prepare for further emergencies, did not confirm the ages and other personal details of those who were injured.Wednesday night’s opening ceremony of the Jamboree, which brought more than 40,000 scouts, mostly teens, to a campsite built on land reclaimed from the sea in the southwestern town of Buan. The temperature there reached 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday.Lee Sang-min, South Korea’s Minister of the Interior and Safety, during an emergency meeting instructed officials to explore “a...

Typhoon Khanun forecast to turn back to Japanese islands where it already left damage and injuries

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — The typhoon that damaged homes and knocked out power on Okinawa and other Japanese islands this week was slowly moving west Thursday but is forecast to make a U-turn and dump even more rain on the archipelago.Typhoon Khanun, now in the waters between China and Japan’s southwestern islands, is expected to slow to nearly stationary movement before a weakening high pressure system nearby allows it to turn east Friday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.That forecast would spare China, where rain from an earlier typhoon caused deadly flooding and damage this week around the capital, Beijing.Khanun, which means jackfruit in Thai, had sustained surface winds of 162 kph (100 mph) with higher gusts Thursday morning. Up to 20 centimeters (7.8 inches) of rainfall were expected in the Okinawa region by midday Friday, JMA said. The storm has injured 41 people, three of them seriously, according to the Okinawa prefectural government. A 90-year-old man was found under a colla...

California voters may face dueling measures on 2024 ballot about oil wells near homes and schools

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California voters may be asked twice on the same November 2024 ballot whether to keep or to ditch a law mandating new oil wells be a certain distance away from homes, schools and parks. Recently, state lawmakers have been debating whether to reform the referendum process that makes overturning a law possible, as it has been leveraged by powerful industries to invalidate laws that are unfavorable to them.Last year, lawmakers approved so-called buffer zones around oil wells, which dot communities around Los Angeles and the state’s Central Valley, as part of a package of bills aimed at tackling climate change and pollution. The oil industry quickly moved to undo the law by gaining a spot on the 2024 ballot. But on Wednesday environmental advocates put forward their own proposed ballot measure aimed at getting voters to require buffer zones.“People who live next to oil wells get very, very sick. Californians who live next to this stuff, they have headache...

Vast majority of submissions to UN body on Israeli occupation favor them, Palestinians say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The vast majority of over 55 countries that made submissions to the U.N.’s highest judicial body which will give an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories supported the Palestinians view that Israel is taking over land they seek for an independent state, their U.N. ambassador said Wednesday.The Palestinian U.N. envoy, Riyad Mansour, told a group of reporters the number of submissions to the International Court of Justice exceeded Palestinian expectations and came from every continent and included all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.The U.N. General Assembly last Dec. 30 adopted a Palestinian-backed resolution asking the court’s opinion on the legality of Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories. It also seeks an opinion on the legal consequences of Israeli measures it said are “aimed at altering the demographic composition, cha...

Six months after East Palestine derailment, Congress deadlocked on new rules for train safety

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress responded to the fiery train derailment in eastern Ohio earlier this year with bipartisan alarm, holding a flurry of hearings about the potential for railroad crashes to trigger even larger disasters. Both parties agreed that a legislative response was needed.Yet six months after life was upended in East Palestine, little has changed. While President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have praised a railroad safety bill from Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and JD Vance, a Republican, the Senate proposal has also encountered resistance. Top GOP leaders in Congress have been hesitant to support it, and the bill has faced some opposition from the railroad industry, which holds significant sway in Washington. As a result, it remains an open question whether the derailment that shattered life in East Palestine will become a catalyst for action. And for Republicans, the fight poses a larger test of political identity, caught between their traditio...

Republicans don’t dare criticize Trump over Jan. 6. Their silence fuels his bid for the White House

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Senate Leader Mitch McConnell rose to announce his vote to acquit Donald Trump of impeachment charges in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the Republican assured the public the former president would have his day in court.“He didn’t get away with anything yet — yet,” McConnell vowed. “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one.”But as Trump prepares to appear Thursday on federal charges that he orchestrated an unprecedented effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, the Republican Party’s 2024 frontrunner for the White House faces no such dire warnings or recriminations from fellow Republicans.It’s a piercing silence that commands attention as Trump towers over the field of Republican contenders for the presidency. Gone are those who once stood up to Trump. Instead, the party Trump leads has essentially given up on criticizing his...

Trump to face judge in DC over charges that he tried to overturn 2020 presidential election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:42:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump is due in federal court Thursday to answer to charges that he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election, facing a judge just blocks from the U.S. Capitol that his supporters stormed to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power.In what’s by now become a familiar but nonetheless stunning ritual, Trump is expected to be processed by law enforcement, be officially taken into custody and enter a not guilty plea in front of a judge before being released, so he can rejoin the campaign trail as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024.An indictment Tuesday from Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith charges Trump with four felony counts related to his efforts to undo the presidential election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. The charges could lead to a yearslong prison sentence in the event of a convict...