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Dissident pulled off plane by Belarus gets 8 years in prison

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:30 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A court in Belarus convicted a dissident journalist who was arrested after being pulled off a commercial flight that was diverted to the country and sentenced him Wednesday to eight years in prison. Raman Pratasevich’s dramatic arrest in May 2021 elicited outrage in the West, with some leaders saying the plane’s diversion was tantamount to state-sponsored hijacking.Belarusian flight controllers ordered the Ryanair jetliner traveling from Greece to Lithuania to land in Minsk, telling the crew there was a bomb threat against the flight. No explosives were found on board once the airliner was on the ground, but Pratasevich, a Belarusian citizen who lived in exile at the time, was detained. His Russian girlfriend was also arrested. The plane then was allowed to continue on to Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital. In response to the forced diversion, several Western countries imposed a raft of new sanctions and barred their planes from flying over Belaru...

Colombia’s Petro in Spain to boost peace plan, investment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:30 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro began a state visit to Spain on Wednesday to seek support for his peace plan for the South American country, and to discuss economic investment and migration policy.Spanish King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez greeted Petro in Madrid. He is scheduled to address lawmakers at Spain’s Parliament and to attend a state dinner hosted by the Spanish royals.Sánchez, Spain’s Socialist leader, is a backer of Petro, an ex-rebel who became Colombia’s first leftist president last year.One of the main topics on his agenda is his peace process with the National Liberation Army (ELN), a guerrilla organization still active after the dissolution of FARC, a group which spent decades pursuing rebellion. Last week, ELN militants killed nine Colombian soldiers in an attack, complicating efforts by Petro to negotiate a lasting peace.The Colombian leader seeks Spain’s full support for his plan, which he will likely explicitly obtain from Sánc...

Fire rages at Russian oil depot; Zelenskyy visits Finland

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:30 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A massive blaze broke out at an Russian oil depot, local officials said Wednesday, while the Kremlin’s forces used 26 Iranian-made drones in another nighttime attack on Ukraine as the war stretched into its 15th month.The developments came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made an unannounced visit to the Finnish capital, Helsinki, for a one-day summit with Nordic leaders, as he pushes Ukraine’s Western allies to provide Kyiv with more military support.The Nordic countries have been among Ukraine’s strongest backers. “The war is … a turning point for our entire continent,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, one of the summit attendees. “Here in the north, we have a more unpredictable and aggressive Russian neighbor, and it is important that we discuss together how to face this new situation.”The oil depot erupted in flames in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, located east of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula, according to Kra...

12 die in explosion, helicopter crash during Chinese holiday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:30 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — At least nine people were killed in an explosion at a Chinese petrochemical plant and three others died in a helicopter crash during the country’s May Day holiday.Rescuers recovered the bodies of the nine workers killed in the explosion Monday at the Zhonghua Group plant in an industrial zone in the city of Liaocheng in the northern province of Shandong. One person remained missing and another was hospitalized with injuries, the zone’s management committee said in a notice Wednesday. An interdepartmental task force has been set up to investigate the cause of the blast, the committee said. On Tuesday afternoon, a small civilian-use helicopter crashed outside the northwestern city of Xi’an, killing all three people on board, state media reported. No information was given on the identities of the victims or the cause of the crash. Meanwhile, two earthquakes in the country’s southwest on Tuesday and Wednesday caused minor damage and slightly injured 10 people....

Turkish singer sentenced over joke on religious schools

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:30 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A court in Istanbul on Wednesday handed Turkish pop singer Gulsen a 10-month suspended sentence after convicting her of “inciting hatred and enmity” over a joke about Turkey’s religious schools, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported.The singer-songwriter was briefly jailed last year for the joke she made during a concert, when she quipped that the “perversion” of one of her musicians came from attending a religious school.The 46-year-old singer, whose full name is Gulsen Colakoglu, was jailed for five days and later spent 15 days under house arrest despite having apologized for any offense she caused religious school graduates.The court on Wednesday found her guilty of the charge and initially sentenced her to one year in prison, Anadolu Agency reported. The court later reduced the sentence, citing her “respectful stance” during the trial. Gulsen will face prison if she reoffends within the next five years. There was no immediate comment from the singer...

S. Korean, Japanese officials meet ahead of leaders’ summit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:30 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Senior South Korean and Japanese officials on Wednesday discussed strengthening relations and coordinating responses to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats in a meeting in Seoul ahead of a summit between the countries’ leaders.South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will host on Sunday Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in their second summit since March. The two U.S. allies have been working to repair relations strained by historical grievances and tighten security cooperation to cope with North Korean nuclear threats. The talks between South Korean National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong and his Japanese counterpart, Takeo Akiba, were focused on the trilateral security cooperation with Washington and encouraging further global efforts to stem North Korean attempts to evade U.N. Security Council sanctions to fund its nuclear arms program.Cho and Akiba also discussed facilitating the economic and cultural exchanges and aligning their broader strategies...

Indian no-frills air carrier Go First files for bankruptcy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:30 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — No-frills Indian air carrier Go First filed for bankruptcy and suspended its flights for three days starting Wednesday, causing hardships for thousands of fliers.A statement on the carrier’s website on Tuesday said the cancellations were caused by operational reasons. “A full refund will be issued to the original mode of payment shortly,” the statement said.In a message to employees on Tuesday, airline chief Kaushik Khona said Pratt & Whitney had failed to supply it with replacements for faulty aircraft engines, the Press Trust of India news agency said. Pratt and Whitney, an American aerospace manufacturer with global operations, had no immediate comment. Khona said the carrier was doing everything possible to navigate the situation with utmost care and concern for all staff.Go First had an average of 30,000 daily domestic flyers in March, so the disruption in flights is expected to affect about 90,000 passengers, media reports said.The airline is owned b...

Nearly half of college dropouts would 'very likely' reenroll if given student debt relief, poll finds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:30 GMT

(The Hill) - Forty-seven percent of people who did not finish their postsecondary degree say they would “very likely” go back to school if they got some student debt relief.The State of Higher Education 2023 report released early Wednesday morning by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation found 31 percent of all students who left school with debt would “somewhat likely” go back, while 22 percent say they are “not very likely” or “not likely at all” to return to higher education. The poll comes as student borrowers are set to find out soon if they will receive the up to $20,000 in student loan forgiveness President Biden proposed last year. Biden's plan could receive a ruling any day now from the conservative-leaning Supreme Court. On average, students in the survey who did not finish their degree said they would need 70 percent of their loans forgiven in order to reenroll in school. For a person to get 70 percent of their student debts forgiven under Biden’s plan, they woul...

Small Bites Review: Yes, Tacos Tacos Tacos — but also salsas, salsas, salsas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:30 GMT

You can probably guess what’s on the menu at Tacos Tacos Tacos. And the tacos at the new spot on West 7th Street are indeed good — but the salsas really steal the show.Both the traditional Mexican street food-style tacos and the space they’re served in are pared down to the essentials, with little embellishments here and there. Six tacos: pork al pastor, skirt steak, slow-simmered beef suadero, chorizo sausage, beef tongue and nopales, plus a few specialty tacos and other street-food classics like torta sandwiches.After you order up front, grab your tacos at the back counter — under the neon-style “You Sexy Taco” sign, an unexpected piece of millennial-aesthetic decor — and sit either bar-style along the large front windows or at one of a couple wooden tables.And for real, don’t miss the salsas. On a recent afternoon, they were in nondescript squeeze bottles in a small metal pan by the pick-up counter, so you might need to ask for a run-through. The mild salsa verde has plenty...

Prost! Gasthaus Bavarian Hunter to reopen this month

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:30 GMT

The Gasthaus Bavarian Hunter restaurant will reopen later this month with the same name, the same decor, the same hours, the same menu and the same 12 taps that serve only German beer.The only thing new is owner Jimmy Martin, who in April bought the German restaurant in Grant from longtime owner Kim Quade. The restaurant was founded in 1966 by Bavarian native Karl Schoene and his wife, Elizabeth; Quade was previously married to Carl Schoene Jr., who died in 2003. The restaurant closed in December 2021.“It’s an honor to have been chosen as the next steward of the Gasthaus,” said Martin, 42, of Lake Elmo. “I intend for it to operate the same as it always has been. It’s important that it remains the same for the community.”Recipes that were on the Gasthaus menu for 50 years will be back, including sauerbraten and schnitzel (10 kinds), schweinshaxe (pork knuckle), and a herring sampler that features pickled herring, mustard herring and herring in apples, onions and seasoning, Martin sai...