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Israel releases 33 Palestinians from West Bank prison as part of cease-fire swap

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:27 GMT

By WAFAA SHURAFA, BASSEM MROUE and DAVID RISING (Associated Press)RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Palestinian official says 33 Palestinians have been released by Israel from a West Bank prison.Their release came shortly after Hamas released 24 hostages who had been held captive in Gaza for weeks, including 13 Israelis, 10 people from Thailand and one from the Philippines. It was the first stage in a swap under a four-day cease-fire deal.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas on Friday released 24 hostages who had been held captive in Gaza for weeks, including 13 Israelis, 10 people from Thailand and one from the Philippines, according to Qatar, in the first stage in a swap for Palestinians prisoners in Israel under a four-day cease-fire deal.The agreement opened the way for sorely needed aid to flow into Gaza for beleaguered residents. It was also a moment of hope for families in Israel and elsewhere worried about loved ones taken ...

NATO member N Macedonia to briefly lift flight ban in case Russia’s Lavrov wants to attend meeting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:27 GMT

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — NATO member North Macedonia said Friday it would briefly lift a ban on flights from Russia next week, which would enable Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to attend an international conference in the country should he accept the invitation.A government statement said the window would apply from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, when North Macedonia hosts a meeting of foreign ministers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in the capital, Skopje.Russia is one of the 57 members of the OSCE, set up during the Cold War to ease East-West tensions, whose rotating chairmanship North Macedonia currently holds. Most European countries banned flights from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022.It was not clear whether Lavrov would even accept the invitation which North Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said last week had been sent to him. If so, Friday’s government statement said North Macedonia’s foreign...

Israel summons Spanish, Belgian ambassadors following criticism during visit to Rafah

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:27 GMT

RAFAH, Egypt (AP) — The Israeli government said Friday it would summon the Belgian and Spanish ambassadors following remarks by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his Belgian counterpart Alexander de Croo on the war between Israel and Hamas. The announcement came after the two leaders criticized Israel for the suffering of Palestinian civilians under Israeli military operations in Gaza. Sánchez also called for European Union recognition of a Palestinian state, saying Spain might do so on its own.Speaking at a joint press conference at the Rafah border crossing in Gaza on Friday, Sánchez said the time had come for the international community and the European Union to once and for all recognize a Palestinian state. He said it would be better if the EU did it together, “but if this is not the case … Spain will take their own decisions.”Sánchez was speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt with de Croo. Spain currently holds the EUR...

Hamas hostage deal ‘progress’ but long-term peace needs ‘many more steps’: Trudeau

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:27 GMT

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is still rejecting demands for Canada to call for a full ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, but he says a deal to temporarily halt hostilities this week so Hamas can release hostages represents progress.Trudeau says the world needs a lasting peace in the region, including a two-state solution.He made the comments today at a news conference in St. John’s, saying that that will require many steps, but that the humanitarian pause that started today is progress.The militant group has so far freed 24 people, including 13 Israeli women and children, 10 people from Thailand and one person from the Philippines.They were captured during the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 people, and federal officials confirmed this week that one Canadian woman is still missing. The pause in fighting is a respite for some 1.7 million people the United Nations says have been displaced amid Israel’s retaliation campaign in the Gaza Stri...

Ottawa and Quebec to create protected marine park near Anticosti Island

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:27 GMT

MONTREAL — Ottawa and Quebec have announced their intention to protect the waters near a picturesque territory in the Gulf of St. Lawrence that was recently named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and his provincial counterpart, Benoit Charette, said today they’re taking the first steps toward creating a protected marine park off Anticosti Island. They say the proposed site, stretching north from the island to the Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve, is home to marine mammals — including the endangered North Atlantic right whale — as well as colonies of seabirds and important fish populations.Anticosti Island was added in September to the United Nations’ list of places with outstanding universal value to humanity, and it is said to contain the best-preserved fossil record of marine life covering 10 million years of Earth history.Charette says the process of creating the marine park could take several years and will include c...

UN chief gives interview from melting Antarctica on eve of global climate summit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:27 GMT

KING GEORGE ISLAND, Antarctica (AP) — On the eve of international climate talks, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited globally-important Antarctica, where ice that’s been frozen for millions of years is melting due to human-caused climate change, to send the message that “we absolutely need to act immediately.”“What happens in Antarctica doesn’t stay in Antarctica,” Guterres said. In addition to reflecting lots of sunlight away from the Earth, Antarctica regulates the planet’s climate because its ice and cold waters drive major ocean currents. When massive amounts of ice melt, it raises sea levels and changes things like salinity and the habitats of ocean animals. At the annual Conference of the Parties known as COP, nations are supposed to gather to make and strengthen commitments to addressing climate change, but so far these have not been nearly enough to slow the emissions causing the warming.Guterres is on a three-day official visit to the southern contin...

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs accused of sexual abuse by two more women

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:27 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Two more women have come forward to accuse Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexual abuse, one week after the music mogul settled a separate lawsuit with the singer Cassie that contained allegations of rape and physical abuse. Both of the new suits were filed Thursday on the eve of the expiration of the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law permitting victims of sexual abuse a one-year window to file civil action regardless of the statute of limitations.The filings detail acts of sexual assault, beatings and forced drugging allegedly committed in the early 1990s by Combs, then a talent director, party promoter and rising figure in New York City’s hip-hop community. One of the accusers, Joi Dickerson, said she was a 19-year-old student at Syracuse University when she agreed to meet Combs at a restaurant in Harlem in 1991. After their date, Combs “intentionally drugged” her, then brought her home and sexually assaulted her, according to the filing. Without her knowledge, Combs...

APTN says funds needed from online streaming giants to help promote Indigenous voices

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:27 GMT

GATINEAU, Que. — The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network says online streaming services should be required to contribute funding to the Canadian broadcasting system in the face of shrinking resources that are making it more difficult to tell Indigenous stories.The Indigenous broadcaster says the creation of a “Services of Exceptional Importance Fund” would help it achieve its goal of maintaining cultural identity through its programming by fostering reconciliation and promoting Indigenous content and languages.The company presented Friday to a CRTC panel as the federal broadcasting regulator continues its three-week hearing about what contributions traditional broadcasters and online streaming services will need to make to support Canadian and Indigenous content.The exercise is part of the commission’s public consultations in response to Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, which is meant to update federal legislation to require digital platforms such as Netflix,...

Quebec woman, 61, killed hours after police called to her home, suspect arrested

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:27 GMT

LAVAL, Que. — A 61-year-old woman was stabbed to death inside her apartment Thursday in Montreal’s northern suburb hours after police visited the home.Police in Laval, Que., say they arrested a 30-year-old man at the scene.Officers were dispatched to a home in the Vimont district after 5:30 p.m. for an alleged dispute between adults, and found a woman suffering from stab wounds.The woman was transported to hospital where her death was confirmed, and police say the 30-year-old suspect was sent to hospital for evaluation.Const. Erika Landry says police were first called to the home at 2:30 p.m. that day and an intervention took place involving paramedics and social workers.Landry says the province’s police watchdog, known as the BEI, has decided not to investigate.The suspect remains hospitalized and authorities will determine whether he is fit to appear for a scheduled arraignment later today in Laval.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 24, 2023.The...

Russian lawmaker disputes report saying he adopted a child taken from a Ukrainian children’s home

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:27 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A Russian lawmaker and staunch supporter of President Vladimir Putin has denied media allegations that he adopted a missing 2-year-old girl who was removed from a Ukrainian children’s home and changed her name in Russia.Sergey Mironov, 70, the leader of political party A Just Russia, asserted on social media that the Ukrainian security services and their Western partners concocted a “fake” report to discredit true Russian patriots like himself. His statement, posted on X, followed the BBC and independent Russian news outlet Important Stories publishing an investigation Thursday that said Mironov adopted a child named Margarita Prokopenko who was allegedly taken to Moscow at the age of 10 months by the woman to whom he is now married. Mironov accused the two news organizations of having only “one goal — to discredit those who take an uncompromising patriotic position.”“You are trying in vain,” he wrote, adding that Russia would win its war in Ukraine.The office of the U...