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Ex-Boris Johnson aide barred from Georgia amid opposition crackdown fears

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:49 GMT

A former senior political advisor to ex-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was detained at the airport in Tbilisi and forced to leave Georgia, where he has been advising the country’s leading opposition party.Speaking to journalists on Monday, the chairman of the United National Movement, Georgia’s main opposition bloc, confirmed that Ben Mallet, a veteran political campaigner, was questioned upon his arrival in the capital. Accusing the government of double standards and sparking a “diplomatic scandal,” Levan Khabeishvili asked: “Can you imagine that a British citizen was not allowed, but they lay a red carpet for [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov and Russian generals?”Border guards questioned Mallet, who works as director of international campaigns for U.S. strategic consultancy The Messina Group, after he arrived on a flight from Paris for talks with opposition leaders. The authorities later issued a formal entry rejection on ambiguous grounds, said ...

Dedham High to hold its annual Hall of Fame banquet

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:49 GMT

The annual Dedham High School Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony will take place on Sunday, November 19 in the Dedham High cafeteria. Doors will open at 11:30 AM for pictures and socializing followed by a luncheonbuffet and the ceremony.The 2023 individual inductees into the Athletic Hall of Fame are: Athletes Tricia Spada 2004, Harold Burns 1935, Diane Dimartino Savi 1983, Tim Holton 1987, Jack Dewar 1956, and basketball coach Jim Calhoun.The 2004-2005 girls state hockey championship team will also be inducted. Members of that team are captain Christina Sweeney, assistant captains Kara Kelley and Kathryn Kelley, Brianne Carabia, Kristen Howard, Janelle Vettori, Carolyn Tannetta, Jessie D’Alessandro, Erin McGaffigan, Gillian Nolan, Amanda Shay, Brittany Walker, Jackie Collins, Melissa Hallisey, and Regina Jay along with coaches Don Parr, Joe Huff and volunteer assistant Chris Maloof.

Liberian President Weah faces tight runoff vote for a second term against challenger Boakai

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:49 GMT

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberian President George Weah, faces a tight runoff election Tuesday as he seeks to defeat a repeat challenger and earn a second term in the West African nation.The former international soccer star may have easily defeated Joseph Boakai in the 2017 runoff, but results from the first round of balloting last month show the two neck and neck: Weah took 43.83% while Boakai brought in 43.44% of the total.“We are going to an election where nobody has a competitive edge with a wide margin,” said Ibrahim Nyei, executive director at the Ducor Institute for Social and Economic Research.In the weeks since the Oct. 10 first round, both candidates have been actively seeking the endorsements of the other small opposition parties. So far, Boakai has managed to win the backing of the third, fourth and fifth-placed finishers. While that amounts to only 5.6% of the vote, it could tilt the runoff in Boakai’s favor. Weah, meanwhile, has received the support o...

China, Iran, Arab nations condemn Israeli minister’s statement about dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:49 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — China, Iran and a multitude of Arab nations condemned an Israeli minister’s statement that a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip was an option in the Israel-Hamas war, calling it a threat to the world.At Monday’s long-planned opening of a United Nations conference whose goal is to establish a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, many ambassadors expressed condemnations and criticisms of comments by Israel’s Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu, who later called his remarks in a radio interview Sunday “metaphorical.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly disavowed the comments and suspended him from cabinet meetings.Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its nuclear capability. It is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, and a former employee at its nuclear reactor served 18 years in Israeli prison for leaking details and pictures of Israel’s alleged nuclear arsenal program to a British newspaper in 1986.China’s deputy U.N. ambassador Geng Shuang said...

As fighting empties north Gaza, humanitarian crisis worsens in south

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:49 GMT

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Another 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza since Nov. 5, the U.N. humanitarian office said Tuesday, as Israeli ground forces battle Palestinian militants around hospitals where patients, newborns and medics are stranded with no electricity and dwindling supplies.The humanitarian office, known as OCHA, says only one hospital in the north is capable of receiving patients. All the others are no longer able to function and mostly serve as shelters from the fighting, including Gaza’s largest, Shifa, which is surrounded by Israeli troops and where 36 babies are at risk of dying because there is no power for incubators.The war, now in its sixth week, was triggered by Hamas’ surprise attack into Israel, in which militants massacred hundreds of civilians and dragged some 240 hostages back to Gaza. Israel launched heavy airstrikes for nearly three weeks before sending troops and tanks into the north. The war has killed thousands of Palestinian civili...

A rescue operation for 40 workers trapped under a collapsed tunnel in north India enters third day

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:49 GMT

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Rescuers are working around the clock Tuesday to remove debris to extract 40 workers who have been trapped for over two days after an under-construction tunnel collapsed in northern India. Officials hope to extricate them in the next 24 hours.A 2.5-foot (0.76 meter)-wide steel pipe will be pushed through an opening of excavated debris with the help of hydraulic jacks to safely pull out the stranded workers, authorities said.About 200 rescuers from federal and state disaster relief agencies are using drilling equipment and excavators to reach them.The tunnel collapsed Sunday in Uttarakhand, a mountainous state dotted with Hindu temples that attract many pilgrims and tourists. The tunnel is part of the busy Chardham all-weather road, a flagship federal government project connecting various Hindu pilgrimage sites.Senior government official Ranjit Sinha said falling debris has been hindering the rescue operation and added they expect to free the workers by Tuesday ...

Euro 7: MEPs support new rules to cut down pollutant emissions 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:49 GMT

MEPs are ready to start talks with EU governments on new rules to reduce road transport emissions for passenger cars, vans, buses and trucks, Plenary session, ENVI.Last week, Parliament adopted its negotiating position on revamping EU rules for type-approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles (Euro 7) with 329 votes in favour, 230 against and 41 abstentions. The new regulation will update current limits for exhaust emissions (such as nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and ammonia), and will introduce new measures to reduce emissions from tyres and brakes, and increase battery durability.MEPs agree with the levels proposed by the Commission for pollutant emissions for passenger cars and propose an additional breakdown of emissions into three categories for light commercial vehicles based on their weight. They also propose stricter limits on exhaust emissions measured in laboratory and in real driving conditions for buses and heavy-duty vehicles. Parliament a...

Three-bedroom home in Palo Alto sells for $2.6 million

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:49 GMT

748 Kendall Avenue – Google Street ViewA house located in the 700 block of Kendall Avenue in Palo Alto has new owners. The 1,134-square-foot property, built in 1950, was sold on Nov. 3, 2023. The $2,560,000 purchase price works out to $2,257 per square foot. The layout of this single-story home consists of three bedrooms and one bath. Inside, a fireplace adds character to the home. In addition, the home features an attached one-car garage, ensuring secure parking and storage.These nearby houses have also recently been purchased:A 2,016-square-foot home on the 3500 block of Julie Court in Palo Alto sold in August 2022, for $3,650,000, a price per square foot of $1,811. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.In September 2022, a 1,738-square-foot home on Barron Avenue in Palo Alto sold for $2,860,000, a price per square foot of $1,646. The home has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.On Barron Avenue, Palo Alto, in May 2023, a 979-square-foot home was sold for $2,260,000, a price per square f...

Indonesia doesn’t need Europe anymore, presidential frontrunner says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:49 GMT

Indonesia’s leading candidate for president has said the country doesn’t “really need Europe anymore,” criticizing the bloc’s ban on some Indonesian imports and suggesting his country should align itself more closely with other nations in Asia.“We open our market to you, but you won’t allow us to sell palm oil, and now we have problems trying to sell coffee, tea, cocoa,” Prabowo Subianto, who currently serves as Indonesia’s defense minister, said Monday at a forum organized by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.In April, the EU banned imports of some Indonesian products, including soy, palm oil, coffee, cocoa, timber, rubber and beef over links to deforestation. Indonesia is home to a third of the world’s rainforests but has seen much of it vanish due to deforestation, of which palm oil plantations are a major driver. Indonesia’s chief economic minister previously accused the EU of “r...

Germany’s Pistorius says EU will fall short of million shell pledge to Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:49 GMT

BRUSSELS — The EU will not reach its goal of supplying 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine by March, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the start of Tuesday’s summit of EU defense ministers.“We have to assume that the 1 million will not be achieved,” he said.One way of doing a better job would be for defense firms to focus on sending more ammunition to Ukraine and exporting less to other countries, the EU’s foreign and security policy chief Josep Borrell said.Borrell questioned the claim that the EU’s defense production capacity has reached the upper limit.“Keep in mind European defense industry is exporting a lot — about 40 percent of the production is being exported to third countries,” Borrell told reporters before chairing the defense ministers’ meeting. “So it’s not a lack of production capacity; it is that they send their products to [other] markets. So maybe what we have to do is to try to shift this produc...