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Half of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population flees as the separatist government says it will dissolve

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:55 GMT

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — The separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh announced Thursday that it will dissolve itself and the unrecognized republic will cease to exist by the end of the year, and Armenian officials said more than half of the population has already fled.That is after Azerbaijan carried out a lightning offensive to reclaim full control over its breakaway region and demanded that Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh lay down their weapons and the separatist government dissolve itself.A decree to that effect was signed by the region’s separatist President Samvel Shakhramanyan. The document cited an agreement reached last week to end the fighting under which Azerbaijan will allow the “free, voluntary and unhindered movement” of Nagorno-Karabakh residents and disarm troops in Armenia in exchange.Nagorno-Karabakh is a region of Azerbaijan that came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. During...

Chinese ambassador says Australian lawmakers who visit Taiwan are being utilized by separatists

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:55 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — China’s ambassador to Australia on Thursday criticized Australian politicians who visit Taiwan, saying they are being utilized by separatists on the self-governing island.Ambassador Xiao Qian was commenting in Sydney after an Australian parliamentary delegation visited Taiwan this week, and as a former prime minister plans to deliver a speech in Taipei next month. China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory. Xiao said Australian parliamentarians and former prime ministers who visit Taiwan “carry political significance.”“It might be easily utilized by the political forces in Taiwan for their independent forces movement, for their secession movement, and I don’t want to see that happen,” Xiao told reporters.“I hope they will stick to the ‘one-China policy’ in words and indeed, refrain from engaging with Taiwan in whichever form or capacity so that they will not be politically utilized by people in the island with political motives,” Xiao said. The “on...

Senior Thai national park official, 3 others, acquitted in 9-year-old case of missing activist

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:55 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Thailand on Thursday acquitted four national park employees, including a senior official, of the kidnapping and murder of an Indigenous rights activist who disappeared under suspicious circumstances more than nine years ago.The activist, Porlajee Rakchongcharoen, was last seen in the custody of Kaeng Krachan National Park officials in western Thailand’s Phetchaburi province on April 17, 2014.The killing or disappearance of community and environmental activists is a persistent but overlooked problem in Thailand and many developing countries. Porlajee’s is one of 76 cases of enforced disappearances in recent decades in Thailand that the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights last year listed as unresolved.Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn, the former chief of Kaeng Krachan National Park, and the three other defendants were arrested in 2019 after Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation uncovered partial remains they identified though DNA analysis as matching that...

Shooting incident in Slovak capital leaves 1 dead, 4 injured

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:55 GMT

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — A shooting incident early Thursday in the Slovak capital left one person dead and four others injured, officials said.A 32-year-old man died and four other people were transported to hospitals with injuries, the rescue service in Bratislava said. The incident occurred in the Dubravka neighborhood after midnight on Thursday, police said.Police spokesman Michal Szeiff told the local TASR news agency that officers arrived at the scene after receiving calls from people who reported gunshots and an explosion.Police fired shots at one person, Szeiff said.According to the news website aktuality.sk, a man opened fire from the window of an apartment building and was shot dead by police when he attacked them with a knife.Police didn’t immediately give more details about the incident but said they were investigating.The Associated Press

The centuries-old card game of bridge offers a sharp contrast to esports at the Asian Games

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:55 GMT

HANGZHOU, China (AP) — If you’re looking for another kind of esport to follow from the Asian Games, try the centuries-old card game of bridge.Here the “e” would stand for “elderly” to represent the game’s aging demographic — not for “electronic” as in the youth-driven online gaming that’s proving to be one of the most popular events of the Asian Games, generating billions in annual revenue worldwide, and producing a new breed of global icons like South Korean League of Legends star “Faker.”Esports, chess, and bridge are among the so-called mind sports with full medal status at the two-week long Asian Games.Kelvin Ong heads the Singapore Bridge Association and laments it’s difficult to attract the nation’s youth to bridge. But as he talks he, himself, is playing a video game on a tablet.“I’ll shut it down,” the 37-year-old says sheepishly, knowing he’s inadvertently highlighted the problem. “I think bridge is losing its following with the you...

As thaw accelerates, Swiss glaciers lost 10% of their volume in the last 2 years, experts say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:55 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — A Swiss Academy of Sciences panel is reporting a dramatic acceleration of glacier melt in the Alpine country, which has lost 10% of its ice volume in just two years after high summer heat and low snow volumes in winter.Switzerland — home to the most glaciers of any country in Europe — has seen 4% of its total glacier volume disappear in 2023, the second-biggest decline in a single year on top of a 6% drop in 2022, the biggest thaw since measurements began, the academy’s commission for cryosphere observation said.Experts at the GLAMOS glacier monitoring center have been on the lookout for a possible extreme melt this year amid early warning signs about the country’s estimated 1,400 glaciers, a number that is now dwindling.“The acceleration is dramatic, with as much ice being lost in only two years as was the case between 1960 and 1990,” the academy said. “The two extreme consecutive years have led to glacier tongues collapsing and the disappearance of many smaller...

Israel’s High Court hears challenge to law that makes it harder to remove Netanyahu from office

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:55 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday was hearing a challenge to a law that makes it harder to remove a sitting prime minister, which critics say is designed to protect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has been working to reshape the justice system while he is on trial for alleged corruption.The hearing is part of several pivotal court challenges against a proposed package of legislation and government steps meant to alter the country’s justice system. It comes as Israel has been plunged into months of turmoil over the plan and deepens a rift between Netanyahu’s government and the judiciary, which it wants to weaken despite unprecedented opposition. The hearing is the second by the High Court on the law but was being heard Thursday by an expanded 11-judge panel, underscoring the importance of the deliberations.Netanyahu’s governing coalition — Israel’s most religious and nationalist ever — passed the “incapacitation law” in March which allows a prime m...

4 environmental, human rights activists awarded ‘Alternative Nobel’ prizes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:55 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Right Livelihood Award — known as the “Alternative Nobel” — was awarded Thursday to environment activists from Kenya and Cambodia, a human right defender from Ghana and a humanitarian group that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.The 2023 laureates “stand up to save lives, preserve nature and safeguard the dignity and livelihoods of communities around the world,” the award foundation said, adding that they “fight for people’s right to health, safety, a clean environment and democracy.”This year’s prize went to Phyllis Omido from Kenya and the groups Mother Nature Cambodia and SOS Mediterranee. They will share a cash prize but for security reasons its size cannot be disclosed, the award foundation said. The 2023 honorary award was given to Eunice Brookman-Amissah from Ghana.“They care for their land and each human life connected to it: be it Indigenous communities or people risking their lives to get to safety,” Ole von Uexkull, the head of...

'Rex Block' Pattern Setting Stage for Summer-like warmth in Chicago; String of 80s begins over the weekend

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:55 GMT

We have a BIG warm up on the way as an extended warm period begins this weekend and extends into next weekThe 'Rex Block' PatternBLOCKING PATTERNS IN THE ATMOSPHERE MATTER because they effectively put the brakes on large-scale weather movement effectively STALLING or DRAMATICALLY SLOWING weather system movement. Look into extended cold or hot spells or extended dry or wet spells and chances are good a blocking pattern has played a role in the extended nature of these weather abnormalities.A Rex Block weather pattern is a high-pressure system that forms in the upper atmosphere, typically with a warm ridge of high pressure over a cool trough of low pressure below it. In the case of Chicago, when a Rex Block pattern develops, the warm ridge can extend over the region, suppressing the movement of weather systems and creating a stable and warm air mass. This leads to clear skies and a prolonged period of warm weather in Chicago as the high-pressure system prevents cooler air and storms f...

Sustainable transport: €7 billion available for key infrastructure projects under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:55 GMT

The Commission has launched a call for proposals under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport. Over €7 billion is available for projects targeting new, upgraded and improved European transport infrastructure on the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), which involve  rail, inland waterways, maritime or inland ports, or roads. The projects selected for funding will help the EU deliver on its climate objectives.Projects bolstering the EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes, set up to facilitate Ukraine's exports and imports, will also be eligible. For the first time, entities from Ukraine and Moldova can apply directly for EU funding with this call, since the signature of the CEF Association Agreements with the two countries earlier this year. Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean said: “This call for proposals will be the largest in terms of available budget under the 2021-2027 Connecting Europe Facility. We are making available over €7 billion for projects that will support a sma...