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Air attack kills 2 in Kyiv while Russia accuses Ukraine of biggest drone attack of the war

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:13:12 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian officials on Wednesday accused Ukraine of launching what appeared to be the biggest nighttime drone attack on Russian soil since the war began 18 months ago. The Kremlin’s forces also hit Kyiv during the night with what Ukrainian officials called a “massive, combined attack” that killed two people.Drones struck hit an airport in western Russia’s Pskov region near the border with Estonia and Latvia, damaging four Il-76 transport aircraft that can carry heavy machinery, Russian state news agency Tass reported, citing emergency officials.The airport strike, which was first reported minutes before midnight, started a massive fire, the regional governor and local media reported. Unconfirmed media reports said up to 20 drones may have targeted the airport.More drones were shot down over the Oryol, Bryansk, Ryazan and Kaluga regions, as well as the region surrounding the Russian capital, according to the Defense Ministry. Three main Moscow region airports — She...

Mutinous soldiers in Gabon say they’ve ousted president whose family has ruled for 55 years

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:13:12 GMT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Crowds celebrated in Gabon after mutinous soldiers said Wednesday they were seizing power in order to overturn the results of a presidential election, seeking to remove a president whose family has held power for 55 years.The coup attempt came hours after the central African country’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba, 64, was declared winner of an election marred by fears of violence. Within minutes of the announcement, gunfire was heard in the center of the capital, Libreville. Later, a dozen uniformed soldiers appeared on state television and announced that they had seized power.Crowds in the city took to the city’s streets to celebrate the end of Bongo’s reign, singing the national anthem with soldiers.“Thank you, army. Finally, we’ve been waiting a long time for this moment,” said Yollande Okomo, standing in front of soldiers from Gabon’s elite republican guard. Shopkeeper Viviane Mbou offered the soldiers juice, which they declined.“Long live ...

Pope says a revised environmental encyclical will be released Oct. 4, feast of St. Francis of Assisi

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:13:12 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis said Wednesday he will be releasing an update to his landmark 2015 environmental encyclical on Oct. 4, the feast of his nature-loving namesake, St. Francis of Assisi.Francis recently revealed he was writing a “second part” to the document “to address current problems.” The Vatican spokesman said the update would take into account in particular recent climate crises.On Wednesday, Francis told his weekly general audience that he intended to publish the update on Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis and also the start of Francis’ big Vatican meeting on the future of the Catholic Church.The 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si,” or “Praised Be,” is perhaps Francis’ most well-known and important document. In it, Francis cast care for the environment in stark moral terms, calling for a bold cultural revolution to correct what he said was a “structurally perverse” economic system in which the rich exploited the poor, turning Earth into a pile of “filth” in t...

Pakistan’s Imran Khan will be imprisoned for 2 more weeks despite getting bail

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:13:12 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan will remain in a high-security prison for at least another two weeks despite being granted bail the previous day, as an anti-terrorism court extended his detention Wednesday in a case involving the revealing of an official secret document, a defense lawyer said.The anti-terrorism court announced the decision after a brief closed-door hearing that was held at a high-security Attock prison in the eastern Punjab province, lawyer Intazar Hussain Panjutha said. The next court hearing will be on Sept. 2, he said.Khan’s other lawyer, Salman Safdar, told reporters that he is petitioning a court to seek bail for Khan in the latest case. He said he is challenging Khan’s imprisonment and jail trial as “it is illogical and unconstitutional.” The latest development was a blow to Khan and his legal team, which expected his release after a court in the capital, Islamabad, suspended the corruption conviction and three-ye...

EgyptAir will resume direct flights from Egypt to conflict-stricken Sudan

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:13:12 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian authorities said the national carrier will resume direct flights to Sudan this week following high profile talks between the Egyptian president and Sudan’s military chief.Egypt’s Ministry of Civil Aviation said Tuesday that EgyptAir would launch a weekly flight route from Cairo to the Sudanese coastal city of Port Sudan starting Friday. No further details were given.Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April when simmering tensions between the military, led by Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere.The flight announcement came hours after Burhan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi concluded talks in Cairo. The visit marks the Sudanese general’s first trip abroad since fighting erupted on April 15. Sudanese authorities reopened the airspace in the east of the country earlier this month, according to local medi...

In the news today: Universities pull course info and BC kids head back to school soon

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:13:12 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Universities pull course info from public sites for safetySeveral Ontario universities are removing course location, and other information, from their public websites as a safety measure, as faculty representatives look to be more involved in efforts to prevent harassment and hate crimes on campus. The move to pull some information from public pages comes after a triple stabbing at a University of Waterloo gender studies class in June, which police described as a hate-motivated attack. The school removed class locations and instructor names from its public websites after the stabbing and several other post-secondary institutions have either done the same or are considering the measure. In Toronto, York University and the University of Toronto said they were taking down course room locations from the public domain, while Toronto Metropolitan University said it d...

A look at 10 films sparking interest ahead of the Toronto International Film Festival

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:13:12 GMT

TORONTO — A bombastic bawdy musical, a feel-good soccer-driven popcorn flick and what may be the last film from a revered Japanese auteur are among the cinematic highlights set for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.While ongoing Hollywood labour strikes have cast uncertainty over who will show up on the red carpet, the big screen is sure to feature plenty of star-packed ventures and intriguing flicks to choose from.Here’s a look at 10 titles that have caught the attention of Canadian Press reporters who will be on the circuit Sept. 7 to 17. “Aggro Dr1ft” — If the marketing gimmick of “shot entirely in infrared” fails to capture interest in the experimental film “Aggro Dr1ft,” the name Harmony Korine just might. Hardly satisfied with keeping things risk-free, the U.S. director behind limit-testing films such as “Kids,” “Gummo” and “Spring Breakers” has built a career out of being divisive, if not interesting. In what TIFF describes as a sensory experiment, “...

Mohawk-language Bible published after decades-long effort by one Quebec man

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:13:12 GMT

KANESATAKE — Harvey Satewas Gabriel still remembers the first time he heard a preacher read Bible passages in the Mohawk language back in the 1950s. He watched the United Church minister open the book and translate the Scripture into Mohawk straight off the page as he read, the words sounding like “honey” to the then-17-year-old from Kanesatake, Que.Gabriel went home and asked his mother why there was no Mohawk Bible. She said, “That’s a big project, who’s going to translate that?” he recalls.That conversation would spark a decades-long passion that culminates this fall with the publication of a complete Mohawk-language Bible — most of it translated by Gabriel himself.The 83-year-old estimates it took him about 17 years, on and off, to complete the translation, including 58 books he translated single-handedly.Gabriel said that early conversation with his mother stuck with him. However, it wasn’t until around 1980 that he first started translating Bible passages, wh...

No more ‘Forest Fridays’: B.C. pupils to return to school in fire-ravaged communities

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:13:12 GMT

VANCOUVER — Alesha Campbell’s five-year-old daughter Maddie used to look forward to “Forest Fridays,” when she and kindergarten classmates would walk through the woods behind Rose Valley Elementary in West Kelowna.But now most of the forest has been burned by the McDougall Creek wildfire, part of a fire complex that has damaged or destroyed at least 189 properties. It came close to destroying the school, too.“Their playground and the field is fine, but their outdoor forest playground is gone and that was a really big part of the school,” Campbell said. “It’s really hard to lose that.”As students across British Columbia gear up for their return to school next week, parents in communities devastated by wildfires are grappling with what that may look like for their kids. Some pupils have been evacuated from their home communities, while 17 B.C. schools were still under evacuation orders or alerts, the Education Ministry said Tuesday.Campb...

Indigo hopes new store concept will win back customers after cyberattack, inflation

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:13:12 GMT

TORONTO — When Indigo Books & Music Inc. opens the doors to its forthcoming location in downtown Toronto’s Well building this September, shoppers will immediately realize the space is more than a bookstore.A blue Citroën truck dating back to the 1950s will sit by the entrance serving pastries, coffee, beer and wine. There will be nooks dedicated to home fragrances, plants and popular Japanese graphic novels known as Manga.A listening booth will offer up stacks of records to buy and a jukebox to sample jams, and other areas will be abuzz with 1980s pinball and Pac-Man machines for gamers.The 16,000 square-foot store — the first using the retailer’s new urban concept — will be a play on the company’s long-held strategy of blending books with lifestyle products, but for chief executive Peter Ruis, it will also be a test.Indigo is entering a new chapter, its first without Heather Reisman, who built the retailer into a dominant Canadian chain and mall stalwart with ...