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Texas’ extraordinary move to impeach scandal-plagued GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:39:30 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — After years of legal and ethical scandals swirling around Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, the state’s GOP-controlled House of Representatives has moved toward an impeachment vote that could quickly throw him from office.The extraordinary and rarely-used maneuver comes in the final days of the state’s legislative session and sets up a bruising political fight. It pits Paxton, who has aligned himself closely with former President Donald Trump and the state’s hard-right conservatives, against House Republican leadership, who appear to have suddenly had enough of the allegations of wrongdoing that have long dogged Texas’ top lawyer.Paxton has said the charges are based on “hearsay and gossip, parroting long-disproven claims.”Here is how the impeachment process works in Texas, and how the 60-year-old Republican came to face the prospect of becoming just the third official to be impeached in the state’s nearly 200-year history:THE PROCESSUnder the Texas ...

Unexploded WWII bomb forces evacuation of 2,500 residents in Poland

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:39:30 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A large unexploded bomb from World War II discovered in the Polish city of Wroclaw forced the evacuation of 2,500 residents on Friday.The bomb weighing 250 kilograms (550 pounds) was found near a railway overpass in the city in southwestern Poland during construction work. Poland’s armed forces said it was a German SC-250 aerial bomb from the war.The city organized buses to take the evacuated residents to a safe area while bomb removal experts worked at the scene. Train traffic also had to be halted until the bomb was removed, according to Polish media reports.Police spokesperson Aleksandra Freus told broadcaster TVN24 that not all residents agreed to leave their homes and that authorities could not force them to do so. Police issued a public call to evacuate, citing “the threat to human health and life caused by unexploded ordnance.”During World War II, Wroclaw was the German city of Breslau. It saw heavy fighting and widespread destruction, coming under...

Belgium, Iran conduct prisoner swap in Oman, freeing aid worker and diplomat convicted in bomb plot

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:39:30 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Belgium and Iran conducted a prisoner exchange Friday in Oman, with officials saying Tehran released a Belgian aid worker in exchange for an Iranian diplomat convicted of attempting to bomb a meeting of exiles in France. The initial announcement by Oman’s Foreign Ministry did not identify the prisoners being swapped. However, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in a statement that the aid worker, Olivier Vandecasteele, had been freed. Iranian state television later said, in an on-screen graphic, that the diplomat would be freed. “Informed sources report the release of Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat detained in Belgium,” Iranian state TV said. “Further details will be announced.”Oman’s Foreign Ministry said that “those released were transferred from Tehran and Brussels to Muscat today, Friday, in preparation for their return to their countries.” It added that “the sultanate of Oman appreciated the high positive sp...

World Bank approves $300 million financing to help the poor in Lebanon

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:39:30 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The World Bank approved a $300 million additional financing to Lebanon’s poor, providing cash payments to help families struggling through the country’s historic economic meltdown, institution said in a statement Friday. The new financing comes two years after the World Bank approved a $246 million loan to Lebanon to provide emergency cash assistance to hundreds of thousands in the tiny Mediterranean nation of 6 million people. Lebanon is in the throes of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. The meltdown, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by Lebanon’s ruling class, began in October 2019 and has left more than three quarters of Lebanon’s population in poverty. “The additional financing will enable the Government of Lebanon to continue to respond to the growing needs of poor and vulnerable households suffering under the severe economic and financial crisis,” said Jean-Christophe Carret, World Bank Middle East Country ...

Climate protesters dog oil major TotalEnergies’ shareholder meeting in Paris

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:39:30 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French police threw a security cordon around a shareholders’ meeting in Paris of oil major TotalEnergies on Friday, spraying tear gas and pushing back climate protesters who chanted, “Be gentle, police officers, we’re doing this for your kids !” Shareholders, some escorted into the meeting by police, ran a gauntlet of the peaceful, earnest and mostly young demonstrators, who waved placards attacking the climate record of the French energy giant that has reaped colossal profits from price surges that have accompanied war in Ukraine.“The last pipeline before the end of the world,” “Listen to the scientists: No more fossil projects,” their placards read.Protesters sat down in surrounding streets and linked arms to block access to the meeting in a famed Paris concert hall. Police officers bodily carried some protesters to move them out of the way. They sprayed tear gas from canisters to force people back.The burning of coal, oil, natural gas and biomass is...

Passenger opens exit door during airplane flight in South Korea; 12 people injured slightly

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:39:30 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A passenger opened an emergency exit door during a plane flight in South Korea on Friday, causing air to blast inside the cabin and slightly injure 12 people, officials said. The plane landed safely.Some people aboard the Asiana Airlines Airbus A321 aircraft tried to stop the person, who was able to partially open the door, the Transport Ministry said.The person was detained by airport police on suspicion of violating the aviation security law, a ministry statement said. The person’s identity and motive weren’t immediately released.The law bars passengers from handling exit doors and other equipment on board and provides for penalties of up to 10 years in prison, the ministry said.The plane with 194 people aboard was heading to the southeastern city of Daegu from the southern island of Jeju. The flight is normally about an hour, and the incident occurred when the plane was reaching the Daegu airport at an altitude of 700 feet (213 meters).A vide...

Pro-government rally planned in Serbia amid growing discontent after mass shootings

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:39:30 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Tens of thousands of people are expected in the Serbian capital on Friday for a major rally in support of President Aleksandar Vucic, who is facing an unprecedented revolt against his autocratic rule amid the crisis triggered by two mass shootings that stunned the nation.Answering Vucic’s call for what he called “the largest rally in the history of Serbia,” his supporters, many wearing identical T-shirts with his portrait, were being bused to Belgrade from all over the Balkan country as well as neighboring Kosovo and Bosnia. Those working in state firms and institutions were told to take a day off from work to attend the rally in front of the parliament building. Some said that they were warned that they could lose their jobs if they don’t show up on the buses which started arriving hours before the gathering was to start.Serbian officials said the rally promotes “unity and hope” for Serbia. At three large anti-government protests held earlier this mont...

Judge to sentence 2 Oath Keepers members after handing down punishment for group’s founder

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:39:30 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two members of the Oath Keepers who stormed the U.S. Capitol in a military-style formation will be sentenced Friday, a day after the far-right extremist group’s founder received an 18-year prison term for seditious conspiracy and other charges in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta will sentence Army veterans Jessica Watkins and Kenneth Harrelson after handing Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes the longest prison sentence so far in more than 1,000 criminal cases brought in the Jan. 6 riot.Watkins and Harrelson were acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of obstructing Congress in the trial alongside Rhodes and other members of the group that ended in November. One of their other co-defendants, Florida chapter leader Kelly Meggs, was sentenced Thursday to 12 years behind bars. Harrelson was the group’s “ground team lead” when Oath Keepers joined the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and disrupted the joint session of Congress...

Ukraine harasses Russian border regions, Russia strikes Dnipro clinic

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:39:30 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine came under attack from Ukrainian artillery fire Friday, authorities said, hours after at least one nighttime blast rocked a Russian city in a region next to the annexed Crimea peninsula.The Kremlin’s forces, meanwhile, struck a clinic in Dnipro, in central Ukraine, killing one person and wounding 16, including two children, Ukrainian officials said. Also, a Russian S-300 missile hit a dam in the Karlivka district of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, placing nearby settlements under threat of severe flooding.The Belgorod town of Graivoron, some 7 kilometers (4.5 miles) from the Ukrainian border, was under fire for several hours, with four houses, a store, a car, a gas pipeline and a power line damaged, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported.Closer to the border, a recreation center, a shop and an uninhabited house sustained damage in the village of Glotovo. There were no casualties, according to Gladkov.The Belgorod...

6 migrant traffickers arrested after opening fire on Albanian border police

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:39:30 GMT

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian police on Friday said they have arrested six migrant traffickers for allegedly organizing an illegal border crossing for people from Arab countries and opening fire on border police. No injures were reported.A police statement said that the traffickers were operating late Thursday in Morine village, close to the Kosovo border, 165 kilometers (around 100 miles) north of the capital, Tirana, where they were conducting “criminal activity assisting emigrants from third countries to cross the border illegally … in exchange for financial compensation.”The traffickers responded with gunfire when they were asked to stop, police said.Following hours of pursuit in coordination with neighboring Kosovo counterparts, five Syrians and one Algerian were arrested early Friday, police said, adding that another Algerian suspect is still at large.They are accused of assisting migrants from Arab or Asian countries to illegally cross from Greece to Albania, Kosovo and Ser...