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Facebook Tweet Email Link Kyiv, Ukraine  —  The death toll from Russia’s heavy bombardment of Ukraine’s capital this week has risen to 31 people, marking the deadliest single attack on Kyiv in a year, Ukrainian officials said on Friday. The vast majority were killed in a single strike on an apartment block. Rescue workers have now recovered the bodies of at least 28 people from the destroyed apartment block, including five children, the State Emergency Service (SES) told CNN. At least 159 people were also wounded in the blast. “This is the highest number of injured children in one night…

Facebook Tweet Email Link HARARE, Zimbabwe AP  —  The killing of a collared lion involved in a research project in Zimbabwe by a trophy hunter has been condemned by wildlife groups, echoing the infamous case of a lion called Cecil whose death at the hands of an American tourist in the same country a decade ago was met with international outrage. The latest lion, known as Blondie, was part of an Oxford University study and wore a research collar sponsored by Africa Geographic, a safari company. Africa Geographic said Blondie was killed by a hunter in June close to the…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Steve Witkoff, the United States’ special envoy to the Middle East, on Friday visited a controversial US-backed aid distribution site in Gaza, one of three such locations near which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks trying to reach scarce food supplies. Witkoff said he spent five hours in Gaza on Friday to better understand the humanitarian situation in the enclave and to relay it to Donald Trump. The US president said earlier this week that there was “real starvation” in Gaza, contradicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims. “I spoke to Steve Witkoff.…

Facebook Tweet Email Link SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s jailed ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol again refused to attend questioning by investigators Friday, using a new method to resist: He took off his prison uniform and lay down on the floor at his detention room. Yoon, removed from office in April over his ill-fated imposition of martial law, was sent back to prison last month as he stands a high-stakes trial over rebellion and other charges. Yoon, a conservative, faces investigations into other criminal allegations that are not related to his Dec. 3 martial law decree but target him,…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Peter Phillips, the son of Britain’s Princess Anne and eldest grandchild of the late Queen Elizabeth II, announced his engagement to nurse Harriet Sperling on Friday. “Mr Peter Phillips, the son of HRH The Princess Royal and Captain Mark Phillips and Ms Harriet Sperling, daughter of the late Mr Rupert Sanders and Mrs Mary Sanders of Gloucestershire, have today confirmed their official engagement,” the couple’s spokesperson told CNN in a statement. “Both families were informed jointly of the announcement and were delighted with the wonderful news of their engagement. Their Majesties The King and Queen, The…

Facebook Tweet Email Link A host of European leaders welcomed the news that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a law restoring independence to his country’s main anti-corruption agencies. A total of 331 out of 340 lawmakers present voted in favor of the bill on Thursday, forming an overwhelming constitutional majority. Last week, major anti-government protests broke out across Ukraine after the country’s parliament approved a bill that brought the two main bodies – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) – under government control. The large-scale demonstrations were Ukraine’s first major anti-government…

Facebook Tweet Email Link At least 23 people were injured, three of them critically, when a fairground ride buckled in Saudi Arabia, sending passengers crashing to the ground, state media reported Thursday. Videos verified by CNN showed the “360 Big Pendulum” ride collapse while in use, causing the passenger-bearing circular carousel to smash into the other end of the pendulum before hitting the floor. The accident occurred Wednesday evening at an amusement park in the Al-Hada area of Taif, near the city of Jeddah, state media Arab News reported. According to state-controlled outlet Arab News, Prince Saud bin Nahar bin…

Facebook Tweet Email Link A 76-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of administering poison after several children became ill at a summer camp in England, police said Thursday. After an initial report was made by a third party on Sunday, officers and ambulance workers were deployed to the camp in the village of Stathern, Leicestershire, central England, where the children were assessed. Eight children were taken to hospital. All have since been discharged and their parents and guardians have been contacted by officers, Leicestershire Police said in a statement. The arrested man is in custody “on suspicion of administering…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Near Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine  —  The silent, moonless black is broken only by the whirr above of a Russian drone. Dmytro is yet to receive any patients at his tiny two-bed field hospital near Pokrovsk, and that is not a good outcome any more. Dawn begins to break – the twilight in which evacuation of the wounded from the front lines is safest – but still none arrive, and the enemy drones swirl incessantly above. “We have a very difficult situation with evacuation,” said Dmytro. “Many of the injured have to wait days. For Russian drone…

Facebook Tweet Email Link The United States blew through about a quarter of its supply of high-end THAAD missile interceptors during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June, according to two sources familiar with the operation, thwarting attacks at a rate that vastly outpaces production. US forces countered Tehran’s barrage of ballistic missiles by firing more than 100 THAADs (short for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) – and possibly as many as 150 – a significant portion of America’s stockpile of the advanced air defense system, the sources said. The US has seven THAAD systems, and used two of them…