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Malaysian court dismisses dozens of graft charges against deputy prime minister

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:08:53 GMT

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A Malaysian court on Monday dismissed 47 corruption charges against Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi after prosecutors unexpectedly dropped the charges at an advanced stage of his trial. Zahid said the High Court approved the prosecutors’ application for a dismissal but refused to grant him a full acquittal, which means he can still be recharged. But he said he was grateful that the “politically motivated accusations against me have ended.”Zahid heads the United Malays National Organization, and his support has been pivotal in helping Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim form a unity government after last November’s general election led to a hung Parliament. Zahid’s dismissal sparked new criticism and further hurt the anti-corruption stance of Anwar’s government. Opposition leaders have alleged that Zahid supported Anwar so the charges against him could be dropped. Monday’s court ruling came just weeks after local elections in which the Isla...

Biden touts unions, job creation during Philadelphia Labor Day appearance

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:08:53 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Joe Biden, who often says he’s the most pro-union president in history, is in Philadelphia on Monday for the annual Tri-State Labor Day Parade. The Democratic president is speaking about the importance of unions in the United States and how the economy is recovering from the crippling coronavirus pandemic. “This Labor Day we’re celebrating jobs, good-paying jobs, jobs you can raise a family on, union jobs,” the president told the crowd Monday. Labor Day, a holiday honoring workers, comes as the U.S. has added jobs and more people have begun looking for work, the most since January, all news Biden is eager to highlight as he seeks reelection in 2024. “As we head into Labor Day, we ought to take a step back and take note of the fact that America is now in one of the strongest job-creating periods in our history,” Biden said Friday from the Rose Garden, where he spoke after the news that America’s employers added 187,000 jobs in Aug...

Insider Q&A: Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic foresees interest rates staying higher for longer

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:08:53 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve has reached a delicate stage in its fight against inflation.Its policymakers have raised their key interest rate to about 5.4%, its highest level in 22 years, to try to slow borrowing and spending and cool inflation pressures. They now are considering whether to raise the rate even higher — a move that would heighten the risk of a recession — or leave it at its current level for an extended period. Though inflation has slowed for the past year, it’s showing signs of stickiness at its current levels. A recent uptick in gas prices sent inflation a bit higher in July.Raphael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and a member of the Fed’s interest rate policy committee, doesn’t think another hike is needed. But Bostic favors keeping the benchmark rate at its current level well into 2024. The Associated Press interviewed Bostic in late August and it has been edited for length and clarity: Q: Since March 2022, the Fed ha...

Copenhagen mayor urges foreigners to stop buying marijuana at city’s drug oasis following shooting

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:08:53 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Copenhagen’s mayor on Monday urged foreigners not to buy weed in the city’s Christiania neighborhood where a 30-year-old man was shot and killed and four others injured two weeks ago due to gang turf wars fighting over the marijuana trade in the area.The Aug. 26 killing was the latest in a bloody feud between rival gangs, the Hells Angels and the outlawed Loyal to Family. Both are trying to monopolize the sale of cannabis in Christiania.On Friday, a 28-year-old man, affiliated with the Loyal To Family gang was arrested in relation to the shooting.The sale of marijuana is illegal in Denmark. “The spiral of violence at Christiania is deeply worrying,” Copenhagen Mayor Sophie Hæstorp Andersen said. She called on “the hundreds of thousands of visiting tourists and the many new foreign students who have just moved to Copenhagen to stay away and refrain from buying weed or other drugs at Pusher Street.” Christiania has become one of Copenhagen’s bigg...

Ukraine’s defense minister resigns following Zelenskyy’s announcement of his replacement

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:08:53 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov submitted a letter of resignation on Monday after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would be replaced and named his successor.Oleksii Reznikov’s removal follows a scandal around the defense ministry’s procurement of military jackets. It was not the first similar case during the ongoing war.Zelenskyy made the announcement on his official Telegram account, writing that new leadership was needed after Reznikov went through “more than 550 days of full-scale war.” He named Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar lawmaker, as the new defense minister.“Reznikov was a good and prominent international negotiator, but it appears that there is chaos and disorder within the Ministry of Defense, which many deputies have taken advantage of, resulting in corruption scandals during the war,” said analyst Volodymyr Fesenko from the Kyiv-based Penta Center.“All actions of the Ukrainian authorities are geared toward the interests of the...

Russia arrests mathematician on terrorism charges minutes after his release from prison

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:08:53 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Authorities in Russia arrested a mathematician on terrorism charges Monday after he had just completed a prison sentence for hooliganism, the latest step in a years-long Kremlin crackdown on political opponents. Azat Miftakhov, 30, was detained minutes after his release from a penal colony over 900 kilometers (559 miles) east of Moscow, according to Russian media reports. His lawyer, Svetlana Sidorkina, told Russian state news agency Tass that Miftakhov was charged with justifying terrorism and refused to plead guilty. Miftakhov was arrested in 2019 and accused of attacking a Moscow office of the Kremlin’s ruling United Russia party, allegations he rejected. At the time, he was a postgraduate student pursuing an advanced degree in math and professed anarchist views. He accused authorities of torturing him in detention.A Moscow court convicted him of hooliganism in 2021 and sentenced him to six years in prison. Human Rights Watch called his conviction “clearly unj...

Ontario’s housing minister Steve Clark resigns amid Greenbelt scandal

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:08:53 GMT

Steve Clark has resigned as Ontario’s housing Minister.He posted a letter addressed to Premier Doug Ford on X, formerly Twitter, announcing the decision, saying it is his “responsibility to adhere to Ministerial accountability.”As someone who has given my life to serving the people through our democratic institutions, it is my responsibility to adhere to the principles of Ministerial accountability. I will continue to serve my constituents as the MPP for Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes pic.twitter.com/5VvUMB43gi— Steve Clark (@SteveClarkPC) September 4, 2023Clark says he will continue to serve as MPP for Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes.The move comes days after a scathing report from the province’s integrity commissioner, who found Clark violated ethics rules for the way the government removed land earmarked for development from the protected Greenbelt.More to comeWith files from The Canadian Press

Report says Dutch government spends billions on subsidies for fossil fuel producers and users

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:08:53 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch government spends some 37.5 billion euros ($40.5 billion) per year in subsidies to industries that use fossil fuels, according to a new report published Monday by a platform that investigates multinationals and by two groups lobbying for a transition to renewable energy.The report lists 31 government subsidies, mainly tax breaks, that make it cheaper for companies to produce and use fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas.The sector with the biggest chunk of the government’s support is the Dutch shipping industry, which benefits to the tune of 6.7 billion euros, according to the report. Electricity generated using fossil fuel gets 5.3 billion euros in tax breaks and other benefits, it adds.The report was published by the The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, known as SOMO, the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth and Oil Change International. It calls on lawmakers to begin phasing out the subsidies even before the country...

A massive wildfire in northeastern Greece is gradually abating, with over 700 firefighters deployed

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:08:53 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A massive wildfire that decimated vast tracts of forest in northeastern Greece over 17 days was gradually abating on Monday, although hundreds of firefighters were still tackling pockets that continued to burn, the fire department said.Reinforcements were sent over the weekend to battle the wildfire burning in the Evros region near the border with Turkey, bringing the total number of firefighters on Monday to 741, backed by 124 vehicles and two aircraft. The blaze has been blamed for the deaths of 20 people, all believed to have been migrants who had recently crossed the border.The fire, which broke out on Aug. 19 near the northeastern city of Alexandroupolis and joined with other blazes to form one massive wildfire, burned more than 93,000 hectares (230,000 acres) of land by Sunday, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service, making it the largest single blaze to hit an EU country since records began in 2000.Wildfires are common ...

Rugby World Cup teams gather across France ahead of tournament’s start this week

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:08:53 GMT

PARIS (AP) — The All Blacks perform the haka at a cemetery in northern France as a tribute to soldiers from New Zealand killed during World War I.Fiji’s squad gather on a stage in the center of a town in the Bordeaux suburbs to sing a song for the locals.Ireland’s players spread out on a training field in Tours and do the Viking Thunder Clap — made famous by Iceland at soccer’s European Championship in 2016 — in front of 12,000 people at an open practice session.And Wales players are treated to a royal welcome at Versailles, once home to Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette.With the start of the Rugby World Cup only days away, the participating teams have arrived in villages, towns and cities across France and are finalizing their preparations for the tournament.“It was 200 years ago that our sport was born,” World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont said Monday, “and there can be no better place to celebrate our birthday than here in France.“We’ve received incredible support from th...