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Kazakh president outlines defence sector priorities

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:53 GMT

The Armed Forces of Kazakhstan must protect the fundamental values of peace and tranquility amid conflicts, President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said at a 5 May expanded meeting on the development of the army, the Akorda press service reported, writes Saniya Sakenova in Nation.The role of the army has increased, the president stressed, noting that providing professional training and equipping it with modern weapons and advanced technologies are of paramount importance. Security forces must comply with the new requirements. With the establishment of the Special Operations Command, work is underway to improve the capabilities of the air assault troops, bolster territorial defense forces, form civil defense units and strengthen special forces units.“All this work must be completed in due course,” the President added.Photo credit: Akorda.Tokayev emphasized the role of the domestic military-industrial complex in the full-fledged rearmament and modernization of t...

Erdogan Arrested and Deported International Officials Observing Turkish Election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:53 GMT

The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan swept up and jailed a team of international observers on hand to monitor election day activity in Turkey on Sunday, members of the team told The Intercept in a statement. Following a day-long detention – during which more than a dozen international elected officials and civil society representatives from Spain were placed in solitary confinement and refused bathroom breaks – the officials were escorted to the airport and flown out of the country, landing in Spain on Monday and Tuesday. The delegation had not been granted official observer accreditation by the Erdogan government, but were formally invited by the HDP, the leading Kurdish party and a key member of the opposition coalition. The election held on Sunday was the closest contest Erdogan has faced in the two decades he has been in power. Immediately, the opposition coalition, led by Kemal Kilicdaroglu, charged election irregularities, zeroing in on what Kilicdaroglu said was an ext...

Chase Buford leaves Sydney Kings after back-to-back Australian NBL titles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:53 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — Chase Buford is leaving his role as head coach of the Sydney Kings after leading the club to back-to-back titles in Australia’s National Basketball League.The club released a statement Tuesday saying it won’t be taking up its option for Buford to return for a third season because the 34-year-old American couldn’t commit exclusively to the job. The Kings have supported Buford’s pursuit of a role in the NBA.“We wish nothing but the best for Chase. This is a difficult decision but one that is made from respect, to Chase and his ambitions, but also the best interests of the Sydney Kings,” Kings chairman Paul Smith said. “Chase has played a monumental role in the success of the club over the past two seasons.”Buford took over at the Kings in 2021 and helped the club break a 17-year title drought in his first season. He remained in charge for the successful title defense in 2022-23.The Kings will start an international search for a head coach to take over for the 2023-...

Dodgers win in 12th on bases-loaded walk, Muncy homers twice to regain major-league lead

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:53 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Chris Taylor scored on a bases-loaded walk in the 12th inning, Max Muncy homered twice to move back into the major league lead, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Minnesota Twins 9-8 on Monday night for their sixth straight win.Trayce Thompson drew a walk on a full count with the bases loaded count off Jorge López (1-1) to give Los Angeles the victory.Will Smith also went deep as the Dodgers led 6-3 thru seven innings before the game saw three ties and three lead changes in the final five innings.Minnesota’s Trevor Larnach hit a game-tying home run in the eighth inning. Jorge Polanco had three hits, including a solo shot. Christian Vázquez also had three hits for the AL Central-leading Twins, who have dropped 11 straight to the Dodgers.Phil Bickford (1-1) picked up the win for the Dodgers, allowing one run in three innings.Minnesota trailed 6-3 in the eighth before Larnach tied it on a 2-2 fastball from Yency Almonte to right-center.David Peralta had an RB...

Taiwán concede el derecho de adopción a las parejas del mismo sexo, en su último paso hacia la igualdad matrimonial

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:53 GMT

Taipei (CNN) — La asamblea legislativa de Taiwán aprobó este martes un proyecto de ley que concede a las parejas del mismo sexo el derecho a adoptar conjuntamente a un niño con el que ninguno de los dos tiene parentesco, despejando uno de los últimos obstáculos para lograr la plena igualdad matrimonial.Aunque Taiwán se convirtió en 2019 en la primera jurisdicción de Asia en legalizar el matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo, la democracia isleña se quedó corta a la hora de conceder la plena igualdad de derechos de adopción a las parejas del mismo sexo. Anteriormente, solo las parejas heterosexuales y las personas solteras podían adoptar niños con los que no estuvieran biológicamente emparentados.Eso creaba una situación en la que si las parejas del mismo sexo querían adoptar a un niño, solo uno de ellos podía registrarse como padre legal del niño, incluso si ambos compartían la carga de criarlo.“Estoy muy contento de que hoy hayamos concedido el derecho de adopción co...

Rishi Sunak demands ECHR reform ahead of Council of Europe summit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:53 GMT

LONDON — Rishi Sunak will make the case for reforming the European Court of Human Rights’ power to arbitrarily block U.K. deportation flights, at a Council of Europe summit Tuesday.Ahead of his arrival in Iceland for the European summit — and a bilateral meeting with the court’s President Síofra O’Leary — No. 10 said that the British prime minister will say the “current international [migration] system is not working”. “We need to do more to cooperate across borders and across jurisdictions to end illegal migration and stop the boats,” Sunak will say, according to pre-released remarks.He will take aim at the Strasbourg court, which has used the Rule 39 regulation to block deportations to Rwanda since the U.K. unveiled its Rwanda scheme in 2022.Some of Sunak’s most hard-line Conservative backbenchers have made the case for withdrawing from the court, venting their fury at Strasbourg judges who they feel are a block on U.K. efforts to “stop th...

China recovery faces pressure after April activity weak, youth unemployment rises

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:53 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leaders face pressure to shore up a slowing economic recovery and generate jobs after consumer spending and other activity in April were weaker than expected and a survey found 1 in 5 young workers in cities was unemployed.Retail sales accelerated following the end of anti-virus restrictions in December but were below forecasts, official data showed Tuesday. Factory output edged down compared with March.Chinese economic activity has improved while the U.S. and European economies are cooling after interest rate hikes to extinguish inflation. But consumers, uneasy about possible job losses, are returning to shops and restaurants less quickly than expected.“The pace of recovery has slowed sharply,” said Larry Hu and Yuxiao Zhang of Macquarie in a report.Growth in retail sales accelerated to 18.4% over last year’s depressed level in April, but that was below private sector expectations of up to 35%.Factory output rose 5.6% over a year ago but was off 0.5 per...

Court orders South Korean agency to compensate adoptee over his mishandled adoption to US

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:53 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A court on Tuesday ordered South Korea’s biggest adoption agency to pay 100 million won ($74,700) in damages to a 48-year-old man for mishandling his adoption as a child to the United States, where he faced legal troubles after surviving an abusive childhood before being deported in 2016.However, the Seoul Central District Court dismissed Adam Crapser’s accusations against the South Korean government, which he saw as responsible for creating an aggressive, profit-driven adoption industry that carelessly removed thousands of children from their families during a 1970s-’80s child export frenzy.The civil case, tried for over four years, was the first in which a South Korean adoptee sued the country’s government and a domestic adoption agency over fraudulent paperwork and screening failures. In reading out the verdict, Judge Park Jun-min did not elaborate why the court refused to hold the government accountable in Crapser’s case. His lawyers said they will revi...

Council of Europe summit in Iceland seeks to hold Russia to account for Ukraine war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:53 GMT

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Leaders from across the continent were heading toward Iceland early Tuesday for a rare summit of the 46-nation Council of Europe that will once more step up support for member state Ukraine and condemn expelled Russia for inflicting war on its neighbor. And after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stocked up on promises of military hardware throughout a long weekend of diplomatic hobnobbing with the continent’s major leaders, the two-day summit of Europe’s main human rights body will be centering on providing legal and judicial means to go after the Kremlin. By Wednesday’s conclusion, leaders at the summit want to have the outlines of a system in place that will set up a register of all the damage already caused by Russian forces, so Moscow can be held liable for compensation to the victims later. They are hoping that the United States, which has observer status at the summit, will also back that initiative.“The register is just one o...

Pakistani police say tribal clashes over coal mine rights killed 15 in remote northwest region

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:53 GMT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Clashes between two Pakistani tribes feuding over the ownership of a coal mine in the country’s remote northwest left 15 men dead and several wounded, police said Tuesday. The fighting erupted on Monday between the Sunny Khel and Zarghun Khel tribes in Dara Adam Khel, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province along the border with Afghanistan. According to local police official Munawar Khan, the men were armed with handguns and assault rifles and the fighting lasted for hours. Security forces were summoned to bring the situation under control and Khan said order was later restored. The two tribes have been fighting over the ownership rights for the mine since 2019. Khan said it was unclear what triggered the latest clashes, and officers were still investigating.Tribal clashes are rare in Pakistan, especially over coal mines, which employ tens of thousands of workers. Most of the country’s coal mines are located in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa...