Weddings, school dances, music festivals — in small pockets along the Aral Sea, there are signs of life. The Aral has nearly disappeared, and the large communities it once sustained are simply no more. NASA IMAGES REVEAL SHOCKING SCALE OF ARAL SEA DISASTER But a scattering of small towns and villages remain. Some have as few as 10 people. And …
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HEBBARIYE, Lebanon (AP) — A series of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed 16 people and a barrage of rockets fired by the militant group Hezbollah killed one Israeli man, making Wednesday the deadliest day in more than five months of fighting along the border. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, concerns have grown about further escalation …
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A quarter-mile white steel tube running alongside a railway line in the windswept northern Netherlands could usher in a new era in the transportation of people and freight. The tube is the heart of the new European Hyperloop Center that opens Tuesday and will be a proving ground in coming years for developers of the evolving technology. Hyperloop, once trumpeted …
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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Protesters in Slovakia formed a human chain around the country’s public television and radio building Wednesday in anger over a takeover plan by the government whose populist, pro-Russia prime minister recently labeled several private media outlets his enemies. The takeover plan was drafted by Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová, who represents an ultra-nationalist member party of the …
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan was convicted Wednesday of racketeering, bribery, fraud and giving false statements to investigators in a sprawling pay-to-play corruption scandal at City Hall. The federal jury reached the guilty verdict less than 24 hours after lawyers finished closing arguments, the Los Angeles Times reported. LA BURGLARS TUNNELED THROUGH BUSINESSES TO …
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Since Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago, fears have risen in neighboring Moldova that it could also be in Moscow’s crosshairs. Like Ukraine, Moldova is a former Soviet republic that has aligned itself with the West and aspires to join the European Union. And both countries hope to eventually reintegrate Russian-speaking breakaway territories that view Moscow as their protector. MOLDOVA …
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VIENNA (AP) — Two large portraits of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been spray-painted on a property owned by the family of a former Czech foreign minister behind a monument to Soviet soldiers in Vienna. The portraits were completed Wednesday on the wall behind the monument, which was already painted in Ukraine’s blue and yellow national colors …
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A man accused of helping smuggle people across the U.S.-Canadian border had been warned of blizzard conditions before he arranged for four members of an Indian family to cross in 2022, prosecutors allege. The parents and two young children froze to death. Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 28, who prosecutors say went by the alias “Dirty Harry,” is due in federal court …
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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A man charged in the fatal shooting of three family members in Pennsylvania and related carjacking and weapons counts in New Jersey will remain behind bars while his case proceeds, a judge ruled Wednesday. Andre Gordon Jr., 26, appeared via video from the Mercer County jail for his initial court appearance on the New Jersey charges. …
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Jumping into London’s River Thames has been the customary celebration for members of the winning crew in the Boat Race, the nearly 200-year-old rowing contest between storied English universities Oxford and Cambridge. Now it comes with a health warning. Testing by the River Action campaign group found high levels of E.coli along a stretch of the Thames in southwest London …
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