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Former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif will seek a fourth term in office, his party says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:47 GMT

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will seek a fourth term in office, his party said Wednesday, noting he would be its consensus candidate in the upcoming parliamentary elections and the office of the prime minister.Sharif, who has served as prime minister three times, returned to Pakistan in October after four years of self-exile in London to avoid serving prison sentences on corruption charges. However, his conviction and sentences were overturned on appeal after his return, making him eligible to run for a seat in the parliament, which will elect the new prime minister after the Feb. 8 vote. “There is no doubt about it. Nawaz Sharif is our candidate for the office of the prime minister,” said Rana Sanaullah Khan, a senior leader in Sharif’s party. Sharif stepped down as prime minister in 2017 over the corruption charges. In July 2018, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison over purchases of luxury apartments in London. In December that year...

What’s open, what’s closed in the DC region on New Year’s Day 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:47 GMT

Get your champagne and noisemakers ready — it’s almost time to ring in 2024. But to help with celebrations, here’s what you need to know about closures around the D.C. area on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.Travel and transitMetrorail will run on New Year’s Eve from 7 a.m. until 2 a.m., giving riders an extra two hours. On New Year’s Day, trains will run on a Sunday schedule from 7 a.m. to midnight. The ongoing closures on the Red Line will remain in effect.Metro is also running buses 24/7 for those celebrating late into the night.In Virginia, there will be no VRE service on Sunday or Monday. The Fairfax Connector will offer Sunday service both on New Year’s Eve and on Monday. On New Year’s Day, some ART buses are running with reduced service available on lines 41, 42, 45, 51, 55 and 87. All other ART routes won’t operate. DMV locations are closed for the holiday.In Maryland, MARC will offer regular weekend service on Sunday but no trains will run on Monda...

Stock market today: Asian shares climb, tracking advance on Wall Street in final week of 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:47 GMT

Asian shares advanced on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street gains as markets there reopened for what’s expected to be a quiet, holiday-shortened week of trading.U.S. futures were higher and oil prices were steady.Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index added 1.2% to 33,681.24 as details of a policy meeting by the Bank of Japan showed officials divided about the timing and need to shift away from the central bank’s longstanding lax monetary policy. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.9% to 16,661.00 and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.6% to 2,915.05 with Chinese video gaming companies, including Tencent and NetEase, recouping losses in the first Hong Kong trading session after the government attempted to alleviate market fears about draft guidelines to impose controls over how companies earn money from games. However, the gains were dwarfed by the losses from a broad sell-off on Friday.NetEase’s Hong Kong-traded shares gained 10.4%, after its Nasdaq-listed stock added 5.2% on Tuesday. TencentR...

Drones versus buques de guerra: cómo el equipo militar estadounidense está combatiendo los ataques hutíes al transporte marítimo

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:47 GMT

(CNN) — Los buques de guerra estadounidenses en el Mar Rojo estuvieron luchando contra un número creciente de armas disparadas por las fuerzas hutíes en Yemen durante las últimas semanas, incluidos 17 drones y misiles durante un período de 10 horas solo hasta este martes.Yahya Sare’e, portavoz de las fuerzas hutíes, dijo en X, anteriormente Twitter, que los últimos lanzamientos fueron en “apoyo y solidaridad continuos con el pueblo palestino”. El grupo había dicho previamente que estaba atacando barcos que se dirigían a Israel luego de la invasión de Gaza por las fuerzas israelíes.Los hutíes, respaldados por Irán, lanzaron al menos 100 ataques contra 14 buques comerciales y mercantes diferentes en el Mar Rojo durante el último mes, dijo la semana pasada un alto funcionario militar estadounidense.Los ataques llevaron al secretario de Defensa estadounidense, Lloyd Austin, a anunciar la formación de una coalición de al menos 10 países para centrarse en la seguri...

Andre Drummond steps up in his 1st start for the short-handed Chicago Bulls, plus 3 takeaways from the 118-113 win

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:47 GMT

Andre Drummond believes he still should be an NBA starter. On Tuesday against the Atlanta Hawks, he got his first opportunity to make that case in Chicago.In 113 games since signing with the Bulls, Drummond had exclusively come off the bench. That’s because starting center Nikola Vučević had played every game in that span — until Tuesday, when Vučević missed his first game since April 2022 with a groin injury. Drummond started in his place, his first start as a Bull.It was a critical moment for Drummond, who has been open about his desire to play more minutes.“I’m doing what I can with the minutes I get,” Drummond told the Tribune earlier this month. “I’m just making the best of it. For me it’s never easy. But at the end of the day, I’ve got to look at the bigger picture. Coach sees something that he believes will work for the team to help us win. I’m all for it. My job is to be as supportive as possible...

German police say they are holding a man in connection with a threat to Cologne Cathedral

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:47 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — German authorities say they have detained a man in connection with a reported threat to Cologne Cathedral over the holiday period.Police searched the cathedral with sniffer dogs just before Christmas, and Christmas Eve worshippers faced security checks to get into midnight Mass there. They didn’t specify the threat, but German news agency dpa said authorities were responding to indications of a possible attack by Islamic extremists, without citing a specific source.Cologne police said they took precautions over Christmas even though the information they had pointed to a threat on New Year’s Eve. On Tuesday, police said that an apartment in Wesel, near the Dutch border, was searched on Christmas Eve and five men were detained. Four were then freed, but a police statement said that a 30-year-old Tajik man on whom authorities have unspecified security information was still being held in the interests of preventing danger.A court in Oberhausen approved a Cologne poli...

US online retailer Zulily says it will go into liquidation, surprising customers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:47 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — The U.S. online retailer Zulily is closing down, surprising customers and laying off hundreds of workers after efforts to salvage the business failed. The Seattle-based company said in a notice on its website that it had tried to fill all pending orders and expected to manage that within the coming two weeks. Zulily said it was trying to ensure that orders that could not be filled were cancelled and refunded and offered a contact for customers who did not get their orders or refunds. “This decision was not easy nor was it entered into lightly. However, given the challenging business environment in which Zulily operated, and the corresponding financial instability, Zulily decided to take immediate and swift action,” said the notice, signed by Ryan C. Baker, vice president at management consultant Douglas Wilson Companies, which is handling the receivership for the company.Founded in 2010 by Darrell Cavens and Mark Vadon, Zulily made a splash with products caterin...

Stock market today: Global shares climb, tracking advance on Wall Street

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:47 GMT

World shares advanced on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street gains as markets there reopened for what’s expected to be a quiet, holiday-shortened week of trading.The future contract for the S&P 500 added less than 0.1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% lower.European shares opened steady in the first trading day after the holiday. Germany’s DAX added 0.3% to 16,754.87. In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.4% to 7,597.52. Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.7% to 7,749.36.Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index added 1.2% to 33,681.24 as details of a policy meeting by the Bank of Japan showed officials divided about the timing and need to shift away from the central bank’s longstanding lax monetary policy. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.8% to 16,627.00 and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.5% to 2,914.61 with Chinese video gaming companies, including Tencent and NetEase, recouping losses in the first Hong Kong trading session after the government attempted to alleviate market fears abou...

In the news today: Nuke waste in Ontario; No carbon levy remittance for Saskatchewan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:47 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Key milestone upcoming for Canada’s nuclear wasteA critical milestone is on the horizon for Canada’s 175-year-long plan to bury its nuclear waste underground, with two pairs of Ontario communities set to decide if they would be willing hosts.Late next year, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization plans to select the site for Canada’s deep geological repository, where millions of bundles of used nuclear fuel will be placed in a network of rooms connected by cavernous tunnels, as deep below the Earth’s surface as the CN Tower is tall — if the process goes according to plan.The sites are down to the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation-Ignace area in northwestern Ontario and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation-South Bruce area in southern Ontario. The municipalities and First Nations are planning votes for next year, the culmination of a years-long inform...

China sanctions a US research firm and 2 individuals over reports on human rights abuses in Xinjiang

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:50:47 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China says it is banning a United States research company and two analysts who have reported extensively on claims of human rights abuses committed against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups native to the country’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was quoted as announcing late Tuesday night that Los Angeles-based research and data analytics firm Kharon, its director of investigations, Edmund Xu, and Nicole Morgret, a human rights analyst affiliated with the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, would be barred from traveling to China. Also, any assets or property they have in China will be frozen and organizations and individuals in China are prohibited from making transactions or otherwise cooperating with them.In a statement on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, Mao said the sanctions against the company, Xu and Morgret were retaliation for a yearly U.S. government report on human rights in Xinjiang. Uyghurs and ...