Pakistan boating accident death toll reaches 51

The death toll from a boating accident in a lake in northwest Pakistan over the weekend reached 51, the military said Tuesday. The wooden boat was carrying children and teachers from a seminary on a picnic.

Police on Sunday said at least 10 students drowned after the large wooden boat they were in capsized in Tanda Dam in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. They said at the time that the vessel was carrying 25 people.

Later, however, officials said the boat was overcrowded and in fact was carrying 57 people, mostly children, and at least 51 had died. Qismat Khan, area police chief for the district of Kohat, said authorities have handed over the victims' bodies for burial but police were still investigating.

The military said in a statement that divers from the army and local emergency service rescued five survivors. It said the search for the remaining person was continuing.

PAKISTAN VAN ACCIDENT KILLS 20 AS RECORD-BREAKING FLOODS SURGE IN THE CITY

Khan said the casualties might have been avoided if the owner of the boat, who also died in the incident, had provided life jackets to the picnic goers. Khan said divers from the army and local emergency service searched for missing boaters since the accident Sunday.

Hundreds of relatives and family members of the missing children and their teachers waited near the lake for news.

"Whenever divers returned with the bodies, we heard cries from the relatives of these children," he said. Footage and photos provided by the military showed divers in boats returning with at least three children who were rescued and later transported to a nearby hospital. They were among the five survivors and were listed in stable condition.

The body of the owner of the boat, Sajid Din, was found Tuesday.

Such accidents are common in Pakistan, where rickety wooden boats are often used to transport goods and people on rivers and lakes. Most operate without life jackets.

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Texas man allegedly murdered DJ girlfriend in Colombia, stuffed body in suitcase and tossed in dumpster

A Texas man is accused of killing his girlfriend, a popular DJ in Colombia, and stuffing her body inside a suitcase before trying to flee the country.

The body of Valentina Trespalacios, 23, was found in a blue suitcase wrapped with tape and thrown into a dumpster last week near an airport in Colombia’s capital city of Bogota, the New York Post reported.

It was determined Trespalacios, who was a popular DJ with 16,000 followers on Instagram, was killed by "mechanical asphyxia" or "strangulation."

John Nelson Poulos, the 35-year-old boyfriend of Trespalacios who had met her on a dating app last year, left Colombia for Panama days before her body turned up. He was arrested Jan. 24 as he was about to board a flight to Montenegro, a country that does not have an extradition agreement with Colombia or the United States.

CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST US-TRAINED AFGHAN SOLDIER DETAINED WHILE CROSSING BORDER AFTER ESCAPING TALIBAN

Poulos, who is said to be married with three kids, reportedly told police he was fleeing the country to escape from a drug cartel and says the cartel is responsible or the death of Trespalacios.

In his mugshot, a visible scratch can be seen on Polulos' face, and El Pais reported that Trespalacios' family said he was "jealous and controlling" and hired a private investigator to track her movements last year. 

AMERICANS TRAVELING BETWEEN MEXICO, US SEE VACATIONS TURN INTO NIGHTMARES AT THE BORDER

Poulos has been charged with aggravated femicide.

"He was the one who hurt my daughter, and he doesn't deserve to be around like if nothing happened. I want justice done," Laura Hidalgo, Trespalacios' mother, said, according to Daily Mail.

"It is not fair that a foreigner comes to excite a Colombian girl and ends up like this. I hope this case does not go unpunished. He was the last person to see her alive, and he didn't have to hurt her."

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voices support for democracy in Burma

Two years after Burma’s military seized power, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced support Monday for the democratic aspirations of Burma’s people and warned that the military’s planned elections amid a crackdown on civilians and political leaders "risk exacerbating instability."

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the secretary-general strongly condemns all forms of violence in Burma as the crisis in the country deteriorates "and fuel serious regional implications."

The army seized power on Feb. 1, 2021, from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, arresting her and top members of her governing National League for Democracy party, which had won a landslide victory for a second term in a November 2020 general election.

Security forces suppressed widespread opposition to the military takeover with lethal force, killing almost 2,900 civilians and arresting thousands more people who engaged in nonviolent protests. The savage crackdown triggered armed resistance in much of the country. The military government has deemed major organizations opposed to army rule to be "terrorist" groups.

MYANMAR TRAGEDY EXPOSES THE DIRTY UNDERBELLY OF 'GREEN ENERGY'

The military enacted a new law on registration of political parties, which was published Friday, that will make it difficult for opposition groups to mount a serious challenge to army-backed candidates in a general election scheduled for later this year. It sets minimum levels for parties, including membership levels 100 times higher than in 2020 elections, plus stiff funding requirements.

Guterres "is concerned by the military’s stated intention to hold elections amid intensifying aerial bombardment and burning of civilian houses, along with ongoing arrests, intimidation and harassment of political leaders, civil society actors and journalists," the U.N. spokesman said. "Without conditions that permit the people of Myanmar to freely exercise their political rights, the proposed polls risk exacerbating instability."

The secretary-general "continues to stand in solidarity with the people of Myanmar and to support their democratic aspirations for an inclusive, peaceful and just society and the protection of all communities, including the Rohingya," Dujarric said.

Longstanding discrimination against Rohingya Muslims in Buddhist-majority Burma, including denial of citizenship and many other rights, exploded in August 2017 when Burma’s military launched what it called a clearance campaign in northern Rakhine state in response to attacks on police and border guards by a Rohingya militant group. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh, where they remain in camps, as troops allegedly committed mass rapes and killings and burned thousands of homes.

MYANMAR'S KAREN ETHNIC MINORITY REBELS LAUNCH ANTI-GOVERNMENT OFFENSIVE TO SEIZE TOWN

In January 2020, the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s top court, ordered Myanmar to do all it could to prevent genocide against the Rohingya. Two days earlier, an independent commission set up by Burma’s government concluded there were reasons to believe security forces committed war crimes against the Rohingya — but not genocide.

Guterres welcomed the first-ever resolution on Burma adopted by the U.N. Security Council on Dec. 21 demanding an immediate end to violence in the Southeast Asian nation and urging its military rulers to release all "arbitrarily detained" prisoners, including Suu Kyi, and to restore democratic institutions.

The resolution calls for the opposing parties to pursue dialogue and reconciliation and urges all sides "to respect human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law."

The secretary-general considers the resolution "an important step and underlines the urgency for strengthened international unity," Dujarric said.

The spokesman said the U.N. special envoy for Burma, Noeleen Heyzer, will coordinate closely with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on the Security Council’s call "to engage intensively with all relevant parties in Myanmar to achieve an end to the violence and to support a return to democracy." Indonesia took over as ASEAN chair on Jan. 1 from Cambodia.

"The United Nations is committed to staying in Myanmar and addressing the multiple vulnerabilities arising from the military’s actions since February 2021," Dujarric said, urging unhindered access to all affected communities.

"The secretary-general renews his call for neighboring countries and other member states to urge the military leadership to respect the will and needs of the people of Myanmar and adhere to democratic norms," the U.N. spokesman said.

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Azerbaijan asks UN court to order Armenia to stop laying land mines, booby traps in its territory

Azerbaijan appealed Tuesday to the United Nations' highest court to urgently order Armenia to stop the laying of land mines and booby traps on Azerbaijani territory and disclose the location of such explosives that already have been placed, in the latest legal battle focused on the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Azerbaijani Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Elnur Mammadov told judges at the International Court of Justice that his country has discovered more than 2,700 Armenian land mines since December 2021, when the court ordered both Azerbaijan and Armenia not to take any action that would aggravate their decades-long territorial dispute.

He said the mines and booby traps are a deliberate attempt by Armenia to prevent the return of Azerbaijanis forced from their homes by the conflict.

"If Azerbaijanis preparing the liberated territories for the return of those displaced cannot do so safely, how can displaced Azerbaijanis safely exercise their right to return?" Mammadov said. "The purpose and effect of Armenia’s conduct are clear — Azerbaijanis are not meant to."

The claim came in hearings at the court's headquarters in The Hague in a pair of cases brought by Armenia and Azerbaijan alleging breaches of a convention preventing racial discrimination.

The legal skirmishes are playing out against a backdrop of rising tensions just over two years after the neighboring nations ended a war in Nagorno-Karabakh that killed about 6,800 soldiers and displaced around 90,000 civilians. The remote and rugged region is within Azerbaijan, but had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in 1994.

ARMENIA TURNS TO US FOR SUPPORT, SECURITY OFFICIAL ACCUSES AZERBAIJAN OF USING 'FORCE' TO RESOLVE DISPUTES

Russia brokered a cease-fire to end the 2020 war. It granted Azerbaijan control over parts of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as adjacent land occupied by Armenians. Russia sent a peacekeeping force of 2,000 troops to maintain order.

Mammadov said that 282 Azerbaijanis, including 33 civilians, have been killed by mines since the war ended.

"Armenia’s planting of land mines and booby traps in or near areas where Azerbaijanis once lived — and are expected to return — specifically to terrorize Azerbaijanis must be understood in the broad context of its over three decade long campaign of ethnic cleansing and anti-Azerbaijani incitement," he said.

At hearings Monday, Armenian lawyers urged the court to order Azerbaijan to break up a road blockade that is isolating Nagorno-Karabakh, calling the action part of an act of "ethnic cleansing." Azerbaijan rejected the claim, accusing Armenia of using the dispute to create leverage in peace talks.

WHY IT MATTERS: ARMENIA DEFIANT AGAINST TURKEY, AZERBAIJAN DESPITE SHRINKING BORDERS

The road, known as the Lachin Corridor, is the only land connection between Armenia and the ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan.

Lawyers representing Azerbaijan denied Tuesday that their request for what the court calls "provisional measures" was a tit-for-tat filing following Armenia's request that was discussed Monday. Instead, they said a court order is vital to save lives put at threat by the hidden explosives.

"The crux of the matter is this: Azerbaijanis are continuing to suffer serious injury and die because Armenia refuses to share the information that could save them," Mammadov said.

The latest flare-up in tensions comes despite the court making orders just over a year ago that included ordering both nations to prevent discrimination against one another’s citizens in the aftermath of the war and to not further aggravate the conflict.

The court will likely issue a legally binding ruling within weeks on the provisional measure requests by both countries.

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Russian business magnate accused of hacking, insider trading

A wealthy Russian businessman and associates made tens of millions of dollars by cheating the stock market in an elaborate scheme that involved hacking into U.S. computer networks to steal insider information about companies such as Microsoft and Tesla, a prosecutor told jurors on Monday.

Vladislav Klyushin, the owner a Moscow-based information technology company with ties to the upper levels of the Russian government, is standing in trial in a Boston federal court nearly two years after he was arrested after landing in Switzerland on a private jet for a skiing trip.

He's the only Russian national charged in the nearly $90 million scheme who has been arrested and extradited to the U.S.; four accused co-conspirators — including a Russian military intelligence officer who’s also been charged with meddling in the 2016 presidential election — remain at large.

RUSSIAN OLIGARCH'S YACHT RAIDED IN GERMANY

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Frank told jurors that the hack-to-trade scheme netted Klyushin and his associates the kind of returns "actual money managers couldn't even dream about." Using stolen information about the performance of a company that would dictate its stock price, Klyushin personally turned a $2 million investment into nearly $21 million, and together, the group turned about $9 million into nearly $90 million, Frank said.

"It wasn't luck. And it wasn't because of careful financial research either. The defendant cheated," Frank said.

Klyushin's attorney told jurors that the government’s case is filled with "gaping holes" and "inferences." He said his client was financially successful long before he began trading stocks and he continued trading in many of the same companies even after access to the alleged insider information was shut off because the hacks were discovered.

"There’s nothing illegal about being Russian, about having wealth, about having an IT company that contracts with the government," attorney Maksim Nemtsev said, referring to contracts with the Kremlin.

Klyushin has close ties to a Russian military officer who was one of 12 Russians charged in 2018 with hacking into the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic Party and publishing its emails in an attempt to influence the 2016 election. Prosecutors say Ivan Ermakov, who worked with Klyushin at the IT company, was a hacker in the alleged insider trading scheme. U.S. prosecutors have not alleged that Klyushin was involved in the election interference.

Klyushin and Ermakov were close friends, according to the prosecutor, who showed jurors photos of the men together and said Klyushin even bought Ermakov an apartment to live in.

Klyushin, who wore headphones to listen to an interpreter as the lawyers spoke, has remained behind bars in the U.S. since he was extradited in December 2021.

He was arrested months earlier in Switzerland minutes after he arrived on a private jet and just before he and his party were about to board a private helicopter to whisk them to a nearby ski resort. He fought extradition to the U.S., with one appeal reaching Switzerland’s highest court.

Kluyshin faces charges including conspiring to obtain unauthorized access to computers and to commit wire fraud and securities fraud. The trial is expected to last a few weeks.

FEDS MOVE TO SEIZE RUSSIAN BILLIONAIRE'S $90 MILLION PRIVATE AIRPLANE

Klyushin ran M-13, a Moscow-based information technology company that purported to provide services to detect vulnerabilities in computer systems and counted among its clients the administration of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other government entities, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors allege that the hackers deployed malware to gather employees’ usernames and passwords for two U.S.-based vendors that publicly traded companies use to make filings through the Securities and Exchange Commission. They then broke into the vendors' computer systems to get financial disclosures for hundreds of companies — including Microsoft, Tesla and Kohls, Ulta Beauty and Sketchers — before the were filed to the SEC and became public, prosecutors say.

By getting a company’s financial information ahead of time, the defendants were able to make trades using brokerage accounts, sometimes in their own names, based on whether a company’s shares would likely rise or fall following the public disclosure of the information, prosecutors said.

The scheme unraveled after the SEC reported suspicious trading in the brokerage accounts of several Russian nationals to the FBI in late 2019 and the vendors later discovered they had been hacked.

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Brazil's former President Bolsonaro applies for U.S. tourist visa: reports

Jair Bolsonaro, former president of Brazil, is looking to remain in the U.S. after applying for a six-month tourist visa, according to reports.

Reuters reported that Bolzonaro’s attorney confirmed that the visa was being sought, as a growing number of Democrats in Washington called to have him extradited to Brazil, where he faces accusations of inciting a capitol attack reminiscent of what took place in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6.

Bolsonaro was originally scheduled to return to Brazil in late January, but the attack on the Brazilian capitol by thousands of his supporters appears to have changed his plans – he originally planned to leave the U.S. sooner than later, crediting the possibility of his hospitalization in early January for complications related to his 2018 stabbing.

BOLSONARO MAY LEAVE FLORIDA FOR BRAZIL EARLY AS PRESSURE TO EXTRADITE HIM GROWS

Bolsonaro’s attorney, Felipe Alexandre, told Reuters the U.S. received his client’s application on Friday, adding that his client will remain here until a decision is made on his application.

"He would like to take some time off, clear his head, and enjoy being a tourist in the United States for a few months before deciding what his next step will be," Alexandre told Reuters. "Whether or not he will use the full six months will be up to him and whatever strategy we agree to embark on based on his plans as they develop."

Brazilian authorities detained over 1,500 rioters who participated in an attack on the country’s Congress, Presidential Palace and Supreme court on Jan. 8, 2023.

GEORGE SANTOS FACES REVIVED FRAUD CASE IN BRAZIL AMID TURMOIL IN WASHINGTON

That day, thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters participated in the riot, though the former president denied any involvement in inciting them.

Democrats compared the attack to the pro-Trump storming of the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, and like former President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro refused to concede to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and did not attend his inauguration. 

Brazilian President Lula da Silva has named him personally responsible for the attack, though no formal investigation or charges have been made.

"He didn’t just provoke this or encourage this—he’s still encouraging this via social media," Da Silva said following the attacks.

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Three sloth bears die in freezing temperatures after plane grounded at Belgium airport: report

Three sloth bears reportedly have died in Belgium after the cargo plane they were being transported in was grounded during a winter storm. 

The incident happened at Liege Airport over the weekend of Jan. 21-22, when aircraft that landed had trouble navigating taxiways because of snow and ice, according to the Belgium news website Aviation24.be. 

Three of the of nine sloth bears traveling on the plane from Peru, which was en route to Qatar, died in the cold after being left onboard, Reuters reported, citing the SudInfo newspaper. 

"We are going to look at what are the responsibilities and what sanctions should be taken in light of that," Céline Tellier, the regional minister for animal welfare, reportedly told Bel-RTL radio. 

COUGAR STUDIED BY CALIFORNIA BIOLOGISTS FOUND DEAD LIKELY DUE TO VEHICLE COLLISION 

Temperatures in the area that weekend were around 30 degrees. 

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION DELAYS PROTECTIONS FOR IMPERILED BAT, PRAIRIE CHICKEN 

The container carrying the bears on the plane was opened after about 24 hours because the aircraft became blocked on the taxiway and couldn’t be reached safely due to the wintry conditions, Aviation24.be reports. 

The website added that sloth bears are used to being in temperatures of 68 to 77 degrees. 

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Suicide bomber kills at least 59, leaves over 150 wounded at mosque in Pakistan

A suicide bombing at a mosque in Pakistan on Monday left at least 59 dead and over 150 wounded in the city of Peshawar, according to officials.

Most of the casualties were police officers. It was not clear how the bomber was able to slip into the walled compound, which houses the northwestern city of Peshawar's police headquarters and is itself located in a high-security zone with other government buildings.

Sarbakaf Mohmand, a commander for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter.

Peshawar senior police official Saddique Khan said rescuers are attempting to take wounded people to a local hospital. 

PAKISTANI COURT ACQUITS RETIRED POLICE OFFICER, 17 OTHERS IN THE 2018 KILLING OF AN ASPIRING MODEL

The bomber carried out the attack inside the mosque, where more than 300 worshipers were praying Monday morning, according to police officials. There are concerns the death toll could rise as many of the wounded individuals were listed in critical condition.

The impact of the explosion collapsed the roof of the mosque, injuring people inside as it caved in.

PAKISTAN'S SPECIAL FORCES RAID POLICE CENTER TO FREE HOSTAGES, KILL 33 PAKISTANI TALIBAN MILITANTS

Police officer Meena Gul, who survived the attack, said he was inside the mosque when the bomb went off. He said he could hear cries and screams after the bomb exploded.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the wounded in Peshawar and vowed "stern action" against those behind the bombing. He expressed his condolences to families of the victims, saying their pain "cannot be described in words."

"The sheer scale of the human tragedy is unimaginable. This is no less than an attack on Pakistan," Sharif tweeted.

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan called the bombing a "terrorist suicide attack" in a Twitter post.

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, released a statement condemning the attack.

"It is particularly abhorrent that the attack occurred at a place of worship," the statement said. "Freedom of religion or belief, including the ability to worship in peace and security, is a universal human right. The Secretary-General extends his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a prompt recovery to those injured."

"The Secretary-General reiterates the solidarity of the United Nations with the Government and people of Pakistan in their efforts to address terrorism and violent extremism," the statement continued.

Peshawar is the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the Pakistani Taliban have a strong presence, and the city has been the scene of frequent militant attacks.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Suicide bomber kills at least 28, leaves nearly 150 wounded at mosque in Pakistan

A suicide bombing at a mosque in Pakistan on Monday left at least 28 dead and another 150 wounded in the city of Peshawar, according to officials.

Peshawar senior police official Saddique Khan said no one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Similar suicide bombings in the past have been attributed to the Pakistani Taliban.

Khan said rescuers are attempting to take wounded people to a local hospital. 

PAKISTANI COURT ACQUITS RETIRED POLICE OFFICER, 17 OTHERS IN THE 2018 KILLING OF AN ASPIRING MODEL

The bomber carried out the attack inside the mosque, where people were praying Monday morning, according to police officials. There are concerns the death toll could rise as many of the wounded individuals were listed in critical condition.

The impact of the explosion collapsed the roof of the mosque, injuring people inside as it caved in.

PAKISTAN'S SPECIAL FORCES RAID POLICE CENTER TO FREE HOSTAGES, KILL 33 PAKISTANI TALIBAN MILITANTS

In a statement, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif condemned the bombing and promised "stern action" against those who were behind the attack.

Police officer Meena Gul, who survived the attack, said he was inside the mosque when the bomb went off. He said he could hear cries and screams after the bomb exploded.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Teenager playing hide-and-seek found days later inside shipping container in another country

A Bangladesh boy who accidentally locked himself inside a shipping container during a game of hide-and-seek was discovered six days later in another country.

The 15-year-old identified only by his first name, Fahim, was playing hide-and-seek with friends in the port city of Chittagong on Jan. 11 when he hid inside a shipping container and fell asleep.

The container was then shipped to West Port, Malaysia, on a commercial ship. The boy was discovered on Jan. 17.

"The boy was just believed to have entered the container, fell asleep, and found himself here," Malaysian Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said, according to the Malaysian news agency Bernama. "He was the only one found in the container. A police report was lodged and as he was having a fever."

INDIAN STATE MINISTER NABA DAS DIES OF INJURIES AFTER POLICE OFFICER SHOOTS HIM, REPORTS SAY

A video posted to Reddit showed Fahim disoriented and confused after going six days without food or water. He was seen being taken away on a stretcher.

Ismail said the boy received medical attention and that authorities "are in the process of repatriating him through the legal channel."

Officials were initially concerned Fahim ended up roughly 2,300 miles from his home country after being a victim of human trafficking, but an investigation determined he wandered into the container during a game of hide-and-seek.

DEA QUIETLY REMOVED FORMER TOP OFFICIAL IN MEXICO FOR ALLEGEDLY COZYING UP WITH MIAMI DRUG LAWYERS: REPORT

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"The relevant authorities have investigated the case and their investigations found no elements of human trafficking," Ismail said.

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Syrian government forces behind 2018 Douma chemical attack, watchdog group says

A global chemical weapons watchdog group released the results of a nearly two-year-long investigation into the use of chemical weapons in Douma, Syria, in 2018, on Friday, concluding that Syrian government forces were behind the attack. 

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it had "reasonable grounds" to believe "at least one" Syrian Tiger Forces Elite Unit helicopter "dropped two yellow cylinders containing toxic chlorine gas on two apartment buildings in a civilian-inhabited area."

The April 7 attack killed 43 people and wounded 500 more, most of whom were women and children. 

ISRAEL TO ‘EXPEDITE’ GUN LICENSES AFTER DEADLY SHOOTING NEAR JERUSALEM SYNAGOGUE

The OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) gathered evidence from witnesses, satellite images and authenticated videos and photographs to piece together the 139-page report. 

It also relied on forensic analysis, gas dispersion modeling and roughly two terabytes of data to develop multiple scenarios as to how the attack could have occurred. 

The watchdog agency said it considered the Syrian government and its Russian-backed allies' claims that opposition forces were behind the attack and that it had been "staged by terrorist armed groups," who used household bleach items or pesticides. 

"The symptoms of the victims are, overall, consistent with exposure to chlorine gas in very high concentrations. Following the assessment and corroboration of the relevant material, the toxicologist consulted by the IIT reached the conclusion that the accounts of the victims and medical personnel were consistent with the rapid release of a high dosage of chlorine gas, which led to the rapid and high fatality rate," the report read. 

"Information obtained by the IIT indicates that, in the timeframe in which the incident occurred, the airspace over Douma was exclusively controlled by the Syrian Arab Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces. While the IIT assessed information showing that other States carried out airstrikes and operations on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic in April 2018, it has not obtained any information suggesting that airstrikes were carried out in the eastern Ghouta area (including Douma) by forces opposing the authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic," the report continued.

Investigators say the attack was conducted as part of a major military offensive by Syrian government forces to retake the key rebel stronghold and return control to President Bashar al-Assad. 

World leaders expressed horror and outrage over the chemical attack after images surfaced of civilians lying dead in their apartment buildings and foaming at the mouth. The 2018 attack prompted precision military strikes against government forces led by the United States, Britain and France.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the operation targeted the "clandestine chemical arsenal."

"We cannot tolerate the trivialization of chemical weapons, which is an immediate danger for the Syrian people and our collective security," Macron said. 

Syria’s foreign ministry released a statement on Saturday denying the conclusions of the OPCW’s report, saying it "totally rejects" the "lack [of] scientific and objective evidence." Assad has repeatedly denied his forces were responsible for gassing civilians, instead blaming terrorists and opposition forces. 

ASSAD REGIME MISSES KEY DEADLINE TO HAND OVER CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Eastern Ghouta, a predominantly Sunni Muslim agricultural city located roughly six miles from the capital Damascus, was the first city hit by chemical weapons in 2013. 

The OPCW watchdog group said the sarin gas attack killed hundreds of civilians and remains the deadliest instance of the use of chemical weapons since the Syrian civil war began in 2011.

Roughly six million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes and hundreds of thousands more have been killed, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. 

OPCW Director-General Ambassador Fernando Arias said the "use of chemical weapons in Douma – and anywhere – is unacceptable and a breach of international law." 

"The world now knows the facts – it is up to the international community to take action at the OPCW and beyond," Arias said. 

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Taliban warns universities not to allow Afghan women and girls to take entry exams

Taliban officials sent a letter to private universities over the weekend warning them not to allow women and girls to take entry exams, doubling down on a directive last month barring female students from higher education. 

It's the latest blow for women and girls in Afghanistan after the U.S. pulled out of the country in August 2021. 

The country's new religious rulers, who adhere to a hard-line interpretation of Islamic law, have banned girls from attending middle and high school, limited a woman's ability to travel without a male chaperone, and prohibited women from working outside the home aside from a few sectors. 

"These restrictions present Afghan women and girls with a future that confines them in their own homes, violating their rights and depriving the communities of their services," United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said this month after meeting with Taliban leaders in Afghanistan. 

9 AFGHAN MEN LASHED IN PUBLIC FOR CRIMES UNDER COUNTRY'S NEW RULERS

On Saturday, a letter sent to private universities warned that women are not allowed to take the "entry test for bachelor, master and doctorate levels." 

If any university disobeys the order, then "legal action will be taken against the violator," according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Associated Press. 

The ban on women in higher education has been met with criticism by other countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar. 

Last month, the Taliban also banned foreign and Afghan women from working in nongovernmental organizations, a move that aid groups have warned could worsen a deepening economic crisis throughout the country. 

The Taliban recaptured power in Afghanistan in the wake of President Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

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North Korea denies supplying Russia weapons, warns US crossing ‘red line’ by sending battle tanks to Ukraine

North Korea has denied the U.S.' claims that the country is providing Russia with weapons in its ongoing war with Ukraine. 

In a statement to the Korean Central News Agency, Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of U.S. Affairs, accused the U.S. of concocting a "groundless rumor of ‘arms dealing between the DPRK and Russia,’ in a foolish attempt to justify its offer of weapons to Ukraine." 

"It is an illegal act to call into question the legitimate right to national defense of a sovereign state," he said. "Moreover, trying to tarnish the image of the DPRK by fabricating a non-existent thing is a grave provocation that can never be allowed and that cannot but trigger its reaction." 

The comments came after President Biden said on Wednesday that the United States will send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, reversing months of arguments by Washington that they were too difficult for Ukrainian troops to operate and maintain. 

NORTH KOREA CONDEMNS US PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN'S DECISION TO SEND BATTLE TANKS TO UKRAINE

Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a member of North Korea’s State of Affairs Commission, said the U.S. was crossing a "red line" by sending the tanks to Ukraine, according to the Yonhap News Agency, a South Korean media outlet. 

Kwon said the U.S. decision to send tanks demonstrated the country’s supposed "deformed and gangster-like" ways of thinking "which frequently introduces nuclear strike means into the Korean peninsula under the pretext of providing ‘extended deterrence’ against ‘provocation’ of someone."

"The U.S. should be mindful that it will face a really undesirable result if it persists in spreading the self-made rumor against the DPRK," he said. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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DEA quietly removed former top official in Mexico for allegedly cozying up with Miami drug lawyers: report

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reportedly quietly booted former top official in Mexico over alleged ties to Miami-based defense attorneys representing accused narcotraffickers. 

Nicholas Palmeri served just a 14-month stint as the DEA’s Regional Director of North and Central Americas Region, based in Mexico City. He was abruptly transferred to Washington headquarters in May 2021 before he was forced to retire last March from the federal agency where he worked for over two decades. 

The Associated Press, citing confidential records, reported Friday that Palmeri’s socializing and vacationing with Miami drug lawyers brought his ultimate downfall. 

According to the AP, internal investigative records show Miami defense attorney David Macey hosted Palmeri and his Mexican-born wife for two days at his home in the Florida Keys — a trip that investigators said served no useful work purpose and violated rules governing interactions with attorneys that are designed to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

MEXICO CONFIRMS US CITIZEN AMONG 4 KILLED IN ZACATECAS 

Palmeri's case adds to a growing litany of misconduct roiling the nation’s premier narcotics law enforcement agency at a time when its sprawling foreign operations — spanning 69 countries — are under scrutiny from an external review ordered by DEA Administrator Anne Milgram.

That review came in response to the case of Jose Irizarry, a disgraced former agent now serving a 12-year federal prison sentence after confessing to laundering money for Colombian drug cartels and skimming millions from seizures to fund an international joyride of jet-setting, parties and prostitutes.

Palmeri’s is the second case in recent months to shine a light on the often-cozy interactions between DEA officials and Miami attorneys representing some of Latin America’s biggest narcotraffickers and money launderers. 

Last year, federal prosecutors charged a DEA agent and a former supervisor with leaking confidential law enforcement information to two unnamed Miami defense attorneys in exchange for $70,000 in cash. Current and former U.S. officials identified one of those lawyers as Macey, the AP reported.

Palmeri, 52, acknowledged to investigators that he stayed at Macey’s getaway home, that his wife worked as a translator for another prominent attorney, Ruben Oliva, and that he took an unauthorized trip to Miami with his wife in February 2021. The purported purpose of the Miami trip had been to "debrief" a confidential source. But it took place at a private home where Palmeri showed up with his wife — and a bottle of wine, according to the internal report.

"The meeting had the appearance of a social interaction with a confidential source," the investigators wrote, "and there was no contemporaneous official DEA documentation concerning the substance of the debrief, both of which violate DEA policy."

Palmeri told investigators he had shown "not the best judgment" and was transferred to DC. 

According to the AP, separate internal probes raised other red flags, including complaints of lax handling of the coronavirus pandemic that resulted in two sickened agents having to be airlifted out of the country. And another disclosed last week found Palmeri approved the use of drug-fighting funds for inappropriate purposes and sought to be reimbursed to pay for his own birthday party.

Shortly after his arrival in Mexico in 2020, the AP reported that some agents complained about his near-obsession with capturing Rafael Caro Quintero, the infamous drug lord behind the killing of a U.S. DEA agent in 1985, saying Palmeri prioritized that over the agency’s less-flashy efforts to stem the flow of Chinese precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl. Quintero was finally taken into custody last summer, months after the DEA recalled Palmeri to Washington.

"The DEA holds its 10,000 employees to the highest standards of conduct and professionalism," a DEA spokesperson said in an email to Fox News Digital Sunday, without providing specifics about Palmeri's departure. "When an employee is found to have not lived up to those standards, DEA takes decisive action, including removal from the agency."

In an email to the AP, Palmeri described the misconduct probes as a "witch hunt" prompted by personal and professional jealousies and "an ill-conceived narrative to remove me from my position."

Palmeri added that his relationships with attorneys have "always been professional and ethical," and that all his expenditures in Mexico were "judicious" and benefited the U.S. government.

"It is ironic," Palmeri wrote in an email, "that the Department of ‘Justice’ would commit this injustice to the country."

Fox News Digital also reached out to Palmeri on LinkedIn but did not immediately hear back. 

Oliva told AP the translation work Palmeri's wife did for him was "totally unrelated" to Palmeri and that he's "never met a more ethical, hard-working and highly effective drug enforcement agent."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Great white shark decapitates Mexican diver marking first fatal shark attack of 2023: Report

The first fatal shark attack of the year has been recorded in Mexico after a man diving for mollusks was reportedly killed in a gruesome attack by a great white shark that resulted in the diver being decapitated.

Manuel Lopez was diving for mollusks in Mexico’s Tobari Bay in the Gulf of California when he encountered a 19-foot great white shark at a depth of about 50 feet around 11:30 a.m. on January 5th, the website TrackingSharks.com reported.

Two other fishermen who were with him at the time of the attack said that Lopez was decapitated.

"He was diving when the animal attacked him, impressively ripping off his head and biting both shoulders," Jose Bernal, a man speaking for the fisherman, said about the attack.

SHARK ATTACK SURVIVOR IS ON A MISSION TO PROTECT THESE ANIMALS: 'FEAR CAN BE A POWERFUL MOTIVATOR'

Bernal said that divers in the area had previously been warned about an increased shark presence in the area and that most divers had not been out on the water in the days leading up to the attack.

Lopez was reportedly diving with a surface supplied air source where compressor pumps send air through hoses connected to the diver who is also connected to the boat with tethered ropes.

CALIFORNIA WOMAN DESCRIBES SHARK ATTACK: 'I SAW IT CLAMP ON MY LEG'

TrackingSharks.com reported that a seafood shortage has caused an increased demand which has motivated some divers to brave the dangerous waters despite the risks due to economic hardship.

Great white sharks are prevalent both in the Sea of Cortez particularly in December and January when pregnant sharks make their way to the waters in order to feed. 

A 56-year-old diver was killed in the area in February of last year while diving for scallops and another diver was killed in the area in 2018.

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Zelenskyy warns International Olympic Committee against allowing Russia 'terrorist state' into games

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has once again implored the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to not allow Russia to compete at Olympics.

"It is obvious that any neutral flag of Russian athletes is stained with blood. I invite Mr. Bach to Bakhmut," Zelenskyy said in a video address on Twitter, referring to the city in eastern Ukraine wrecked by the war. "So that he could see with his own eyes that neutrality does not exist."

"One cannot but be disappointed by the statements of the current President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach. I spoke with him several times," he said in a Friday speech. "And I never heard how he is going to protect sports from war propaganda if he returns Russian athletes to international competitions."

IOC CLEARS PATH FOR RUSSIAN ATHLETES TO COMPETE UNDER ASIA IN UPCOMING OLYMPICS

Despite Zelenskyy's calls to exclude Russia from next year’s Summer Olympics, the IOC on Wednesday said it aimed to pursue a pathway for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as "neutral athletes" who "in no way represent their state or any other organisation in their country."

"No athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport," Thomas Bach, President of the IOC, said Wednesday.

The IOC noted that its recommendation mirrors a similar decision in 1992, when it allowed athletes from the former Yugoslavia—which faced sanctions by the United Nations—to participate as independent Olympic participants at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Yugoslavia didn’t take part in team sports such as soccer and basketball.

In sports, like tennis, athletes from Belarus and Russia are already competing. On Saturday, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka won the Australian Open.

However, Zelenskyy slammed the IOC’s decision as "attempts to bring representatives of the terrorist state into world sports."

RUSSIAN OFFICIALS RULE 'NO FAULT' FOR FIGURE SKATER KAMILA VALIEVA IN DOPING PROBE 

On Saturday, Zelenskyy posted a series of pointed images of Ukraine's sports facilities destroyed by the war.

"Olympic principles and war fundamentally oppose each other." the president of the war-torn country wrote in a Saturday morning post. "Russia must stop aggression and terror, and only after it will be possible to talk about Russian participation in the Olympic movement."

"If we are not heard, I do not rule out the possibility that we will boycott and refuse participation in the Olympics," Ukrainian sports minister Vadym Guttsait wrote Thursday on his Facebook account.

Meanwhile, Russian Olympic Committee President Stanislav Pozdnyakov said in a statement Wednesday that the IOC’s statement was "the voice of common sense."

Zelenskyy has shared that he told French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country is hosting the upcoming Summer Olympics, that Russia should have "no place" there. 

Just last February, the IOC recommended "with a heavy heart" that sports bodies exclude Russia and Belarus from hosting and competing "in order to protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participants."

"The current war in Ukraine, however, puts the Olympic Movement in a dilemma." the IOC wrote in a press release. "While athletes from Russia and Belarus would be able to continue to participate in sports events, many athletes from Ukraine are prevented from doing so because of the attack on their country."

FIFA and World Curling were the first international sports federations under the Olympic umbrella to take action after the IOC announcement. FIFA and UEFA said Russian national and club teams are suspended from their soccer competitions until further notice.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. 

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Transgender woman, who stalked a girl as a man, granted transfer to Scotland all-women's prison: report

Violent trans prisoner Tiffany Scott has reportedly been granted permission to transfer to an all-women’s Scottish prison after previous relocation requests were denied, Scottish reports said Saturday. 

Scott is known as one of the most violent inmates in the Scottish prison system and managed to stalk a 13-year-old girl while incarcerated under a former identity as Andrew Burns by sending her repeated letters, the Daily Record reported.

Scott has been involved in numerous violent attacks against female and male guards, fellow inmates and a female nurse. 

BRITISH PM MAY BLOCK SCOTTISH GENDER LAW, SAYS GOVERNMENT REVIEW 'COMPLETELY REASONABLE'

She has also reportedly inflicted self-harm by attempting to hang herself after shredding "tear-proof" clothing and ripping an IV out of her arm, the Daily Record said.

Scott is being held at the all-male Low Moss Prison outside Glasgow.

The Scottish government is facing pressure to intervene in the transfer after another case earlier this week caused uproar when Isla Bryson, a convicted rapist, was initially granted approval for an all-women’s prison. That decision was later reversed. 

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon ordered the decision to be reversed Thursday after Bryson on Tuesday was found guilty of raping two women in 2016 and 2019 while she was still known as Adam Graham and before she changed genders, the BBC said. 

Bryson had apparently been transferred shortly before her sentencing Tuesday to an all-women’s prison known as Cornton Vale, where she was kept in segregation before Sturgeon intervened, The Guardian reported.

Sturgeon is now facing similar pressure to intervene in Scott’s case. 

The security issues surrounding incarnated prisoners and their gender identity has surfaced in the aftermath of a gender recognition bill that was passed in December by Scottish members of parliament. The bill was then blocked earlier this month by the U.K. government. 

SCOTLAND'S LEADER PLANS TO TAKE THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT TO COURT OVER SCOTTISH GENDER TRANSFORMATION LAW

Opponents to the bill that Sturgeon first introduced six years ago, which allows people to more easily change their gender identity, said it did not provide enough safeguards in instances where abusive males could potentially take advantage of the system.

Sturgeon responded to criticism this week over the bill, reportedly saying, "Firstly, in general, any prisoner who poses a risk of sexual offending is segregated from other prisoners, including during any period of risk assessment.

"Secondly, there is no automatic right for a trans woman convicted of a crime to serve their sentence in a female prison, even if they have a gender recognition certificate. Every case is subjected to rigorous individual risk assessment and, as part of that, the safety of other prisoners is paramount."

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Jerusalem shooting: Alleged 13-year-old Palestinian gunman apprehended by armed Israeli citizen

Israeli police have arrested a 13-year-old Palestinian boy in connection to a shooting in Jerusalem on Saturday. 

Video of the incident posted by the Israel Foreign Ministry appeared to show a boy who opened fire on a small group of men walking on the street near the City of David archeological site.

A father, 45, and his son, 22, were injured and taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition. The attacker was also shot by two nearby civilians carrying licensed weapons. 

Police arrived at the scene within a few minutes, apprehended the boy and seized his weapon. He was held in a police ambulance while he received treatment.

WORLD MARKS HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY AS ANTISEMITISM CONTINUES TO RISE: ‘JEW-HATRED STILL EXISTS’

The boy allegedly came from East Jerusalem, according to The Jerusalem Post. He traveled by bus to the area, then walked along the street looking for victims before finally opening fire. 

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

"We quickly arrived at the scene and saw the victims. They were fully conscious and suffered gunshot wounds to their upper bodies," said MDA paramedic Fadi Dekidak. "We quickly put him in an intensive care unit and evacuated them with life-saving medical treatment to Shaare Zedek Hospital."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the shooting that his government’s response would be "strong, swift and accurate." 

NYT WRITER SAYS AIPAC, JEWISH GROUPS USING ‘POWER AND INFLUENCE' TO STOP US FROM BEING TOUGH ON ISRAEL

"We’re not seeking an escalation but are prepared for any scenario," Netanyahu told the AFP. 

The U.S. Department of Defense said that officials "are in close contact with our Israeli partners and stand firmly with them in the face of this attack." 

The shooting followed an attack on a synagogue Friday night that killed at least seven people and wounded several others, including at least one child. That attack was also reportedly carried out by a Palestinian out of East Jerusalem. 

A spokesperson for the Israeli military said on Saturday that they would bolster forces in the occupied West Bank, the BBC reported. 

ISRAEL REJECTS US REQUEST FOR HAWK MISSILES IN AID TO UKRAINE

Police pursued the suspect and shot him before he could drive away. 

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides condemned the attack in a tweet, calling it a "horrific act of violence."

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said the attack was a "confirmation of the continuation of the resistance action in all the occupied territories, and in response to the crimes of the occupation against our people in the holy places." Video posted online showed what appeared to be Palestinians celebrating the attack as retribution for a deadly missile strike on Thursday.

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Indian Air Force fighters jets crash in mid-air, killing pilot: See the wreckage

A plane crash involving two fighter jets in India has killed one pilot and severely injured the other. 

"Two fighter aircraft of IAF were involved in an accident near Gwalior this morning. The aircraft were on routine operational flying training mission," the Indian Air Force (IAF) wrote in a statement on Twitter. "One of the three pilots involved sustained fatal injuries."

"An inquiry has been ordered to determine the cause of the accident."

The crash on Saturday morning involved a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 carrying two pilots and a French-made Mirage 2000 with one pilot. 

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The planes crashed in an open field near no civilians. Villagers heard a blast-like sound and found parts of an aircraft in the nearby field.

While local outlets initially reported no known fatalities, the IAF reported that Wing Commander Hanumanth Rao Sarathi suffered fatal injuries, adding that "all air warriors and the fraternity stand strongly with the bereaved family." 

INDIA JEWELER SNAGS GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS TITLE WITH WATCH DESIGN USING OVER 17K DIAMONDS

Both aircraft have been identified having taken off from Gwalior air base about 30 miles east from where they crashed, the BBC reported. Police found one plane, with a pilot injured but alive in the forests of Padargarh. 

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The IAF confirmed that an Air Force team reached the second plane and found a hand near one of the crash sites, according to the Hindustan Times.

The Saturday crash is the latest in a number of crashes the IAF has had to deal with in the past few months, according to the BBC.

Five soldiers died in October when their helicopter crashed near the border with China, and Gen. Bipin Rawat, head of India’s armed forces, was one of more than a dozen killed in a separate helicopter crash when the vehicle hit a hillside and burst into flames. 

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In Europe 'a new generation of bank robbers' target ATMs with explosives, stealing millions

"Bonnie and Clyde" and "Dog Day Afternoon"-style bank robberies, done by holding up the bank teller, have largely vanished in Germany. The Federal Republic of Germany has been gripped by a crime wave over the last few years involving highly efficient professional gangs who explode automated teller machines in the wealthy central European country, which has at least 55,000 ATMs. 

The German daily broadsheet Die Welt (The World) published an investigative report on January 13 on the organized crime robbery spree of roughly 500 ATMs in 2022. 

The professional gangs "break into branches, blow up ATMs and disappear as fast as they arrived. They are not recognizable. They work with the precision and speed of a race car team at the pit stop. They accept that people may be injured or killed," wrote Die Welt’s Philipp Woldin. 

The newspaper called the robberies of ATMs a "new generation of bank robbers." 

GERMAN POLICE SEARCH HOMES, QUESTION SUSPECTS IN ANNUAL CRACKDOWN ON ONLINE HATE SPEECH 

The 55,000 ATMs are an invitation for highly specialized thieves who to travel to Germany, noted the article. Tens of thousands of ATMs in Germany store around $55,000 to $110,000 in them.

Germany’s Federal Criminal Agency registered a total of 414 attempts of ATM robberies in 2020. That figure was not broken down into how many attempts were successful. The following year saw a similar number of ATM crimes. 

German police and judicial officials are raising alarm bells about the exploding ATMs. 

A judge in the German state of Hesse recently spoke of "war-like damage" when he sentenced a man for blowing up an ATM. Police officials have termed the crime wave "bomb attacks in public space." 

According to Swen Eigenbrodt, the director of a Germany-wide special unit for criminal police in Hesse, "It is a miracle that there have not been deaths yet." Eigenbrodt’s specialized unit works with banks and prosecutors to combat the massive assaults on ATMs.

GERMAN DEFENDANT SAYS HELLS ANGELS LEFT MALLORCA IN 2011 

According to a May 18, 2022, notice from The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) that was reviewed by Fox News Digital, Europol and the Dutch Police worked together with the German Police Directorate of Hochtaunus to arrest "3 suspected members of a criminal gang responsible for a string of robberies targeting ATMs in Germany. " 

Europol added that "These arrests follow those of 3 other members of the same criminal group on 30 March 2022 in Hesse." 

The professional gang is said to have targeted eight cash machines in the German states of Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony and Rhineland Palatinate between October and November 2021, stealing over $1 million in cash. 

According to the Europol report, "The group would attend at the scene often in stolen vehicles in the early hours of the morning, and used explosives to break into the ATMs so that they could then steal the cash from inside them. They caused millions of Euros worth of damage to the premises they attacked, demonstrating no insight into the risk of harm, or even possibility of death, to those who lived nearby or who were near the machines at the time." 

GERMAN PROSECUTORS CALL FOR EX-NAZI CAMP SECRETARY TO BE CONVICTED AS AN ACCESSORY TO MURDER 

In October, Die Welt reported that the "perpetrators belong to a 700-member network of largely Moroccan-Dutch criminals." The Dutch authorities believe the "Moroccan mafia" is responsible for the murder of the Dutch crime reporter Peter de Vries, who had been researching the network.

The authorities have also identified German and Italian criminals who are part of ATM-robbery networks. 

 The organized criminals divide their work into drivers, explosive experts, logistical specialists and other assistants, said a prosecutor who works with Eigenbrodt’s team.

An association called "Alliance Automated Teller Machines" has been established to combat the crime wave. The Alliance has members from banks, government and police who regularly meet, wrote the paper.

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Climate change protesters in The Hague block highway, get detained and hauled away by bus

Hundreds of climate activists on Saturday blocked one of the main roads into the international criminal court, The Hague, in a show of protests over fossil fuel linked tax breaks before being hauled away.

Activists reportedly blocked the road for an hour before authorities began detaining them and removing them by bus. 

The move comes after six Extinction Rebellion activists were detained this week on suspicion of "sedition" over calls to stage the protest.

BIDEN ADMIN ISSUES 20-YEAR MINING BAN AS IT TURNS TO FOREIGN SUPPLY CHAIN AMID GREEN ENERGY PUSH

Prosecutors faced condemnation for the actions taken against demonstrators despite their right to peacefully protest. 

But prosecutors defended their position calling the blockade "dangerous and disruptive" to motorists and protesters alike.

"Calling for a criminal offense — such as blocking a public road — amounts to sedition," prosecutors said in a statement.

GLOBAL ELITES TOOK 150+ PRIVATE JETS TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE IN DAVOS

"Demonstrating is a fundamental right and is facilitated by the municipality of The Hague," they added. "There are hundreds of demonstrations in The Hague every year that go off without a hitch. But a demonstration is not a license to commit criminal offenses."

Extinction Rebellion spokesperson Anne Kervers said the turnout Saturday not only showed "what society thinks of fossil fuel subsidies" but also was a response to the "intimidation and criminalization of nonviolent climate activism."

Activists vowed to continue with their protests to demand an end to government tax breaks for companies affiliated with fossil fuels.

"It is essential that citizens can demonstrate against this in a place that matters," Extinction Rebellion said in a statement.

"This includes the A12, between the House of Representatives and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate," the group added. "Any nuisance for traffic, for example, will have to be tolerated."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Air Force general predicts war with China in 2025: 'I hope I am wrong'

A four-star Air Force General on Friday predicted in a memo to his officers that the U.S. will be at war with China by 2025 and advised his commanders to prepare, a report by NBC News said.

Gen. Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command, in a memo to all air wing commanders and other Air Force operational commanders said, "I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me [we] will fight in 2025."

Minihan said he believes war with China is imminent in the next two years due to the upcoming 2024 elections in the U.S. and Taiwan, which he claimed will "distract" Washington and Taipei and enable China to make a move on the island. 

DEFENSE SECRETARY AUSTIN 'SERIOUSLY DOUBTS' CHINA INVASION OF TAIWAN IS 'IMMINENT'

The general said a "a fortified, ready, integrated, and agile Joint Force Maneuver Team ready to fight and win inside the first island chain" needs to be established to prepare for the looming fight.

Minihan directed his Air Force commanders to report back by Feb. 28 on steps they will take to prepare for the war against China. 

He also said all personnel should ensure their records and emergency contact information are up-to-date and to "consider their personal affairs and whether a visit should be scheduled with their servicing base legal office to ensure they are legally ready and prepared."

The general reportedly urged his fighting forces to "run deliberately, not recklessly," but said they need to accept some risk in training.

CHINESE MILITARY AIRCRAFT, VESSELS CROSS INTO TAIWANESE SPACE IN LATEST THREAT OF FORCE

"If you are comfortable in your approach to training, then you are not taking enough risk," he added. 

Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the Pentagon for comment, but according to NBC News, the Department of Defense (DOD) said Minihan’s remarks do not reflect the "department’s view on China."

DOD press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder reportedly said, "The National Defense Strategy makes clear that China is the pacing challenge for the Department of Defense and our focus remains on working alongside allies and partners to preserve a peaceful, free and open Indo-Pacific."

Top defense officials have repeatedly warned that China’s long-term aim is to reunify Taiwan with mainland China and Beijing has ramped up its aggressive posture in the region in recent years. 

President Biden said last year that he would respond to an invasion of Taiwan by deploying U.S. forces, unlike the war in Ukraine. 

But Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters earlier this month that he "seriously doubt[s]" an invasion of Taiwan and subsequent war with China is "imminent."

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Russia's major offensive planned by one-year anniversary of invasion, top security official warns

Russia is planning a major offensive against Kyiv by the one-year anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov told Radio Free Europe Friday. 

"Now they are preparing for maximum activation, taking into account the fact that these are people from the ‘scoop’, and they believe that by the anniversary they should have some achievements. It is no secret that they are preparing for a new wave by February 24," Danilov said.

UKRAINE'S ZELENSKYY HONORS HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY, AUSCHWITZ LIBERATION: 'INDIFFERENCE KILLS'

Ukraine and Western defense officials have repeatedly warned that Russia is planning a wave offensive in an attempt to turn the tide in the war. 

But details surrounding the looming offensive have remained unclear.

Danilov reportedly said that first Russia will look to secure the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where the most brutal warfare continues to take place in an area known as the Donbas. 

According to the National Security official, Russia has also been scouting Ukraine's defense capabilities in the Zaporizhzhia region, parts of which have been retaken by Ukrainian forces. 

"And now there is a certain accumulation of troops. We know this, we understand what is happening in the Russian Federation in this regard," Danilov said.

The U.S. and Germany agreed to send Ukraine urgently needed tanks for its troops on the front lines – opening the way for other nations like Poland to send their own German-made Leopard 2 tanks from its stockpiles. 

RUSSIA REACTS TO US, GERMANY TANK DELIVERIES TO UKRAINE: 'DIRECT INVOLVEMENT IN THE CONFLICT'

Though the U.S.’s agreement to send Abrams M1 tanks was made with the understanding that it will take several months to get Ukrainian troops trained up on the sophisticated equipment, concerns remain high that Europe’s tanks contribution could also take too long. 

Poland on Friday announced it would send 60 tanks in addition to Germany’s pledge to send 88 tanks, though Berlin said that just 14 – one company’s worth – would be initially sent over. 

Warsaw said it would also send 14 of its Leopard 2 tanks along with 30 of its PT-91 Polish-made battle tanks, which first entered the service in the 90s, reported Reuters.

But despite Poland’s immediate proximity to Ukraine, the shipment of tanks is still expected to take three months before Warsaw’s supply of Leopard tanks hits Ukraine’s battlefield – well beyond the looming anniversary less than a month away. 

Tanks deliveries have also been pledged by the U.K., France, Norway and Canada.

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Colombia's Arhuacos strive for harmony with Mother Nature

The Arhuaco people in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta have fended off incursions by Capuchin missionaries and by the illegal armed groups of Colombia's long civil conflict. They would prefer to focus on avoiding and repairing damage to Mother Earth.

The ways of the Arhuacos were declared intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO in November, along with those of three other Indigenous communities in northern Colombia's Sierra Nevada — the Kogui, Wiwa and Kankuamo.

"Recognition is very important, but it will be much more important that Mother Earth — the space where we exist — be respected and preserved," said Zarwawiko Torres, an Arhuaco leader. That would include preventing mines and dams on their lands, he said.

Arhuacos follow the Law of Origin as their guide to behavior and spiritual knowledge, in how they live with Mother Nature. "Water must have its own channel, stones must exist in their own space. She respects me and I respect her," Torres said.

COLOMBIA REPORTS 215 HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS MURDERED IN 2022

They live in scattered groups in the Sierra Nevada, which rises from the Caribbean coast and in its highest parts has snow-capped mountains, lagoons and moors. Their traditional white tunics woven from sheep’s wool represent snow and their cone-shaped hats the snowy peaks.

Arhuacos define themselves as a peaceful people who do not use weapons and are forbidden to murder or steal.

In their view, plants, stones, animals and the Sierra Nevada itself are living beings.

"If the Sierra were killed we would have no life," Torres said.

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Israeli, Palestinian forces trade airstrikes, rocket fire, putting West Bank on edge

Jerusalem and the West Bank remain on edge Friday even as tensions eased after a night of rocket fire and airstrikes were exchanged between Israeli and Palestinian forces. 

Both sides appeared to be avoiding an all-out clash in the Gaza Strip, though Israel’s defense minister reportedly ordered the military to be prepared for a new round of strikes "if necessary."

The exchange of fire overnight stemmed from a fight that broke out Thursday after Israeli forces raided a refugee camp in the Palestinian city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, prompting a fire fight that killed seven militants as well as a 61-year-old woman. 

PALESTINIANS IN UPROAR AFTER ISRAELI ARMY KILL MILITANTS, ELDERLY WOMAN IN WEST BANK

The incident prompted fighting in other Palestinian areas, and a 22-year-old man was then killed in the Palestinian town of al-Ram north of Jerusalem – prompting outcry from Palestinians who carried flags in support of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. 

The raids also prompted the Palestinian Authority to stop all security coordination with Israel and drew "deep concern" from the State Department. 

Palestinian forces responded to the deaths by firing rockets at south Israel.

Israel returned fire by targeting non-civilian targets like militant camps in Gaza and an underground rocket manufacturing site.

ISRAELI TROOPS FATALLY SHOOT PALESTINIAN TEACHER, MILITANT DURING RAID IN OCCUPIED WEST BANK

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said his military dealt a "tough blow" to militants in Gaza and warned the army was prepared to hit "high-quality targets…until peace is restored to the citizens of Israel."

Concerns over a wider flare up have mounted since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu re-entered office with a hard right administration, which appears intent on expanding what the U.N. deems as illegal occupation in Palestinian areas. 

The Biden administration has urged Netanyahu to avoid further escalation or any measures that would risk a "two-state solution."

CIA Director Bill Burns arrived in Tel Aviv Thursday and is expected to hold talks with intelligence officials as well as Israeli and Palestinian leaders to help deescalate mounting tensions, reported The Times of Israel. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also scheduled to visit Israel next week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Canadian pastor repeatedly jailed over COVID protocols to face final trial: 'Crazy stuff'

A Canadian pastor is facing his final trial after two years of repeated fines, arrests and imprisonment for keeping his church open during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Artur Pawlowski, pastor of the Cave of Adullam congregation in Calgary, said he is accused of causing $400 million worth of damages for officiating a church service during the trucker blockade at the U.S.-Canada border last year.

"This is the final culmination of over 40 tickets for the COVID tyranny, the house arrest, the prison, all of that stuff," Pawlowski told Fox News Digital ahead of his trial, set to begin Thursday, Feb. 2, in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Pawlowski, the first Canadian clergyman to be ticketed for alleged COVID-19 violations, claims the charges against him are an attempt to criminalize his speech.

"It's crazy stuff," he said.

He also slammed Alberta's new premier, Danielle Smith, who he said discussed his potential amnesty last fall but has since "backpedaled."

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Pawlowski, who also heads a charity to feed Calgary's homeless, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on the charges stemming from his participation in the trucker convoy in Coutts, Alberta.

He is charged with mischief over $5,000, contravention of the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act and failure to comply with his release condition to keep the peace and be of good behavior.

‘I will not obey’

Pawlowski first drew international attention in April 2021 when he threw armed police and a health official out of his church as they attempted to inspect it for public health compliance during an Easter service.

He was seen in a viral video chasing authorities out while likening them to the Nazi Gestapo. When officials returned a week later with a court order that empowered them "to do anything necessary" to enter his church and arrest him, Pawlowski recorded himself throwing them out again and warned his viewers that Canada increasingly resembles the communist regime his family endured in Poland.

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Calgary police arrested the pastor five times after he continued to conduct services in defiance of the court order, including once in the middle of a busy highway on his way home from church. On another occasion, he was arrested on the tarmac of Calgary International Airport following a speaking tour in the U.S.

Pawlowski told Fox News Digital at the time that authorities appeared to have rummaged through his luggage at the airport and snooped in his laptop.

After multiple court appearances, a federal judge mandated in October 2021 that he recite a script publicly denouncing his own opinions on COVID-19 and vaccines.

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"I said, ‘I will not obey this court order,’" Pawlowski said at the time, before the order was stayed upon appeal. "I refuse to obey a crooked judge's order. He's not a judge, he's a political activist."

When truckers in Coutts protested vaccine mandates by blocking the crossing along Alberta's border with Montana last February, Pawlowski was invited to deliver a 20-minute speech in which he urged them to "hold the line" against the government without resorting to violence. He also warned them against traveling to the provincial capital of Edmonton, fearing they would face a government crackdown similar to what happened to truckers who had protested in Ottawa.

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Days after his speech, he was arrested at his home and spent 51 days in two different prisons, where he claimed authorities abused him by locking him in a small cage, placing him in a psychiatric ward and trying to instigate other inmates to hurt him. The inmates refused and some reached out to him for spiritual guidance, he said.

‘The same villains’

Pawlowski told Fox News Digital that he has been under house arrest since his release from prison last April and cannot leave his home without the permission of his probation officer. He ran for political office and became the leader of the Alberta Independence Party last September.

Smith, who was sworn in as premier on Oct. 11, was the first Canadian leader to apologize for the treatment of unvaccinated people in the country. Canada's government mandated vaccinations in federally regulated workplaces, issued travel restrictions, ordered months-long business shutdowns and arrested citizens who violated the lockdowns.

The country's treatment of the clergy drew the eyes of some American neighbors. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., urged the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2021 to consider adding Canada to its watch list after a Baptist minister in Calgary was arrested when a police helicopter reportedly found his church gathering outside.

The Ohio State Legislature passed a resolution urging the same last March, and thousands protested at Canadian consulates throughout the U.S. during Pawlowski's imprisonment.

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During a speech at the United Conservative Party’s (UCP) annual general meeting last fall, Smith noted that the multiple pastors who were arrested in the generally conservative province ​​"come to top of mind" when she thinks of people who were unfairly penalized for disobeying COVID protocols. She also floated a plan to pardon such offenders.

But Pawlowski said nothing materialized in his case. He blamed that on members of Smith's cabinet, who he said fear for their own reputations after being involved in his prosecution under Smith's predecessor, Jason Kenney.

"I think the biggest problem is that she appointed the same villains in her cabinet," Pawlowski said, noting that some of the same cabinet ministers who were caught violating their own COVID-19 rules during a private dinner in 2021 remain in place.

"She's extremely weak," Pawlowski said of the new premier, whom he claims to have known for 15 years since they were both in Alberta's Wildrose Party. "Remember, you're dealing with a flip-flopping politician who crosses the floors, abandons people, promises one thing and changes her mind."

"I know her and she wants to please everyone, and she doesn't stand for anything," Pawlowski added. He alleged that representatives from the UCP came to his home multiple times to offer him a deal not to run for office or to abandon his political party, but he refused.

"I'm a pastor," Pawlowski said. "I'm not Judas Iscariot, I'm not the Whore of Babylon. I don't betray the people. So, I said no, and then [Smith] came out in public and she says, 'Well, I'm not bringing amnesty.'"

Citing the upcoming trial, a spokesperson for the Alberta government declined Fox News Digital's request for comment in response to Pawlowski's claims.

‘Refining fire’

Pawlowski likened his ordeals to "a refining fire" that he said has widened the reach of his ministry and invigorated his faith.

"I noticed, even in my own preaching, that everything we went through — and are still going through — only gave us a stronger faith and zeal and confirmation that everything that we read in the Bible is actually the truth," he said.

Pawlowski said many of the Canadians involved with his ministry continue to suffer the lingering consequences of their government's pandemic response, which he claims has damaged the Canadian economy and forced many he personally knows to take vaccines.

He says there was an inconsistent application of COVID-19 protocols in the country that were intended "to remove or to destroy the middle class."

"That's why the IKEAs and Walmarts were open, but small businesses were commanded to be closed," he said. "I could bring my entire church and half of my community to IKEA during the biggest lockdowns, where 500 people were allowed. But I could not have a church service with 100 people."

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