World News

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The black boxes of a Boeing jetliner that crashed in South Korea last month stopped recording about four minutes before the accident, South Korean officials said Saturday, possibly complicating investigations into the cause of the disaster that killed 179 people.

Details of the sanctions' demands are scheduled to be explained in a joint press conference between Serbian and US representatives on Saturday.

"There were insults I'd never heard before, they were disgusting and inhumane," said Darim, which is not her real name. One read: "You've just sabotaged your job."

A former Green Beret accused of plotting an invasion of Venezuela in 2020 to try to overthrow Nicolás Maduro lashed out Friday at the CIA and FBI, claiming they sabotaged his efforts to oust the leftist leader. His lawyers asserted that he had the Trump administration’s support for the clandestine mission.

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“I want to congratulate the CIA and FBI on a job well done. Because of your efforts in Venezuela in 2020 to sabotage my executive-branch directed operation Nicolas Maduro is getting sworn in today,” Goudreau, flashing a thumb-up sign, said in a short video on Instagram. “Good job, fellas!”

According to the president, this task was not easy, because usually Russians and other North Korean military personnel finish off their wounded. They do everything to prevent evidence of the participation of another state, North Korea, in the war against Ukraine.

Rachel Reeves traveled to Beijing accompanied by a delegation of British business leaders and finance officials. She met with Chinese leaders including Vice Premier He Lifeng and Vice President Han Zheng.

The two sides revived the China-U.K. Economic and Financial Dialogue — annual bilateral talks that have been suspended since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and deteriorating relations. London hopes renewed dialogues will help bring down barriers that U.K. businesses face when looking to export or expand to China.

American firms in Russia paid the country $1.2 billion in profit taxes in 2023, according to figures from campaign group B4Ukraine and the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) Institute shared exclusively with Newsweek. This tax contribution makes the U.S. the largest contributor of foreign profit taxes to Russia, something a former top U.S. diplomat called "shameful."

The Biden administration said on Friday that it was offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, after he assumed a third term in office despite evidence suggesting that he lost Venezuela’s recent election.

The were members of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria between October 2015 and December 2017, the prosecutor said in a statement. They allegedly kept a 5-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave starting in late 2015, and a 12-year-old from October 2017.

A group of 10 Reform UK councillors have resigned in a bid to get Nigel Farage to step down as the right-wing party’s leader.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the conversation between Elon Musk and Alternative for Germany (AfD) leader Alice Weidel began with a straight-up untruth: Alice Weidel, according to a claim by the multibillionaire owner of the social media platform X, was the most popular chancellor candidate in Germany "according to the polls."

A hardline Sri Lankan monk who is a close ally of ousted former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has been sentenced to nine months in prison for insulting Islam and inciting religious hatred.

Galagodaatte Gnanasara was convicted on Thursday for the remarks, which date back to 2016.

Sri Lanka rarely convicts Buddhist monks, but this marks the second time that Gnanasara, who has repeatedly been accused of hate crimes and anti-Muslim violence, has been jailed.

The Biden administration on Friday targeted Russia’s energy sector, including its oil industry, with some of its harshest sanctions to date meant to cut off funding for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

The sweeping moves, taken just over a week before President Joe Biden leaves office, come as President-elect Donald Trump says he is readying to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. They also have the potential to unnerve investors in energy markets.

The vessel "Eventin," loaded with 100,000 tons of oil, is adrift off the northern German coast. Germany's foreign minister said the ship is one of Moscow's "dilapidated oil tankers" used to circumvent sanctions.

US officials said the two intelligence bodies "changed their judgement" based on new reporting on the progress of international energy research programmes.

The mysterious illness has affected US personnel stationed around the globe in recent years.

Pope Francis was forced to apologise in May last year for using an offensive slur during a discussion with bishops about admitting gay men into seminaries.

Nakanishi Masatoshi had worked as a Japanese language teacher.

He is accused of collecting information on military facilities and sending it to Japanese intelligence agents.

Local media say he could face up to seven years in prison.

China is building at least five new special purpose barges which appear tailor made for amphibious assault. The barges may provide the PRC (People's Republic of China) with a unique way to offload large numbers of tanks directly onto Taiwanese roads.

This means the ministry has underreported the death toll due to violence by approximately 41%, the researchers found. As of October, the number of Gazans killed by violence was thought to exceed 70,000, the study said, based on the estimated underreporting rate.

Political considerations also loom large. The SPD leader is said to fear alienating voters with additional arms deliveries amid a contentious election campaign season. By contrast, the Greens have sought to leverage their support for increased defense spending as an electoral asset.

NATO has taken over air defenses in Poland from the US just days before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, according to a NATO spokesman, with questions looming about the incoming administration’s approach to the alliance and to Ukraine.

NATO assumed command and control from the US on Thursday, said Col. Martin O’Donnell, and will help to safeguard logistics nodes in Poland that are needed to continue delivering aid crucial to Ukraine’s war effort against Russia. The move is part of a broader effort that has been in the works for months to shift the burden of helping Ukraine from the US to European countries, amid questions over whether US support would continue under the Trump administration.

"We will urge U.S. forces in Japan to tighten discipline and fully implement preventive measures," Hayashi, who serves as chief cabinet secretary, told a press conference.

The case is the latest in a series of violent attacks on women and the accused has been referred to prosecutors, according to an investigative source.

Under the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, U.S. military personnel will in principle remain in the custody of the United States until being charged by Japan, unless they are arrested at the scene of a crime.

Reports indicate that Russian forces have dismantled air defense radars and moved over 100 trucks of equipment to the port. No ships are currently docked to facilitate the evacuation, leaving personnel and equipment stranded.

Without clearance from the new Syrian government, the evacuation of Russia's military assets from Tartus has stalled, according to Maritime Executive.

The death of a teenage boy sparked violent protests in a city in north-west China, the BBC has confirmed through verified video.

In the videos shared on social media, protesters can be seen hurling objects at police and officers beating some demonstrators in Pucheng in Shaanxi province.