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Reports: NATO-member Norway to donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, becoming third country to do so

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:22 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — NATO-member Norway will donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, whose forces are embroiled in a difficult counteroffensive against Russia, Norwegian media said Thursday. The reports came as Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was visiting Kyiv.There was no official confirmation of the plan, which was reported by Norwegian broadcasters NRK and TV2.Norway would be the third European country after the Netherlands and Denmark to donate F-16 planes.Ukraine has long pleaded for the sophisticated fighter jets to give it a combat edge. It recently launched a long-anticipated counteroffensive against the Kremlin’s forces without air cover, placing its troops at the mercy of Russian aviation and artillery.In February, oil-rich Norway announced that it is donating 75 billion kroner ($7 billion) to Kyiv as part of a five-year support package, making Norway one of the world’s biggest donors to Ukraine.The money will be split evenly between military and humanitarian ...

Turkey’s central bank raises interest rates again in another sign of normalizing economic policy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:22 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s central bank raised its key interest rate by an aggressive 7.5 percentage points on Thursday, in a new sign of a return to more traditional economic policies under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.The bank hiked its policy rate to 25% as it continues to backtrack from a rate-cutting course set by Erdogan, which has been blamed for inflaming a cost-of-living crisis. Many households have been left struggling to afford rent and basic goods as inflation has surged.Erdogan has long argued that lowering interest rates helps fight inflation, a theory that runs contrary to traditional economic thinking. Central banks around the world have been hiking rates to bring consumer price rises under control following the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Turkish central bank, however, started cutting rates in late 2021 under pressure from Erdogan.After winning reelection in May, Erdogan appointed a new economic team, signaling a return to more conventio...

Building collapse in Nigeria’s capital leaves two people dead while many are feared trapped

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:22 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Rescue crews were searching for survivors Thursday after a building collapse in Nigeria’s capital left two people dead while many others are feared trapped, emergency officials said.The two-story building in the densely populated Garki district of the capital Abuja collapsed during a downpour late Wednesday, witnesses said. It served both as a shopping center and a residential block and some of those trapped were believed to be shoppers.Nkechi Isa, spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the city said 37 people have so far been pulled alive from the rubble. She said the rescue efforts would continue until the rubble has been searched. Crews used an excavator and a bulldozer to clear away debris in search of survivors. A large crowd of people who gathered on the street where the building had stood cheered as crews pulled out survivors. Others awaited news about their missing relatives.Samuel Japhet narrowly escaped the collapse after en...

Firefighters in Greece struggle to control blazes in country’s northeast and near Athens

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:22 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Firefighters struggled Thursday against strong winds and hot, dry conditions to tame multiple wildfires burning for days in northeastern Greece and on the fringes of the country’s capital.The wildfires have left 20 people dead over the last week. Eighteen of those, including two boys aged between 10 and 15, are believed to be migrants who crossed the nearby border with Turkey. Their bodies were found by firefighters near a shack in a burnt forest area in northeastern Greece.Sixty firefighters have been injured battling the flames, fire department spokesman Ioannis Artopios said Thursday.Elsewhere in Europe, fires on Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, northwestern Turkey near the border with Greece, Portugal and Italy were being brought under control, officials said.Greece’s Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said arson was to blame for some of the blazes near Athens.“Some … arsonists are setting fires, endangering ...

Mercenary chief Prigozhin is presumed to have died in a plane crash seen as the Kremlin’s revenge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:22 GMT

Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and some of his top lieutenants were presumed dead in a plane crash — widely seen Thursday as an assassination to avenge a mutiny that challenged President Vladimir Putin’s authority.The founder of the Wagner military company and six other passengers were on a private jet that crashed Wednesday soon after taking off from Moscow, with a crew of three, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority. Rescuers found 10 bodies, and Russian media cited anonymous sources in Wagner who said Prigozhin was dead. But there has been no official confirmation.At Wagner’s headquarters in St. Petersburg, lights were turned on in the shape of a large cross, and Prigozhin’s supporters created an improvised memorial outside. By Thursday afternoon, a small pile of red and white flowers lay outside the building, along with Wagner flags and candles.Meanwhile, police cordoned off the field where the plane crashed a few hundred kilometers (miles) north of Mos...

Regulator’s review of over 30 Swiss banks finds shortcomings in money-laundering controls

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:22 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland’s financial markets authority said Thursday that an in-depth review of more than 30 banks conducted this spring found that “a large number” failed to meet basic requirements for analyzing the risk of money laundering. The authority, known as FINMA, said the review was prompted by repeated signs of shortcomings in money-laundering risk analysis during its regular visits to financial institutions. The poor assessment of the banks — which were not identified by name — is significant because Switzerland ranks No. 1 worldwide in wealth management. Consulting firm Boston Consulting Group, in its Global Wealth Report 2023 released in late June, projected that Hong Kong is poised to eclipse Switzerland as a booking center for wealth by 2025.Switzerland has long had a reputation for banking secrecy, though some money-laundering experts say it has at least partially cleaned up its act in recent years — such as by exchanging more information to help combat...

As Toronto faces budget pressures in billions, Mayor Chow and committee to talk new taxes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:22 GMT

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow is set to convene publicly Thursday with some of her closest council allies for a special meeting to review the city’s long-term budget woes, with a new surtax on luxury homes and higher on-street parking fees up for discussion.The executive committee will meet for the first time under Chow to talk through a major report outlining Toronto’s budgetary outlook, which details a combined $46.5 billion in operating and capital pressures over the next decade.The city, which is facing an immediate $1.5 billion hole, is looking at how it can increase revenue in the wake of major deficits stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.In a bid to tackle Toronto’s daunting financial forecast, the report from the city manager and interim chief financial officer considers several new revenue measures, including a progressive surtax on the luxury homes and hiking the vacant home tax from one to three per cent.The report also recommends asking the province to perm...

A Pakistani court delays ruling on ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan’s conviction appeal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:22 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A court in Pakistan’s capital delayed for a day a crucial ruling that was expected Thursday on an appeal from the country’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan against his recent conviction and three-year sentence in a graft case, one of his lawyers said. The Islamabad High Court will resume hearings on Khan’s appeal on Friday, his attorneys said. The former cricket star and top opposition leader was found guilty of concealing assets after selling state gifts he received while in office and was convicted and sentenced on Aug. 5 by another court. Khan, through his legal team, requested his release, saying the trial court sentenced him in haste. The 70-year-old Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022, is currently being held at a high-security Attock prison in eastern Punjab province. Even if Khan’s conviction is set aside, his release is unlikely as other courts have canceled his bail in multiple cases.He has denied the charges of cor...

Jailed WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich’s arrest is extended by a Moscow court, state news agency says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:22 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow court ruled Thursday that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich must stay in jail on espionage charges until the end of November, Russian state news agency Tass reported.Gershkovich has been sitting in jail since the end of March when he was detained in the city of Yekaterinburg, almost 2,000km (1200 miles) east of Moscow, while on a reporting trip. The latest ruling means he faces spending at least eight months in prison. Gershkovich, a 31-year-old U.S. citizen, arrived at the Moscow court Thursday in a white prison van and was led out handcuffed, wearing jeans, sneakers and a shirt. He appeared in court to hear the result of the prosecution’s motion to extend his arrest from Aug. 30. Journalists outside the court were not allowed to witness the proceedings. Tass said the hearing was held behind closed doors because details of the criminal case are classified.Russia’s Federal Security Service said Gershkovich, “acting on the instructions of the Americ...

RBC reports $3.87B Q3 profit, up from $3.58B a year ago, looks to trim jobs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:22 GMT

TORONTO — Royal Bank of Canada reported its third-quarter profit rose compared with a year ago and said it remained focused on reducing costs and expected to continue to trim jobs.The bank says its number of full-time equivalent employees was down one per cent from last quarter and that it expects to further reduce it by about one to two per cent next quarter. RBC had 93,753 full-time equivalent employees in its most recent quarter.The bank reported its net income amounted to $3.87 billion or $2.73 per diluted share for the quarter ended July 31, up from $3.58 billion or $2.51 per diluted share in the same quarter last year. Revenue totalled $14.49 billion, up from $12.13 billion a year earlier.Provisions for credit losses amounted to $616 million, up from $340 million in the same quarter last year.On an adjusted basis, RBC says it earned $2.84 per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from $2.55 a year earlier.The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of $2.71 per share,...