#Rocket attack in #Syria’s capital wounds 1 person and causes damage. It wasn’t immediately clear who was behind the rocket attack in Damascus’ western neighborhood of Mazzeh 86. An Associated Press journalist at the scene said that security forces cordoned off the area and prevented anyone from getting close to the building that was struck.

State television reported that one woman was wounded in the blast, which was caused by an attack by “unknown assailants,” adding that security forces were investigating.

State news agency SANA also said that one woman was wounded in the Friday night explosion, and that the blast was caused by rockets that were fired from a mobile launcher.

Explosions aren’t uncommon in the Syrian capital, but have decreased in recent months.

Since the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government in December last year by insurgents who took over his seat of power in the capital, there have been several explosions in Damascus.

Israel has also carried out hundreds of airstrikes around the country since the end of the 54-year Assad dynasty, mainly targeting assets of the Syrian army.

Ghaith Alsayed, The Associated Press

#Iran seizes tanker in Strait of Hormuz, U.S. official says, as tensions remain high in region.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the seizure, though it comes as Tehran has been increasingly warning it can strike back after facing a 12-day war in June with Israel that saw the U.S. strike Iranian nuclear sites.

The ship, the Talara, had been traveling from Ajman, United Arab Emirates, onward to Singapore when Iranian forces intercepted it, said the U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. A U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton drone had been circling above the area where the Talara was for hours on Friday observing the seizure, flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed.

A private security firm, Ambrey, described the assault as involving three small boats approaching the Talara.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center separately acknowledged the incident, saying a possible “state activity” forced the Talara to turn into Iranian territorial waters. Cyprus-based Columbia Shipmanagement later said in a statement that it had “lost contact” with the tanker, which was carrying high sulphur gasoil.

The company has “notified the relevant authorities and is working closely with all relevant parties — including maritime security agencies and the vessel owner — to restore contact with the vessel,” the firm said. “The safety of the crew remains our foremost priority.”

The Navy has blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021. Those attacks began after U.S. President Donald Trump in his first term in office unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The last major seizure came when Iran took two Greek tankers in May 2022 and held them until November of that year.

Those attacks found themselves subsumed by the Iranian-backed Houthis assaults targeting ships during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which drastically reduced shipping in the crucial Red Sea corridor.

The years of tensions between Iran and the West, coupled with the situation in the Gaza Strip, exploded into a full-scale 12-day war in June.

Iran long has threatened to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil traded passes. The U.S. Navy has long patrolled the Mideast through its Bahrain-based 5th Fleet to keep the waterways open.

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press

#Israel says militants in Gaza have handed over a body believed to be a hostage.

Israel identified the returned body as that of Meny Godard, who was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel. His wife, Ayelet, was killed during the attack.

The armed wings of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said the body of an Israeli hostage was recovered in southern Gaza.

Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 10, the remains of 25 hostages have been returned to Israel. There are still three more in Gaza that need to be recovered and handed over.

Godard was a professional soccer player before enlisting in the Israeli military and serving in the 1973 Mideast War, according to Kibbutz Be’eri. He served in a variety of different positions in the kibbutz, including at its printing press.

Israel has been releasing 15 Palestinian bodies for the remains of each hostage as part of the ceasefire agreement. The Gaza Health Ministry said the total number of remains received so far is 315.

Hamas has said recovering bodies is complicated by the widespread devastation in Gaza. Israel has pushed to speed up the returns and in certain cases has said the remains were not those of hostages. The body handed over on Thursday was brought to a forensics institute in Tel Aviv.

Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas returned 20 living hostages to Israel on Oct. 13. The further exchanges of the dead are the central component of the initial phase of the U.S.-brokered agreement which requires Hamas return all hostage remains as quickly as possible. The exchanges have gone ahead even as Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating other terms of the deal.

Israeli officials have accused Hamas of handing over partial remains in some instances and staging the discovery of bodies in others.

Hamas has accused Israel of opening fire at civilians and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory. The number of casualties has dropped since the ceasefire took effect, but officials in Gaza have continued to report deaths from strikes, while Israel has said that soldiers have also been killed in militant attacks.

Health officials in Gaza have said identifying the remains handed over by Israel is complicated by a lack of DNA testing kits.

With just three hostages left, the sides are close to wrapping up the first phase of the ceasefire.

The next parts of the 20-point plan call for creating an international stabilization force, forming a technocratic Palestinian government and disarming Hamas. Its makeup hasn’t been finalized, but diplomats are working to define its role, persuade Arab countries to take part, and win wider international support.

The fragile agreement aims to wind down the war that was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.

Israel responded with a sweeping military offensive that has killed more than 69,100 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.

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Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press

Remains of climber #missing since 1994 found on #Swiss glacier, After receiving the report from the #mountaineers, officers reached the site by helicopter to collect the remains and personal effects from the Ober Gabelhorn glacier.

Two climbers disappeared in the area on November 4, 1994.

“One of the two individuals had already been found in 2000. The discovery of the second mountaineer’s remains has now fully solved the disappearance of the two men,” the police said.

“The investigation led to the identification of the second missing person. He is a Swiss citizen born in 1969.”

The bodies of missing Alpinists occasionally turn up on Switzerland’s glaciers.

In 2022, two human skeletons were found on glaciers in Wallis.

In July 2017, the Tsanfleuron glacier turned up the bodies of a couple who disappeared in 1942.

The bones of three brothers who died in 1926 were found on the Aletsch glacier in June 2012.

And in 2022 the wreckage of a plane that crashed in 1968 was discovered on the Aletsch glacier.

The bodies of the three people on board were recovered soon after the crash but the wreckage was left.

The ascent of the Ober Gabelhorn, 4,063 metres (13,330 feet) high, is highly prized by experienced mountaineers.

Transgender members of the U.S. Air #Force sue over losing retirement pay.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court Monday, comes several months after the Air Force confirmed that it would deny all transgender service members who have served between 15 and 18 years the option to retire early and would instead separate them without retirement benefits.

It is just the latest in a series of legal challenges to the Trump administration’s policies that have sought to push transgender troops out of the military since the early days of his second term. The U.S. Supreme Court in May, however, allowed the ban on trans troops to be enforced while legal challenges proceed.

According to GLAD Law, one of the advocacy groups that helped bring the lawsuit, service members affected by the policy will now face a loss of up to US$2 million owed for their service over the course of their lifetimes in addition to the loss of health insurance benefits.

Michael Haley, a staff attorney with the group, said the revocation of the early retirement benefits was part of “the general cruelty in attacking transgender people.” He noted that many of the plaintiffs had received orders allowing their retirements and that some had even begun the process of getting out of the military.

Logan Ireland, a master sergeant in the Air Force with 15 years of service that includes a deployment to Afghanistan, joined the lawsuit after having his early retirement denied. He told The Associated Press that “the military taught me to lead and fight, not retreat.”

“Stripping away my retirement sends the message that those values only apply on the battlefield, not when a service member needs them most,” he added.

“These are folks who are going to move on with their lives, have received the OK to do so, and then have that taken away from them once again,” Haley said.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to comment but has a longstanding policy of not commenting on ongoing litigation.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in what they say is an effort to make the military more lethal. Pentagon officials say 4,240 troops have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, which the military is using as an identifier of being transgender.

The Air Force has been unique in implementing policies that have gone beyond just separating troops from military service.

In addition to revoking retirement benefits, the service moved in August to deny transgender members of the Air Force the chance to argue before a board of their peers for the right to continue serving.

The Pentagon rolled out a similar, military-wide version of that policy less than two weeks ago.

Konstantin Toropin, The Associated Press

Google denies removing W.Sahara border for #Morocco users. The dotted lines illustrating the border between Western Sahara and Morocco, indicating the former’s disputed territory status, have never been visible to people using Google Maps in the latter, the company told AFP on Tuesday.

After media reports last week highlighted the discrepancy, tying it to the UN Security Council endorsing the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, the tech giant has released a statement saying the different border displays have always been the case.

“We have not made changes to Morocco or Western Sahara on Google Maps,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.

“These labels follow our longstanding policies for disputed regions. People using Maps outside of Morocco see Western Sahara and a dotted line to represent its disputed border; people using Maps in Morocco do not see Western Sahara.”

Western Sahara is a vast mineral-rich former Spanish colony that is largely controlled by Morocco but has been claimed for decades by the pro-independence Polisario Front, which is supported by Algeria.

The United Nations Security Council had previously urged Morocco, the Polisario Front, Algeria and Mauritania to resume talks to reach a broad agreement.

But, at the initiative of U.S. President Donald #Trump’s administration, the council’s resolution supported a plan, initially presented by Rabat in 2007, in which Western Sahara would enjoy autonomy under Morocco’s sole sovereignty.

‘It was torture and humiliation’: Civil suit unmasks convicted predator, While the publication ban in his criminal case prevents media from naming him in that context, it does not apply to this civil suit, filed by a woman known publicly as Melanie in the W5 documentary.

Melanie dated Beaulieu when she was a teenager. She had no idea that for three years, he had been secretly drugging and assaulting her.

“It wasn’t just rape,” she told W5. “It was torture and humiliation. There were just so many different things that were used and done.”
A survivor’s fight for accountability

Melanie’s lawyer, Gerald Chipeur, says the case is unlike anything he’s seen in four decades of legal work.

“I have practiced law for 40 years,” Chipeur told W5. “I have never seen this kind of horrific assault. Ever.”

Beaulieu could be eligible for release as early as 2029, something Melanie says terrifies her.

“I know he’ll be out in not a very long time,” she said. “And I don’t think someone like that stops. Future people he’ll be in contact with deserve to know that he’s a risk.”

The lawsuit notes that photos and videos of the assaults are still being distributed online. It seeks an injunction requiring ***no,***n sites to remove all images and videos associated with the attacks, and to prevent their re-upload.

Bridge partially collapses in southwest China, months after opening. Police in the city of Maerkang had closed the 758-metre-long Hongqi bridge to all traffic on Monday afternoon, after cracks appeared on nearby slopes and roads, and shifts were seen in the terrain of a mountain, the local government said.

On Tuesday afternoon conditions on the mountainside worsened, triggering landslides, leading to the collapse of the approach bridge and roadbed, it added.

Construction of the bridge finished earlier this year, according to a video posted by the contractor Sichuan Road & Bridge Group on social media.

(Reporting by Xiuhao Chen, Yukun Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Lebanese authorities release son of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on bail.

BEIRUT -- Lebanese authorities released the son of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Monday after he paid a US$900,000 bail, ending his 10-year detention for allegedly withholding information about a missing Lebanese cleric, security officials and a member of his defence team said.

One of Hannibal Gadhafi’s lawyers, Charbel Milad al-Khoury, told The Associated Press that Gadhafi was released Monday evening after necessary paperwork was finished. Two security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, also confirmed that Gadhafi was set free.

“Hannibal is officially free and has the full right to choose the destination that he wants,” al-Khoury said. He refused to give further details about Gadhafi’s future movements out of security concerns.

The release came days after Lebanese authorities lifted a travel ban and reduced the bail for Hannibal Gadhafi, paving the way for his release.

Thursday’s decision by the country’s judicial authorities to lift the travel ban and reduce the bail from $11 million came days after a Libyan delegation visited Lebanon and made progress in talks for the release of Gadhafi.

In mid-October, a Lebanese judge ordered Gadhafi’s release on $11 million bail, but banned him from travelling outside Lebanon. His lawyers said at the time that he didn’t have enough to pay that amount, and sought permission for him to leave the country.

On Thursday, his bail was reduced to 80 billion Lebanese pounds (about $900,000) and the travel ban was lifted allowing him to leave the country once he pays the bail.

The two judicial and one security official said the bail was paid by the Libyan delegation. The Justice Ministry of the Tripoli-based government also posted on its social media platforms that the Libyan delegation paid the bail.

The judicial officials in Beirut said Gadhafi’s defence team withdrew a case against the Lebanese state that they had filed in Geneva last month over holding him without trial.

Detained in Lebanon in 2015, Gadhafi was accused of withholding information about the fate of Lebanese Shiite cleric Moussa al-Sadr who disappeared during a trip to Libya in 1978, although the late leader’s son was less than 3 years old at the time.

Libya formally requested Hannibal Gadhafi’s release in 2023, citing his deteriorating health after he went on a hunger strike to protest his detention without trial.

Gadhafi had been living in exile in Syria with his Lebanese wife, Aline Skaf, and children until he was abducted in 2015 and brought to Lebanon by Lebanese militants who were demanding information about al-Sadr.

Lebanese police later announced they had seized Gadhafi from the northeastern Lebanese city of Baalbek where he was being held, and he had been held ever since in a Beirut jail, where he faced questioning over al-Sadr’s disappearance.

The case has been a long-standing sore point in Lebanon. The cleric’s family believes he may still be alive in a Libyan prison, though most Lebanese presume he is dead. He would be 96 years old.

Al-Sadr, who went missing with companions Abbas Badreddine and Mohammed Yacoub, was the founder of a Shiite political and military group that took part in the long Lebanese Civil War that began in 1975, largely pitting Muslims against Christians.

Moammar Gadhafi was killed by opposition fighters during Libya’s 2011 uprising-turned-civil war, ending his four-decade rule of the North African country.

Hannibal Gadhafi, who was born nearly three years before al-Sadr disappeared, fled to Algeria after his father was toppled and Tripoli fell to opposition fighters, along with his mother and several other relatives. He later moved to Syria where he was given political asylum and stayed there until he was abducted.

Moammar Gadhafi had eight children from two marriages. Most of them had significant roles in his government. His son Muatassim was killed at the same time as the leader was captured and slain. Two other sons, Seif al-Arab and Khamis, were killed in the uprising.

Seif al-Islam, the one-time heir apparent to his father, has been in Libya since his release from detention there in 2017. Gadhafi’s son Mohammed and daughter Aisha live in Oman. Al-Saadi, a former soccer player, was released from prison in Libya in 2021 after being jailed following repatriation from Niger in 2014, and is believed to be living in Turkiye.

By Bassem Mroue

China announces restrictions on chemicals after deal with Trump on fentanyl tariffs.

Beijing announced new export restrictions on 13 “drug-making” chemicals to the United States, Canada and Mexico, including those that are used to produce the synthetic opioid blamed for tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the U.S. every year. After meeting Xi in South Korea last month, Trump said China would help end the fentanyl crisis and he would ease a related tariff from 20 to 10 per cent.

It shows the back-and-forth nature of U.S.-Chinese cooperation on fentanyl over the years and lessens the recent tensions after Trump launched his campaign of tariffs, including those against the country that is the top exporter of pharmaceutical ingredients, such as the chemicals used to make fentanyl.

“What the Trump administration has essentially agreed with Beijing is for Beijing to restart what it had been doing during the second part of 2024,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow focusing on the opioid crisis at the Brookings Institution.

Cooperation on fentanyl has long been a sticking point in relations between Beijing and Washington.

In 2019, during #Trump’s first term, Beijing took a huge step by restricting fentanyl and related substances at the request of the U.S. president. When tensions rose between Beijing and Washington over human rights issues, China started to stall counternarcotics cooperation in 2020 before making it formal two years later.