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.

Typhoon Fung-wong blows away from the Philippines, leaving 6 dead and 1.4 million displaced.


It was forecast to head northwest toward Taiwan.

Fung-wong lashed the northern Philippines while the country was still dealing with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi, which left at least 224 people dead in central provinces on Tuesday before pummeling Vietnam, where at least five were killed.

Fung-wong slammed ashore in northeastern Aurora province on Sunday night as a super typhoon with sustained winds of up to 185 km/h (115 mph) and gusts of up to 230 km/h (143 mph).

The 1,800-kilometre (1,100-mile)-wide storm weakened as it raked through mountainous northern provinces and agricultural plains overnight before blowing away from the province of La Union into the South China Sea, according to state forecasters.

One person drowned in flash floods in the eastern province of Catanduanes, and another died in Catbalogan city in eastern Samar province when her house collapsed on her, officials said.

In the northern province of Nueva Vizcaya, three children died in two separate landslides in the towns of Kayapa and Kasibu and four others were injured, police told The Associated Press. An elderly person was killed in a mudslide in Barlig, a town in northern Mountain Province, according to officials.

Another landslide in Lubuagan town in nearby Kalinga province killed two villagers and two others were missing, provincial officials said late Monday.

More than 1.4 million people moved into emergency shelters or the homes of relatives before the typhoon made landfall, and about 318,000 remained in evacuation centers on Monday.

Fierce wind and rain flooded at least 132 northern villages, including one where some residents were trapped on their roofs as floodwaters rapidly rose. About 1,000 houses were damaged, Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV of the Office of Civil Defence and other officials said, adding that roads blocked by landslides would be cleared as the weather improved on Monday.

“While the typhoon has passed, its rains still pose a danger in certain areas” in northern Luzon, including in metropolitan Manila," Alejandro said. “We’ll undertake today rescue, relief and disaster-response operations.”

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a state of emergency on Thurday due to the extensive devastation caused by Kalmaegi and the expected damage from Fung-wong, which was also called Uwan in the Philippines.

Tropical cyclones with sustained winds of 185 km/h (115 mph) or higher are categorized in the Philippines as a super typhoon to underscore the urgency tied to more extreme weather disturbances.

The Philippines has not called for international help following the devastation caused by Kalmaegi, but Teodoro said the United States, the country’s longtime treaty ally, and Japan were ready to provide assistance.

Authorities announced that schools and most government offices would be closed on Monday and Tuesday. More than 325 domestic and 61 international flights were cancelled over the weekend and into Monday, and more than 6,600 commuters and cargo workers were stranded in ports after the coast guard prohibited ships from venturing into rough seas.

The Philippines is hit by about 20 typhoons and storms each year. The country also has frequent earthquakes and has more than a dozen active volcanoes, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

Jim Gomez, The Associated Press

Al-Sharaa to become the first Syrian president to visit the White House after an unlikely rise

U.S. airlines cancel more than 2,500 weekend flights largely due to #government shutdown.

The slowdown at many of the nation’s busiest airports did not cause immediate widespread disruptions. But it deepened the impact felt by the nation’s longest federal shutdown.

“We all travel. We all have somewhere to be,” said Emmy Holguin, 36, who was flying from Miami to see family in the Dominican Republic. “I’m hoping that the government can take care of this.”

Analysts warn that the upheaval will intensify and spread far beyond air travel if cancellations keep growing and reach into Thanksgiving week.

Already there are concerns about the squeeze on tourism destinations and holiday shipping.

Here’s what to know about the flight reductions:
How many flights have been cancelled?

Cancellations jumped Saturday — typically a slow travel day — to more than 1,500, following just over 1,000 the previous day, according to the tracking website FlightAware. By the evening U.S. airlines already had cancelled another 1,000-plus for Sunday.

Airports in Atlanta and Chicago, as well as Charlotte, North Carolina, and Newark, New Jersey, saw numerous disruptions throughout the day. Ongoing staffing shortages in radar centers and control towers added to the cancellations and delays at several East Coast airports, including those around New York City.

Not all the cancellations were due to the FAA order, and those numbers represented just a small portion of the overall flights nationwide. But they are certain to rise in the coming days if the slowdown continues.

The FAA said the reductions impacting all commercial airlines started at 4% of flights at 40 targeted airports and will be bumped up again Tuesday before hitting 10% on Friday.

#ISLAMABAD — Peace talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Istanbul have ended without agreement, with the sides trading blame for the breakdown in negotiations aimed at easing border tensions and upholding a fragile ceasefire, officials said Saturday.

Tensions have escalated in recent weeks following deadly border fighting that killed dozens of soldiers and civilians. The violence erupted after explosions in Kabul on Oct. 9, which Afghanistan’s Taliban government said were drone strikes conducted by Pakistan and vowed to avenge. The clashes subsided after Qatar brokered a ceasefire on Oct. 19, which remains tenuously in place.

Afghanistan’s government spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, blamed Pakistan for the talks’ failure, saying that “Pakistan’s demands in the negotiations were unreasonable and the talks could not proceed, the meeting ended and the talks are at a standstill for now.”

Speaking during a press conference from the southern Afghan city of Kandahar Saturday, Mujahid said Afghanistan “(does) not want insecurity in the region, and entering into war is not our first choice,” but he noted that “if war breaks out, we have the right to defend ourselves.”

Earlier, he had reiterated in a written statement that Afghanistan “will not allow anyone to use its territory against another country, nor permit actions that undermine its sovereignty or security.”
Talks come to an end without progress

The two-day talks in Istanbul, mediated by Turkey and Qatar, were the third round of peace negotiations that were viewed as one of the most significant diplomatic efforts between the two neighbors since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan 2021. Despite intense back-channel diplomacy, officials said discussions stalled late Friday without tangible progress.

Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told the private Geo News channel late Friday that the “talks are over” and that the Pakistani delegation was returning home with “no plan for any future meetings.” He added that the ceasefire would remain in place as long as “it is not violated from the Afghan side.”

Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers of harboring the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group responsible for a surge in attacks inside Pakistan since 2021. Kabul denies the charge, saying it does not allow its territory to be used against other countries.

Although separate from Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, the TTP is closely allied with it and has been emboldened since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of Kabul.

During his news conference, Mujahid rejected accusations that Afghanistan was responsible for the actions of the TTP, saying the creation of the group had long predated the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of Afghanistan.
Clashes continue

The collapse of talks came the night after Afghan officials reported that four civilians were killed and five others wounded in cross-border clashes despite the ongoing negotiations.

Asif said the Afghan delegation came “without any program” and refused to sign a written agreement, insisting only on verbal assurances. “They said they would respect a verbal agreement, but there is no room for that,” he said. “There is no plan or hope for any fourth round of talks. Talks have entered an indefinite pause.”

Earlier this month, Pakistan’s military said it carried out airstrikes on the hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban inside Afghanistan, killing dozens of people it described as insurgents. Afghan officials denied the claim, saying civilians were among the dead, and said Afghan forces had struck Pakistani military posts in retaliation, killing 58 soldiers. Pakistan’s military acknowledged losing 23 troops in the fighting.

The violence prompted Qatar to invite delegations from both sides to Doha, where they agreed to a ceasefire on Oct. 19. It was followed by six days of talks in Istanbul, which resulted in an agreement to extend the truce and hold a third round on Nov. 6 and 7 — talks that ultimately failed to produce any breakthrough.
Border closure

Since then, Pakistan has kept all of its border crossings with Afghanistan closed, though it partially reopened the main Torkham crossing last week to allow stranded Afghan refugees to return home.

The closure, imposed on Oct. 12, has disrupted vital trade and transit routes and stranded thousands of people. Hundreds of trucks loaded with goods remain backed up on both sides of the frontier, cutting off one of the busiest economic arteries linking South and Central Asia.

Alongside the border restrictions, Pakistan is pursuing a nationwide campaign to deport undocumented foreigners, the majority of them Afghans. Since 2023, authorities say more than a million Afghan nationals have been sent back as part of the repatriation drive.

Pakistan has also witnessed a surge in militant attacks, many claimed by the TTP, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations.

Abdul Qahar Afghan contributed to this report from Kabul, Afghanistan

Sajjad Tarakzai, The Associated Press

Tornado in southern Brazil kills six, injures hundreds. A tornado accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain struck the southern Brazilian state of Parana, killing six people, the state government said on Saturday.

The town of Rio Bonito do Iguacu was hit hardest late Friday, with the state’s civil defense agency reporting that over half of the urban area suffered roof collapses, along with multiple structural failures.

Roads were blocked and power lines damaged.

Authorities said 437 people were treated for injuries and about 1,000 were displaced. The nearby city of Guarapuava was also affected.

According to the Parana Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring System, the tornado’s winds reached speeds between 180 kph (111 mph) and 250 kph (155 mph).

Institutional Relations Minister Gleisi Hoffmann said she would travel to the area on Saturday with acting Health Minister Adriano Massuda and other federal officials to support relief efforts and reconstruction.

“We will continue to assist the people of Parana and provide all the help needed,” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wrote on X, expressing condolences to the victims’ families.

Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Editing by Alistair Bell, Reuters