UNITED STATES
Rare bat stages comeback
Wildlife officials say it might be time for a toast now that a once-rare bat important to the pollination of plants used to produce tequila is making a comeback. The Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday proposed removing the lesser long-nosed bat from the endangered species list. Mexico delisted the bat in 2015, and if approved in the US, this would be the first bat ever removed from the nation’s list of threatened and endangered species. Federal officials said it has taken 30 years of conservation efforts by biologists and volunteers in Mexico and the US, as well as tequila producers in Mexico, to rebuild a healthy population.
UNITED STATES
Mardi Gras season starts
People in greater New Orleans on Friday braved the cold and rain to mark the start of the Mardi Gras season, standing in pre-dawn, windy lines to buy celebratory cakes and closing the evening on a rainy night with costumed street car rides. The holiday season begins on Epiphany, commemorating the day the Bible says the three wise men reached the baby Jesus Christ. Fat Tuesday, which marks the culmination of Mardi Gras season, falls on Feb. 28. Across the city people bought king cake, a traditional holiday bakery treat, to bring to their offices or home to share with family.
UNITED STATES
IS operative killed in raid
The US-based coalition has killed a senior Islamic State (IS) group facilitator in an airstrike in the extremists’ self-proclaimed capital of Raqa, Syria, the US military command said on Friday. Central Command identified the target as Mahmud al-Isawi, an IS operative who managed instructions and finances for IS leaders and provided propaganda and intelligence support. He was killed on Saturday last week, making him the 16th significant member of the network’s external operations killed last year. The long-time IS member provided to the group’s media and intelligence in Fallujah prior to his move to Raqa.
TURKEY
Refugees to be naturalized
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday announced that some of the millions of Syrian and Iraqis who have fled to Turkey would be given Turkish nationality. “Our interior ministry is carrying out work and under this work, some of them will be granted our nationality after all the necessary checks” have been carried out, Erdogan said in a speech broadcast on television. “There are highly qualified people among them, there are engineers, lawyers, doctors. Let’s make use” of that talent, he said.
FRANCE
Refugee helper acquitted
A court on Friday acquitted a man for helping refugees sneak into the country from Italy as immigration issues play a major role ahead of this year’s elections. “In France today we have the right to save people in distress,” said researcher Pierre-Alain Mannoni, who had faced a six-month suspended jail sentence for aiding Eritrean refugees who came into France from Italy. The prosecutor said during the trial in November last year in the southern city of Nice that people had a “duty” to help people, “but not help [illegal refugees] to stay and circulate” in the country. The judge ruled that the 45-year-old researcher at French national research center CNRS had helped three young Eritrean women to “protect their dignity.”
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
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