AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EST
Muslims and Jews in Bosnia observe Holocaust Remembrance Day and call for peace and dialogue
SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Jews and Muslims from Bosnia and abroad gathered in Srebrenica on Saturday to jointly observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day and to promote compassion and dialogue amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The gathering was organized by the center preserving memory of Europe´s only acknowledged genocide since the Holocaust - the massacre in the closing months of Bosnia´s 1992-95 interethnic war of more than 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks in Srebrenica.
The event on Saturday underscored the message that the two communities share the experience of persecution and must stay united in their commitment to peace.
"Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Jews are one body, our ties are intricate, forged in hard times and times of prosperity and interaction," said Husein Kavazovi´c, the head of Bosnia´s Islamic Community, in his address to a group of survivors and descendants of victims of the Holocaust and the Srebrenica genocide who took part in the commemoration.
"Both our peoples have suffered and had experienced attempts to destroy and eradicate them (and) at the present moment, when the evils of antisemitism and Islamophobia are gaining ground around Europe and the world, we must renew our vow to be good neighbors and care for one another," he added.
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Netanyahu is defiant after UN court ruling as deaths in Gaza offensive continue
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday pushed back after the International Court of Justice ruling to limit death and destruction in the military's Gaza offensive, declaring that "we decide and act according to what is required for our security." Among the first deaths reported since the ruling, witnesses said three Palestinians were killed in an airstrike that Israel said targeted a Hamas commander.
Israel's military is under increasing scrutiny now that the top United Nations court has asked Israel for a compliance report in a month. The court's binding ruling on Friday stopped short of ordering a cease-fire, but its orders were in part a rebuke of Israel's conduct in its nearly 4-month war against Gaza's Hamas rulers.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the main organization aiding Gaza´s population amid the humanitarian disaster, said nine countries suspended their funding following Israel's allegations that a number of Gaza staff members participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war. Those include the United States, Britain, Italy and Finland.
Agency chief Philippe Lazzarini said it would be "immensely irresponsible" to sanction it and the community it serves at such a desperate time for Gazans, especially after it quickly fired the "small group" of staffers. The 13,000-strong agency, which relies almost entirely on countries´ contributions, said it now runs shelters for over 1 million people and its lifeline "can collapse anytime now."
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, destroyed vast swaths of Gaza and displaced nearly 85% of the territory's 2.3 million people. The Hamas attack in southern Israel killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and about 250 hostages were taken.
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How Taiwan beat back disinformation and preserved the integrity of its election
WASHINGTON (AP) - The rumors about vote fraud started swirling as the ballots in Taiwan´s closely watched presidential election were tallied on Jan. 13. There were baseless claims that people had fabricated votes and that officials had miscounted and skewed the results.
In a widely shared video, a woman recording votes mistakenly enters one in the column for the wrong candidate. The message was clear: The election could not be trusted. The results were faked.
It could have been Taiwan's Jan. 6 moment. But it wasn't.
Worries that China would use disinformation to undermine the integrity of Taiwan's vote dogged the recent election, a key moment in the young democracy's development that highlighted tensions with its much larger neighbor.
In repelling disinformation, Chinese and domestic, Taiwan offers an example to other democracies holding elections this year.
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Community health centers serve 1 in 11 Americans. They're a safety net under stress
Elisa Reyes has come to Plaza del Sol Family Health Center for doctor´s appointments for more than a decade. Though she moved away a while ago, the 33-year-old keeps returning, even if it means a two-hour roundtrip bus ride.
That´s because her two children see the same doctor she does. Because when she´s sick, she can walk in without an appointment. Because the staff at the Queens clinic helped her apply for health insurance and food stamps.
"I feel at home. They also speak my language," Reyes said in Spanish. "I feel comfortable."
Plaza del Sol is one of two dozen sites run by Urban Health Plan Inc., which is one of nearly 1,400 federally designated community health centers. One in 11 Americans rely on these to get routine medical care, social services and, in some cases, fresh food.
The clinics serve as a critical safety net in every state and U.S. territory for low-income people of all ages. But it´s a safety net under stress.
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What happened at the nation's first nitrogen gas execution: An AP eyewitness account
ATMORE, Ala. (AP) - As witnesses including five news reporters watched through a window, Kenneth Eugene Smith, who was convicted and sentenced to die in the 1988 murder-for hire slaying of Elizabeth Sennett, convulsed on a gurney as Alabama carried out the nation's first execution using nitrogen gas.
Critics who had worried the new execution method would be cruel and experimental said Smith´s final moments Thursday night proved they were right. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, however, characterized it on Friday as a "textbook" execution.
Here is an eyewitness account of how it unfolded. Times, unless otherwise noted, are according to a clock on the execution chamber wall at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility.
MASK CHECK
The curtains between the viewing room and the execution chamber opened at 7:53 p.m. Smith, wearing a tan prison uniform, was already strapped to the gurney and draped in a white sheet.
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Crew extinguish fire on tanker hit by Houthi missile off Yemen after US targets rebels in airstrike
JERUSALEM (AP) - The crew aboard a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker hit by a missile launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels extinguished an hourslong fire onboard the stricken vessel Saturday sparked by the strike, authorities said.
The attack on the Marlin Luanda further complicated the Red Sea crisis caused by the Iranian-backed rebels' attacks over Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The tanker carried Russian-produced naphtha, a flammable oil, drawing Moscow further into a conflict that so far it had blamed on the U.S.
Early Saturday, U.S. forces conducted a strike against a Houthi anti-ship missile that was aimed at the Red Sea and prepared to launch, the U.S. military´s Central Command said. That attack came after the USS Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, had to shoot down a Houthi missile targeting it.
The Marlin Luanda burned for hours in the Gulf of Aden until being extinguished Saturday, said Trafigura, a Singapore-based trading firm. Its crew of 25 Indian nationals and two Sri Lankans were still trying to battle the blaze sparked by the missile strike, it said. No one was injured by the blast, it added.
"We are pleased to confirm that all crew on board the Marlin Luanda are safe and the fire in the cargo tank has been fully extinguished," Trafigura said. "The vessel is now sailing towards a safe harbor."
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Donald Trump is on the hook for $88.3 million in defamation damages. What happens next?
NEW YORK (AP) - For years, Donald Trump hurled insults at E. Jean Carroll, saying the advice columnist fabricated a sexual assault allegation against him to sell a book.
Will Trump keep that up, now that he's been hit with a $83.3 million defamation judgment?
A jury on Friday found that Trump had maliciously damaged Carroll's reputation in 2019 after she went public with her accusations. Jurors awarded her $18 million to compensate for the personal harm she experienced, then added $65 million more to punish Trump - and maybe prevent him from continuing to go after her on social media.
A different jury concluded last May that Trump was responsible for sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in 1996. Those jurors awarded Carroll $5 million. If both judgments stand, Trump would owe her a total of $88.3 million.
Trump and his lawyers have promised to appeal.
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Mexico confirms some Mayan ruin sites are unreachable because of gang violence and land conflicts
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico´s government has acknowledged that at least two well-known Mayan ruin sites are unreachable by visitors because of a toxic mix of cartel violence and land disputes.
But two tourist guides in the southern state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala, say two other sites that the government claims are still open to visitors can only be reached by passing though drug gang checkpoints.
The explosion of drug cartel violence in Chiapas since last year has left the Yaxchilán ruin site completely cut off, the government conceded Friday.
The tour guides, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they must still work in the area, said that gunmen and checkpoints are often seen on the road to another site, Bonampak, famous for its murals.
They say that to get to yet another archaeological site, Lagartero, travelers are forced to hand over identification and cellphones at cartel checkpoints.
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Iraq and US begin formal talks to end coalition mission formed to fight the Islamic State group
BEIRUT (AP) - The United States and Iraq held a first session of formal talks Saturday in Baghdad aimed at winding down the mission of a U.S.-led military coalition formed to fight the Islamic State group in Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement that he had sponsored "the commencement of the first round of bilateral dialogue between Iraq and the United States of America to end the mission of the Coalition in Iraq."
A statement released by the coalition said that working groups made up of Iraqi and coalition military officials will assess "the threat of Daesh (IS), operational and environmental requirements and Iraqi Security Force capabilities" and a higher military commission will "work to set the conditions to transition the mission in Iraq."
The beginning of talks, announced by both countries on Thursday, comes as U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have been regularly targeted by drone attacks launched by Iran-backed militias against the backdrop of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
The U.S. says plans to set up a committee to negotiate the terms of the mission´s end were first discussed last year, and the timing isn't related to the attacks.
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Revelers in festive dress fill downtown Tampa, Florida, for the annual Gasparilla Pirate Fest
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Revelers clad in pirate finery packed Tampa's waterfront Saturday as a flotilla of boats arrived for the city's annual Gasparilla Pirate Fest.
Led by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, the invading pirates docked to make a final demand for the key to the city. Once ashore, the festivities celebrating their annual invasion included an afternoon parade through downtown and live music.
A fixture nearly every year since 1904, the Gasparilla Pirate Fest is named for the mythical pirate Jose Gaspar. There's not much evidence he actually existed, but according to legend he plundered ships and captured hostages in the Gulf of Mexico from the 1780s until around 1821.
The colorful account of his supposed life first surfaced in the early 1900s in an advertising brochure for the Gasparilla Inn, which was located south of Tampa in Boca Grande at the end of a rail line and in need of an exciting promotion.
Called the "Last of the Buccaneers," Gaspar's memory lives on in the name of Tampa Bay´s NFL team.
