Day: August 29, 2022

BEIRUT -- Satellite imagery showed widespread destruction at a giant military facility in western Syria targeted in a recent Israeli airstrike, and the head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said Sunday the strike targeted a depot housing hundreds of middle-range missiles for Iran-backed fighters. Syrian state media reported after the Thursday night attack near the cities of Tartus and Hama that two people were wounded and fires were sparked in nearby forests. It added that the missiles were fired from over the Mediterranean and most of them were shot down. Syrian opposition activists at the time said the strike targeted an arms depot and a scientific research center near the central town of Masyaf, a government stronghold. Masyaf is almost half way between the coastal city of Tartus an...

ROME -- Italian authorities scrambled on Sunday to relieve overcrowding in shelters after scores of boats carrying a total of about 1,000 migrants reached Italy’s southern shores and two of its tiny islands over the weekend. Nearly 50 boats arrived between Friday night and Saturday on Lampedusa island off Sicily, according to state radio and other Italian media. Other boats carrying migrants reached Pantelleria, another tiny island favored by vacationers. Hundreds of migrants stepped ashore from the virtual flotilla of smugglers' vessels on those islands. Several of the vessels launched by migrant smugglers held as few as eight passengers. But others had around 100 passengers aboard, many of them from Tunisia, according to the reports. Other boats reached the shores of the Italian mainl...

PARIS -- Fisticuffs in the cockpit, leaving a leaky engine running while cruising over Africa -- Air France pilots are under scrutiny after recent incidents that have prompted French investigators to call for tougher safety protocols. Two Air France pilots were suspended after physically fighting in the cockpit on a Geneva-Paris flight in June, an Air France official said Sunday. The flight continued and landed safely, and the dispute didn't affect the rest of the flight, the official said, stressing the airline’s commitment to safety. Switzerland’s La Tribune reported that the pilot and co-pilot had a dispute shortly after takeoff, and grabbed each other by their collars after one apparently hit the other. Cabin crew intervened and one crew member spent the flight in the cockpit with th...

Although thousands of Americans have tested positive for monkeypox since the outbreak began, this past spring, only a handful of pediatric monkeypox cases have been identified across the U.S. Across the country, at least 18 children in 10 states have now tested positive for monkeypox, according to state and local health officials, and little is known about most of these cases, due to concerns over patient privacy. One of these cases has been identified in King County, Washington, where local officials recently confirmed that an infant in their community had tested positive for the monkeypox virus. The child has been hospitalized and receiving treatment for the virus in recent days after being exposed to monkeypox through an infected family member, officials said. The child did not becom...

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., conceded on Sunday that former President Donald Trump should have returned the sensitive and classified documents that the government says he took home with him after leaving office, which led the FBI to raid Mar-a-Lago earlier this month. In an interview on ABC's "This Week," Blunt was repeatedly pressed by anchor George Stephanopoulos before he answered a question about how he felt about what the Department of Justice said Trump did. Initially responding to Stephanopoulos’ question, Blunt drew comparisons to Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey for their past conduct related to records. But Stephanopoulos pushed back, noting that it wasn't the same. “You’re still not answering the question. Hoka Sandals You are critical of Secretary Clinton, who ...

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday pushed back on Republicans who called President Joe Biden's federal student loan forgiveness plan unfair -- with Sanders arguing the GOP turned a blind eye to government assistance in other sectors. "I don't hear any of these Republicans squawking when we give massive tax breaks to billionaires," Sanders, I-Vt., told ABC "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos. "Suddenly when we do something for working people, it is a terrible idea," he said. While Sanders agreed with Biden's decision to forgive some federal loans -- up to $20,000 for Pell grant recipients and up to $10,000 for individual federal loan recipients, both with a $125,000 income cap -- the lawmaker also said he would go a step further by making public colleges and universities tuition-free to ...