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Canadian police sweep Ottawa to end protesters’ siege

Hundreds of police in riot gear swept through Canada’s capital Saturday, retaking control of the streets around the Parliament buildings and appearing to end the siege of Ottawa after three weeks of protests.Protesters, angry over the country’s Covid-19 restrictions and with Prime Minist...

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Russia could be cut off from markets, tech goods: EU chief

Moscow would have its access to financial markets and high-tech goods limited under Western sanctions being prepared in case Russia attacks Ukraine, one of the European Union’s top officials said Saturday. The comments from Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU’s executive commis...

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Ukraine rebels mobilise troops amid Russia invasion fears

Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine ordered a full military mobilisation Saturday amid a spike of violence in the war-torn region and fears in the West that Russia might use the strife as a pretext for an invasion.Denis Pushilin, the head of the pro-Russia separatist government in Ukraine’s ...

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Mexican army sends anti-mine squads to cartel turf war zone

Special squads of Mexican army troops equipped with metal detectors and bomb suits have deployed to the western state of Michoacan, where warring drug cartels have planted land mines or improvised explosive devices.The squads apparently have found dozens of such devices along rural roads and fields ...

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Ottawa crackdown: Police arrest 100 after 3-week protest

Police arrested scores of demonstrators and towed away vehicles Friday in Canada’s besieged capital, and a stream of trucks started leaving under the pressure, raising authorities’ hopes for an end to the three-week protest against the country’s Covid-19 restrictions.By evening, at...

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Security threat seems higher than during Cold War: UN chief

With East-West tensions at their highest point since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday the world is probably a more dangerous place now than during the Cold War.Guterres warned that a small mistake or miscommunication between major pow...

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Russia to stage nuclear drills with Ukraine tensions high

Russia announced massive drills of its nuclear forces Friday amid soaring East-West tensions, as the US issued some of its starkest, most detailed warnings yet about how a Russian invasion of Ukraine might unfold.US President Joe Biden sounded unusually dire a day earlier, as he warned that Washingt...

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Russia misleads world on troop movements near Ukraine: NATO

NATO allies accused Russia of misleading the world by saying it was returning some troops to bases, reporting that Moscow has instead added as many as 7,000 more forces near its tense border with Ukraine. The alliance warned Thursday that the buildup has only strengthened its resolve.After a handful...

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Crisis looms in Syria camps, jails holding foreign nationals

It was night when Zakia Kachar heard the sounds of footsteps approach her tent in a detention camp for foreigners affiliated with Islamic State group extremists. With rocks in their hands, the wives of IS fighters had come for her. She fled with her children to another area of the Roj Camp in northe...

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US funds for Canada protests may sway American politics too

The Canadians who have disrupted travel and trade with the US and occupied downtown Ottawa for nearly three weeks have been cheered and funded by American right-wing activists and conservative politicians who also oppose vaccine mandates and the country’s liberal leader.Yet whatever impact the...

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Brazil mudslides kill at least 94, with dozens still missing

Rio de Janeiro state’s government has confirmed 94 deaths from floods and mudslides that swept away homes and cars in the city of Petropolis. But even as families prepared to bury their dead, it was unclear Thursday how many bodies remained trapped in the mud. Rubens Bomtempo, mayor of the Ger...

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Russia says it pulls back more troops amid Ukraine standoff

Russia said Wednesday it was returning more troops and weapons to bases, yet another gesture apparently aimed at easing fears it is planning to invade Ukraine, even as the US said the threat of an attack remained.Russia has massed about 150,000 troops east, north and south of Ukraine, sparking Weste...

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Russia says some forces pulling back amid Ukraine crisis

Russia said Tuesday that some units participating in military exercises would begin returning to their bases, adding to glimmers of hope that the Kremlin may not be planning to invade Ukraine imminently. But it gave no details on where the troops were pulling back from, or how many.That muddied effo...

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Ethiopia lifts state of emergency early, citing calming war

Ethiopian lawmakers have voted to end the country’s three-month state of emergency early as mediation efforts continue to end the deadly war in the north.Tuesday’s vote by lawmakers came after Ethiopia’s Council of Ministers, chaired by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, decided on Jan. 26...

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Canada protests sound common refrain: ‘We stand for freedom’

Canadians who have occupied downtown Ottawa, disrupted travel and trade with the US and inspired copycat protests from New Zealand to the Netherlands sound a common note when asked about their motivation: Decisions about their health shouldn’t be made by the government.“We stand for free...

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At Winter Olympics, virus fight waged with worker sacrifices

In her mind, Cathy Chen pictures a scene that she herself says could be drawn from a TV drama: Falling into the arms of her husband after long months apart, when he meets her off the plane from Beijing. Scooping up their two young daughters and squeezing them tight.“I just imagine when we&rsqu...

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Over 130,000 Russian troops now staged outside Ukraine: US

Some airlines canceled flights to the Ukrainian capital and troops there unloaded fresh shipments of weapons from NATO members Sunday, as its president sought to project confidence in the face of US warnings of possible invasion within days by a growing number of Russian forces.President Volodymyr Z...

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Biden warns Putin of ‘severe costs’ of Ukraine invasion

President Joe Biden told Russia’s Vladimir Putin that invading Ukraine would cause “widespread human suffering” and that the West was committed to diplomacy to end the crisis but “equally prepared for other scenarios,” the White House said Saturday. It offered no sugges...

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Putin, Biden to have phone parley

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden are to hold a high-stakes telephone call on Saturday as tensions over a possibility imminent invasion of Ukraine escalated sharply and the US announced plans to evacuate its embassy in the Ukrainian capital.Before talking to Biden, Putin is...

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Canadian judge orders an end to blockade at Border Bridge

A judge on Friday ordered protesters at the Ambassador Bridge over the US-Canadian border to end the 5-day-old blockade that has disrupted the flow of goods between the two countries and forced the auto industry on both sides to roll back production.It was not immediately clear when or if law enforc...