World

Landslides at M23-held Rubaya coltan mine in eastern DRC bury miners; fatalities feared A series of landslides struck the militia-controlled Rubaya mining zone in North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, burying people alive and killing several, according to accounts provided to AFP by the provincial governor and witnesses. The death toll remained unclear Friday, and independent verification of casualties was not immediately possible. The collapses followed heavy rains, with one landslide reported Wednesday…

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel carried out its heaviest airstrikes in Gaza in weeks, killing at least 26 people in multiple locations despite a fragile ceasefire, according to local health authorities. The attacks hit a Hamas-run police station in Gaza City, an apartment in a residential building and a tent encampment sheltering displaced families in the southern city of Khan Younis. Medics and police officials said Israeli warplanes targeted the Sheikh Radwan police station in western Gaza City, killing 10 officers and…

Mass power outages swept across Ukraine on Saturday after a “technical malfunction” knocked out high-voltage lines linking Moldova and Romania with Ukraine, disrupting water supplies in Kyiv and forcing a complete shutdown of the capital’s metro, officials said. “Today at 10:42 am (0842 GMT), a technical malfunction occurred, causing a simultaneous shutdown of the 400-kilovolt line between the power grids of Romania and Moldova and the 750-kilovolt line between western and central Ukraine,” Ukraine’s energy minister Denys…

Iran accuses U.S., Israel and Europe of exploiting unrest as casualty claims mount Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the United States, Israel and European leaders of exploiting the country’s economic crisis to incite nationwide protests, as Iranian authorities and rights groups issued sharply conflicting death tolls from the two-week upheaval. In a live state television address, Pezeshkian said foreign actors “provoked, created division, and supplied resources,” drawing “some innocent people into this movement”…

France tightens safety limit for cereulide toxin in infant formula after global recalls France has lowered the safety threshold for cereulide toxin in infant formula, moving to fortify consumer protections after contamination in a widely used ingredient triggered recalls by major brands across dozens of countries. The agriculture ministry said the new limit is set at 0.014 micrograms of cereulide per kilogram of body mass, reduced from 0.03 micrograms per kilogram. The change follows a European Union meeting on Jan. 28 and…

China has agreed to lift sanctions on five British lawmakers and two members of the House of Lords, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said during a visit to the country, marking a thaw in a three-year dispute that began over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Starmer said he raised the issue directly with Chinese leaders and was told the restrictions “no longer apply,” adding that President Xi said “all parliamentarians are welcome.” The seven U.K. parliamentarians were sanctioned in 2021, barred from entering China and from…

Thousands of protesters filled downtown Minneapolis on Thursday as students across the United States staged coordinated walkouts, demanding that federal immigration agents withdraw from Minnesota amid mounting outrage over fatal shootings linked by demonstrators to a recent enforcement surge. The protests targeted a sweeping federal immigration operation in the Minneapolis area that has put heavily armed officers on neighborhood streets and prompted accusations of indiscriminate tactics. Organizers said the day of action…

Catherine O’Hara, the Emmy-winning actor celebrated for indelible turns from “Home Alone” to “Schitt’s Creek,” has died at 71. She died at her home in Los Angeles following a brief illness, her agency, CAA, said in a statement. Further details were not immediately available. The Canadian-born O’Hara was an alumna of Toronto’s Second City Theatre and one of the creators of the sketch series SCTV, where she helped shape a generation of offbeat, character-driven comedy. Her career took off at Second City in the 1970s, where she…

LOS ANGELES — Catherine O’Hara, the Emmy-winning Canadian-born actor whose range stretched from the anarchic brilliance of SCTV to the beloved roles of Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek, died at her Los Angeles home following a brief illness. She was 71. Her death was confirmed by her agency, CAA, which said further details were not immediately available. O’Hara’s death prompted a wave of tributes across the industry, led by Macaulay Culkin, who played Kevin McCallister opposite O’Hara’s anxious, fiercely devoted mother, Kate,…

Don Lemon arrested in Los Angeles after livestreamed protest disrupted St. Paul church service, lawyer says Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has been arrested in the United States over his involvement in a protest that interrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this month, according to his lawyer and a Department of Justice official. The Justice Department official said Lemon was taken into custody in Los Angeles by agents from the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations. The official confirmed the arrest but…