World News

ISTANBUL (AP) — One person was killed and seven injured Friday when a cable car pod in southern Turkey hit a pole and burst open, sending the passengers plummeting to the mountainside below, officials and local media said. Scores of other people were left stranded late into the night after the entire cable car system came to a standstill.

Two children were among the injured in the accident at the Tunektepe cable car just outside the Mediterranean city of Antalya at about 6 p.m. during the busy Eid al-Fitr holiday, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.

AUSTRIA CABLE CAR CRASH INJURES 4 IN POPULAR SKIING REGION

Anadolu identified the deceased as a 54-year-old Turkish man, and said six Turkish citizens and one Kyrgyz national were injured.

Five of the injured were ferried off the mountain by helicopter and efforts continued to remove the other two injured people, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said three hours after the accident. The rescue operation involved more than 160 first responders including air crews from the Coast Guard and mountaineering teams from different parts of Turkey, the minister posted on social media site X.

Some 184 other passengers were trapped in 25 other cable car pods dozens of feet (tens of meters) above the ground as engineers tried to restart the system, Antalya Mayor Muhittin Bocek said in a statement. Helicopters with night vision imaging were heading to the site, he said.

Search and rescue agency AFAD later said 49 people had been rescued from the suspended pods, leaving 135 still stranded close to midnight — about six hours after the accident.

Images in Turkish media showed the battered car swaying from dislodged cables on the side of the rocky mountain as medics tended the wounded.

Friday was the final day of a three-day public holiday in Turkey marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which sees families flock to coastal resorts.

The cable car carries tourists from Konyaalti beach to a restaurant and viewing platform at the summit of the 618-meter (2,010-feet) Tunektepe peak. It is run by Antalya Metropolitan Municipality.

Antalya Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation. An expert commission including mechanical and electrical engineers and health and safety experts was assigned to determine the cause of the incident.

A report released by the Mexican government Friday says the country is facing a dire shortage of fentanyl for medical use, even as Mexican cartels pump out tons of the illicit narcotic.

The paradox was reported in a study by Mexico’s National Commission on Mental Health and Addictions. The study did not give a reason for the shortage of the synthetic opioid, which is needed for anesthesia in hospitals, but claimed it was a world-wide problem.

The commission said fentanyl had to be imported, and that imports fell by more than 50% between 2022 and 2023.

DOZENS CHARGED IN INTERNATIONAL DRUG SMUGGLING OPERATION LINKED TO BRUTAL MEXICAN CARTEL

Nonetheless, Mexican cartels appear to be having no problem importing tons of precursor chemicals and making their own fentanyl, which they smuggle into the United States. The report says Mexican seizures of illicit fentanyl rose 1.24 tons in 2020 to 1.85 tons in 2023.

Some of that is now spilling back across the border, with an increase in illicit fentanyl addiction reported in some Mexican border regions — a problem Mexico paradoxically blamed on the United States.

"Despite the limitations of availability in pharmaceutical fentanyl in our country, the excessive use of opiates in recent decades in the United States has had important repercussions on consumption and supply in Mexico," the report states.

The report said that requests for addiction treatment in Mexico increased from 72 cases in 2020, to 430 cases in 2023. That sounds like a tiny number compared to the estimated 70,000 annual overdose deaths in the United States in recent years related to synthetic opioids. But in fact, the Mexican government does very little to offer addiction treatment, so the numbers probably don't reflect the real scope of the problem.

The shortage of medical anesthetic drugs has caused some real problems in Mexico.

Local problems with the availability of morphine and fentanyl have led anesthesiologists to acquire their own supplies, carry the vials around with them, and administer multiple doses from a single vial to conserve their supply.

In 2022, anesthetics contaminated by those practices caused a meningitis outbreak in the northern state of Durango that killed about three dozen people, many of whom were pregnant women given epidurals. Several Americans died because of a similar outbreak after having surgery at clinics in the Mexican border city of Matamoros in 2023.

The response by the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to those twin problems — not enough legal fentanyl, and too much of the illicit stuff — has been contradictory.

In 2023, López Obrador briefly proposed banning fentanyl even for medical use, but has not mentioned that idea lately after it drew a wave of criticism from doctors.

Meanwhile, the president has steadfastly denied that Mexican cartels produce the drug, despite overwhelming evidence that they import precursor chemicals from Asia and carry out the chemical processes to make fentanyl. López Obrador claims they only press the drug into pill form.

A transitional council tasked with choosing Haiti’s next prime minister and Cabinet was established Friday in a move supporters hope will help quell turmoil in the troubled Caribbean country where most of the capital remains under the grip of criminal gangs.

The formation of the council, announced in a decree published Friday in a Haitian government gazette, was expected to trigger the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who promised to step down once the council was created. Henry did not immediately comment.

Those awarded a seat on the council are Petit Desalin, a party led by former senator and presidential candidate Jean-Charles Moïse; EDE/RED, a party led by former Prime Minister Claude Joseph; the Montana Accord, a group of civil society leaders, political parties and others; Fanmi Lavalas, the party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide; the Jan. 30 Collective, which represents parties including that of former President Michel Martelly; and the private sector.

FOOD AID ARRIVES IN HAITI AFTER POLICE RECOVER HIJACKED CARGO SHIP

The two non-voting seats are represented by someone from Haiti’s civil society and its religious sector.

The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti posted on X that it would continue to closely follow the political process as it called for international support for Haiti’s National Police, saying it is "essential to restore security and the rule of law."

"We reaffirm our commitment to supporting the country’s institutions in their efforts to restore democratic institutions," María Isabel Salvador, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, said in a statement.

The council's creation comes exactly a month after Caribbean leaders announced plans to help form the nine-member panel, with seven members awarded voting powers.

Friday’s development was cheered by those who believe the council could help steer Haiti in a new direction and help quell widespread gang violence that has paralyzed swaths of the capital of Port-au-Prince for more than a month.

More than 1,550 people have been killed across Haiti and more than 820 injured from January to March 22, according to the U.N.

While gangs have long operated throughout Haiti, gunmen organized large-scale attacks starting Feb. 29. They burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remains closed and raided the country’s two biggest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 inmates.

The attacks were meant to prevent the return of Henry to Haiti. At the time, he was in Kenya pushing for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country. He remains locked out of Haiti.

While the violence has somewhat subsided, gangs are still launching attacks throughout Port-au-Prince, especially in the downtown area, where they have seized control of Haiti's biggest public hospital.

Eight wild buffaloes walked into low-lying power lines in western Kenya and were electrocuted, the national wildlife agency said Friday.

The incident happened at the Lake Nakuru National Park known for its diverse wildlife species, the Kenya Wildlife Service said.

BUFFALOES ROAMING MAJOR HIGHWAY PROMPT WILDLIFE RESCUE OPERATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

The power lines were lying low on the ground after a wooden support pole broke. The country's power distribution company has begun the process of replacing the pole with a metallic one, the wildlife service said.

Conservationists have in the past raised alarm over the risk of wild animals being electrocuted by power lines.

In 2021, two giraffes were electrocuted when they walked into low-lying electric power transmission lines at the Soysambu Conservancy in western Kenya. Conservationists at the time said experts' advice was ignored, leading to the deaths.

Also on Friday, President William Ruto announced the construction of a 62-mile electric fence in Lariak Forest in Laikipia county to prevent elephants from encroaching into neighboring farms.

Berlin's zoo is celebrating the 67th birthday of Fatou the gorilla, its oldest resident, who it believes is also the oldest gorilla in the world.

NEW ENGLAND AQUARIUM'S 500-POUND, 95-YEAR-OLD SEA TURTLE GETS CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH

Fatou was born in 1957 and came to the zoo in what was then West Berlin in 1959. Ahead of her official birthday on Saturday, keepers on Friday served up a treat of fruit and vegetables.

Vet Andre Schüle said there is no gorilla older than Fatou in any other zoo, "and we have to assume that there is no animal older than her in the wild," where animals do not live so long.

Fatou lives in an enclosure of her own and prefers to keep her distance from the zoo’s other gorillas in her old age.

Fatou became the zoo's oldest resident only recently, following the death earlier this year of Ingo the flamingo. The bird was believed to be at least 75 and had lived at the zoo since 1955.

Heavy rains pounding different parts of Kenya have led to the deaths of at least 13 people and displaced some 15,000 people, the United Nations said, as forecasters warn that more rains can be expected until June.

The U.N Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, citing the Kenya Red Cross Society, said Thursday that nearly 20,000 people were affected, including an estimated 15,000 people displaced by heavy rains and flash floods across the country since the start of the wet season in mid-March.

The East African country has seen thousands of people killed by flooding in previous rainy seasons, mostly in the lake regions and downstream of major rivers.

ALMOST 12,000 HOUSES FLOODED ALONG RUSSIA'S KAZAKH BORDER

The Kenya Red Cross Society told The Associated Press that five major roads were cut off by floods, including Garissa Road in northern Kenya where a bus carrying 51 passengers was swept away on Tuesday. All passengers were rescued.

Kenya’s disaster management agency issued a flood warning to residents of Lamu, Tana River and Garissa counties that are downstream of Tana River after flooding breached dams upstream. Residents have been urged to move to higher grounds.

So far, nine out of 47 counties in the country have reported flooding incidents

Mudslides have been reported in the central regions. On Tuesday four people were killed in Narok county, in the western part of the country.

The Kenya Red Cross Society's secretary general, Ahmed Idris, told Citizen TV that "lifesaving assistance" including shelter and clean drinking water was being offered to those displaced and are living in camps to avert outbreaks of waterborne diseases.

The rainy season is expected to reach its peak towards the end of April and subside in June, according to the meteorology department.

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) — The Brazilian Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state must compensate victims of stray bullets during military and law enforcement operations.

The ruling means that the state is now civilly liable for deaths or injuries resulting from either police or armed forces operations, even in cases where the forensics reports are inconclusive.

BRAZIL SUPREME COURT JUSTICE ORDERS INVESTIGATION OF ELON MUSK OVER ALLEGED FAKE NEWS AND OBSTRUCTION

The country’s top court was ruling in a case stemming from the killing of a man by a stray bullet in 2015 during an army action in Rio de Janeiro’s impoverished Mare neighborhood. The court ordered the federal government to pay 300,000 reais ($60,000) to his family, who will also receive a lifetime pension and have the victim’s funeral expenses covered.

"The risk of stray bullets and violent firearm deaths is recurring in the country. Efforts are being made to reverse this pattern of violence, which spares no one, including children," said Cristina Neme, a sociologist and coordinator of Instituto Sou da Paz, a nonprofit that monitors public security.

Brazil registered over 47,000 homicides in 2022, nearly 14% caused by the police, she added. That rate is even higher in Rio de Janeiro state, where the police caused almost 30% of the homicides.

Fogo Cruzado, a nonprofit organization that provides real-time reporting of gun violence in Brazil, has registered 1,195 stray bullet casualties in the Rio metropolitan area since July 2016. According to the data, 284 were killed, and 911 were injured.

In a statement on Friday, Fogo Cruzado stated that the state should compensate all victims of stray bullets, not just those hit in military operations.

"Stray bullets occur because the state has failed to protect citizens’ lives and to control the circulation of firearms," the organization said.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Russian military trainers arrived this week in Niger to reinforce the country’s air defenses as the west African nation pulls away from close cooperation with the U.S. in counterterrorism efforts, turning instead to Russia for help as it fights Islamic insurgents.

State television in Niger on Thursday broadcast footage of Russian military trainers arriving in the country aboard a plane equipped with military supplies. Two Russian trainers were filmed in front of the plane wearing military uniforms, caps and face coverings.

JIHADIST AND NUCLEAR THREAT AS AFRICAN COUNTRY TELLS US TO LEAVE AMID RUSSIAN AND IRANIAN GAINS

"We are here to train the Nigerian army to use the military equipment that is here," one of the Russian trainers said in the broadcast, speaking in French. "We are here to develop military cooperation between Russia and Niger."

Niger’s ruling military council, known as the CNSP, has yet to order American troops out, U.S. officials have said. But the arrival of Russian forces makes it complicated for the U.S. forces, along with diplomatic and civilian personnel, to remain in the country and throws into doubt the future of joint Niger-US counterinsurgency operations.

Until recently, Washington considered Niger a key partner and ally in a region swept by coups in recent years, investing millions of dollars in an airbase in a desert area that served as the heart of American counterinsurgency operations in the sub-Saharan region known as the Sahel.

The U.S. also invested heavily in training Niger’s forces to beat back insurgencies by militants linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State which ravaged the country and its neighbors. But last summer, some of those elite U.S.-trained forces took part in a coup that ousted the elected president.

As recently as December, some 600 U.S. troops and hundreds more contractors were stationed in Niger, tasked with flying manned and unmanned surveillance operations and supporting local forces against jihadi groups.

Since then, relations between Niger's new leaders and Washington have quickly deteriorated.

Following the visit last month of a U.S. delegation led by the top U.S. envoy to Africa, Molly Phee, the junta announced on state television that flights from the U.S.-built airbase were illegal and that it no longer recognized the American military presence in the country. The junta criticized the U.S. for warning Niger against cooperating with Russia and Iran, saying it was trying to force the African nation to choose between partners.

The Russian plane had arrived on Wednesday night, the report said, and carried Russian military supplies to help Niger improve its air defenses.

The broadcast said the arrival of Russian trainers followed a call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country’s military leaders in March. Niger’s military leaders are seeking to diversify their partnerships and achieve greater sovereignty, the broadcast said.

"The arrival of a Russian air defense system can be viewed as part of the junta’s effort to reclaim sovereignty, this time over its airspace, and force the U.S. and Russia to cooperate with each other in Niger," said John Lechner, Africa analyst and author on the Wagner Group. But he added that, "Such cooperation is unlikely."

He said the Niger government may be trying to compel the U.S. forces to withdraw without explicitly pushing them out.

Since 2012, Niger and other neighbors in the region have been gripped by a worsening insurgency fought by groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

BERLIN (AP) — A prominent British-Palestinian surgeon who volunteered in Gaza hospitals during the first weeks of the Israel-Hamas war said he was denied entry to Germany Friday to take part in a pro-Palestinian conference — an event that police later ended early.

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta said he arrived at Berlin airport on Friday morning before being stopped at passport control, where he was held for several hours and then told he had to return to the U.K.

POLAND CALLS AID WORKER'S KILLING IN GAZA A MURDER, WANTS FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Airport police said he was refused entry due to "the safety of the people at the conference and public order," Abu Sitta told The Associated Press by phone. There was no immediate comment from German federal police.

Abu Sitta said his ban was to last until Sunday, covering the planned duration of the Berlin conference he was to attend, entitled the Palestine Congress. The gathering was to discuss a range of topics, including German arms shipments to Israel and solidarity with what organizers called the Palestinian struggle.

Berlin police said later Friday they pulled the plug on the event, attended by up to 250 people, on its first day after a livestream was shown of a person who is banned from political activity in Germany. They wouldn't identify the person, but said they decided after a legal assessment to end the congress and asked those attending to leave.

Organizers wrote on social network X that the conference was "banned by the police without reason."

Germany remains one of Israel’s staunchest defenders, even at a time of growing international outrage over the soaring Palestinian death toll in Gaza, which has surpassed 33,000.

German officials have stressed Israel's right and duty to defend itself since the start of the war — though their tone has gradually shifted, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock increasingly decrying the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and calling on Israel to allow more aid to reach the territory.

Shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7. attack on Israel, the German government implemented a formal ban on activity by or in support of Hamas.

Since the war erupted, Germany has clamped down on many pro-Palestinian activities and demonstrations, with officials citing fears of possible antisemitic or anti-Israel incitement.

The hard line has broad political support at home, but has drawn criticism.

"Germany’s deportation of Dr. Abu Sitta is a naked act of authoritarian censorship, more in line with the policies of dictatorships like Saudi Arabia and China than a rights-respecting democracy," Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Washington-based human rights watchdog Democracy for the Arab World Now, or DAWN, said in a statement.

Abu Sitta, who recently volunteered with Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, has worked during multiple conflicts in the Palestinian territories, beginning in the late 1980s during the first Palestinian uprising. He has also worked in other conflict zones, including in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Friday's congress was viewed with great wariness by German officials before it started and was heavily policed.

Earlier on Friday, German Interior Ministry spokesperson Maximilian Kall told reporters in Berlin that federal security authorities had been in touch with their local counterparts in the capital "about questions of, for instance, entry bans," he said. He added that he couldn’t give details.

MADRID (AP) — Capitalizing on an impressive moment in Spanish-language music, Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler is embarking on his first tour of Europe.

"Even Don Quixote didn’t get as far as urban Spanish-speaking music is getting today in the world. You can go everywhere and you will find music that was written in Spanish," he told The Associated Press in an interview. "I’m happy to see that (Spanish) opens doors to places that I never thought that we could get before."

URUGUAYAN SUICIDE RATE HITS RECORD HIGH; COUNTRY IS REGIONAL OUTLIER

His award-winning latest album, "Tinta y tiempo" ("Ink and time"), earned him four of his 13 Latin Grammy Awards, part of a haul that includes an Oscar.

On his tour Drexler will perform live for the first time "Derrumbe," a song about the loss of love that he rescued from his notes. The song was included in the 2021 TV show "Todo va a estar bien".

The European tour will be more intimate than the shows of recent years, with voice, guitar and an open repertoire — a "first date" with an audience that Drexler expects will be seeing him for the first time.

"I have always looked West," he said, with performances in the United States, Canada, Mexico and elsewhere. "I have so much work in that part of the world that I didn’t look East enough."

He looks forward to seeing some European cities for the first time and visiting others such as Paris and Berlin after many years. The tour will take him to Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Sweden, among other countries.

After the tour ends in mid-June, he will return to the leather armchair in his studio in Madrid to sit with a guitar and a blank piece of paper and "try to get lucky."

But as his repertoire grows, songwriting becomes more complicated because "the more you release, the more space that occupies in your brain," Drexler said.

"Once you’ve written 200 or 300 songs, each and every new song has to open a little space," he said.

Resorting to artificial intelligence is not an option, at least for now. He tested ChatGPT and, although the result "was perfectly written, from a syntactic, orthographic point of view," it lacked poetry.

"I like biographies and I like songwriters, and I like to get to know the personality of a person. And I like the mistakes that guide you through unexpected places. So, I still prefer songs written by human beings," he said.

Drexler also enjoys collaborations in the creative process, such as the ones with C.Tangana, Rubén Blades, or Noga Erez in his previous album.

"It’s a relief for me, it relieves me from myself," he said. "My worst enemy when it comes to writing is my past, my obsessions, the way I work. It’s what I am. And I’m happy to show it, but at the same time, it’s a big, big burden."

In collaborating, there are no restrictions in the kind of music or the generations that listen.

"I don’t think that the music we did in the past was the (good) music, like most of my generation," Drexler said. "(I’m) more interested in the music that my 12-year-old daughter listens to than the one that my generation used to listen to. So I try to be open to different things."

JERUSALEM (AP) — Dozens of angry Israeli settlers stormed into a Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, shooting and setting houses and cars on fire. The rampage killed a Palestinian man and wounded 25 others, Palestinian health officials said.

The violence was the latest in an escalation in the West Bank that has accompanied the war in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli rights group said the settlers were searching for a missing 14-year-old boy from their settlement. After the rampage, Israeli troops said they were still searching for the teen.

ISRAELI PM, MILITARY LEADERS HOLD EMERGENCY MEETING AMID POSSIBLE DIRECT IRANIAN ATTACK

The killing came after an Israeli raid overnight killed two Palestinians, including a Hamas militant in confrontations with Israeli forces.

Palestinian health officials say over 460 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces since the war erupted in October.

The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said that settlers stormed into the village of al-Mughayyir late Friday, searching for the Israeli boy. The group said that settlers were shooting and setting houses on fire in the village.

Videos posted to X by the rights group showed dark clouds of smoke billowing from burning cars as gunshots rang out. A photo posted by the group showed what appeared to be a crowd of masked settlers.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that one man was brought dead to the hospital and 25 were treated for wounds. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said eight of the injured were hit by live fire from settlers.

The Israeli army said it was searching for the 14-year-old boy, and that forces had opened fire when stones were hurled at soldiers by Palestinians. It said soldiers also cleared out Israeli settlers from the village.

"As of this moment, the violent riots have been dispersed and there are no Israeli civilians present within the town," it said.

U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden, have repeatedly raised concerns about a surge in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank since Israel’s war with the militant Hamas group in the Gaza Strip began. Rights groups have long accused the military of failing to halt settler violence or punish soldiers for wrongdoing.

Earlier Friday, two Palestinians were killed in confrontations with Israeli forces in the northern West Bank, Palestinian medics and the military said. Hamas said one of those killed was a local commander.

The military said the target of the soldiers' raid was Mohammed Daraghmeh, a local Hamas commander. It said Daraghmeh was killed in a shootout with Israeli soldiers who discovered weapons in his car. The army alleged that Daraghmeh had been planning attacks on Israeli targets but provided no evidence. It also said assailants also hurled explosives at soldiers.

The Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, in a surprise attack and incursion into southern Israel. Around 250 people were seized as hostages by the militants and taken to Gaza.

Israel said Friday it had opened a new crossing for aid trucks into hard-hit northern Gaza as ramps up aid deliveries to the besieged enclave. However, the United Nations says the surge of aid is not being felt in Gaza because of persistent distribution difficulties.

Six months of fighting in Gaza have pushed the tiny Palestinian territory into a humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation.

Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 33,600 Palestinians and wounded over 76,200, the Health Ministry says. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

Israel says it has killed over 12,000 militants during the war, but it has not provided evidence to back up the claim.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish lawmakers voted Friday to move forward with proposals to lift a near-total ban on abortion, a divisive issue in the traditionally Roman Catholic country, which has one of the most restrictive laws in Europe.

Members of the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, voted to work on four separate bills. Two of them propose legalizing abortion through the 12th week of pregnancy, in line with European norms.

POLAND HAS A STRICT ABORTION LAW — AND MANY ABORTIONS. LAWMAKERS ARE NOW TACKLING THE LEGISLATION

The party of centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk is seeking to change the law to allow women to terminate pregnancies up to the 12th week of pregnancy. Tusk won office last year after an election in which young people and women turned out in large numbers amid a record high turnout of nearly 75%. Political observers say voters were mobilized after the abortion law was restricted under the previous right-wing government.

Tusk said he believed Poland still probably has a long way to go to liberalize the law, but welcomed Friday's votes as a move in the right direction towards the defense of the "fundamental rights of women." He said he believed the country would ultimately end up with a law that gives women the feeling that they are not "an object of attack, contempt or disregard."

Tusk is supported on the issue by the Left, a member of his three-party coalition. However, the third coalition partner, the more conservative Third Way, favors restrictions on abortion rights, and the issue has been a source of tension within the government.

Abortion rights advocates said the decision to continue work on the bills, and not reject them outright, was a step in the right direction, though they also don't expect real change in the law coming soon.

Kinga Jelińska, an activist who helps provide abortions with the group Women Help Women, described being "moderately satisfied" because she is "realistic" about the prospects for change.

The Women's Strike, the Polish organization that led massive street protests as abortion rights were restricted, noted that it was the first time since 1996 that bills liberalizing legal access to abortion in Poland were not dropped in a primary vote.

The group welcomed the fact that the 27-member commission created to work on the four bills will be led by Dorota Łoboda, a lawmaker who was formerly a Women's Strike activist.

Any liberalization bill would likely be vetoed by President Andrzej Duda, who remains in office until the summer of 2025.

Duda is a conservative who last month vetoed a bill making the morning-after pill available over-the-counter to women and girls 15 and older. It is not an abortion pill but emergency contraception.

Abortion opponents are also mobilized in the European Union country that has long considered the Catholic faith to be a bedrock of national identity, but which is also in the process of rapid secularization.

The Catholic church called on the faithful to make Sunday a day of prayer "in defense of conceived life." An anti-abortion demonstration called the March of Life is also being planned in downtown Warsaw that day.

Currently abortions are only allowed in the cases of rape or incest or if the woman's life or health is at risk. Reproductive rights advocates say that even in such cases, doctors and hospitals turn away women, fearing legal consequences for themselves or citing their moral objections. According to Health Ministry statistics, only 161 abortions were performed in Polish hospitals in 2022.

The reality is that many Polish women are already having abortions, often with pills mailed from abroad. Reproductive rights advocates estimate that some 120,000 abortions are carried out each year by women living in Poland.

It is not a crime for a woman to perform her own abortion, only assisting a woman is a crime.

One of the four bills that now goes for further work is a proposal by the Left that would decriminalize assisting a woman in having an abortion, currently a crime punishable by three years in prison.

A fourth proposal, introduced by the Third Way, would keep a ban in most cases but allow abortions in cases of fetal defects — a right that was eliminated by a 2020 court ruling.

A popular Nigerian transgender woman was on Friday jailed for six months after a local court convicted her of throwing the local currency into the air, a practice known as spraying, a rare conviction that was criticized by many in the West African nation where it is common, though illegal, for people to spray money.

Okuneye Idris Olanrewaju better known as Bobrisky, was accused of "tampering" with the naira notes by spraying them at an event. She had pleaded guilty when first arraigned by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency in the economic hub of Lagos.

NIGERIAN FILM RAISES AWARENESS ABOUT DOZENS OF GIRLS ABDUCTED FROM SCHOOL IN 2014

Bobrisky's imprisonment was criticized by many in Nigeria, a deeply conservative country where openly identifying as a transgender person is criminalized.

Her six-month sentence — handed without the available option of a fine — is the maximum permitted by law for the offence. She is allowed to appeal the judgment.

"Selective enforcement of the law is a problem in Nigeria," said human rights lawyer Festus Ogun, who asked why Bobrisky was "singled out" by the anti-graft agency.

Bobrisky said in court that she was not aware of the law. "I am a social media influencer with five million followers … I wish I can be given a second chance to use my platform to educate my followers against the abuse of the naira," she told the judge.

Spraying naira notes ($1 = 1,197 naira) is seen as an abuse of the local currency because people eventually trample on the notes when they fall to the ground.

Her sentence would deter others from abusing the currency, Abimbola Awogboro, the presiding judge said at Friday’s sitting. "Enough of people mutilating and tampering with our currencies. It has to stop," he added.

A shootout between militiamen and police officers killed three people Friday in the Ethiopian capital in a rare case of the country's many regional rebellions spilling into the city.

The violence occurred near Millenium Hall in Addis Ababa’s downtown as officers tried to apprehend three fighters from a militia known as Fano. The fighters were "on a mission to carry out a terrorist attack," a police statement said.

Two of the militia members were killed, and police arrested the third. A bystander also was killed during the gunbattle, and two police officers were injured.

ALLEGED CIVILIAN MASSACRE REPORTED IN ETHIOPIA AS US CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION

"The extremists were asked to surrender but refused to do so," the police statement said.

Ethiopia’s security services have been battling a full-blown rebellion by the Fano, an ethno-nationalist group, since August. It was sparked by a disputed plan to integrate regional forces into the federal military and has rendered lawless much of Amhara, Ethiopia’s second-biggest region.

One of the Fano rebellion’s bloodiest episodes occurred on Jan 29, when soldiers went door-to-door killing dozens of civilians in the Amhara town of Merawi after clashes with local Fano members, according to rights groups.

In a report released Friday, Amnesty International put the death toll in Merawi at more than 50. The rights group said federal soldiers "rounded up local men from their homes, shops and the streets and shot and killed scores."

Addis Ababa has been largely insulated from Ethiopia’s regional revolts. In addition to the violence in Amhara, the federal government is also battling a separate ethnic-based insurgency in Oromia, the country’s biggest region.

Other armed groups are active in the Gambella, Benishangul-Gumuz and Somali regions of Ethiopia. Between 2020 and 2022, the federal military fought a bloody war against the northern Tigray regions, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

The Fano fought alongside the federal government in the Tigray war, but relations soured even during that conflict. Tigray rebels advanced to within 115 miles of the capital before retreating.

The shootout in Addis Ababa followed the shooting of Bate Urgessa, a prominent opposition figure, in the Oromia town of Meki on Tuesday night. The United States, Britain and several other countries have called for a full investigation into his death.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s government on Friday called the killing of a Polish aid worker by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza a murder, and demanded Israel's support for a Polish investigation into the case.

Deputy Foreign Minister Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski told lawmakers in parliament that the April 1 death of Damian Soból, 35, and six other workers of the World Central Kitchen charity who were distributing food in Gaza was "shocking and disturbing."

IDF: STRIKE THAT KILLED WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN WORKERS WAS 'SERIOUS FAILURE DUE TO A MISTAKEN IDENTIFICATION'

Poland expects Israel's "full cooperation" in the investigation opened by Polish prosecutors in Soból’s hometown of Przemyśl in Poland’s southeast, Bartoszewski said. The prosecutors "have classified it as a murder," he said.

Israel conducted a speedy investigation and took responsibility for the deaths, but said the attack that killed the aid workers and their Palestinian driver was a tragic mistake. It shared the findings with the countries that lost citizens in the attack. The Israeli military dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others, saying they violated the army’s rules of engagement.

Bartoszewski said that the dismissals and disciplinary measures were "inadequate," and demanded that the case be tried by an independent court in Israel.

During a debate in the Polish parliament, many lawmakers said the killings should be considered a war crime.

Bartoszewski said Poland was working with other countries whose citizens were killed in the shelling — Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States — to jointly press for a detailed investigation into how cars marked as humanitarian convoy could have become targets of repeated shelling by the Israeli army.

He stressed that all international rules of defense were violated by that attack.

Bartoszewski also said that Poland is demanding compensation for the family of Soból, whose body has been brought back to Poland.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Rescue workers in Ukraine have pulled five puppies from underneath the rubble of a destroyed building, a video released by the country's emergency services Friday showed.

SITUATION IN UKRAINE IS 'DIRE' AS AMMUNITION SUPPLIES DROP ON US, EUROPE 'STARVATION DIET'

Officials said the puppies were rescued from a non-residential building that was on fire in the northeastern city of Sumy, close to the border with Russia. The video showed the puppies squealing as the firefighters cuddled them in their hands and rinsed them off with water.

It wasn't immediately clear when the rescue took place or what caused the fire.

"Fortunately, everything is fine with the little one(s), they were not injured. The furries were returned by their mothers," officials said in a post on the emergency services' Telegram channel.

"This rescue story reminds us of the importance of human compassion and the willingness to help everyone, regardless of the circumstances," they added.

MADRID (AP) — British and Spanish foreign ministers said a new round of talks held Friday over the status of the disputed territory of Gibraltar following Britain’s exit from the European Union were productive and significant progress was made.

The meeting was between Spain's José Manuel Albares, Britain’s David Cameron and European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic in Brussels. Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo also attended. It was the first time representatives from the four areas had come together for talks on the issue.

SPAIN AGREES TO BACK BREXIT DEAL AFTER SECURING CONCESSIONS FROM BRITAIN, EU

In a statement after the meeting, the parties said "discussions took place in a constructive atmosphere, with significant progress achieved.

"General political lines have been agreed (on), including on airport, goods and mobility. Negotiations will continue over the coming weeks to conclude the EU-UK Agreement," it added.

All sides are eager to clinch a deal before European elections in June.

Britain left the European Union in 2020 with the relationship between Gibraltar and the bloc unresolved. Talks on a deal to ensure people and goods can keep flowing over the Gibraltar-Spain border have made halting progress in the 19 rounds of negotiations so far, but both Spanish and U.K. officials have recently expressed optimism about a deal.

In Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum, 96% of voters in Gibraltar supported remaining in the EU. The tiny territory on Spain's southern tip depends greatly on access to the EU market for its 34,000 inhabitants.

Gibraltar was ceded to Britain in 1713, but Spain has maintained its sovereignty claim ever since. Relations concerning the Rock, as it is popularly referred to in English, have had their ups and downs over the centuries.

A major sticking point has been who controls Gibraltar’s airport, which under the proposed free-movement deal would be an external border of the EU. The U.K. and Gibraltar have resisted Spain’s insistence that Spanish border officials be based at the airport, which is also home to a Royal Air Force base.

The British Foreign Office said Thursday that while it did not expect a final agreement Friday, "getting senior political figures from the UK, European Commission, Spain and Gibraltar in one room is significant."

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) — Thailand’s foreign minister on Friday said he urged Myanmar’s military authorities not to violently respond to its army’s loss of an important border trading town to its opponents, and that so far they seemed to be exercising restraint.

Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara spoke during a visit to Mae Sot, which lies directly across a river from Myanmar’s Myawaddy, where army troops abandoned their last defensive position early Thursday.

ETHNIC GUERRILLAS IN BURMA LOOK SET TO SEIZE AN IMPORTANT TOWN ON THE THAI BORDER FROM THE MILITARY

Their hasty escape ceded virtual control of the busy trading town to guerrillas of the ethnic Karen National Union and its allies, including members of the pro-democracy People’s Defense Forces.

Myanmar’s once-mighty armed forces have suffered a series of unprecedented defeats since last October, losing swathes of territory including border posts to both ethnic fighters and guerrilla units. Civilians took up arms after the generals seized power in 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The military has frequently hit back heavily, using air power.

Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for Myanmar's military government, told the BBC’s Burmese language service Thursday night that the soldiers at the army’s last base outside Myawaddy town abandoned the post for the safety of their families who were living with them. He said Myanmar was in talks with Thailand about getting them safely back, and acknowledged that Karen guerrillas were inside the town.

There is concern that the Myanmar military might launch a concerted counter- attack against Myawaddy, which could send thousands fleeing into Thailand for safety and badly disrupt border trade.

Speaking to reporters after inspecting the area, Foreign Minister Parnpree said Thailand had already spoken with Myanmar’s military and told them they did not wish to see violence, offering Thailand’s help.

"Now, what we are most concerned about is that we want to see peace in Myawaddy, not only because of the trading, but it’s our neighbor," he said. "We do not wish for any violence to happen. If talks are possible, among their groups, we will be very welcoming of that, and if they want us to be the mediator, we are ready to help coordinating."

He said he hoped there could be talks between the opposing sides to prevent retaliatory attacks.

"We have already sent people to talk to them. And for the situation today, they already said that there will not yet be any violent retaliation. If they wanted to be violent, they would have already done that days ago."

On Friday evening, however, there were at least two loud explosions emanating from the area on the Myanmar side of one of the two bridges connecting Myawaddy and Mae Sot. Their cause could not immediately be discovered.

Residents from both sides of the river said earlier there have been frequent explosions in the past few days from airstrikes against captured positions outside Myawaddy town, but that Friday was quiet. Thai immigration officials said visitor numbers from Myanmar were unexceptional.

But for some, the quiet was the problem. A Myawaddy resident who only gave his name as Sulai told The Associated Press it unnerved him so he fled.

"They fear the quiet. They are afraid of silence with no sound of fighting. Those with experience say it means the fight is much more likely to continue," he said.

Thai troops were keeping watch in Mae Sot on Friday, especially near the bridges. Besides reassuring residents of their safety, they served to block pockets of trapped Myanmar soldiers from slipping across the border.

On the Myanmar side, a small group of men lounged in the stifling heat. Thai troops said they were from the Border Guard Force, a Karen group that was aligned with Myanmar’s military who recently severed their links.

The Karen National Union — the leading political body for the Karen ethnic minority — said in a statement on its Facebook page on Friday that it will establish administrative mechanisms, prevent illicit businesses, contraband and human trafficking and implement stability and law enforcement as well as facilitate trade in the Myawaddy area when it secures its position there.

The KNU said it's deeply concerned about the security of the people living on both sides of the border, seeks to have stability and access to humanitarian aid and is working to achieve meaningful cooperation with the Thai government and local and international partner organizations.

The Karen, who are native to the eastern state of Kayin, have been fighting for more than seven decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government. A wider struggle including other ethnic minority groups and pro-democracy militants began after the army’s 2021 takeover.

The Karen make up a large part of about 90,000 refugees from Myanmar who live in nine long-term refugee camps in Thailand after fleeing previous rounds of fighting.

The army's setbacks of the past few months have been noted by Myanmar's neighbors, who have generally been wary of intervening in the crisis there, said Moe Thuzar, a Myanmar scholar who is a senior fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

"Already, we have heard the Thai prime minister acknowledge that the Myanmar military is losing strength. How will the various opposition forces coordinate and consolidate these gains towards the resistance’s stated objectives for the country’s political future, is yet unclear," she told The Associated Press in an email. "Unclear too, is how neighboring capitals will react or respond to the implications of the change in tax and administrative control of these border crossings."

The U.S. continues to closely monitor what it deems to be "credible" threats of an Iranian attack on Israel in response to a strike on Iran’s Damascus consulate, even as reports indicate that Iran is looking to deploy a non-escalatory response. 

The U.S. is also moving "additional assets" to the Middle East region "to bolster regional deterrence efforts and increase force protection for U.S. forces," a U.S. defense official told Fox News Friday.

"I would just say that we're watching this very, very closely," U.S. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters on Friday. "We still deemed the potential threat by Iran here to be real, to be viable, certainly credible, and we're watching it as closely as we can." 

"Right now, our focus is on having a conversation with our Israeli counterparts and making sure not just conversations, but making sure that they have what they need and that they're able to defend themselves," Kirby added. "We're also clear it would be imprudent if we didn't take a look at our own posture in the region to make sure that we're properly prepared as well."

Kirby assured that the U.S. remains in "constant communication" with Israeli counterparts to make sure they are ready for attack but refused to "armchair quarterback … in a public way in terms of the conversations we’re having or what we’re seeing in the intelligence picture." 

ISRAELI PM, MILITARY LEADERS HOLD EMERGENCY MEETING AMID POSSIBLE DIRECT IRANIAN ATTACK

Tehran has continued to threaten a response against Israel for the attack on an Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members, including two generals. Hezbollah leadership over the weekend at the annual Quds Day commemoration in Iran also touted their readiness and willingness to launch retaliation against Israel for the attack. 

U.S. CENTCOM Gen. Michael Kurilla has been in Israel, where he met with the IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen Hezi Halevi and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant to assess military preparedness, moving up his plans due to the threats from Iran, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed during a press conference Thursday. Ryder did not speculate as to any specific threats from Iran to Israel, even as Tehran continues to promise action.

The State Department also issued new travel advisories for Israel on Thursday, restricting U.S. government employees and their families from traveling outside major cities. The department warns, "Terrorist groups, lone-actor terrorists and other violent extremists continue plotting possible attacks in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Terrorists and violent extremists may attack with little or no warning." 

Iran has signaled to Washington that it will respond to Israel’s attack on the Damascus consulate, but may do so in a way that aims to avoid major escalation and will not act hastily, Reuters reported Thursday. 

US RESTRICTS STAFF IN ISRAEL FROM TRAVELING OUTSIDE CITIES AS IRAN ATTACK THREAT PERSISTS

Israel, as of Thursday night, had not issued any special instructions from its Home Front Command but stressed that Israelis would be immediately notified of any steps taken as the state remains "on a high state of alert and preparedness," The Jerusalem Post reported. 

Gen. Jack Keane of the Institute for the Study of War (IFSW) during an appearance on Friday’s "Fox & Friends" said an attack will happen at some point because Iran "cannot avoid the international publicity surrounding the taking down of the IRGC headquarters in Syria," saying it was "just a reality" but adding that Iran will likely pursue a "measured response" and does not really want escalation. 

"I think they’re very much enjoying the psychological impact that this is having, not only on Israel but also on the world writ-large," Gen. Jack Keane said. "I think we’re taking the precautions we should be taking, to protect our own people, and certainly Israel is doing that."

"Iran has their finger on the trigger here," "This much we know: Iran doesn’t want any escalation of this that would lead to a war with Israel or the United States, and that has been the fact from the beginning of the war in Gaza when they operationalized all of their proxies to join in that effort that Hamas started." 

HOUSE REPUBLICANS TURN UP HEAT ON BIDEN TO BROKER ‘EXPEDIENT RELEASE’ OF HAMAS HOSTAGES, SUPPORT ISRAEL

Keane suggested that the best way to handle Iran was to destroy its IRGC assets in Iran, because "Iran does not want to escalate," claiming Iran has "a weak air force … a weak navy" and "not particularly well-trained or … well-equipped" troops – instead, he argued that Iran relies heavily on its drone and missile arsenal.

"Iran knows that war with them would destroy their regime economically, and they are likely to lose it," Keane insisted. "The leverage has always been on the side of Israel, the United States and the West, but we absolutely refuse to use it." 

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that Iran is better positioned to benefit from sitting back and letting tensions remain high while not actually launching any attack. 

"Despite the regime thoroughly benefiting from the wall-to-wall coverage of its impending "retaliation" against Israel, the more the delay, the greater the expectation for a larger attack, and the greater the likelihood of an even stronger Israeli kinetic reprisal," Taleblu said. 

"To date, Iran has never fired at Israel directly from its own territory, nor has it ever fired ballistic missiles from its own territory at defended targets," Taleblu said, noting that Iran could look to launch an attack from its navy or cruise missiles from outside Iranian territory. 

"There are challenges aplenty for Iran: A strike that fails or is successfully intercepted will show the Islamic Republic as weak and invite more pressure; a strike that is successful will likely be responded to and beget a cycle of escalation Tehran can ill afford," Taleblu explained. 

"That’s why Khamenei’s most important legacy as supreme leader for over three decades has been avoiding an outright war while keeping his ideological disposition," Taleblu added. "He now faces the greatest challenge to that today." 

Russia on Thursday successfully test-launched a new heavy-lift rocket from its Far Eastern space complex, a lift-off that comes after two aborted attempts earlier this week.

The first attempt to launch the Angara-A5 rocket from the Vostochny spaceport on Tuesday was canceled about two minutes before the scheduled liftoff due to a failure of the pressurization system of the oxidizer tank in the central block of the rocket.

The second attempted launch Wednesday was also aborted by the automatic safety system, which registered a flaw in the engine start control mechanism, said Yuri Borisov, head of Russia’s state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos. He added that the failure was most likely rooted in a programming error.

CHINA, RUSSIA FLOAT IDEA FOR NUCLEAR POWER ON THE MOON: 'WANT TO UPSTAGE THE UNITED STATES'

Thursday's launch is the fourth for the Angara-A5, a heavy-lift version of the new Angara family of rockets that has been developed to replace the Soviet-designed Proton rockets.

The previous three launches were carried out from the Plesetsk launchpad in northwestern Russia.

After the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia leased the Baikonur Cosmodrome from Kazakhstan and continued to use it for most of its space launches. The agreement with Kazakhstan allows Russia to keep leasing Baikonur for $115 million a year through 2050.

While Roscosmos has continued to rely on Baikonur, Russian authorities have developed Vostochny as the facility of choice for Angara launches. The construction of the new spaceport has dragged on for longer than planned and it has seen only limited use so far.

The development of the Angara-A5, which is set to be the main launch vehicle for Russia’s prospective lunar research program, has also faced repeated delays and dragged on years behind schedule.

Like the Soviet-designed Proton it’s set to replace, the new rocket is intended to launch intelligence and communication satellites to geostationary orbits.