USA: With Trump present in court, judges express skepticism of claims that he’s immune from prosecution

WASHINGTON (AP) — With Donald Trump present for the first time in months, federal appeals court judges in Washington expressed deep skepticism Tuesday that the former president was immune from prosecution on charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The panel of three judges also also questioned whether they had jurisdiction to consider the appeal at this point in the case, raising the prospect that Trump’s effort could be dismissed.

USA: Explosion at historic Texas hotel injures 21 and scatters debris in downtown Fort Worth

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — An explosion at a historic Texas hotel in Fort Worth on Monday blew out windows, littered downtown streets with large sections of debris from the building and injured 21 people, including one who was in critical condition, authorities said.

USA: At trial, a Russian billionaire blames Sotheby’s for losing millions on art by Picasso, da Vinci

NEW YORK (AP) — Sotheby’s defended itself at a trial Monday against accusations that it helped defraud a Russian oligarch out of tens of millions of dollars, saying it knew nothing of wrongdoing by an art buyer who advised the billionaire on buying works by famed artists like Amedeo Modigliani and Leonardo da Vinci.

Sotheby’s attorney Sara Shudofsky told a jury in an opening statement in Manhattan federal court that billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev was “trying to make an innocent party pay for what somebody else did to him.”

Russia: A US citizen has been arrested in Moscow on drug charges

MOSCOW (AP) — A U.S. citizen has been arrested on drug charges in Russia, officials said Tuesday, a move that comes amid soaring Russia-U.S. tensions over Ukraine.

The arrest of Robert Woodland Romanov was reported by the press service of the Moscow courts. It said the Ostankino District Court ruled on Saturday to keep him in custody for two months on charges of preparing to get involved in illegal drug trafficking pending an official investigation. It didn’t offer any details of the accusations.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

Factory blast in N. Iran injures 53

TEHRAN, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- A blast and a consequent fire at a cosmetics factory in northern Iran injured 53 people and damaged the factory's building and equipment on Tuesday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The explosion of a gas cylinder used for filling cosmetic sprays sparked the fire at the factory in Simin Dasht Industrial Park in Fardis County, Alborz province, Fars cited the county's fire department chief Hossein Ashouri as saying.

USA: Lawyers for ex-gang leader held in Tupac Shakur killing say he should be released from jail

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Attorneys for a former Los Angeles-area gang leader charged with orchestrating the killing of hip-hop music legend Tupac Shakur in 1996 say prosecutors are wrong — that their client is facing danger, not witnesses — and he should be released from jail to house arrest ahead of his trial in June.

USA: Fuel leak on Astrobotic's moon lander leaves 'no chance' of soft landing

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander has "no chance" of a soft landing on the moon after springing a propellant leak in the first few hours of its journey in space, the company said on Tuesday about the first such U.S. attempt in five decades.

There was 40 hours of fuel left on the lander that will allow it to operate "as a spacecraft" even as engineers determine what its new mission in orbit will be, the space robotics firm said.

Norway: Norwegian mass killer Breivik says sorry, calls prison a 'nightmare'

TYRISTRAND, Norway, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik told a court on Tuesday he was sorry for what he had done and broke down in tears as he said his life in prison isolation was a nightmare that left him considering suicide every day.

The far-right fanatic who killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage in 2011 is suing the state, arguing that his prison conditions, and a bar on communications with the outside world, violate his human rights.

9 killed in "terrorist attack" on military bus in central Syria: defense ministry

DAMASCUS, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- A military bus carrying Syrian soldiers was hit by an explosive device in the desert near the ancient city of Palmyra in Homs Province on Tuesday, killing nine people and wounding 13 others, the Syrian Defense Ministry said.

The ministry specified that the fatalities included eight soldiers and one civilian, attributing the attack to "terrorists."

Israel’s military says no damage was caused in a strike on an army base in northern Israel

GHANDOURIYEH, Lebanon (AP) — Israel’s military said no damage was caused to one of its army bases in northern Israel after Hezbollah said it launched explosive drones Tuesday toward the area, while an Israeli drone strike in Lebanon killed three members of the militant group, officials said.

The Israeli military did not specify exactly where the base was located. Hezbollah said it targeted the Israeli army’s northern command headquarters in Safed with several drones.

Russia to focus on provisioning of troops

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: Russia maintains strategic initiative in Ukraine and will focus on all-round provisioning of its forces, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a conference call with top military brass. He stressed Russia would keep its nuclear triad at a high combat readiness level, develop drone production, introduce new weapons and increase the capabilities of the satellite grouping.

Israeli forces say they locate large underground weapons factory in Gaza

AL BUREIJ, Gaza, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Israeli forces located what they said was the largest weapons production site so far found in Gaza, with underground workshops they said were used to produce long-range missiles capable of hitting targets in northern Israel.

The military said that in addition to missiles, the workshops produced copies or adaptations of standard munitions like mortar shells and were connected through underground shafts to a tunnel network used to transport the weapons to fighting units throughout the Gaza Strip.

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