Serbia police detain at least 38 people as opposition plans more protests against election results

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian police said Monday they have detained at least 38 people who took part in a protest against reported widespread irregularities during a recent general ballot that declared the governing populists as winners of the parliamentary and local councils’ elections.

Opposition group Serbia Against Violence has been staging protests since the Dec. 17 elections, saying there has been election fraud, particularly in the capital, Belgrade. Some politicians began a hunger strike.

Imprisoned Russian politician Navalny is now in a penal colony near the Arctic Circle

MOSCOW (AP) — Associates of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that he has been located at a prison colony above the Arctic Circle nearly three weeks after contact with him was lost.

Navalny, the most prominent foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism. He had been imprisoned in the Vladimir region of central Russia, about 230 kilometers (140 miles) east of Moscow, but his lawyers said they had not been able to reach him since Dec. 6.

About 300 Indian travelers are stuck in a French airport in a human trafficking probe

VATRY, France (AP) — About 300 Indian citizens heading to Central America were sequestered in a French airport for a third day Saturday after a dramatic police operation prompted by a tip that those aboard might be victims of human trafficking, authorities said.

Those aboard included children and families. The youngest passenger is a toddler of 21 months, and among the children are several unaccompanied minors, according to the local civil protection agency.

USA: Wisconsin Supreme Court orders new legislative maps in redistricting case brought by Democrats

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned Republican-drawn legislative maps on Friday and ordered that new district boundary lines be drawn as Democrats had urged in a redistricting case they hope will weaken GOP majorities.

The ruling comes less than a year before the 2024 election in a battleground state where four of the six past presidential elections have been decided by fewer than 23,000 votes, and Republicans have built large majorities in the Legislature under maps they drew over a decade ago.

USA: Supreme Court rejects prosecutor’s push to fast-track ruling in Trump election subversion case

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Friday it will not immediately take up a plea by special counsel Jack Smith to rule on whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted for his actions to overturn the 2020 election results.

USA: Biden pardons thousands convicted of marijuana charges on federal lands and in Washington

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden pardoned thousands of people who were convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, the White House said Friday, in his latest round of executive clemencies meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system.

Biden 'heartbroken' that American believed kidnapped by Hamas is dead

WASHINGTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday he was "heartbroken" by the news that an American named Gadi Haggai is believed to have been killed by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Oct. 7 when it attacked Israel.

Haggai, a 73-year-old Israeli-American man, was previously thought to have been taken hostage in the attack, along with his wife. A group representing hostages' families had said earlier on Friday that Haggai died in captivity.

USA: Trump says he’s eager to debate Biden in 2024, even if controversial commission plans events

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump says he is eager to debate President Joe Biden, even if the debates are sponsored by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. And he says he is open to debating a single Republican rival if a serious challenger emerges after the New Hampshire primary.

Trump, who has skipped all of the primary debates so far citing his commanding lead in the polls, was asked if he will debate Biden if named his party’s nominee during an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Friday.

USA: Military command ready to track Santa, and everyone can follow along

WASHINGTON (AP) — As children around the world eagerly await Santa’s arrival on Christmas, the military is ready to track him and see if he’s using any new technology.

Armed with radars, sensors and aircraft, the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado keeps a close watch on Santa and his sleigh from the moment he leaves the North Pole. And it once again will share all those details so everyone can follow along as Santa travels the globe beginning Christmas Eve.

USA: SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft back to Earth with scientific research samples

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft returned to Earth on Friday with scientific research samples and hardware.

According to NASA, Dragon undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 5:05 p.m. Eastern Time (2205 GMT) on Thursday.

After about 20 hours of flight, Dragon made a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of the U.S. state of Florida on Friday.

Lone gunman in Czech mass shooting had no record and slipped through cracks despite owning 8 guns

PRAGUE (AP) — Czech politicians tend to boast that their country is one of the safest in the world from gun violence. But the worst mass killing in the nation’s history this week — along with other shootings over the last decade — suggest that might not be true.

At the Faculty of Arts department at Charles University, where 14 people were killed and dozens wounded Thursday, the shooter was an excellent student, police said. But the 24-year-old also had a proclivity for firearms, with a license to own eight guns, including two long guns, police said.

India firm denies tampering with tests in probe of cough syrup deaths

NEW DELHI, Dec 23 (Reuters) - India's Maiden Pharmaceuticals, whose cough syrups have been linked to the deaths of children in Gambia, on Saturday denied it had tampered with test samples or bribed officials to do so, as alleged in a complaint under investigation by local health officials.

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