WASHINGTON – Fadi Sckak has already lost his father to the violence in Gaza. He wants to help his mother escape that fate. “I just want to see my mother again, that’s the goal,” said Sckak, a university student in Sunnyvale, California. The 25-year-old is one of the Palestinian couple’s three American sons, … Read more
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia – In Saudi Arabia this week to work at the Club World Cup, seeing a woman driving a car on the busy roads of Jeddah was proving elusive. The kingdom’s ban on women drivers was lifted in 2018 — a key modernizing reform in a long-time ultraconservative society — yet first-hand evidence … Read more
Tributes flowed for Luton captain Tom Lockyer on Saturday in the team’s first game since he collapsed on the field after suffering cardiac arrest. When Andros Townsend gave Luton the lead in the 25th minute against Newcastle in the Premier League at Kenilworth Road, he ran to the touchline and was handed a … Read more
Geoff Mulvihill – Most U.S. state legislatures will reconvene in January for the first time since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel sparked a war in Gaza and protests worldwide — and they’re preparing to take action in response, both symbolic and concrete. Legislatures in at least eight states that were in session … Read more
KYIV, Ukraine – When Alexis Cholas lost his right arm as a volunteer combat medic near the front lines in eastern Ukraine, his civilian career as a surgeon was over. But thanks to a new bionic arm, he was able to continue working in health care and is now a rehab specialist helping other amputees. … Read more
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – In an improbable confluence of geopolitical strife, childhood wonder and salty air, a Ukrainian watchmaker has repaired a 118-year-old clock in eastern Newfoundland that hadn’t told time in decades. Liudmyla Pass, 68, had been in Newfoundland less than a month when she climbed the stairs to the long-silent clock … Read more
PRAGUE – National flags on public buildings were at half-staff and people across the Czech Republic are set to observe a minute of silence as the country holds a day of national mourning on Saturday to honor the victims of the worst mass killing in Czech history. The shooting inside a university building at the … Read more
LONDON – A criminal investigation was launched into the alleged abduction of British teenager Alex Batty, who was found last week in France six years after his mother and grandfather took him on a vacation and never returned home, Greater Manchester police said Friday. Batty, 17, returned to Oldham, near Manchester, on Saturday … Read more
ABUJA, Nigeria – France on Friday completed the withdrawal of its troops after they were asked to leave Niger by the country’s new junta, ending years of on-the-ground military support and raising concerns from analysts about a gap in the fight against jihadi violence across the Sahel region of Africa. The last French … Read more
NEW YORK – Inmates at New York City’s Rikers Island were kept locked in their cells for nearly half an hour while a fire spread through one of the nation’s largest and most notorious jail complexes this past April, injuring some 20 people, according to a report released Friday by an independent oversight agency. … Read more
