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Ship burns as Iran claims 3 tankers hit mines in Strait of Hormuz

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BY Associated Press | POSTED BY TOE Iran says three tankers struck mines and exploded while attempting to exit the Strait of Hormuz through an unauthorized route. Israelis are awaiting final election results as allegations of foreign interference have emerged. And in Yemen, Iran-backed Houthi rebels said a Saudi strike killed 12 people, and another hit a paint factory and could release toxins into the water and soil near the besieged city of Taiz . Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Thursday. Read our full coverage here . Iran says 3 oil tankers struck mines in the Strait of Hormuz Iran said three oil tankers exploded and caught fire after striking naval mines over the past 24 hours while attempting to transit an unauthorized route in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the state broadcaster, which cited the Revolutionary Guard Corps. The report did not identify the tankers or provide details about casualties. The Associated Press could not immedia...
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Spain reckons with second deadly train crash of the year ahead of national election

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BY JOSEPH WILSON and IAIN SULLIVAN, Associated Press | Posted by TOE Spain’s second high-speed rail disaster this year, in which one train struck another from behind, killing 69 people, has raised fresh concerns about the safety of the country’s rail network ahead of a national election. Search teams with sniffer dogs continued to look for victims on Thursday morning, a day after the collision in central Spain. Cranes shifted the carriages as police and soldiers picked through the wreckage strewn down the gravel slope where at least three train carriages were tossed by the impact. One more body was found overnight, taking the death toll to 69, according to the regional leader of Castilla La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page. He added that 50 people remained hospitalized. “Yesterday we experienced a catastrophe that without a doubt has left all of Spain in shock,” García-Page said. “Besides bodies, there are body parts that need to be identified.” Spain’s government decl...
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Flávio Bolsonaro flees Brazil after presidential election loss

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By MAURICIO SAVARESE AP | POSTED BY TOE Flávio Bolsonaro, the defeated Brazilian presidential candidate, fled his country to Argentina and is en route to Ecuador alongside his wife and two daughters, Argentina’s migration authority said on Wednesday. The 45-year-old senator and his family were granted United States visas the day before by the Trump administration. The move is almost certain to cause a big diplomatic rift between Brazil’s newly reelected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei, who traveled to Brazil to take part in Bolsonaro’s campaign. Brazil’s Supreme Court had ordered Bolsonaro to hand over his passports. Argentina’s migration authority said on X that Bolsonaro, his wife Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro, and his daughters Carolina Figueira Bolsonaro, and Luiza Figueira Bolsonaro crossed into the country at 10:50 p.m. It added the three entered via the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, a primary border check...
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Israel to give verdict on Netanyahu in pivotal election

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By Alice CHANCELLOR AFP | Posted by TOE A deeply divided Israel headed to the polls on Tuesday for the first time since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, with voters delivering their verdict on veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s rightward drift. Israelis are casting their ballots in the shadow of three years of multi-front regional wars triggered by October 7, with the trauma still fresh and questions over accountability and security central to the campaign. The close-fought vote comes as Israel looks increasingly isolated on the world stage, driven by a devastating military campaign in Gaza, soaring settlement construction and violence in the occupied West Bank, along with a move towards hard-right religious nationalism. The last opinion polls to be published showed Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, running neck and neck with his main centrist rival Gadi Eisenkot, a political novice and former military chief wh...
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Longtime Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic concedes election to student movement

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By Darryl Coote & Rob Johnson UPI | Posted by TOE Serbia’s longtime nationalist leader Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat Sunday in snap parliamentary elections to a student-led opposition movement. Citing preliminary results that showed his right-wing party trailing, Vucic told supporters at the headquarters of his Serbian Progressive Party that it was “clear that we have lost these elections,” he said, according to a statement from his party. “We don’t have the final results. Many will be surprised, and you will realize how much some people have lied and what they have fabricated. I want to inform you that the student-led protest list has won.” The concession came after a record number of voters cast their ballot, with local pollsters and monitors putting turnout at 67.6%, the highest since the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1992. Vucic has been in office for 12 years. The defeat of Vucic, who resigned as president Sept. 2...
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Serbia votes in historic election as students seek to end Vucic’s long grip on power

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By Mina PEJAKOVIC AFP | Posted by TOE Voting was under way in Serbia on Sunday in what is set to be its most fiercely contested parliamentary election in more than 14 years, as a student-led movement seeks to oust the party of veteran leader Aleksandar Vucic. The snap vote is the culmination of nearly two years of student-led protests sparked by the 2024 collapse of a canopy at Novi Sad railway station that killed 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on corruption. The disaster triggered some of Serbia’s largest protests since the fall of strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. The Students’ List, a selection of candidates backed by the largely leaderless movement, now poses the biggest challenge to Vucic’s right-wing populist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which has dominated politics throughout its tenure. – High turnout – Eighteen electoral lists are vying for seats in Serbia’s 250-member parliament, but polls suggest ...
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Hundreds of flights cancelled as Typhoon Champi shuts Taiwan

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By Associated Press | Posted by TOE   Taiwan shut down schools and offices and grounded hundreds of flights as Typhoon Champi brushed by the island Friday, packing strong winds and torrential rains. Champi peaked at 298 kph (185 mph) maximum sustained winds earlier this week but has weakened to 155 kph (96 mph) winds as it approached Taiwan from the southwest. Its center is forecast to remain offshore as it sweeps by the island’s northeastern tip before turning north toward Japan’s southwestern islands. Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration urged residents in coastal areas to avoid outdoor activities and driving and be cautious of falling objects. One person was killed Thursday after being swept by waves in Liuqiu, a small island off the southeastern coast of Taiwan’s main island, according to the fire department. Ninety-four others were injured in the storm. Almost 1,300 people have been evacuated from vulnerable, mountainous areas, the government said. ...
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