News in Brief

Date: 20 January 2023 - 21:31

News ID: ۱۱۱۵۲۷

APTOS, Calif.(Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday he has “no regrets” about his handling of classified documents found at his home and former office and that he believes the matter will be resolved. “I think you’re gonna find there’s nothing there,” Biden told reporters as he toured storm damage in California. “I have no regrets. I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. It’s exactly what we’re doing. There’s no there there.”  A series of classified documents were discovered by Biden’s attorneys on four separate occasions between November 2022, just ahead of the midterms, and last weekend.

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KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — At least 145 passengers are missing and feared dead after a motorized boat overloaded with goods and animals sank at night on a river in northwestern Congo, authorities said. About 55 people survived the disaster, officials said. The boat had been traveling to neighboring Republic of Congo when it went capsized the Lulonga River late Tuesday near the town of Basankusu. Jean-Pierre Wangela, the president of civil society groups in the area, told journalists that at least 145 people were missing. He blamed overloading for the boat’s demise, but said that locals have few other options.

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RASILIA (Reuters) — Brazil’s federal police on Friday carried out raids against people suspected of involvement in the Jan 8 storming of government buildings by supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro. A police statement said the operation was aimed at “identifying people who participated in, funded or fostered” the protests. It included 24 warrants covering five states and the capital Brasilia. On Jan 8, thousands of backers of Bolsonaro invaded and ransacked the Congress building, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court in the worst attack on state institutions since Brazil’s return to democracy in the 1980s.

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MOSCOW (TASS) - At least 15 Armenian servicemen were killed in a fire that broke out in the barracks that belong to a unit of the Armenian Armed Forces, Armenia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday. Three other servicemen were seriously injured and have been hospitalized, the ministry. The fire broke out at 00:30 Moscow time on Thursday (2130 GMT on Wednesday) in the barracks of the engineering and sniper company of a military unit.

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who became a global icon of the left and exemplified a new style of leadership, said Thursday that she would leave office. Just 37 when she became leader, Ardern was praised around the world for her handling of the nation’s worst-ever mass shooting and the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. But she faced mounting political pressures at home and a level of vitriol from some that hadn’t been experienced by previous New Zealand leaders.