The European charity’s ship Ocean Viking spotted the dinghy with 25 people on board Wednesday. The other 23 were in serious condition, exhausted, dehydrated and with burns from fuel on board the boat. Humanitarian organizations often rely on accounts of survivors when pulling together the numbers of dead and missing at sea, presumed to have died. The survivors said the boat departed Zawiya, Libya with about 85 people on board, including some women and at least one small child. Ocean Viking has been directed by Italian authorities to the port of Ancona, in the central Marche region, Creazzo said.

Survivors rescued from a deflating rubber dinghy in the central Mediterranean Sea have reported that some 60 people who departed Libya with them a week ago perished during the journey, the humanitarian rescue group SOS Mediterranee said Thursday. SOS Mediterranee spokesperson Francesco Creazzo said that the survivors were all male, 12 of them minors with two of those not yet teenagers. A migrant is helped evacuate a partially deflated rubber dinghy by the rescue personnel of the SOS Mediterranee humanitarian ship Ocean Viking in the Central Mediterranean Sea, Wednesday, March 12, 2024. Johanna de Tessieres/ SOS Mediterranee via APCreazzo said the survivors were traumatized and unable to give full accounts of what had transpired during the voyage. The survivors' boat departed from Zawiya, Libya, seven days before the rescue, SOS Mediterranee said.

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors said Thursday they're open to delaying the start of Donald Trump's New York hush-money criminal trial to give the former president's lawyers time to review evidence that was only recently turned over. NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors said Thursday they're open to delaying the start of Donald Trump's New York hush-money criminal trial to give the former president's lawyers time to review evidence that was only recently turned over. The Manhattan district attorney's office said in a court filing that it's not opposed to adjourning the start of the trial for not more than 30 days. Jury selection in the trial is scheduled to begin March 25. Trump's lawyers are seeking an 90-day delay or the dismissal of charges against Trump, alleging violations of what's known as the discovery process, where the sides exchange evidence.

For Mustafa Balhaj, a 64-year-old retired teacher from Al-Khums, a coastal city in Libya, the plastic waste increasingly burying his hometown’s beaches was distressing. “Our beaches were covered in piles of garbage and construction debris.”Across Libya plastic is either buried in landfills, where it can potentially contaminate soil and water; incinerated, releasing toxic pollutants into the atmosphere; or simply piled up. Libya creates 350,000 metric tons (386,000 tons) of plastic waste each year, according to General Services Company (GSC), a government entity that oversees waste management. Balhaj had no answers for some of these pressing issues, but he saw in the increasing plastic waste a place where he could make a difference. Enabling the VulnerableOnly 37 miles (59 kilometers) southeast of Al-Khums, in Zliten, revenues from recycling plastic are supporting vulnerable people in another way.

A European humanitarian aid group said on Thursday that about 50 migrants died after their small boat deflated during an attempt to cross the central Mediterranean Sea. A ship belonging to the charity, SOS Mediterranee, spotted the deflating rubber dinghy on Wednesday, in international waters under the Libyan rescue jurisdiction. The survivors told the charity that they had been adrift for four days, since the engine on their dinghy broke. Some 50 other people were with them when they departed from the Libyan port of Zawiya, they told the rescuers, including two infants and four women. Valeria Taurino, the director general of SOS Mediterranee, said the situation on board was “disastrous.”

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed his longtime economic adviser to be the next prime minister in the face of U.S. pressure to reform the Palestinian Authority as part of Washington's postwar vision for Gaza. But those plans face major obstacles, including strong opposition from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Israel-Hamas war that is still grinding on with no end in sight. Mustafa was born in the West Bank town of Tulkarem in 1954 and earned a doctorate in business administration and economics from George Washington University. He has held senior positions at the World Bank and previously served as deputy prime minister and economy minister. Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Abdoulaye Bathily, met today with the Municipal and Social Councils of the Warfalla tribes in the city of Bani Walid to discuss the city’s role in national reconciliation efforts. According to Abdulmajeed Al-Jamal, the director of the media office at the Bani Walid Municipality, Bathily engaged in consultations with the leaders of the Municipal Council and the Social Council of the Warfalla tribes regarding Bani Walid’s contribution to national reconciliation and ways to ensure free and transparent elections in Libya, ultimately aiming to end the phases of political division. Al-Jamal stated that this visit is part of the regular consultations Bathily conducts with various Libyan components and parties.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A woman's “illegal buying spree” armed a man with the high-powered firearms that he used to kill three Minnesota first responders during a standoff at a home where seven children were inside, federal authorities said Thursday. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A woman's “illegal buying spree” armed a man with the high-powered firearms that he used to kill three Minnesota first responders during a standoff at a home where seven children were inside, federal authorities said Thursday. Luger said Dyrdahl bought five weapons from two licensed dealers for Gooden, including those that killed the three first responders. Gooden refused to leave but said he was unarmed and that he had children inside. But just before 5:30 a.m., the bureau said, Gooden opened fire on officers inside without warning.

Wilders took to X, formerly Twitter, to say that “I can only become premier if ALL parties in the coalition support that. Because the voice of millions of Dutch people will be heard!”Wilders' party holds 37 seats in the 150-seat lower house of the Dutch parliament. Polls since the election show that support for Wilders' party continues to grow. While the exact contours of a new coalition Cabinet remain unclear, Putters believes that the parties are now ready to hammer out a deal. “My expectation is that these parties will take the next step in the Cabinet formation,” Putters told reporters Tuesday night.

MILAN (AP) — Survivors rescued from a deflating rubber dinghy in the central Mediterranean Sea have reported that some 60 people who departed Libya with them more than a week ago perished during the journey, the humanitarian rescue group SOS Mediterranee said Thursday. The European charity’s ship Ocean Viking spotted the dinghy with 25 people on board Wednesday. Humanitarian organizations often rely on accounts of survivors when pulling together the numbers of dead and missing at sea, presumed to have died. The survivors said the boat departed Zawiya, Libya with about 85 people on board, including some women and at least one small child. Ocean Viking has been directed by Italian authorities to the port of Ancona, in the central Marche region, Creazzo said.

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) — An explosion during an indoor training exercise Wednesday sent 16 members of Southern California's Orange County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team to the hospital, with one person requiring surgery for a leg injury, the department said. The blast occurred shortly before 1 p.m. at the facility in a remote area of Irvine, said sheriff's Sgt. The most severe injury was a non-life-threatening leg wound that will require surgery, Gonzalez said. The two other wounded deputies won't require surgery, he said. The facility south of Los Angeles hosts firearms training and qualifications tests for the FBI and local law enforcement agencies, Eimiller said.

Survivors aboard a deflating rubber dinghy rescued in the central Mediterranean Sea have reported that some 60 people who departed Libya with them a week ago perished during the journey, the humanitarian rescue group SOS Mediterranee has said. The European charity’s ship Ocean Viking spotted the dinghy with 25 people on board on Wednesday. SOS Mediterranee spokesman Francesco Creazzo said that the survivors were all men, 12 of them minors with two of those not yet teenagers. The survivors were from Senegal, Mali and Gambia, SOS Mediterranee said (Johanna de Tessieres/ SOS Mediterranee via AP)Humanitarian organisations often rely on accounts of survivors when pulling together the numbers of dead and missing at sea, presumed to have died. Ocean Viking has been directed by Italian authorities to the port of Ancona, in the central Marche region, Mr Creazzo said.

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese high court ruled Thursday that denying same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and called for urgent government action to address the lack of any law allowing for such unions. TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese high court ruled Thursday that denying same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and called for urgent government action to address the lack of any law allowing for such unions. Five previous court decisions in various cities said Japan’s policy of denying same-sex marriage is either unconstitutional or nearly so. The court said the government’s lack of effort to implement legal marriage equality is not unconstitutional, but expressed hope for the parliament to enact a law for same-sex marriage. While Japan’s conservative government has been criticized as stonewalling diversity, recent surveys show a majority of Japanese back legalizing same-sex marriage.

ROME, March 14 — As many as 60 people are feared to have drowned on a vessel carrying migrants across the Mediterranean from Libya, the operators of a charity rescue group said today. SOS Mediterranee said it rescued 25 people in a “very weak” condition in coordination with the Italian Coast Guard yesterday and that two unconscious people were flown to Sicily by helicopter. “The survivors departed from Zawiya, Libya, seven days before they were rescued,” SOS Mediterranee posted on the social media platform X. “Their engine broke after three days, leaving their boat lost (and) adrift without water and food for days. Survivors report that at least 60 people perished on the way, including women and at least one child,” it added.

SOS Mediterranee spokesman Francesco Creazzo said that the survivors were all men, 12 of them minors with two of those not yet teenagers. The survivors were from Senegal, Mali and Gambia, SOS Mediterranee said (Johanna de Tessieres/ SOS Mediterranee via AP)Mr Creazzo said the survivors were traumatised and unable to give full accounts of what had transpired during the voyage. Humanitarian organisations often rely on accounts of survivors when pulling together the numbers of dead and missing at sea, presumed to have died. Survivors said the boat departed Zawiya in Libya with 75 people on board (Johanna de Tessieres/ SOS Mediteranee via AP)This was out of a total 279 deaths in the Mediterranean since January 1. The survivors said the boat departed Zawiya, Libya with 75 people on board, including some women and at least one small child.