'My baby brother, Clifton Oliver, has had his final curtain call,' Oliver's sister Roxy Hall shared

Volodymyr Zelensky said he has decided to dismiss his war-time defence minister Oleksii Reznikov and would ask parliament this week to replace him with Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s main privatisation fund. “I’ve decided to replace the Minister of Defence of Ukraine. Oleksii Reznikov has been through more than 550 days of full-scale war,” he said, adding that he “believes the ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society as a whole”. The exit of lawyer-turned-politician Reznikov marks the biggest shakeup of Ukraine’s defence establishment during the war launched by Russia in February 2022. While he secured billions of dollars of Western military aid to help the war effort, Reznikov has been dogged by graft allegations surrounding his ministry that he described as smears. This comes as Russia launched a major drone strike on Ukraine’s grain exporting port in Odesa region this morning. The three and a half hour long drone assault damaged warehouses and set buildings on fire just hours before Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, were due to hold talks on the halted grain deal. Read More President Zelensky nominates Rustem Umerov as Ukraine’s new defence minister Russian cyber-attacks ‘relentless’ as threat of WW3 grows, expert warns Ukraine ‘targets critical bridge’ built by Putin as counteroffensive ‘breaks through on southern front’

The ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform is asking the Republican chair in charge to refer former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder to the Department of Justice for lying under oath. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin wrote a letter earlier this week to Kentucky Rep. James Comer urging him to send the case to the DOJ to determine if Snyder should be prosecuted for making false statements in his deposition and obstructing a congressional investigation. Raskin pointed to the results of the NFL’s independent review by former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White that contradicted Snyder’s testimony, specifically about sexually harassing a former employee and deliberately underreporting revenue to avoid sharing it with other owners. The league fined Snyder $60 million for sexual harassment and financial improprieties last month as part of the completion of his sale of the team to a group led by Josh Harris for a North American professional sports record $6.05 billion. “Making false statements to Congress and obstructing congressional investigations are serious crimes,” Raskin wrote in the letter dated Wednesday. “This Committee cannot conduct effective oversight if witnesses misrepresent and obscure the truth.” A message sent by The Associated Press to Comer's office for a response was not immediately returned. A representative for Raskin said his office had nothing to add beyond the letter. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

Former NFL player Sergio Brown is missing, and his mother was found dead Saturday near a creek in a Chicago suburb, according to police.

JOHANNESBURG Leaders of the BRICS group of developing nations have invited Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and

Prosecutors say a Colorado man charged with killing 10 people at a Boulder supermarket in 2021 is competent to proceed toward a trial

The US Justice Department has opened a federal hate crime investigation after an Illinois landlord allegedly stabbed a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy to death and seriously wounded his mother because the family is Muslim.

By Dan Burns A walkout by more than 12,000 autoworkers on Friday could slow an outperforming U.S. economy

Asian shares were mostly lower Thursday in subdued trading on looming worries about China property woes

President Joe Biden is dispatching his top diplomat to Israel on an urgent mission to show U.S. support after major terrorist attacks by Hamas militants

Researchers at Google DeepMind, the tech giant's artificial intelligence arm, on Tuesday introduced a tool that predicts whether genetic mutations are likely to cause harm, a breakthrough that...

A French man has been accused of drugging his wife and then recording at least 51 men raping her while she slept, in attacks that took place between 2011 and 2020. Dominique P, a pensioner who had been married for more than 50 years, allegedly mixed the anti-anxiety drug Lorazepam into his wife’s evening meal, La Monde reported. He would then invite his ‘‘guests’’ into their house to rape his sleeping wife. A total of 51 men between the ages of 26-73 have been identified, arrested and charged with rape following an inquiry launched in 2020 in the southern city of Avignon. The suspect, from nearby Mazan, reportedly found the men on “a son insu” - a French internet forum where members discuss performing sexual acts on women without their consent and often when they are drugged. The exchanges on the web forum were erased after being linked to a criminal investigation into paedophile, racist or anti-Semitic content and the sale of illicit substances. Law enforcement officials learned about the videos during a preliminary investigation three years ago when the suspect was caught trying to film woman in a changing room with a hidden camera. The videos were found on the man’s computer, where they were meticulously archived in a file called ‘‘Abuses’’. The titles of the hundreds of videos indicate a date, a first name and the nature of the actions, according to the French newspaper. Investigators have identified 92 cases of sexual assault of the woman by 83 suspects, but are yet to identify all the men. Tobacco and perfume were banned by the husband in order to avoid strong smells that could waken his wife. The men were asked to wash their hands in warm water to avoid sudden a temperature change and were made to undress in the kitchen to avoid leaving clothes in the bedroom. The ‘‘guests’’ had to park near a school and walk in the dark to the house to avoid raising neighbours’ suspicion. Some claimed they had no idea the wife had not consented to the sexual acts, while one person denied it was rape, saying: ‘‘It’s his wife, he does what he likes with her.’’ According to prosecutors in Avignon, the suspect insisted that ‘‘none of the men who came to his house gave up going through with sexual acts on his wife given her state’’. ‘‘He never used violence or threats against anyone so that rapes would be committed. Each individual was in possession of his free will to stop these acts and leave,’’ the prosecutors said. When the woman was asked to talk about her husband in November 2020 during the initial investigation, she described him as a ‘‘great guy’’ and ‘‘kind and caring’’. She said he tried to get her to agree to partner-swapping but she refused as ‘‘she didn’t like to be touched without having feelings (for someone)’’. When the police informed her of the tapes, she reportedly began pieceing together the past. The woman said she had flashbacks and that the drugging could have been the reason behind her frequent fatigue and ‘‘absent-mindedness’’. Medical examinations found she had been infected with four sexually transmitted diseases. If the investigating magistrate follows the prosecutor’s indictment, a ‘‘historic trial’’ is expected to take place early next year with 52 defendants in the same box. The woman has filed for a divorce. Read More Where abortion laws stand in every state a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe The sex abuse convictions of a man at the center of a tribal sovereignty ruling have been reversed Andrew Tate denies making money from trafficking women as he appears in Romanian court Germany sees opportunity in nuclear fusion, but funding for research remains uncertain Russia-backed officials say explosion damages bridge linking Ukraine's mainland to Crimea Rescuers search for person feared missing under rubble after Paris blast injures 37