Greece OKs new Macedonia name
ATHENS, Greece -- Greek lawmakers ratified an agreement Friday to end a nearly three-decade-long dispute over neighboring Macedonia's name, in a vote that will see the small country renamed North Macedonia and clear its path to NATO membership.
The deal passed with 153 votes in the 300-member parliament, two more than needed. It has faced fierce opposition in both countries, and recently cost Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras his parliamentary majority after a small right-wing party quit the governing coalition in protest. It passed with the support of independent lawmakers.
Under the deal, Macedonia changes its name to North Macedonia, and Greece drops its objections to the country joining NATO and eventually the European Union.
With Greek parliament's ratification, the agreement is almost complete although some procedural steps remain, including Greece signing its northern neighbor's NATO accession protocol.
The Macedonian government issued a statement congratulating the people of both countries. "The Balkans, Europe and the world have received a new model for building friendships and cooperation between nations and states," it said.
The ratification was quickly welcomed by both NATO and the European Union.
Explosions deadly in Chinese city
HONG KONG -- At least one person was killed and another was injured in a series of explosions Friday afternoon in the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun, authorities said.
The police are tentatively treating the explosions as "a criminal case," the propaganda office of the Changchun Municipal Communist Party Committee said in a statement posted online. The blasts began when a car burst into flames in an underground parking lot, followed by explosions from an apartment building at the Wanda Shopping Plaza, according to the statement.
The explosions sent pedestrians running from the shopping center. Cellphone videos posted on social media showed a series of blasts, some high in the apartment tower and others near the ground level of the building.
Beijing Youth Daily, a state-owned newspaper, reported that some residents said they saw explosives being thrown from the building, but an official would not confirm those accounts.
In July, a man set off an explosion outside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, badly injuring his hand. The police said he suffered from hallucinations and had been diagnosed with a paranoid personality disorder.
Israeli forces kill man, teen at protests
GAZA, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man in Gaza as thousands took part Friday in a protest along the border that was fueled in part by Hamas’ rejection of Qatari aid.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teen and wounded another as a group of young men hurled stones at the troops.
The infusion of $15 million from Qatar would have been used to pay civil servants in the Hamas-ruled strip, but the militant group on Thursday declined to accept the funds. Israel must permit the aid because the money is delivered through its territory, and a Hamas official said the group was protesting Israeli delays and “blackmail.”
In turn, Qatar said Friday that it was redirecting the money to U.N. humanitarian projects in Gaza.
Hamas also vowed to escalate the weekly demonstrations, which it has organized since last March to highlight the strip’s dire economic conditions, exacerbated by more than a decade of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
Hamas opposes Israel’s existence; Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from arming its fighters.
The Hamas-run health ministry said Ehab Abed, 25, was critically shot on Friday in the chest along the fence east of the town of Rafah in southern Gaza Strip and died soon afterward. At least 22 other Palestinians were wounded by gunfire, including 14 children, at locations along the fence, it said.
Dam at mine fails; spill kills 7 Brazilians
SAO PAULO -- An iron ore tailings dam collapsed Friday in southeastern Brazil, inundating a nearby community in reddish-brown sludge, killing at least seven people and leaving scores of others missing.
Parts of the city of Brumadinho were evacuated, and firefighters rescued people by helicopter and ground vehicles. The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and an administrative office for Brazilian mining company Vale SA, where employees were present.
"I've never seen anything like it," Josiele Rosa Silva Tomas, president of Brumadinho residents association, said by phone. "It was horrible ... the amount of mud that took over."
Silva Tomas said she was awaiting news of her cousin, and many people she knew were trying to get news of loved ones.
Seven bodies had been recovered by late Friday, according to a statement from the governor's office of Minas Gerais state.
Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman said he did not know what caused the collapse. About 300 employees were working when it happened. About 100 had been accounted for, and rescue efforts were underway to determine what had happened to the others.
Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in Mariana, Minas Gerais, in 2015, resulting in 19 deaths and dislocating hundreds from their homes.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 01/26/2019