DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria's prime minister said Monday that most cabinet ministers were back at work after rebels overthrew President Bashar Assad , but some state workers failed to return to their jobs, and a United Nations official said the country's public sector had come “to a complete and abrupt halt." Meanwhile, streams of refugees crossed back into Syria from neighboring countries, hoping for a more peaceful future and looking for relatives who disappeared during Assad's brutal rule. There were already signs of the difficulties ahead for the rebel alliance now in control of much of the country. The alliance is led by a former senior al-Qaida militant who severed ties with the extremist group years ago and has promised representative government and religious tolerance. The rebel command said Monday they would not tell women how to dress. “It is strictly forbidden to interfere with women’s dress or impose any request related to their clothing or appearance, including requests for modesty,” the command said in a statement on social media. Nearly two days after rebels entered the capital, some key government services had shut down after state workers ignored calls to go back to their jobs, the U.N. official said, causing issues at airports and borders and slowing the flow of humanitarian aid. Rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was long known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, also met for the first time with Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi Jalali, who stayed in Syria when Assad fled. “You will see there are skills" among the rebels, al-Sharaa said in a video shared on a rebel messaging channel. Israel said it carried out airstrikes on suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets to keep them from falling into the hands of extremists. Israel also seized a buffer zone inside Syria after Syrian troops withdrew. In northern Syria, Turkey said allied opposition forces seized the town of Manbij from Kurdish-led forces backed by the United States, a reminder that even after Assad's departure, the country remains split among armed groups that have fought in the past. The Kremlin said Russia has granted political asylum to Assad , a decision made by President Vladimir Putin . Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on Assad’s specific whereabouts and said Putin did not plan to meet with him. Damascus was quiet Monday, with life slowly returning to normal, though most shops and public institutions were closed. In public squares, some people were still celebrating. Civilian traffic resumed, but there was no public transport. Long lines formed in front of bakeries and other food stores. There was little sign of any security presence though in some areas, small groups of armed men were stationed in the streets. Across swathes of Syria, families are now waiting outside prisons , security offices and courts, hoping for news of loved ones who were imprisoned or who disappeared. Just north of Damascus in the feared Saydnaya military prison, women detainees, some with their children, screamed as rebels broke locks off their cell doors. Amnesty International and other groups say dozens of people were secretly executed every week in Saydnaya, and they estimate that up to 13,000 Syrians were killed between 2011 and 2016. “Don’t be afraid," one rebel said as he ushered women from packed cells. "Bashar Assad has fallen!” In southern Turkey , Mustafa Sultan was among hundreds of Syrian refugees waiting at border crossings to head home. He was searching for his older brother, who was imprisoned under Assad. “I haven’t seen him for 13 years," he said. "I am going to go see whether he’s alive.” Prime minister says government is operational, but UN official says it's paralyzed Jalali, the prime minister, has sought to project normalcy since Assad fled. “We are working so that the transitional period is quick and smooth,” he told Sky News Arabia TV on Monday, saying the security situation had already improved from the day before. At the court of Justice in Damascus, which was stormed by the rebels to free detainees, Judge Khitam Haddad, an aide to the justice minister in the outgoing government, said Sunday that judges were ready to resume work quickly. “We want to give everyone their rights,” Haddad said outside the courthouse. “We want to build a new Syria and to keep the work, but with new methods.” But a U.N. official said some government services had been paralyzed as worried state employees stayed home. The public sector “has just come to a complete and abrupt halt," said U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria Adam Abdelmoula, noting, for example, that an aid flight carrying urgently needed medical supplies had been put on hold after aviation employees abandoned their jobs. “This is a country that has had one government for 53 years and then suddenly all of those who have been demonized by the public media are now in charge in the nation’s capital,” Abdelmoula told The Associated Press. "I think it will take a couple of days and a lot of assurance on the part of the armed groups for these people to return to work again.” Britain, U.S. considering removing insurgent group from terror list Britain and the U.S. are both considering whether to remove the main anti-Assad rebel group from their lists of designated terrorist organizations. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham began as an offshoot of al-Qaida but cut ties with the group years ago and has worked to present a more moderate image. The group's leader, al-Sharaa, “is saying some of the right things about the protection of minorities, about respecting people’s rights,” British Cabinet minister Pat McFadden said, adding that a change would be considered “quite quickly.” But British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaking later during a visit to Saudi Arabia, said it was "far too early” to make that decision. In Washington, a Biden administration official noted that HTS will be an “important component” in Syria's future and that the U.S. needs to “engage with them appropriately.” Another administration official said the U.S. remains in a “wait and see” mode on whether to remove the designation. Both officials requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing internal deliberations. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that such designations are constantly under review. Even while it is in place, the designation does not bar U.S. officials from speaking with members or leaders of the group, he said. The U.S. also announced it was sending its special envoy for hostage affairs to Beirut to seek information about the whereabouts of Austin Tice, a journalist who vanished in Syria 12 years ago and who President Joe Biden has said is believed to be alive. Israel confirms it struck suspected chemical weapons and rockets Israelis welcomed the fall of Assad, who was a key ally of Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, while expressing concern over what comes next. Israel says its forces temporarily seized a buffer zone inside Syria dating back to a 1974 agreement after Syrian troops withdrew in the chaos. “The only interest we have is the security of Israel and its citizens," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters Monday. Saar did not provide details about the targets, but the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they included weapons warehouses, research centers, air defense systems and aircraft squadrons. Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in recent years, targeting what it says are military sites related to Iran and Hezbollah . Israeli officials rarely comment on individual strikes. Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons stockpile in 2013, after the government was accused of launching an attack near Damascus that killed hundreds of people . But it is widely believed to have kept some of the weapons and was accused of using them again in subsequent years. Turkey says its allies have taken northern town Officials in Turkey, which is the main supporter of the Syrian opposition to Assad, say its allies have taken full control of the northern Syrian city of Manbij from a U.S.-supported and Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. The SDF said a Turkish drone struck in the village of al-Mistriha in eastern Syria, killing 12 civilians, including six children. Turkey views the SDF, which is primarily composed of a Syrian Kurdish militia, as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey. The SDF has also been a key ally of the United States in the war against the Islamic State group. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday warned against allowing Islamic State or Kurdish fighters to take advantage of the situation, saying Turkey will prevent Syria from turning into a “haven for terrorism.” ___ Mroue reported from Beirut and Goldenberg from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Mehmet Guzel at the Oncupinar border crossing in Turkey, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, and Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. ___ Follow the AP's Syria coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/syria Sarah El Deeb, Bassem Mroue And Tia Goldenberg, The Associated PressSteer goes viral after walking through Tim Horton’s drive thru in central Alberta
North Korea calls for 'toughest' US strategy at party meeting
In a single term as governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter propelled the state into a new era. The acronyms for state offices that still populate news stories about Georgia government – DOT, DNR – are lasting reminders of the massive reorganization that was a hallmark of his administration. But his legacy had already been largely determined by the time he sat down from giving his inauguration speech on Jan. 12, 1971. “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over. Our people have already made this major and difficult decision,” Carter said as he stood in front of the Capitol, pronouncing the end of a painful era with an engineer’s perfunctory certainty. The shock value of those words would fade quickly as Georgia raced ahead over the following years. But on that stage, that day, they came as a thunderclap. The former governor, Lester Maddox, had sold his Atlanta restaurant rather than serve black customers. George Wallace, running in the presidential primaries on a defiantly segregationist platform, carried the state in the 1968 election. And the rural populist campaign Carter ran for governor against “Cufflinks Carl” Sanders reminded many observers of the Alabama governor’s anti-establishment style, with whiffs of appeals to segregationists. Although his family was considered relatively liberal on such matters, Carter had straddled the race issue in his campaign, remarking to a reporter that he had “no trouble pitching for Wallace votes and Black votes at the same time.” Dick Pettys, who was a young reporter for the Associated Press, remembers the impact of the governor’s inauguration speech, which would land Carter on the cover of Time magazine as one of the “New South” governors making a departure from the segregated past. “That just blew everybody away, because they thought he was a Democrat just like all the other Democrats,” Pettys recalled. Carter made the bold statement at the suggestion of David Rabhan, a retired Air Force colonel and businessman who piloted his campaign plane. Rabhan would later spend a decade in an Iranian prison on an espionage charge, with Carter lobbying for his release post-presidency. But Carter’s racial views had already undergone a complex evolution. Carter’s first political race, for state Senate in 1962, came about because of an opening that was an indirect result of the landmark Baker v. Carr U.S. Supreme Court case affirming the “one man, one vote” principle. In his book “Turning Point: A Candidate, a State and a Nation Come of Age,” Carter described how he came to see his own aspirations, returning to his home state from the Navy, at the same time that African Americans in Georgia began demanding their share in the political system. His Navy career as an officer working on Adm. Hyman Rickover’s nuclear submarine project was shortened by the the death of his father and the demands of his family’s peanut warehouse business. When he returned to Plains, Carter brought ideas about modernizing the state, as well as a methodical, tireless style. This quality was in evidence after Carter finished third in the Democratic primary in his first bid for governor in 1966. He quickly set about keeping his political network alive after his loss, traveling the state in preparation for the 1970 race, defeating Sanders, the early favorite, by nearly 20 points, and Republican Hal Suit by a similar margin. His major campaign pledge was to bring order to the tangle of agencies, boards and commissions in state government. He made good with a reorganization bill which passed the House by one vote. His work still forms the basic organization plan of much of state government. Carter brought new faces into state government, including banker Bert Lance, who was given the most politically sensitive job, replacing the powerful state highway director, Jim Gillis, whom Carter had promised to fire during the campaign. Lance, who would become director of the federal Office of Management and Budget under President Carter, oversaw the conversion of the Highway Department into the Department of Transportation and helped Carter in his dealings with legislators — no easy job in itself. Lance recalled in his autobiography one of those dealings when a senator dropped by and presumed to tell the new governor how to get along with the state Senate. “I was watching Carter’s forehead. He has a vein that throbs when he’s getting mad, and that thing was going, Pow! Pow!” Carter is recognized as the state’s first environmentalist governor, highlighted by his action in stopping a planned dam on the Flint River at what is now Sprewell Bluff State Park west of Thomaston. Later, as president, he would push and sign the documents that created the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in metro Atlanta, and other bills that set aside millions of acres in Alaska and the lower 48 states. During the 1979 energy crisis, he had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. President Ronald Reagan had them dismantled in 1986. While governor, he appointed more Blacks and women to positions in state government than any of his predecessors, enforced zero-based budgeting in the newly created departments, and won passage of a modest education plan. But by the end of his term, Carter’s relationship with the General Assembly had frayed. “He was fixated on doing things on time, and that irritated people to no end,” Pettys recalled. In those days, state law didn’t allow governors to run for a consecutive term. After four years of bruising political battles, it’s far from certain he could have been reelected. But more than a year before he left office, Carter had already announced he was running for president, and set his sights on broader horizons.
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Los Angeles Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Brian Williams was placed on administrative leave following an investigation into a bomb threat he allegedly made against City Hall earlier this year, Mayor Karen Bass’ office announced on Wednesday, Dec. 1. The Mayor’s Office was notified that the FBI searched Williams’ home Tuesday as part of their investigation, according to a statement from the office. “The mayor takes this matter very seriously,” Deputy Mayor of Communications Zach Seidl said in a statement. “When the threat was reported, LAPD investigated and determined there was no immediate danger. Following additional investigation, LAPD referred this matter to the FBI for further investigation.” According to a Los Angeles Police Department statement, the agency’s initial investigation determined Williams was likely the “source of the threat.” “Due to the department’s working relationship with Mr. Williams, the investigation was referred to the FBI,” LAPD said in a statement. “The FBI remains the investigating agency.” “No additional information is being released,” the LAPD added. A representative for the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Williams joined Bass’ office in March 2023. He was tasked with working closely with critical safety departments such as police, fire, Los Angeles World Airports police, and emergency. Prior to his appointment, Williams served seven years as the executive director of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission. Williams also previously served as deputy mayor under Mayor James Hahn, where he was responsible for the management and oversight of the Department of Transportation, Public Works and Information Technology Agency.Security forces accused of burning homes in Magway Region
Contecon Guayaquil receives Pacific International Lines’ largest vesselLos Angeles Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Brian Williams was placed on administrative leave following an investigation into a bomb threat he allegedly made against City Hall earlier this year, Mayor Karen Bass’ office announced on Wednesday, Dec. 1. The Mayor’s Office was notified that the FBI searched Williams’ home Tuesday as part of their investigation, according to a statement from the office. “The mayor takes this matter very seriously,” Deputy Mayor of Communications Zach Seidl said in a statement. “When the threat was reported, LAPD investigated and determined there was no immediate danger. Following additional investigation, LAPD referred this matter to the FBI for further investigation.” According to a Los Angeles Police Department statement, the agency’s initial investigation determined Williams was likely the “source of the threat.” “Due to the department’s working relationship with Mr. Williams, the investigation was referred to the FBI,” LAPD said in a statement. “The FBI remains the investigating agency.” “No additional information is being released,” the LAPD added. A representative for the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Williams joined Bass’ office in March 2023. He was tasked with working closely with critical safety departments such as police, fire, Los Angeles World Airports police, and emergency. Prior to his appointment, Williams served seven years as the executive director of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission. Williams also previously served as deputy mayor under Mayor James Hahn, where he was responsible for the management and oversight of the Department of Transportation, Public Works and Information Technology Agency.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Themus Fulks' 26 points helped Milwaukee defeat IU Indianapolis 88-81 on Sunday. Fulks also contributed five rebounds and five assists for the Panthers (10-4, 3-0 Horizon League). Kentrell Pullian scored 20 points while going 5 of 9 from the floor, including 4 for 7 from 3-point range, and 6 for 8 from the line. Erik Pratt shot 5 for 9, including 1 for 4 from beyond the arc to finish with 11 points. Sean Craig led the way for the Jaguars (5-10, 1-3) with 22 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Paul Zilinskas added 21 points and three steals for IU Indianapolis. Jarvis Walker finished with 12 points and four assists. Milwaukee's next game is Thursday against Oakland on the road. IU Indianapolis hosts Youngstown State on Wednesday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .