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Bill Clinton in Hospital for Non-COVID-Related Infection

Former President Bill Clinton was admitted to a Southern California hospital Tuesday with an infection but he is "on the mend," his spokesman said.

Clinton, 75, was admitted to the University of California Irvine Medical Center on Tuesday evening for a non-COVID-related infection, Angel Ureña said Thursday in a statement.

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Greece, U.S. Expand Defense Pact in Face of Turkey Tensions

The United States and Greece signed a deal Thursday expanding their defense cooperation agreement to grant U.S. forces broader use of Greek bases, as that nation deals with tensions between it and neighboring Turkey.

The deal, signed in Washington by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, will allow U.S. forces to train and operate "in an expanded capacity" at four additional bases in Greece, Dendias said.

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Yemen Economy Collapsing, Humanitarian Crisis Rising

Yemen's economy is collapsing, its humanitarian crisis is worsening, and the conflict in the Arab world's poorest nation is growing more violent, the U.N.'s deputy humanitarian chief said Thursday.

The grim remarks by Assistant Secretary-General Ramesh Rajasingham came during a briefing to the U.N. Security Council. More than 20 million Yemenis — two-thirds of the population — need humanitarian assistance, but aid agencies, he said, "are, once again, starting to run out of money."

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Israeli Army Says Troops Kill Palestinian Firebomb Suspect

The Israeli military on Thursday said that troops shot and killed a Palestinian who was throwing firebombs at cars on a main highway in the occupied West Bank.

A military statement said that soldiers opened fire at two suspects spotted throwing firebombs near Beit Jala, a Palestinian town south of Jerusalem. It said one of the suspects was hit and died of his wounds, while the second was detained.

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Lebanon Pauses amid Tense Calm after Deadly Gun Battles

Schools, banks and government offices across Lebanon shut down Friday after hours of gun battles between armed groups killed seven people and terrorized the residents of Beirut and its suburbs.

The government called for a day of mourning following the armed clashes, in which gunmen used automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades on the streets of the capital's edge and suburbs, echoing the nation's darkest era of the 1975-90 civil war. The gun battles raised the specter of a return to sectarian violence in a country already struggling through one of the world's worst economic crises of the past 150 years.

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Cyprus: Exxonmobil to Gauge Gas Field Size in 6-8 Weeks

Drilling by ExxonMobil set for late next month to confirm how much natural gas is contained in a sizable deposit off Cyprus' southwestern coast will map out how the fuel will reach potential markets in Europe and Asia, the island nation's energy minister said on Wednesday.

Minister Natasa Pilides says the "significant" drilling at the 'Glaucus-1' well inside block 10 of Cyprus' exclusive zone scheduled to start in 6-8 weeks will determine if the deposit is at the higher or lower end of its estimated size of 5-8 trillion cubic feet (142-227 billion cubic meters) of natural gas.

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Assailant with Bow and Arrows Kills 5 People in Norway

A man armed with a bow fired arrows at shoppers in a small Norwegian town Wednesday, killing five people before he was arrested, authorities said.

The police chief in the community of Kongsberg, near the capital of Oslo, said there was "a confrontation" between officers and the assailant, but he did not elaborate. Two other people were wounded and hospitalized in intensive care, including an officer who was off duty and inside the shop where the attack took place, police said.

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Strongest Quake since Volcano Erupted Shakes Spanish Island

A 4.5-magnitude earthquake shook La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands in what was the strongest recorded temblor since volcanic eruptions began 26 days ago, authorities said Thursday.

The quake was one of around 60 recorded overnight, Spain's National Geographic Institute said, as the Cumbre Vieja volcano continued to spew fiery rivers of lava that are destroying everything in their path and dumping molten rock into the Atlantic Ocean.

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Israel Says Palestinian Car-Ramming Wounds Paramilitary

A Palestinian driver struck and moderately wounded a member of Israel's paramilitary Border Police at a major checkpoint north of Jerusalem overnight, the police said Thursday.

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U.S. Does Not Support Normalization of Relations with Syria

The United States does not support efforts to normalize relations with the government of President Bashar Assad or lift sanctions imposed on Damascus until there is progress in the political process in the war-torn country, the U.S. secretary of state said Wednesday.

Antony Blinken's comments come as some Arab countries recently began improving relations with Syria. Assad and King Abdullah II of Jordan spoke over the phone last week for the first time since Syria's conflict began in March 2011. Syria's defense minister last month visited Jordan and met with Jordanian military officials.

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