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Basic services resume at Syrian camp housing IS families as government takes control

Basic services at a camp in northeast Syria holding thousands of women and children linked to the Islamic State group are returning to normal after government forces captured the facility from Kurdish fighters, a United Nations official said on Thursday.

Forces of Syria's central government captured al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, that had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade. A ceasefire deal has since ended the fighting.

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Facing high Trump tariffs, South Africa says it's close to new trade deal with China

China and South Africa signed a framework agreement for a new trade deal on Friday as Africa's leading economy looks to other options following the high import tariffs imposed on it by the U.S. and its diplomatic fallout with the Trump administration.

South Africa's Ministry of Trade and Industry said the agreement would start negotiations over a deal that would give some South African goods, such as fruit, duty-free access to the Chinese market. The ministry said it expected the trade deal to be finalized by the end of March.

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Pakistan's capital erupts in color as kite-flying Basant festival ends 20-year hiatus

A burst of color lit up Lahore's night sky overnight as Pakistan's cultural capital relaunched the Basant kite-flying festival after nearly two decades.

Authorities said Friday that the celebration has been allowed only under strict safety regulations, warning that the use of hazardous kite strings that endanger lives could lead to arrests.

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EU accuses TikTok of 'addictive design' that harms children

The European Union on Friday accused TikTok of breaching the bloc's digital rules with "addictive design" features that lead to compulsive use by children, in preliminary charges that strike at the heart of the popular video sharing app's operating model.

EU regulators said their two-year investigation found that TikTok hasn't done enough to assess how features such as autoplay and infinite scroll could harm the physical and mental health of users, including minors and "vulnerable adults."

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Suicide bombing at Islamabad Shiite mosque kills at least 31

A suicide bomber targeted a Shiite mosque on the outskirts of Islamabad during Friday prayers, killing 31 people and wounding at least 169 others, officials said, a rare bombing in Pakistan's capital as its Western-allied government struggles to rein in a surge in militant attacks across the country.

Television footage and social media images showed police and residents transporting the wounded to nearby hospitals. Some of the wounded in the attack on the sprawling mosque of Khadija Al-Kubra were reported to be in critical condition.

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Tech shares, bitcoin stabilize after a week of severe declines

Wall Street was poised to open with gains early Friday as the technology sector clawed back a small portion of this week's losses and bitcoin's slide appeared to stabilize.

Futures for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each rose 0.5% before markets opened. Nasdaq futures climbed 0.6%.

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Thousands of Libyans gather for Gadhafi's son funeral

Thousands converged on Friday in northwestern Libya for the funeral of Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son and one-time heir apparent of Libya's late leader Moammar Gadhafi, who was killed earlier this week when four masked assailants stormed into his home and fatally shot him.

Mourners carried his coffin in the town of Bani Walid, 146 kilometers (91 miles) southeast of the capital, Tripoli, as well as large photographs of both Seif al-Islam, who was known mostly by his first name, and his father.

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Deputy chief of Russia's military intelligence service shot and wounded in Moscow

A deputy chief of Russia's military intelligence agency was shot and wounded in Moscow on Friday in an attack that follows a series of assassinations of senior military officers that Russia has blamed on Ukraine.

Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev was hospitalized after being shot several times by an unidentified assailant at an apartment building in northwestern Moscow, Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement.

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Russia, US discussed nuclear arms and agreed talks need to start soon

Russian and U.S. negotiators discussed the expiration of the last remaining nuclear arms pact between the two countries and agreed on the need to quickly launch new arms control talks, the Kremlin said Friday.

The New START treaty terminated Thursday, leaving no caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century and fueling fears of an unconstrained nuclear arms race.

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Israel targets south and east Lebanon with series of strikes

An Israeli drone dropped Friday a stun grenade on the outskirts of Yaroun after overnight artillery shelling on the southern border town.

On Thursday, Israeli airstrikes targeted several regions in south and east Lebanon, with the Israeli army saying it targeted "Hezbollah" sites.

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