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Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist arrested last month in Iran while on a reporting trip, was released and was returning to Italy on Wednesday, the Italian government said in a statement.Ms. Sala, who had a journalist's visa, was arrested on December 19 on charges of violating the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but officials provided no further details."The plane bringing journalist Cecilia Sala home took off a few minutes ago from Tehran," the Italian government announced on Wednesday morning, adding that "thanks to intense work on diplomatic and intelligence channels, our compatriot has been released by the Iranian authorities."Ms Sala, 29, was held for 20 days and told her family she was kept in an isolation cell, with only two blankets and constant light.Fars, a news agency aff...

Taiwan is investigating whether a China-linked vessel was responsible for damaging one of the undersea cables connecting Taiwan to the Internet, the latest reminder of how vulnerable Taiwan's critical infrastructure is to damage from China.The incident comes as anxiety grows in Europe over alleged acts of sabotage, including those targeting undersea communications cables. Two fiber optic cables under the Baltic Sea were severed in November, prompting authorities in Sweden, Finland and Lithuania to stop a Chinese-flagged commercial vessel in the area for weeks over its possible involvement.In Taiwan, communications were quickly diverted after the damage was detected and no major disruptions occurred. The island's main telecommunications provider, Chunghwa Telecom, received notification Frid...

President-elect Donald J. Trump said Tuesday that "all hell will break loose in the Middle East" if hostages held by Hamas are not released by Inauguration Day, repeating the threat four times during a wide-ranging news conference at his headquarters. Mar-a-Lago Estate in Florida.“If they don't come back when I take office, all hell will break loose in the Middle East,” he told reporters. “And it won't be good for Hamas, and frankly it won't be good for anyone. All hell will break loose. I don't have to say anything else, but that's how it is."Trump has not said what actions he might take if the hostages are not released before he takes office. And he declined to provide details about what he or his advisers are doing in the days leading up to the inauguration. Officials say about 100 host...

Snakes like these are giants. Black mambas can stretch up to 14 feet, and the longest king cobra ever recorded was 19 feet.Puff adders are small, by contrast, up to six inches short and no longer than six feet, but very thick. They have long, retractable fangs that can deliver venom to muscles.Their venom destroys blood clotting factors and victims die a slow, gruesome death, bleeding into the brain, eyes and mouth.Identifying the attacker can help personalize treatment. But many people never see the snake that bites them, or if they do, they can't identify it. To the untrained eye, venomous snakes may appear indistinguishable from harmless ones.The names don't make it any easier. Green mambas are green, but black mambas are light gray to dark brown; they are so called because the inside o...

Aleksandr had just two weeks of training in Russia before being sent to the front lines in Ukraine in the summer of 2023. About a month later, he was an amputee.Learning to live without your left leg takes much longer than two weeks.“At first there was a lot of pain,” said Aleksandr, 38, referred to only by his first name according to military protocol. But, he added, “eventually, your brain rewires itself and you get used to it.”Aleksandr spoke in an interview at a sanatorium on the outskirts of Moscow as a doctor readjusted his prosthetic leg. He is one of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers returning home after a third year of war to rejoin government institutions and a society struggling to provide for veterans in a time of sanctions and the parallel realities of the seemingly un...

In recent years, Mr. White and Mr. Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, have combined their passion for professional fighting, including mixed martial arts, which Mr. Zuckerberg took up in 2022.“Dana is the president and CEO of UFC and has built it into one of the most valuable, fastest growing and most popular sports enterprises in the world,” Zuckerberg said in his post. “I admired him as an entrepreneur and his ability to build such a beloved brand.”In 2023, White attempted to broker a cage match between Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, Tesla and SpaceX. Musk, who has become a close ally of Trump, eventually withdrew from the fight, citing an old injury. He said Mr Zuckerberg was guilty of not making himself available to fight afterwards.Meta, which owns Facebook, In...

The Islamic State has lost thousands of fighters to death or prison and suffered the end of its self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria. But the global reach of the group, also known as ISIS, is still vast, in part because of its sophisticated media output and the people around the world who consume it.On New Year's Day, a man carrying an Islamic State flag killed at least 14 people as he ran into a crowd in New Orleans. Authorities say there was no evidence that the man, Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, had active links to the terrorist group. But the FBI said it was “100% inspired by ISIS.”It is not yet clear what specific online content Mr. Jabbar may have viewed or how else he may have been radicalized. Experts noted that the placement of the flag on the truck resembled that depicted by I...

Can Paxlovid treat long Covid? A new report suggests it may help some patients, but which patients might benefit is unclear.The report, published Monday in the journal Communications Medicine, describes the cases of 13 long-Covid patients who took extended courses of the antiviral drug. The results were decidedly mixed: Nine patients reported some improvement, but only five said it lasted. Four reported no improvement.Perhaps more than anything, the report highlights that, nearly five years into the pandemic, little is known about what can help millions of people with long-term Covid. Although some people improve on their own or with various therapies and medications, no treatment has yet proven to be widely successful.“People with long-Covid are eager for treatments that can help,” said A...

James Lee Williams, a drag artist and winner of the inaugural season of “RuPaul's Drag Race UK,” better known by his stage name The Vivienne, died over the weekend. There were 32 of them.Williams' death was announced in a statement by their manager, Simon Jones, who cited no cause.Williams, who adopted the stage name out of a love of dressing in Vivienne Westwood clothing, became known as one of the world's most recognizable drag queens after winning the first season of "RuPaul's Drag Race UK."On the show, The Vivienne was known for her comedic and vocal impersonations - particularly that of Donald Trump - and spoke about struggling with substance abuse and recovery.“La Viv is a perfect example of a 21st century British queen,” RuPaul said in the 2019 finale.James Lee Williams was born on ...

“A journalist finds himself in the woods.” Marc Da Costa, a digital artist with a Ph.D. in anthropology, spoke from the controls of an AI-driven video installation at the Onassis Foundation's ONX Studio, a high-tech multimedia laboratory in the Olympic Tower in Midtown Manhattan. He was talking to the computer running this installation. About me.“A huge fleet of food delivery bicycles appears,” Da Costa continued, telling a nonsensical story that AI would soon render on screen. “The heavens open and a friendly, galactic being descends with a scepter. Frank and the galactic being meet the delivery men and share a meal under the forest canopy. ..."Moments later, a fleet of food delivery bikes actually appeared on the three enormous screens surrounding us, the entire scene rendered in a charm...