TEHRAN/JERUSALEM -- Iran's air defense has downed two Israeli Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jets as well as a large number of micro aerial vehicles, capturing a female Israeli pilot, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
The Iranian army has not officially confirmed the report.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) rejected the report. In a statement, IDF Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee called the allegations "completely baseless." (Iran-Israel-Attacks)
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NEW DELHI -- Indian Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu posted on social media on Friday that the flight data recorder (Black Box) of the crashed plane has been recovered from the accident site in Ahmedabad by Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau.
"This marks an important step in the investigation and will greatly help the accident investigation," He posted. (India-Air Crash)
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NEW YORK -- U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is stepping up deportation efforts in California with immigration raids at restaurants, traffic stops and routine legal check-ins, but economists warn that, long term, fewer immigrants could take a hit to the economy, prompting labor shortages and slowing economic growth.
"Immigrants play a huge role in the California economy," USA Today on Friday quoted Giovanni Peri, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis, as saying. Without immigrants, "there will be less economic growth. Less opportunity, also, for local companies and American workers." (US-Immigration Raids)
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GOMA, DR Congo -- Leaders of the rebel group, March 23 Movement, have expressed their willingness to resolve the ongoing crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) through peaceful means, a senior United Nations official said Friday.
The statement was made during a press briefing by Bintou Keita, special representative of the UN Secretary-General in the DRC, following a meeting with the leadership of M23 and the Congo River Alliance (AFC), a politico-military group allied to the M23, in the city of Goma, capital of North Kivu Province, which has been under rebel rule since late January. (DRC-Crisis) ■
