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    The main suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway has arrived in the U.S. from Peru to face charges that he tried to extort the missing Alabama teen's mother. Joran van der Sloot is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Birmingham, Alabama, on Friday morning. He was flown to Birmingham on Thursday. Holloway disappeared on the Caribbean island of Aruba. A judge declared her dead, but her body has never been found. Van der Sloot is accused of seeking $250,000 from Holloway's mother in exchange for disclosing the location of the young woman’s body. He is serving a 28-year sentence in Peru after confessing to killing a Peruvian woman.

      The collapse of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam and the emptying of its reservoir on the Dnieper River has added insult to injury to the region that has suffered missile attacks for more than a year.

        The Vatican says Pope Francis' condition is stable and is following the regular post-operative course of recovery following a three-hour operation to remove intestinal scar tissue and repair a hernia in his abdominal wall. The Vatican says he is drinking liquids, received the Eucharist and even made a phone call Thursday. Most of the day, though, was spent resting. Doctors say Wednesday’s operation was successful and there were no complications or other pathologies discovered. The pontiff is expected to remain in the 10th-floor papal suite at the Gemelli hospital for several days, and all papal audiences have been canceled through June 18.

        Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in the flood-hit region of Kherson to evaluate response to damage caused by a dam breach. The Ukrainian leader wrote on his Telegram account that he was helping assess efforts to evacuate civilians, provide them with drinking water and other support, and try to stanch vast environmental damage. Meanwhile, the Kremlin-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, a Russian-occupied town 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the collapsed Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric plant, reported on Russian state TV Thursday that five of seven local residents who had been declared missing following the dam breach have died. The two remaining people have been found and efforts were being made to evacuate them, Vladimir Leontyev added.

        Ukrainian authorities are rushing supplies of drinking water to areas affected by flooding from a collapsed dam in southern Ukraine. They also are weighing where they might resettle residents who relied on the breached reservoir on the Dnieper River, which forms part of the front line of the 15-month war. More than 2,700 people have fled flooded areas on both the Russian and Ukrainian-controlled sides of the river, but it was not clear whether the true scale of the disaster had yet emerged in an area that was home to more than 60,000 people. The hydroelectric dam and reservoir is essential for the supply of drinking water and irrigation to a huge area of southern Ukraine.

        The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric dam is one of the most significant disasters since the start of the war in Ukraine. Tens of thousands of civilians are threatened by the rising waters on both sides of the Dnipro River. Its destruction could also have dire consequences on Uk…

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        Some reproductive health campaigners in southern Africa are hoping for a change in Namibia's abortion ban, which they say has forced many women to risk dangerous backroom procedures. The government has been holding public hearings about the current legislation ever since over 60,000 people s…