OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Two barges broke loose and floated swiftly down the swollen Arkansas River in eastern Oklahoma on Wednesday, spreading alarm downstream as they threatened to hit a dam.

The emergency was the latest consequence of storms and torrential rains that have ravaged the Midwest, from Texas through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.

Authorities urged residents of several small towns in Oklahoma and Kansas to leave their homes as rivers and streams rose.

ANKARA; 23 May 2019; AA: Turkish Cargo, a subsidiary company of Turkey's flag carrier Turkish Airlines, continued its growth in the first quarter of this year, despite shrinkage in the global air cargo sector, the company said Thursday.

"Turkish Cargo managed to increase its sold cargo tonnage by 11.6% year-on-year, according to World Air Cargo Data (WACD)," it said in a statement, despite a global shrinkage of 3.1% across the air cargo sector in the first three months of 2019.

Mumbai, May 23 (PTI) Congress' Mumbai-North Lok Sabha seat candidate Urmila Matondkar on Thursday alleged that there was a mismatch in signatures on an electronic voting machine (EVM) form.

The actor, who was trailing against BJP's Gopal Shetty by over 1,45,991 votes, said a complaint was filed with the Election Commission in this connection.

"On the form of EVM 17C from Magathane, the signatures and the machine numbers are different. A complaint has been filed with the Election Commission," she said in a tweet.

MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/: Russia is interested in normalizing relation with Ukraine and is ready for dialogue with it, speaker of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house Valentina Matviyenko said on Thursday.

"We are interested in and are ready for dialogue, including between the parliaments, but it should be a serious and meaningful dialogue on the basis of mutual respect. We will not accept any conditions for the beginning of such dialogue," she said.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A “violent tornado” touched down in Jefferson City, Missouri, causing heavy damage Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

The service reported that a “confirmed large and destructive tornado” was observed over Jefferson City at 11:43 p.m. Wednesday, moving northeast at 40 mph (64 kph). The capital city is located 130 miles (209 kilometers) west of St. Louis.

No fatalities have been reported but Jefferson City Police Lt. David Williams said they have received multiple calls of people being trapped in their homes.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The California man who became known as the “American Taliban” after his capture on an Afghanistan battlefield in late 2001 is on the cusp of release from prison.

Thirty-eight-year-old John Walker Lindh is scheduled for release Thursday from the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. He has spent more than 17 years in prison after pleading guilty to providing support to the Taliban.

The plea deal called for a 20-year sentence, but Lindh is getting out a few years early for good behavior.

New Delhi, May 22; GANASHAKTI: The Election Commission is learnt to have stuck to its plan of counting the paper trail machines slips at the end of counts and not in the beginning as demanded by opposition parties.

The Commission is also learnt to have decided to count postal ballots simultaneously with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) count due to the "sheer size" of the ballots received this time from service voters.

Till now, the postal ballots were counted in the beginning followed by votes polled in voting machines.

23 May 2019; DW: World football's governing body was hoping to expand the competition to include 48 countries. However, that would have needed another Gulf country to host games along with Qatar, amid deteriorating ties in the region.

FIFA finally abandoned its hopes to fast-track its expansion of the World Cup on Wednesday, announcing that it had run out of time in its bid to find a way to accommodate 48 teams in Qatar and the wider region in 2022. 

MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/: Russian scientists came to the conclusion that the polar bears’ population in the Arctic is growing, the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution’s Director Vyacheslav Rozhnov told reporters.

"We see that it [the population] is not only stable, it even grows," he said. "This is what experts say: we can see bears more often, and thus we suppose the population is growing."

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York lawmakers gave final passage to legislation Wednesday that would allow President Donald Trump’s state tax returns to be released to congressional committees that have, so far, been barred from getting the president’s federal filings.

The Democrat-led Senate and Assembly both approved the measures Wednesday, sending them to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat. A spokesman has said the governor supports the principle behind the legislation but will review the bill carefully before deciding whether to sign it.

MANILA, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines said it has rejected Canada's new proposal to ship back tons of trash it dumped in the Philippines by June 30, the spokesperson of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday.

"They said it will take the end of June. The president will not agree with this. I understand from (Finance) Secretary (Carlos) Dominguez that it will be set the soonest. The trash will be sent back the soonest," the Philippine Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a news conference.

Mumbai, May 23 (PTI) MNS chief Raj Thackeray, who had vociferously campaigned against the BJP, Thursday termed the Lok Sabha poll trends suggesting a landslide victory for the ruling party as "beyond rationale" and "incomprehensible".

"Beyond rationale! #Verdict2019," the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief tweeted.

In another post on the micro-blogging site, he said the results were "anakalniya" (incomprehensible).