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US military prepares for possible Sudan embassy evacuation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is moving additional troops and equipment to a Naval base in the tiny Gulf of Aden nation of Djibouti to prepare for the possible evacuation of U.S. Embassy personnel from Sudan.Two Biden administration officials say the deployments to Camp Lemmonier in Djibouti are necessary because of the current uncertain situation in Sudan, where fighting is raging between two warring factions.The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the administration’s planning for a potential evacuation. That planning got underway in earnest on Monday after a U.S. Embassy convoy was attacked in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.In a statement Thursday, the Pentagon said it will deploy “additional capabilities” to the region to potentially help facilitate an evacuation of embassy personnel from Sudan if required, but provided no details, and did not state the location.Security conditions in Khartoum and elsewhere have thus far prevented the State Department from imp...

Neighbor: Girl, 6, and parents shot, wounded over stray ball

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man shot and wounded a 6-year-old girl and her parents after children went to retrieve a basketball that had rolled into his yard, according to neighbors and the girl’s family — another in a string of recent shootings sparked by seemingly trivial circumstances.Gaston County Police Chief Stephen Zill said at a news conference Wednesday that his department and the U.S. Marshals Service’s Regional Fugitive Task Force were conducting a broad search for 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary, who fled after the Tuesday night shootings near Gastonia, a city of roughly 80,000 people west of Charlotte. Singletary, who has been out on bond in an December attack in which authorities say he assaulted a woman with a hammer, is wanted in Tuesday’s shootings on four counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill inflicting serious injury, and one count of being a felon in possession ...

Mexican airliner suffers engine failure, safely lands

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican airline Viva Aerobus said one of its planes suffered an engine failure while covering a domestic route, but that the craft landed safely. The twin engine Airbus A320 was flying from the western city of Guadalajara to the Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta when the mishap occurred Wednesday afternoon, the company said. The plane returned to Puerto Vallarta and landed safely. Video posted on social media shows flames shooting out of the engine while in the air. The company said “the aircraft was under control at all times and the welfare of all those on board was preserved.”On Tuesday, two airplanes were involved in a mishap on a taxiway at Mexico City’s international airport. One of the planes’ wingtip hit the horizontal stabilizer of the other aircraft. No injuries were reported.The Associated Press

Amazon seeks first incentive funds from Virginia HQ2 project

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Amazon is asking Virginia for nearly $153 million in state incentive payments, which would be the first tranche of funds to be paid out since the tech giant agreed in 2018 to build a headquarters complex in the state.The application comes even as Amazon has paused work on what will be the centerpiece of its corporate campus — its Pen Place development project, which will feature a 350-foot, helix-shaped tower.The grant application — submitted by Amazon on March 31 and released Wednesday by Virginia economic development officials — seeks $152.7 million. That’s in line with the incentive deal Virginia used to lure Amazon to build a second headquarters to complement its original Seattle location.Under the deal, Amazon is expected to bring 25,000 jobs to Arlington County, Virginia — across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital — by 2038. Amazon receives a $22,000 grant for each job.In its application, Amazon said it has created 6,939 jobs that ...

Greenpeace calls for charges over releases from Imperial’s Kearl oilsands mine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

OTTAWA — An environmental group is calling for Imperial Oil to be charged over releases of toxic wastewater from its Kearl oilsands mine in northern Alberta. The call from Greenpeace comes as executives from the company are scheduled to testify before a House of Commons committee probing what happened with notifications around the releases.Overnight, Greenpeace projected a sign on the facade of the Supreme Court saying “Charge Imperial Now.”The demand was sparked by a nine-month delay for First Nations and governments to find out what was happening after groundwater contaminated with oilsands tailings was discovered seeping from a tailings pond.Provincial and federal environment ministers say they only found out about it after a second release of wastewater was made public.Chiefs from area First Nations testified before the Environment and Sustainability Committee earlier this week, saying they no longer trust Alberta’s regulator and that it should be disbanded. En...

Wisconsin GOP lawmakers working on medical pot legalization

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — After years of opposition to any form of marijuana legalization in Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers are now working privately to build support for a medical cannabis program that could win bipartisan backing and be enacted into law later this year, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told The Associated Press on Thursday.For now, the group of lawmakers — whom Vos declined to name — are working only among Assembly Republicans to build enough support, and he hopes to introduce the plan this fall. Vos has long backed some form of medical marijuana program, but no bill has ever received a vote in either the GOP-controlled Assembly or Senate.Vos said he remains steadfastly opposed to legalizing recreational marijuana and does not want to create a medical program that would be a precursor to that. Wisconsin remains an outlier nationally, with medical marijuana legal in 38 states and recreational marijuana legal in 21. The push for legalization in Wisconsin has gained momentum, ...

Review: ‘Natural Beauty’ is a cautionary tale about wellness

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

“Natural Beauty,” by Ling Ling Huang (Dutton)From bee sting facials to fish pedicures, to Instagram filters and apps that allow us to completely edit our appearance in photos, it seems people will try almost anything to look better. It also makes the posh wellness and beauty store setting of Ling Ling Huang’s novel “Natural Beauty” within the realm of possibility and intriguing from page one.“Natural Beauty” (a tongue-in-cheek title if there ever was one) is told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator, a tactic used many times over years from Daphne de Maurier’s “Rebecca” published in 1938 and even 2003’s “The Nanny Diaries” by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. This narrator is a talented pianist who puts her music aspirations aside to support her parents, who are Chinese immigrants, after an accident. She takes a job at Holistik, a “clean” beauty retailer that capitalizes on people’s desire to look as beautiful as one possibly can.Holistik may app...

Oklahoma court upholds Richard Glossip’s murder conviction

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma appeals court on Thursday upheld the murder conviction of death row inmate Richard Glossip, paving the way for Glossip to be executed on May 18, despite the state attorney general’s concerns about some testimony and evidence.Glossip can still plead his case for clemency to the five-member Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, which could recommend that the governor spare Glossip’s life by commuting his sentence to life in prison without parole.Glossip, now 60, has long maintained his innocence in the 1997 murder-for-hire killing of his former boss, Barry Van Treese, who owned the Best Budget Inn where Glossip worked as the manager. The motel’s handyman, Justin Sneed, admitted robbing Van Treese and beating him to death with a baseball bat, but claims he did so only after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000 to do it.Sneed, who ended up getting life in prison, was the key witness in two separate murder trials for Glossip, both of which ended in a convictio...

Family of N.S. student murdered in drug deal deliver impact statements in court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

HALIFAX — A Nova Scotia judge heard victim impact statements Thursday during a sentencing hearing for a former Halifax medical student who murdered a 22-year-old man during a drug deal.William Sandeson had testified during his trial before a Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury that he killed physics student Taylor Samson in self-defence on Aug. 15, 2015, and dumped his body into a river. He was found guilty of second-degree murder on Feb. 18 after jurors deliberated for 23 hours.Those convicted of second-degree murder face an automatic life sentence, but a judge can set parole eligibility between 10 and 25 years.The six-week trial marked the second time Sandeson was tried for the crime. He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2017, but the verdict was overturned on appeal and a new trial was ordered in 2020.Samson’s mother, Linda Boutilier, said in a written statement submitted to the court that after her son was killed she repeatedly walked back roads between Halifax and Truro,...

Israel aims to sell missile defense system to Germany

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:24 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Defense Ministry on Thursday said it has begun talks to sell an advanced missile defense system to Germany. The announcement came two weeks after Israel said it was selling another missile defense system to NATO’s newest member, Finland.Although Israel has long had close economic and military ties with western European countries, the latest deals could draw the attention of Russia. Israel has repeatedly rebuffed requests to sell arms to Ukraine for fear of antagonizing Russia. It appears to be counting on the fact that the latest deals involve only defensive weapons. Israel’s Defense Ministry also noted that both deals would also need U.S. approval, because the systems have been jointly developed with the United States.In Thursday’s announcement, the ministry said it launched “advanced negotiations” this week with its German counterparts over the purchase of the “Arrow 3,” a system designed to intercept long-range missiles outside the atmosphere. Germany ha...