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Four local employees of Germany’s main aid agency arrested in Afghanistan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:49 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Taliban authorities in Afghanistan arrested four local employees of Germany’s main government-owned aid agency, according to the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.“I can confirm that the local employees of GIZ are in custody although we have not received any official information on why they are detained,” a ministry spokeswoman told the Associated Press in a statement late Saturday.“We are taking this situation very seriously and are working through all channels available to us to ensure that our colleagues are released,” she added.The German Agency for International Cooperation, or GIZ, is owned by the German government. It operates in around 120 countries worldwide, offering projects and services in the areas of “economic development, employment promotion, energy and the environment, and peace and security,” according to the agency’s website.The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, after the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces fro...

India’s LGBTQ+ community holds pride march, raises concerns over country’s restrictive laws

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:49 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — More than 2,000 people took part in a gay pride event in New Delhi, waving rainbow flags and multicolored balloons as they celebrated sexual diversity in India but also raised concerns over the country’s restrictive laws.Dancing to drums and music, the participants walked for more than two hours to the Jantar Mantar area near India’s Parliament. They held banners reading “Equality for all” and “Queer and proud.”The annual event comes after India’s top court refused to legalize same-sex marriages in an October ruling that disappointed campaigners for LGBTQ+ rights in the world’s most populous country.“It’s not about marriage. It’s about equality. Everybody should have the same right because that’s what our constitution says,” said Noor Enayat, one of the volunteers organizing this year’s event.Earlier this year, the Supreme Court’s five-judge bench heard 21 petitions that sought to legalize same-sex marriage in India.The justices called for steps to raise...

Sierra Leone declares nationwide curfew after gunmen attack main military barracks in the capital

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:49 GMT

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio declared a nationwide curfew Sunday after gunmen attacked the military’s main and largest barracks in the West African nation’s capital, raising fears of a breakdown of order amid a surge of coups in the region.The unidentified gunmen attacked the military armory within the Wilberforce barracks in the capital, Freetown, early morning, Bio said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that they were driven back by security forces and “calm has been restored.”“As the combined team of our Security Forces continue to root out the remnant of the fleeing renegades, a nationwide curfew has been declared and citizens are encouraged to stay indoors,” he wrote.The country’s Ministry of Information and Education also said in a statement the government and security forces are “in control” of the situation.No details have been immediately given about the gunmen or the reason for the att...

Fragile Gaza truce is back on track after hourslong delay in hostage-for-prisoner swap

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:49 GMT

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The tense cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be back on track early Sunday after the release of a second group of militant-held hostages and Palestinians from Israeli prisons, but the swap followed an hourslong delay that underscored the truce’s fragility.In a separate development, Hamas announced Sunday that one of its top commanders had been killed, without saying when or how.The exchange was delayed Saturday evening after Hamas accused Israel of violating the agreement, which has brought the first significant pause in seven weeks of war marked by the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades, vast destruction and displacement across the Gaza Strip, and a hostage crisis that has shaken Israel. Qatar and Egypt, which mediate with Hamas, announced late Saturday that the obstacles to the exchange had been overcome. The militants released 17 hostages, including 13 Israelis, while Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners.Thousand...

Other voices: Inoculation against extremism: Censorship only leaves us more vulnerable

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:49 GMT

New Yorkers were shocked and appalled when some social media personalities rediscovered a 2002 “Letter to America” in which Osama Bin Laden, dripping with antisemitism, criticized U.S. foreign policy, suggesting it painted a more compelling picture of the terrorist. While the rehabilitation of the dead jihadist behind 9/11 may have been overstated, the Guardian, which had hosted a version of the letter, pulled it from its site.We’ve defended the principles of free speech many times here, including several in the past several weeks as some institutions have turned toward speech restrictionism in response to widespread public discourse and high tensions in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel and its subsequent military response.It is crucial to note, though, that this isn’t a principle for its own sake. There is a practical purpose to having robust public discussion, in particular around contentious social and political topics and including unp...

Skywatch: Your guide to buying a telescope for holiday giving

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:49 GMT

Over the years of writing this column and putting on astronomy and stargazing presentations, I’ve received inquiries from many nice folks about purchasing a telescope for themselves or that special someone. I’m often asked to recommend a “not all that expensive” scope. That’s always tough for me because I’m not sure what their definition of “expensive” is, so I have to ask them for a specific price range. Since this is the big gift-giving season, I want to help as many of you as possible find the best telescope for the best price, depending on who you’re buying it for. Maybe it’s you! As with anything, you get what you pay for. I want you to buy right and not just buy cheap. I don’t want your telescope gift to wind up in what I call the closet of no return.My strongest recommendation is to avoid telescopes at retail stores and general shopping websites. Nothing against any of them, but there are a lot of junky scopes that find their wa...

Minneapolis fitness instructor Leslie Fhima makes it to ‘The Golden Bachelor’ finale

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:49 GMT

Over the past two months, both viewers and 72-year-old retired restaurateur Gerry Turner have gotten to know Minneapolis fitness instructor Leslie Fhima via ABC’s “The Golden Bachelor.” During the two-hour finale that airs at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, we’ll learn whether Turner chose to pursue a romance with Fhima or New Jersey financial services professional Theresa Nist.“I honestly have no idea how I’m going to decide,” Turner told the camera during the episode that aired Nov. 2, when Turner gave Fhima one of his two final roses.The latest spin-off of the reality TV juggernaut “The Bachelor,” “The Golden Bachelor” brought the dating-in-front-of-cameras concept to the baby boom generation. In addition to the 64-year-old Fhima and 70-year-old Nist, the cast featured 20 other women ranging in age from 60 to 75.“The Golden Bachelor” has found success with both viewers and critics. The Hollywood Reporter noted the show has earned the strongest ratings in the franchise...

Tyler Cowen: The hypocrisy at the core of America’s elite universities

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:49 GMT

Now that congressional Democrats have relaunched an effort to ban legacy admissions at top U.S. universities, virtually everyone can count on one thing: ideological embarrassment.Legacy admissions are part of a broader system whereby elite U.S. colleges and universities largely favor wealthy families in their admissions practices. It is possible to buy your way into those institutions — whether by being born into a legacy family that is considered likely to make a donation, or by being the child of someone who actually makes a large donation. Some 43% of white students admitted to Harvard are recruited athletes, legacies, from the “dean’s interest” list (which is often related to donations), or children of faculty and staff.There are any number of motives behind these admissions practices. But a major one is the desire to bring in money and boost endowments.As someone who stands to the political right of most of my fellow university faculty and administrators...

Northern Minnesota inventor hopes ice fishing rod holders catch on

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:49 GMT

HACKENSACK, Minn. — In a sport that has exploded with expensive technology in recent decades, like $400 battery-operated augers, $4,000 electronic fish-finding video-like sonar systems and $40,000 wheelhouse shelters, Dwight Kurz is hoping to sell you something far more basic: a better ice fishing rod holder for $23.99.Readers may remember a Duluth News Tribune story on Kurz’s rod holders from 2019. This year, he received a U.S. patent on one of his holders, with patents for the others scheduled to be final in December.Undated courtesy photo, circa November 2023, of Dwight Kurz, who believes he has invented the best ice fishing rod holders on the market — one that tips down when a fish bites and the other that locks a rod in place, either on the ice or on the wall of a fish house. (Courtesy of Holdersonice.com / Forum News Service)“Now I’m more willing to invest the time and effort and money to make this go … to not have to worry as much about the pirates charging something by 10% a...

Readers and writers: How Barbara Kingsolver’s daughter got her to team up to write first children’s book

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:49 GMT

Barbara Kingsolver and her daughter Lily remember the day “Coyote’s Wild Home” was born at Barbara’s farm in the Appalachian region of southwestern Virginia.(The Gryphon Press)This beautiful new picture book will be published Tuesday by Emilie and Dana Buchwald’s Edina-based Gryphon Press, and it’s a coup for a small publisher to attract an author such as Kingsolver, winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize and the British Women’s Fiction Prize for her novel “Demon Copperhead.”Barbara Kingsolver (Steven Hopp / The Gryphon Press)But Barbara didn’t want to talk about her previous literary honors during a conversation about “Coyote’s Wild Home,” co-written with Lily. She was concentrating on the new book and giving affectionate prompts to her daughter to help her tell their story.“I had just written a letter to Emilie for my secretary to type saying I didn’t do picture books,” Kingsolver recalled o...