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Towns reinforce dikes as heavy rains send rivers over their banks in Germany and the Netherlands

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Firefighters and volunteers worked to reinforce dikes against rising floodwaters in northern and eastern Germany as heavy rains falling on already soaked ground pushed rivers and streams over their banks and forced several towns to evacuate residents. The city of Braunschweig in Lower Saxony deployed an artificial dike — a long tube filled with water from the rising river — to protect its downtown area, while several hundred residents of Windehausen in the Thuringia region were told to leave their homes as the town lost power, the dpa news agency reported. Hundreds of volunteers joined firefighters to pack sandbags atop weakened flood-control berms in Uplengen, near Bremen in northern Germany. Several flood plains were also underwater Tuesday in the eastern Netherlands. Rivers surged, causing localized flooding, and some temporary dikes were being built with large sandbags. The various branches of the Rhine that flow through the Netherlands are expected to ...

4 young children and their mother were killed in their French home. The father is in custody

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Four children between nine months and 10 years old and their mother were killed in their apartment east of Paris, in what the local prosecutor called an exceptionally violent crime. Authorities said the children’s father was arrested Tuesday and is the primary suspect.Neighbors spotted a pool of blood outside the family’s door on Christmas Day and alerted police, who discovered the five bodies, Prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier told reporters in the city of Meaux.The mother and two daughters, ages 7 and 10, were stabbed several times overnight from Sunday to Monday, he said. The couple’s two sons, ages 9 months and 4 years old, were suffocated or drowned. The prosecutor described a small, blood-stained apartment in extreme disarray.The motive for the killings was unclear. The suspect, a 33-year-old man born in the Paris suburb of Colombes, was arrested Tuesday outside his father’s home northeast of the French capital, the prosecutor said.The suspect had stabbed his partn...

The imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny resurfaces with darkly humorous comments

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Tuesday released a sardonic statement about his transfer to a Arctic prison colony nicknamed the “Polar Wolf,” his first appearance since associates lost contact with him three weeks ago.Navalny, the most prominent and persistent domestic foe of President Vladimir Putin, is serving a 19-year sentence on an extremism conviction. He had been incarcerated in central Russia’s Vladimir region, about 230 kilometers (140 miles) east of Moscow, but supporters said he couldn’t be found beginning on Dec. 6.They said Monday that he had been traced to a prison colony infamous for severe conditions in the Yamalo-Nenets region, about 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Moscow. “I am your new Santa Claus,” Navalny said in a tweet, referring to his location above the Arctic Circle in the prison in the town of Kharp. The region is notorious for long and severe winters. The town is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Vorku...

At least 140 villagers killed by suspected herders in dayslong attacks in north-central Nigeria

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — At least 140 people were killed by gunmen who attacked remote villages over two days in north-central Nigeria’s Plateau state, survivors and officials said Tuesday in the latest of such mass killings this year blamed on the West African nation’s farmer-herder crisis.The assailants targeted 17 communities during the “senseless and unprovoked” attacks on Saturday and Sunday, during which most houses in the areas were burned down, Plateau Gov. Caleb Mutfwang said Tuesday in a broadcast on the local Channels Television.“As I am talking to you, in Mangu local government alone, we buried 15 people. As of this morning, in Bokkos, we are counting not less than 100 corpses. I am yet to take stock of (the deaths in) Barkin Ladi,” Gov. Mutfwan said. “It has been a very terrifying Christmas for us here in Plateau.”Amnesty International Nigeria’s office told The Associated Press that it has so far confirmed 140 deaths in the Christian-dominated Bokkos and Barkin...

Paris City Hall plaza draws holiday visitors and migrant families seeking shelter as Olympics nears

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

PARIS (AP) — The forecourt of Paris City Hall buzzes with activity this holiday season: Children spinning on a sparkling carousel, shoppers browsing a Christmas market, tourists posing in front of huge signs advertising the 2024 Olympics — and dozens of migrant families searching for a roof over their heads.About 50 families with children between three months and 10 years old gathered on City Hall plaza on Christmas evening, to meet members of aid groups who distribute food, blankets and diapers and help find temporary lodging. A similar scene plays out most nights beneath the ornate facade of the Paris monument.Some sat on pieces of cardboard with their suitcases. A toddler who arrived in socks was given shoes, and an older child was given a gift in shiny wrapping.Many of the families are from French-speaking African countries, including Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Senegal.Aicha, 20, is among those seeking shelter. She arrived in Paris from Mali in 2020 and gave birth to a baby b...

New guest guidelines circulating after MPs applauded man who fought for Nazis

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

OTTAWA — Speaker Greg Fergus is looking to implement new guidelines for recognizing certain guests in the House of Commons, after MPs stood twice to applaud a man without knowing he had fought for a Nazi unit.Draft guidelines on the recognition of guests during a joint address of Parliament have been circulated to all House leaders and other officers of Parliament, said Mathieu Gravel, a spokesperson for Fergus. “Feedback will be incorporated before the Speaker shares these guidelines with members,” he said in a statement. House leaders did not provide details of the draft guidelines, and Gravel said he cannot say more at this time.Yaroslav Hunka, who fought for the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, a voluntary unit created by the Nazis to help fight the Soviet Union, was welcomed to the House of Commons in September to hear a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Liberal MP Anthony Rota, who invited the 98-year-old Hunka and introduced him as a hero, resigned as S...

The death toll rises to 18 in a furnace explosion at a Chinese-owned nickel plant in Indonesia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

PALU, Indonesia (AP) — The death toll following the explosion of a smelting furnace at a Chinese-owned nickel plant on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island rose to 18 on Tuesday, as police ordered the plant to stop operations until an investigation is completed.The blast, which occurred on Sunday, was the latest in a series of fatalities at nickel smelting plants in Indonesia that are part of China’s ambitious transnational development program known as the Belt and Road Initiative.Nickel is a key component in global battery production for electric vehicles.Four Chinese and nine Indonesian workers died instantly on Sunday when the furnace exploded while they were repairing it, Central Sulawesi police chief Agus Nugroho said. Three more victims died a day later while being treated at a local hospital.Two more workers died on Tuesday while hospitalized, bringing the total number of fatalities to 18, including eight workers from China, said Deddy Kurniawan, a spokesperson for PT Indonesia Morowa...

1 dead, 1 critical in scooter crash on Northwest Side

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

CHICAGO — One person is dead and another is injured after an overnight crash on the Northwest Side, police said.According to police, the deadly crash happened near the corner of Belden and Cicero in the Belmont Craigin neighborhood around 12:45 a.m.Authorities say a man driving a scooter, with another man sitting passenger, were headed northbound on Cicero when they collided with a gray sedan travelling westbound. Man shot after pulling knife during fight at Red Line station Both the driver of the scooter and passenger were injured and taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition. The Cook County medical examiner later confirmed that one person injured in the crash, identified as 28-year-old Ganchozo Jesus Rodriguez, succumbed to their injuries. Police said the driver of the vehicle was not injured and refused treatment from EMS.Citations are pending and police have not said who was at faith in the crash.

Bally's Chicago to begin 24-hour operations on Wednesday morning

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

CHICAGO — Starting Wednesday morning, gamblers at Bally's Chicago will be able to play all day, every day.After operating on a 20-hour day since opening in early September, the casino will begin operating for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on Wednesday at 8 a.m.Bally's Chicago is temporarily located inside River North's former Medinah Temple at 600 N. Wabash Ave. It's expected to move into the River West neighborhood sometime in 2026. The Illinois Gaming Board is allowing the temporary location to operate for up to three years after granting a 12-month extension in October. The Gaming Board also allowed for just a 20-hour schedule when Bally's Chicago first opened, but that changes to a 24-hour operation Wednesday morning.Just last month, Bally's Chicago generated $7.6 million in adjusted gross receipts and brought in more than 86,000 visitors.

Biden orders strikes on an Iranian-aligned group after 3 US troops injured in drone attack in Iraq

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:26:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden ordered the United States military to carry out retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups after three U.S. service members were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq.National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said one of the U.S. troops suffered critical injuries in the attack that occurred earlier Monday. The Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, under an umbrella of Iranian-backed militants, claimed credit for the attack that utilized a one-way attack drone.Iraqi officials said U.S. strikes targeting militia sites early Tuesday killed one militant and injured 18. They came at a time of heightened fears of a regional spillover of the Israel-Hamas war. Iran announced Monday that an Israeli strike on the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus killed one of its top generals, Razi Mousavi, who had been a close companion of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the former head of Iran’s elite Quds F...