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Major fire near Athens contained but heat wave keeps authorities on alert

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:58 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s Fire Service intensified water drops west of Athens where a huge blaze was contained overnight, as authorities braced Thursday for a new round of extreme weather.Seven firefighting planes and nine helicopters were operating in the area, including four planes sent from Italy and France as part of a European Union support mechanism.Searing heat across Europe’s Mediterranean south has maintained a high or very high risk of fires in Spain, Italy and Greece. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the Fire Service and civil protection authority will remain on alert as a new heatwave moved eastward across Greece that is expected to push temperatures to 45 degrees Celsius (113F) Sunday.“The hard times are clearly not over yet,” Mitsotakis said. “We are facing another heatwave and a possible strengthening of the winds. So, absolute vigilance and absolute readiness are required over the next few days.”A state of emergency was declared Thursday on the isla...

Prominent Egyptian rights activist with ties to Italy is pardoned and released from jail

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:58 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — A prominent Egyptian rights activist with ties to Italy was released from jail Thursday, days after he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, according to his family and a rights defender. Patrick George Zaki, a postgraduate student in Italy, was pardoned by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi along with five other people on Wednesday, according to the country’s Official Gazette.Zaki’s release was announced by Hossam Bahgat, founder of Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, who posted a picture of him on Facebook on Thursday afternoon.His sister, Marise Zaki, also confirmed his release, posting a photo on Facebook of him speaking to journalists after his release.“Patrick is on the Asfalt,” she wrote on Facebook, using a phrase that activists often use when detainees walk free.Zaki, who is Christian, was arrested in February 2020, shortly after landing in Cairo on a trip home from Italy where he was studying at the University of Bologna, over an o...

Suspected impaired driver arrested with pet duck riding shotgun: OPP

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:58 GMT

A suspected impaired driver was arrested in southern Ontario on Wednesday night with an odd passenger in the car.Ontario Provincial Police says they made the discovery while responding to a 911 call in Essa Township.Police say officers located and arrest a driver who had a pet duck as a co-pilot. OPP tweeted photos that show a white duck sitting in a white basket on the passenger seat of the Hyundai sedan.A 47-year-old woman from Collingwood has been charged with driving while impaired with over-80 blood alcohol content.OPP tell CityNews the pet duck was picked up by family members.Police quacked this case!Thanks to a 911 caller #NottyOPP located & arrested an impaired driver on Wednesday evening in @essatownship with her pet duck????. 47yr old female from Collingwood was charged with #ImpairedDriving,over 80 blood alcohol^bb#licencesuspended#7dayimpound pic.twitter.com/UWQDz8UrwF— OPP Central Region (@OPP_CR) July 20, 2023This is the second impaired driving incident invol...

Activists condemn violence against LGBTQ community in St. Vincent, where gay sex is illegal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:58 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Advocacy group Human Rights Watch released an in-depth report Thursday that details the abuse and discrimination the LGBTQ community says it faces in the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where gay sex is still criminalized.From homelessness to ongoing physical and verbal abuse, the gay community in the small nation of some 100,000 people says it is under constant threat.“Every LGBT person interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they wished to leave the country immediately or had envisioned their future abroad,” the report stated.In St. Vincent, anal sex is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, while “gross indecency” with another person of the same sex is punishable by up to five years, according to colonial-era laws that are common in the socially conservative Caribbean region.While rarely invoked, the rights group and a local activist said the laws help legitimize hostility and abuse against gay people.“These laws still have...

10 children in Rwanda drowned after their boat sank in a river, an official says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:58 GMT

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Ten students in Rwanda drowned after their boat sank in a river, a provincial governor says. Alice Kayitesi, the governor of Southern province, told The Associated Press the students drowned on Monday while the boat was trying to cross the Nyabarongo River. The students had just returned from school for the summer holidays.The bodies of the children, ages 11 to 15, were recovered on Tuesday and Wednesday. Three students and one man survived.A man who hired the boat has been detained for questioning.Kayitesi said authorities were investigating reports that the students were being taken across the river to offload building materials.Ignatius Ssuuna, The Associated Press

The US and North Korea have no diplomatic ties – but they still have ways to talk about US soldier

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:58 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A pink phone. A New York mission. Swedish diplomats. A North-South Korean hotline.The United States and reclusive North Korea have no diplomatic ties — but they still have ways to contact each other. An American official said Wednesday that the U.S. government had reached out to the North as it tries to discuss a U.S. soldier who dashed into North Korea during a tour of a border area this week. The North has not yet responded, according to the U.S. Here’s a look at possible channels the rivals could use to discuss Pvt. Travis King, the first American held in North Korea in nearly five years.___PINK PHONEOne of the most reliable ways for the U.S. to reach North Korea is via a light pink-colored, touch-tone phone at the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the Korean border village of Panmunjom, the place where King bolted into the North on Tuesday. The telephone line connects the liaison officers from each side — whose offices are reportedly only 40 meters (130 fe...

Trucking and logistics firm Mullen Group reports Q2 profit and revenue down

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:58 GMT

OKOTOKS, Alta. — Mullen Group Ltd. reported its second-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago as the trucking and logistics company saw lower freight volumes.The company says it earned $36.5 million or 39 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended June 30.The result was down from a profit of $42.7 million or 43 cents per diluted share in the same quarter last year.Revenue totalled $494.3 million, down from $521.5 million a year earlier.On an adjusted basis, Mullen Group says it earned 38 cents per share in its latest quarter, down from an adjusted profit of 47 cents in the same quarter last year.Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of 32 cents per share, according to estimates compiled by financial markets data firm Refinitiv.This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:MTL)The Canadian Press

Kenya police are told not to report deaths during protests. A watchdog says they killed 6 this week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:58 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Police in Kenya say they have been ordered not to report deaths amid demonstrations against the rising cost of living, but an independent watchdog says at least six people were shot dead by police on Wednesday and 27 were shot dead in such protests earlier this year.A police official told The Associated Press they were told this week not to report any deaths in the demonstrations that the political opposition has called through Friday. It wasn’t immediately clear who issued the order. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Police in the previous demonstration last week confirmed officers killed at least six.While police in Kenya have long been accused by rights groups of using excessive force, there is growing concern about tactics used under the government of President William Ruto, elected last year. One police officer also was seen posing as a journalist in Wednesday’s protest, which the Me...

Turkey raises its key interest rate to 17.5% as orthodox economics return after May’s election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:58 GMT

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s central bank raised its key interest rate to 17.5% Thursday in a further sign of commitment to orthodox economic policy following elections in May.The 2.5 percentage point hike came a month after the bank raised rates from 8.5% to 15% following more than a year of rate-cutting prompted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.The bank started cutting rates in late 2021 in line with Erdogan’s belief that lowering interest rates fights inflation, contradicting traditional economic theory.The Associated Press

Thursday Forecast: Temps in upper 80s with spotty storms

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:18:58 GMT

CHICAGO — Humid Thursday and becoming quite warm as well with highs in the upper 80s. Spotty showers and thunderstorms are possible. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here Tonight will be partly cloudy, mild and dry would lose in the lower 60s. Friday Forecast: Partly cloudy Friday with highs and lower 80s inland mid 70s at the lakefront.Full forecast details and more at the WGN Weather Center blog