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Officials say arson behind most wildfires in northern Spain

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:55:53 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Officials in the small northern Spanish region of Asturias claimed Friday that unspecified arsonists were behind most of the 100 or so wildfires raging in the heavily wooded and mountainous area.Unusually high spring temperatures and gusting winds have helped spread the fires over the past two days, with some 400 people needing to be evacuated from villages and small towns and several roads cut off for safety.Asturias regional President Adrián Barbón said the “full weight of the law” would be applied to what he described as “fire terrorists.” He said the fires were started in an organized way by criminals taking advantage of the adverse weather conditions. He didn’t explain what the alleged arsonists’ motives might be. No arrests have been made.Firefighters in the region reported early Friday they were dealing with 116 fires in 35 areas. By midafternoon, the number of blazes had dropped to 97.Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez contacted Barbón from Beijin...

Not just Trump’s VP: Pence touts time as governor, US Rep

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:55:53 GMT

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Mike Pence is best known as Donald Trump’s vice president, someone who, apart from one dramatic rejection of his boss ’s effort to overturn their 2020 election defeat, served as a steadfastly loyal, mostly uncontroversial No. 2 during his four years in the White House.But as Pence approaches a likely 2024 run for president, he’s hoping to project the record of a conservative fighter, opening up to audiences about the parts of his career before he served as Trump’s vice president — his 12 years as a congressman and four years as Indiana governor.While traveling the country and visiting early nominating states such as Iowa, Pence doesn’t hide his time in the former president’s White House. But the new emphasis on his earlier years in politics marks an effort to flesh out his profile as he moves closer to taking on Trump himself. He wants to make sure voters know there’s a lot more to him.“I’m well known but not known well,” he sa...

Planned Parenthood sues over transgender care investigation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:55:53 GMT

Associated Press (AP) — Missouri’s state attorney general is investigating gender-affirming care provided by Planned Parenthood, according to a lawsuit filed by the St. Louis health provider.Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri sued Attorney General Andrew Bailey Friday in St. Louis Circuit Court, according to court documents. Bailey’s office demanded records from Planned Parenthood on March 14 as part of an investigation into treatments provided to transgender youths at an unrelated St. Louis clinic run by Washington University, the lawsuit claims.Planned Parenthood argues in its lawsuit that its clinic has nothing to do with the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, which came under public scrutiny following allegations of mistreatment by a former employee. Planned Parenthood is trying to block access to its records and asked Judge Elizabeth Hogan to tell Bailey he has no authority to investigate the clinic, w...

Tech sector helps lead S&P/TSX composite higher, U.S. stock markets also rise

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:55:53 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index was up nearly 200 points in late-morning trading as strength in the technology sector helped lead stocks higher, while U.S. stock markets also gained ground.The S&P/TSX composite index was up 183.32 points at 20,124.31.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 254.31 points at 33,113.34. The S&P 500 index was up 33.67 points at 4,084.50, while the Nasdaq composite was up 122.41 points at 12,135.88.The Canadian dollar traded for 73.90 cents US compared with 73.89 cents US on Thursday.The May crude contract was up 18 cents at US$74.55 per barrel and the May natural gas contract was up eight cents at US$2.18 per mmBTU.The June gold contract was down US$5.30 at US$1,992.40 an ounce and the May copper contract was down a penny at US$4.08 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 31, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)The Canadian Press

Greece: Suspects in foiled Passover attack appear in court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:55:53 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Two men accused of planning a Passover attack on a Jewish center in central Athens appeared in court Friday to answer to terrorism charges and were ordered to remain in pre-trial detention, authorities said.Greek officials announced the suspects’ arrests earlier this week and described the men as being of Pakistani origin.Police alleged they were planning to attack the Chabad of Athens center, which is part of Judaism’s international Chabad-Lubavitch movement. The center hosts religious services, as well as a kosher restaurant and grocery.Passover, one of the most important Jewish holidays, starts next Wednesday at sundown.Investigators are trying to determine whether the suspects were planning attacks at other locations. Police have searched multiple sites in Athens as well as in southern Greece and on the western island of Zakynthos.The two men appeared before a public prosecutor, who ordered their detention in prison pending trial.A third man, wh...

Biden visits Mississippi town ravaged by deadly tornado

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:55:53 GMT

ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday is visiting a Mississippi town ravaged by a deadly tornado, even as a new series of severe storms threatens to rip across the Midwest and the South.Last week’s twister destroyed roughly 300 homes and businesses in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, and the nearby town of Silver City, leaving mounds of lumber, bricks and twisted metal. Hundreds of additional structures were badly damaged. The death toll in Mississippi stands at 21, based on those confirmed by coroners. One person died in Alabama, as well.Biden was announcing that the federal government will cover the total cost of the state’s emergency measures for the next 30 days, including overtime for first responders and debris cleanup. He’s announcing the Federal Emergency Management Agency will open disaster recovery centers in storm ravaged counties to help residents access the resources available to them.The president and first lady Jill Biden are to survey the dam...

Child missing after bodies of six migrants found in river in Akwesasne

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:55:53 GMT

QUEBEC — Authorities in the Mohawk Territory of Akwesasne say an infant is missing after the bodies of six migrants of Indian and Romanian descent were pulled from the river Thursday.The bodies, including that of a second child under three, were found in the St. Lawrence River in the community that straddles the Canada-U.S. border.Lee-Ann O’Brien, deputy chief of the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service, says the victims were trying to enter the United States illegally from Canada.She told reporters today the six people were from two families, one of Romanian descent and the other composed of Indian citizens.O’Brien says police found a Canadian passport belonging to a missing infant with the Romanian family, adding that the deceased child was also a Canadian citizen.She says a small boat was found near the bodies, and the search is ongoing for the missing child and any other people who may have been with the two families.Akwesasne police say there have been 48 incidents of pe...

Ukraine marks grim Bucha anniversary, calls for justice

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:55:53 GMT

BUCHA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainians marked the anniversary Friday of the liberation of Bucha with calls for remembrance and justice after a brutal Russian occupation. “We will not let it be forgotten,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a formal ceremony in Bucha, vowing to punish those who committed outrages there. “Human dignity will not let it be forgotten. On the streets of Bucha, the world has seen Russian evil. Evil unmasked.”The town near Kyiv has come to stand as a symbol of atrocities committed by Moscow’s military since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Ukrainian troops who retook the town found hundreds of bodies, on the streets, in yards and homes, in a mass grave. Some showed signs of torture.Elsewhere in Ukraine, fighting continued Friday: Russia used its long-range arsenal to bombard anew several areas, killing at least two civilians and damaging homes.And the Kremlin-allied president of neighboring Belarus raised the stakes when he said...

Fast-moving storms to hit Chicago area in two rounds Friday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:55:53 GMT

Friday will start out feeling warmer with some sporadic showers and storms possible in the morning.But the threat of severe weather looms.Modeling suggests a squall line could flare in eastern Iowa later Friday afternoon and race at highway speed (60 to 65 mph) eastward toward Chicago. Two rounds of storms are forecasted between the hours of 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. The first round set to move into the Chicago area around 4 p.m. as super cell thunderstorms. These storms pose a tornado threat and a golf-ball sized hail threat. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here A cold front then moves through around 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. bring another round of very quickly moving severe weather. These storms also pose the threat of tornadoes. The storms are likely to move through at a rate of 50-60 mph so any tornado warnings will be quick and offer not much time. It's advised that residents be prepared in advanced and stay tuned to WGNTV and the weather app for alerts and updates.These storms are...

Native Americans used horses far earlier than historians had believed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:55:53 GMT

(The Hill) -- Native American communities rode, cared for and lived alongside horses nearly a century earlier than European records suggest, a new study has found.The study, published in the journal Science, shatters the conventional narrative of how — and when — horses came into the Indigenous communities of the American West.The study draws on a new fusion of tribal oral histories with academic archeology and suggests that rather than being passed on by European colonists, knowledge of the horse has its own deep roots among native peoples themselves.It also suggests that horses were distributed across Indigenous communities from Wyoming to Kansas generations — at least — before European accounts suggested that horses had reached them.“This wasn’t people taming wild horses,” William Taylor, co-author and anthropologist at the University of Colorado, told The Hill.“We identified horses in mid-Kansas, clearly corn fed to get through a tough winter,” he said — something revealed by th...