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Maldives presidential runoff is set for Sept. 30 with pro-China opposition in a surprise lead

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:00 GMT

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Maldivians will return to the polls on Sept. 30 to vote in a runoff election between the top two candidates in the country’s presidential race after neither secured more than 50% in the first round, the elections commission said Sunday.Main opposition candidate Mohamed Muiz managed a surprise lead with more than 46% of votes, while the incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who was seen as the favorite, got only 39%. The election on Saturday has shaped up as a virtual referendum over which regional power — India or China — will have the biggest influence in the Indian Ocean archipelago state. Solih is perceived as pro-India while Muiz is seen as pro-China.The result is seen a remarkable achievement for Muiz, who was a late selection as a candidate by his party after its leader, former President Abdullah Yameen, was blocked from running by the Supreme Court. He is serving a prison term for corruption and money laundering. “People did not see this g...

Food recalls are pretty common for things like rocks, insects and plastic

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:00 GMT

Rocks in Trader Joe’s cookies. Insects in its broccoli-cheese soup. Pieces of plastic in Banquet frozen chicken strips.In recent weeks, U.S. consumers have seen high-profile food recalls for an unappetizing reason: They’re contaminated with foreign objects that have no place on a dinner plate. And while no one wants to bite down on stainless steel in peanut butter or bone fragments in smoked sausage, this type of contamination is one of the top reasons for food recalls in the U.S. Food safety experts and federal agencies use the terms “extraneous” or “foreign” materials to describe things like metal fragments, rubber gaskets and bits of bugs that somehow make it into packaged goods. “Extraneous materials” triggered nine recalls in 2022 of more than 477,000 pounds of food regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service — triple the number of recalls tied to food contaminated with toxic E. coli bacteria. And the size of recalls can reach into...

Man charged after police discover 3 semi-automatic handguns in Etobicoke

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:00 GMT

A Toronto man is facing firearm offences after investigators executed a search warrant and discovered three semi-automatic handguns in Etobicoke.Toronto police officers said the warrants were issued in the Browns Line and Evans Avenue area on September 8.It’s alleged that three semi-automatic handguns, a long gun and a large quantity of firearm ammunition were seized in the search.As a result, 69-year-old Norman Craig of Toronto is facing several weapon-related charges, including two counts of unauthorized possession of a restricted firearm, unauthorized possession of a prohibited firearm, possession of a loaded prohibited firearm and the possession of a prohibited device, among other offences.The accused had a court appearance on Saturday.

A drone attack kills at least 40 in Sudan’s capital as rival troops battle, activists say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:00 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — A drone attack Sunday on an open market south of Sudan’s xapital, Khartoum, killed at least 40 people, activists and medical workers said, as the military and a powerful paramilitary group battle for control of the country. At least three dozen others were injured in the attack in Khartoum’s May neighborhood, where paramilitary forces battling the military were heavily deployed, according to an activist group known as the Resistance Committees and two health care workers at the Bashair University Hospital, where the casualties were treated.The activist group, which helps organize humanitarian assistance, posted footage on social media showing bodies wrapped in white sheets in an open yard at the hospital. Sudan has been rocked by violence since mid-April, when tensions between the country’s military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, burst into open fighting.The RSF blamed the milit...

An escaped murderer on the run in Pennsylvania has now been spotted about a dozen times

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:00 GMT

PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. (AP) — An escaped murderer on the run for more than a week in southeast Pennsylvania has been spotted with what police called “a changed appearance.”Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement on Sunday that Danelo Souza Cavalcante was seen overnight near Phoenixville in northern Chester County. Cavalcante is now clean-shaven and wearing a yellow or green hooded sweatshirt, black baseball cap, green prison pants and white shoes, the statement said. Cavalcante was operating a 2020 White Ford Transit van bearing Pennsylvania registration ZST-8818, police said on X (formerly known as Twitter). The van has a refrigeration unit on the top.Cavalcante, 34, escaped from the Chester County Prison while awaiting transfer to state prison on Aug. 31 after being sentenced to life for fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend in 2021. Prosecutors say he wanted to stop her from telling police that he’s wanted in a killing in his home country of Brazil.Phoenixville is about 13 miles (2...

GOP threat to impeach a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice is driven by fear of losing legislative edge

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:00 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Republicans have enjoyed outsize control of the Legislature in one of the most closely divided states for a dozen years. Maintaining that power is now at the heart of a drama involving the state Supreme Court that has national political implications.A new liberal tilt to the court is driving Republican fears of losing their large legislative majorities, which were built under some of the most gerrymandered political maps in the country. Republicans have threatened to impeach the justice who was elected earlier this year and flipped the court to a 4-3 liberal majority, unless she withdraws from any case involving redistricting. The GOP is citing concerns about her campaign statements and fundraising.Democratic leaders have decried that threat as “political extortion” and are mobilizing voters to pressure Republicans in districts won by the new justice and to back down.“Impeachment is an act of pure power politics,” said Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsi...

UN envoy urges donor support for battered Syria facing an economic crisis

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:00 GMT

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The United Nations special envoy for Syria Sunday urged donors not to reduce their funding as the war-torn country’s economic crisis spirals. Syrian President Bashar Assad’s decision last month to double public sector wages and pensions further skyrocketed inflation and fueled ongoing protests that shook the southern Druze-majority province of Sweida and nearby Daraa.Initially sparked by deepening economic misery, angry residents in greater numbers began to call for the fall of Assad, similar to that of the country’s 2011 uprising that turned into an all-out civil war.The U.N. estimates that 90% of Syrians in government-held areas live in poverty and that over half the country’s population struggles to put food on the table. As the conflict, now in its 13th year, reached a stalemate Syrian government reclaimed large swathes of lost territory with the help of its key allies in Russia and Iran in recent years. With international donor support d...

A US Navy veteran got unexpected help while jailed in Iran. Once released, he repaid the favor

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael White had only recently arrived in a grim Iranian jail when a curious fellow prisoner, an English-speaking Iranian, approached him in the courtyard for a conversation.The American did not reveal much at first, but it was the beginning of an unlikely friendship between White, a Navy veteran imprisoned on spying charges he says were unfounded, and Mahdi Vatankhah, a young Iranian political activist whose positions on social issues had drawn his government’s ire. As the men connected behind bars over a shared interest in politics and human rights, they developed a bond that proved vital for both. Vatankhah, while in custody and after his release, helped White by providing White’s mother with crucial, firsthand accounts about her son’s status in prison and by passing along letters White had written while he was locked up. Once freed, White did not forget. He pushed successfully this year for Vatankhah’s admission to the United States, allowing...

Sunday Forecast: Increasing clouds, high near 80

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:00 GMT

Sunday:  Increasing clouds, slight chance of a few showers. WSW/ESE 5-10 mph. Air quality is in the Moderate category. High near 80, cooler lakesideSunday Night: Mostly cloudy & chance of showers-- especially after midnight. ESE/S 5-10 mph. Low 62Chicago Weather | Tom Skilling and the WGN Weather Center's Forecast (wgntv.com)Monday: Rain at times & slight chance of an isolated thunderstorms. SSW 5-10 mph. High:69Chicago Area Radar | WGN TVExtended outlook calls for lingering showers on Tuesday with highs in the upper 60s. A bit cooler on Wednesday but the sun comes back. Highs in the mid 60s. Sunshine for the remainder of the week with highs in the comfortable mid to low 70s. 

Cooler, wetter weather ahead

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:48:00 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Sunday and Monday will be the hottest temperatures of the next 7 days. In fact, it is possible that today or tomorrow could feature our last triple digit temperatures of the season. So far we have had a total of 78 days of 100-degree or hotter weather.Rain chances start low Monday and Tuesday before gradually increasing mid- to late week. These storms and showers will be triggered by a few upper-level disturbances and the passing of a cold front. Rain chances will peak Thursday and into Friday with about 40% coverage.Predicted totals through SaturdayDrought updateThursday's Drought Monitor update shows the expansion of exceptional drought (Category 4) across nearly all of Central Texas. The current drought picture is among the worst on record in our area.Exceptional drought expands to include all counties STORY: Central Texas drought ‘top one or two driest’ BLOG: Could PDO mess with our wet El Niño? Austin Interactive Weather Stats (2023) FIRST WARNING WEATH...