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Australian prosecutors drop murder charge over German backpacker’s death in 2005

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:00 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian prosecutors dropped a murder charge Wednesday against German immigrant Tobias Moran over the death of his German backpacker girlfriend Simone Strobel in 2005.Charges of murder and perverting the course of justice were withdrawn in Lismore Local Court in New South Wales state, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said in an email. No reasons were given.The naked body of 25-year-old Strobel from Rieden, Bavaria, was found hidden under palm fronds in a Lismore park on Feb. 17, 2005. She was found six days after she was reported missing and close to where she had been camping in a Lismore trailer park with Moran, then known as Suckfuell, his sister Katrin Suckfuell, and friend Jens Martin.Moran, now 43, was arrested in July 2022 in the west coast city of Perth where he lived. He was extradited to New South Wales and charged with murder and perverting the course of justice. A Sydney court released him on bail and allowed him to return to...

110 million people forcibly displaced as Sudan, Ukraine wars add to world refugee crisis, UN says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:00 GMT

Some 110 million people have had to flee their homes because of conflict, persecution, or human rights violations, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says. The war in Sudan, which has displaced nearly 2 million people since April, is but the latest in a long list of crises that has led to the record-breaking figure. “It’s quite an indictment on the state of our world,” Filippo Grandi, who leads the U.N. refugee agency, told reporters in Geneva ahead of the publication Wednesday of UNHCR’s Global Trends Report for 2022. Last year alone, an additional 19 million people were forcibly displaced including more than 11 million who fled Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in what became the fastest and largest displacement of people since World War II.“We are constantly confronted with emergencies,” Grandi said. Last year the agency recorded 35 emergencies, three to four times more than in previous years. “Very few make your headlines,” Grandi added, arguing that the w...

Syria says Israeli airstrikes over southwest Damascus wounded soldier and caused damage

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:00 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Airstrikes attributed to Israel over Syria’s capital early Wednesday critically wounded one soldier, Syrian state media reported.Syria’s state news agency, SANA, citing military officials, said the strikes over southwest Damascus also caused “material damage” without giving further details.It reported that Syrian air defenses shot down some of the missiles.Israeli authorities did not comment immediately.Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment next door, has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of neighboring Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges them.The last suspected Israeli airstrike on Syria was on May 29, targeting locations in the vicinity of Damascus. Israel has also targeted the international airport in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo several times this past year, often putting it out of commission.The Associated Press

Vegas Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:00 GMT

The Vegas Golden Knights have won their first Stanley Cup, defeating the Florida Panthers in five games.THE VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS ARE YOUR 2023 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS! ???? pic.twitter.com/skZ7FvMZ9S— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 14, 2023The Stanley Cup Final matchup saw the eighth-seeded Panthers meet Vegas after sweeping the Eastern Conference Finals.In game five, the Golden Knights dispatched the Panthers in dominant fashion with a score of 9-3. The game saw Vegas captain Mark Stone score the first hat trick in a Cup-clinching game since 1922. Nine goals for one team is also a record for a Cup-clinching game.Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the 2023 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.MARCHY! ????Jonathan Marchessault is the 2023 Conn Smythe trophy winner, becoming the first undrafted player to win the trophy since Wayne Gretzky. pic.twitter.com/NBexGl5ACz— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 14, 2023The win is a first fo...

Task force & tech tackle rise in retail theft

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:00 GMT

OAK BROOK, Ill. —  The surveillance videos were startling: Mobs of thieves descending on high-end stores and stealing thousands of dollars in merchandise in a matter of moments.  They targeted shopping centers in the city and suburbs.  The crimes seemed hard to prevent because they happened so fast.It was against that backdrop in 2021 that the Illinois Attorney General created a retail crime task force that would take a different approach.  They would view the thefts not as one-off’s done by individuals, but as part of a larger organized crime pattern. The bill closing the Illinois property tax loophole may help residents buy abandoned homes Attorney General Kwame Raoul has distributed out almost $5 million to nearly two dozen communities, including Oak Brook, Gurnee, Naperville and Orland Park. "We've funded 25 police departments throughout the state, all the way down to Carbondale," Raoul said.  It pays for everything from overtime to license plate reade...

Report: Most Mount Bonnell break-ins around sunset

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:00 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- By May, there were already 93 car break-ins at Mount Bonnell, according to an Austin Police Department report requested by Council Member Mackenzie Kelly.She said that number is high ahead of the spike we typically see over the summer. 2021 COVERAGE: Theft rate at Mount Bonnell already 4 times higher this year than all of 2019 "It's really concerning to me to learn there's that many break-ins at a local spot," she said. The report she requested also broke down the number of break-ins in 2021 and 2022.2021: 3312022: 370Council Member Kelly said she requested the report after a police officer addressed concerns with her about the topic at an HOA meeting she attended. She said the report also detailed the time of day break-ins were the most common, which was typically around sunset. What's the fix?Last year, we reported on the city installing dummy cameras in hopes of deterring crime. When the numbers didn't go down, the city removed the fake devices. Currently, the...

One person dead after 2-vehicle crash in Manor, ATCEMS says

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:00 GMT

MANOR, Texas (KXAN) -- One person is dead after a two-vehicle crash in Manor on Tuesday, Austin-Travis County EMS said on Twitter.Shortly after 9:15 p.m., medics responded to the crash in the 14500 block of N. Farm to Market Road 973, the tweet said. Medics said one person was pinned in their vehicle.Medics said one adult person, who was not identified Tuesday, was pronounced dead on the scene. No other patients were reported.Drivers should expect extended traffic delays near the scene, medics said.The incident remained under investigation Tuesday.

Obituary: Retired Ramsey County jurist Mary Louise Klas, 93, was longtime women’s rights advocate

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:00 GMT

Judge Mary Louise Klas photographed in her chambers) in 2000. (Jim Gehrz / Pioneer Press)Soon after former Ramsey County District Judge Mary Louise Klas was assigned to oversee cases in family court, she began working to ensure fair treatment for victims of domestic violence.Charged with issuing protection orders in abuse cases, sometimes more than 100 a month, Klas was horrified by the lack of concern for the victims, most of them women. As for their abusers, she said, the system was protecting them.“Police weren’t arresting them. Prosecutors weren’t prosecuting them. And judges weren’t trying them,” she told the Pioneer Press in 2000. Women weren’t being protected, she added, despite laws that could guard against such abuses.Klas went to work revising judicial practices on behalf of victims of domestic violence, said her daughter Patricia Montalbano.“No one else really had a fire in their belly about the issue,” she said. “She had the attitude, You di...

South Colonie School District will continue rebranding discussions

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:00 GMT

South Colonie, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Since 2011, South Colonie Central School District (SCCSD) has already been working on rebranding its mascots. Superintendent Dr. David Perry said changing a mascot is not uncharted territory, and the school district already had removed Native American images from the logos.“We had phased that out in 2010…2011. And have been using just the Colonie Block C,” he said. “Our students have been looking for an image or mascot [to accompany] the raider nickname.” Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! But now the Board of Regents requires the school to no longer use the name ‘Raiders.’ The Superintendent says the rebranding committee was already preparing for that.“We are at a point where we will start to engage our community and student body to come up with possible solutions,” he said. “We have a two-year time frame, so we are not in a big rush.”Resident Chuck Weinlein, a class of ‘82 graduate, hopes to jo...

Family of St. Louis soldier mourns loss after hit-and-run in Texas

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:00:00 GMT

ST. LOUIS - A St. Louis family is heartbroken after a hit-and-run in Texas early Sunday morning killed a young army soldier and soon-to-be father of four.Eric Rucker was a 29-year-old staff sergeant in the U.S. Army based at Fort Cavazos, previously in Fort Hood.Originally from St. Louis, his pregnant wife and three young children had moved back home a few months ago ahead of Rucker, who had one more deployment.However, Sunday at 2:30 a.m., a tragedy changed their plans forever."He was riding with a group of his friends on their motorcycles," said Katie Giesler, Rucker's aunt. "One of his friends up ahead, his hat blew off, so Eric and another friend of his turned around to get it, and then Eric got off his bike to get it, and that's when he was hit." Police tie 12-year-old girl to overnight crime spree He died instantly at the scene."They took a soldier away from fighting for our country, we all loved him," Giesler said. "They took my sister's baby away, and they took for who now...