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Serbia cracks down on protests amid ‘election fraud’ outcry

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:44 GMT

Dozens of people have been detained during mass protests in Serbia amid claims that elections earlier this month were rigged in favor of the ruling party.Thousands gathered outside a police station in the capital, Belgrade, on Monday evening demanding the release of at least 38 demonstrators believed to have been arrested. Authorities fired tear gas into a crowd that attempted to storm the city hall the day before, while the opposition called on the West to investigate the vote.Activists blocked traffic as part of the eighth consecutive day of protests since parliamentary and local elections on December 17, which saw the governing coalition win a majority in the national assembly. President Aleksandar Vučić’s populist Serbian Progressive Party, which has held power since 2012, declared victory despite concerns from an international observer mission that the vote “was marred by harsh rhetoric, bias in the media, pressure on public sector employees and misuse of public resources...

Fireball over Crimea as Ukraine hits large Russian navy ship

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:44 GMT

The Ukrainian military on Tuesday said it blew up the Russian landing vessel Novocherkassk stationed in the occupied Crimean port of Feodosia.Russian authorities later confirmed that the warship had been severely damaged, and that one person was killed, two wounded and six people evacuated from their homes, Sergey Aksyonov, the head of the regional authority of Russian-controlled Crimea, was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency.“The fleet in Russia is getting smaller and smaller!” Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of Ukraine’s air force, said on Telegram, thanking “the pilots of the Air Force and everyone involved for the skillful work!”He called on Russian soldiers to “put on your pants and leave our Crimea ‘home’ before it’s too late!”The attack using cruise missiles is the latest of a series of Ukrainian hits in Crimea where the Russian Black Sea fleet is stationed. Over the last months, Ukraine has managed ...

Trump augurs divisive year in angry Christmas rant

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:44 GMT

(CNN) — Most global political, spiritual and national leaders mark Christmas with a plea for peace, or by stressing the virtues of family and unity.That’s not Donald Trump’s style.The ex-president unleashed an online torrent of fury and bitterness, largely over his legal plights, spanning Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, previewing the discord and personal obsessions he will inflict on the nation in a pivotal election year in 2024.Trump raged at President Joe Biden and special counsel Jack Smith, making expansive and false claims that his attempts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election represented a vital defense of American democracy and were thus perfectly legal. In a tide of invective in block capitals on his Truth Social network, Trump escalated extreme rhetoric on immigration that has drawn comparisons to Nazi demagoguery in the 1940s and reprised his view of unlimited presidential power that ha...

Dense fog this morning

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:44 GMT

It’s a foggy start! This morning the fog is thicker and stretches all the way to the coast and Cape. The low beams will be your friend this morning as we have a Dense Fog Advisory that runs through 10 am. We’ll see clouds and sun today, and temperatures are mild once again with light wind. High temperatures will be in the upper 40s/low 50s. Tonight, fog redevelops and temperatures will be in the upper 30s/low 40s.Showers return tomorrow as an area of low pressure over the Southeast travels up the coast. A spot shower is possible in the morning. We’ll see mainly clouds through the day. Expect showers for the evening (commute if you’re back at work) turning to rain late and lingering into Thursday morning.The unsettled pattern continues through Saturday with rain and show showers possible. Temperatures will feel chillier this weekend in the upper 30s/near 40. Luckily it’s dry for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day plans!-Meteorologist Melanie B...

From neon hot dogs to wagyu beef, Chicago-based Levy cooks up Vegas-style menu for Super Bowl at Allegiant Stadium

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:44 GMT

As Bears fans are once again left cheering for a top draft pick in the waning weeks of a losing NFL season, another local team is busy gearing up for its sixth Super Bowl since the dawn of the new millennium.Chicago-based Levy will be back in the Big Game in February as the food and beverage provider for Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The company is planning a glitzy Vegas-style menu with everything from carved lobster tail and wagyu tenderloin to neon hot dogs, hoping to sate 65,000 football fans and score points in the competitive hospitality industry.With seats selling for between $10,000 and $45,000 each on the official NFL Ticket Exchange, attendees are expecting a lot more than a warm hot dog and a cold beer.“The Super Bowl is the NFL’s biggest stage,” said Andy Lansing, 63, president and chief executive of Levy. “And so the Super Bowl for us is our biggest stage.”Launched as a Chicago restaurant group more than 45 years ago, ...

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

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:44 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 Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:44 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 Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:44 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 Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:44 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 Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:44 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...