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Greek floods bring more flak over government’s handling of disasters

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:37 GMT

ATHENS — The government of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has come under attack for its handling of another natural disaster, as the death toll from severe flooding in central Greece rose to 10 people and the extent of the calamity remained unknown.With whole villages under water, rescue crews in helicopters, boats and bulldozers continued on Saturday to evacuate residents from rooftops, amid fears that the number of missing could rise sharply. Local media reporting apocalyptic scenes with dead bodies floating in the water.The flooding follows last month’s massive wildfires in the region of Athens, which also sparked charges of insufficient preparations for disasters.  The rainstorms that started on Tuesday turned streams into raging torrents that burst dams, washed away roads and bridges and hurled cars into the sea. Mudflows have reached the rooftops of the houses in several villages.The Thessaly plain, which accounts for more than 25 percent of the country’s ...

Column: Chicago Cubs’ luck runs out in 10-inning loss — and they need a reality check before the series finale

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:37 GMT

The ability to avoid losing streaks fueled the Chicago Cubs in their surge from a sub-.500 team to a postseason contender.They hadn’t lost more than two straight games since the start of July, when they dropped three in a row.But their 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday before 40,391 at Wrigley Field ended that two-month stretch of consistency, and the third straight loss to their closest wild-card pursuer left them a game ahead of the Diamondbacks for the second spot.“We went through obviously some struggles and challenges early in the year, but this is a resilient bunch,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “We’ve proven time and time again we will bounce back. These games have been competitive. It’s not like we’re laying down.“I felt like we’ve put a lot of effort in. It just hasn’t happened for us. We’ve got so many great players at some point it will (even out). Sometimes you’ve got to g...

A drone attack kills at least 43 in Sudan’s capital as rival troops battle, activists say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:37 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — A drone attack Sunday on an open market south of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, killed at least 43 people, activists and a medical group said, as the military and a powerful rival paramilitary group battle for control of the country.More than 55 others were wounded in the attack in Khartoum’s May neighborhood, where paramilitary forces battling the military were heavily deployed, the Sudan Doctors’ Union said in a statement. The causalities were taken to the Bashair University Hospital for treatment.The Resistance Committees, an activist group that 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 military’s air...

Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss has a book coming out next spring

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:37 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss has a book coming out next spring in which she will reflect on her years in government, offer advice for future leaders and recall lessons she learned while often being “the only conservative in the room.” Truss, whose 45 days as Prime Minister was the shortest term in British history, is calling her book “Ten Years to Save the West.” The conservative Regnery Publishing announced Sunday that the release date will be April 16. According to Regnery, Truss will recall being asked by Queen Elizabeth II to form a government just two days before the monarch’s death a year ago. She also will describe encounters with such foreign officials as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.“After more than 10 years as a British government minister, I’ve seen up close the threats posed to global democracy,” she said in a statement.“I want to share the lessons from my experience in government and those internation...

11 hurt when walkway collapses during Maine open lighthouse event

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:37 GMT

ARROWSIC, Maine (AP) — Eleven people were hurt when a walkway collapsed during an annual event that encourages tours of Maine lighthouses.The wooden walkway collapsed at Doubling Point Lighthouse in Arrowsic on Saturday. The lighthouse was open to the public as part of Maine Open Lighthouse Day, which is a day when the state’s scenic lighthouses are open to the public.Authorities said five of the 11 injured people were taken to hospitals. The lighthouse has stood since the late 19th century and is located on the Kennebec River.The lighthouse is closed to the public on Sunday, said Karen McLean, a member of the Friends of Doubling Point Light. McLean said the group intends to repair the lighthouse, but there is no timeframe to do that yet.The lighthouse is active as a Coast Guard aid to navigation. The site has a long wooden walkway that leads over a marshy area to the lighthouse, which itself is shorter than many in the state with a tower height of 23 feet (seven meters).The A...

Biden says US-Vietnam relations have evolved from the ‘bitter past’ of the Vietnam War

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:37 GMT

HANOI (AP) — President Joe Biden opened his first visit to Vietnam on Sunday saying the two nations have a chance to shape the Indo-Pacific for decades to come — evidence of how far the relationship has evolved from what Biden referred to as the “bitter past” of the Vietnam War that ended almost a half-century ago.Vietnam is elevating relations with the U.S. to the level of a comprehensive strategic partner, Vietnam’s highest tier of international partnership. Biden, meeting with the country’s leaders, welcomed the move and said he hoped progress could be made on climate, the economy and other issues during his 24-hour visit to Hanoi.“We can trace a 50-year arc of progress between our nations from conflict to normalization to this new elevated status,” Biden said as he and Nguyễn Phú Trọng, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, announced the new relationship status at party headquarters.The U.S. president, who has described himself as being part of the “Vi...

Sabotage attempts reported at polling stations in occupied Ukraine as Russia holds local elections

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:37 GMT

Russian authorities on Sunday reported multiple attempts to sabotage voting in local elections taking place in occupied areas of Ukraine.Votes are taking place this weekend in 79 regions of Russia, with ballots for governors, regional legislatures, city and municipal councils, as well as in the four Ukrainian regions Moscow annexed illegally last year — the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia provinces — and on the Crimean peninsula, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014. Balloting in the occupied areas of Ukraine has been denounced by Kyiv and the West as a sham and a violation of international law.Russian electoral officials on Sunday reported attempts to sabotage voting in the occupied regions, where guerrilla forces loyal to Kyiv had previously killed pro-Moscow officials, blown up bridges and helped the Ukrainian military by identifying key targets. A drone strike in the early hours of Sunday destroyed one polling station in the Zaporizhzhia province, deputy chairman of Russ...

Presidents Biden, Obama, Clinton congratulate Coco Gauff on her US Open tennis title

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:37 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Barack Obama congratulated Coco Gauff on her U.S. Open title Saturday, less than two weeks after attending her first comeback of the tournament.After Gauff rallied to beat Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, messages quickly poured onto the social media platform formerly known as Twitter in celebration of the 19-year-old American’s first Grand Slam title. “We couldn’t be prouder of you on and off the court — and we know the best is yet to come,” Barack Obama wrote.Obama and his wife, Michelle, were in Arthur Ashe Stadium on opening night, when Gauff rallied for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Laura Siegemund. They met with her after the match, which was followed by a tribute to Billie Jean King as part of a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Open becoming the first sporting event to offer equal prize money to female and male champions.Michelle Obama also sent congratulations with a picture of their meeting, while Clinton wrote: “The future of ...

Delta Air Lines employees work up a sweat at boot camp, learning how to deice planes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:37 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Delta Air Lines has learned that summer is a good time to prepare for winter — and how to deice planes so they can keep flying safely in freezing temperatures.Every summer, Delta brings about 400 workers to Minneapolis to a three-day “summer deice boot camp.” They go through computer-based training, watch demonstrations by instructors, and then practice spraying down a plane — using water instead of the chemicals found in deicing fluid.The boot campers, who rotate through in groups of 10 or so, return to their home bases and train 6,000 co-workers before October, says Jeannine Ashworth, vice president of airport operations for the Atlanta-based airline.Here’s how the deicing process works: Big trucks with tanks of deicing mixture pull up alongside a plane, and an operator in a bucket at the top of a long boom sprays hot fluid that melts ice but doesn’t refreeze because of the chemicals it contains, mainly propylene glycol.It takes anywhere from a few m...

Trudeau wanted stronger condemnation of Russia from G20 leaders

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:01:37 GMT

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says if it were up to him, the G20 leaders’ declaration on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would have been much stronger.At a closing summit news conference, Trudeau said Sunday that if other leaders had their way, the declaration would have been much weaker.He called the G20 an “extremely disparate group,” adding representatives worked very hard “to get as strong language as we possibly could.”Global economic leaders agreed on a final declaration at the G20 summit, but the language surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has softened since the leaders last met.The consensus statement from this year’s summit in India was posted by the host country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday, a day before the summit’s conclusion.It calls for the cessation of military destruction or other attacks on relevant infrastructure, as the violence is affecting food and energy security as well as supply chain...