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Iran releases 1 Danish, 2 Austrian citizens in operation involving Oman, Belgium

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:40 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Iran has released one Danish and two Austrian citizens, the European countries said Friday, thanking Oman and Belgium for their help in getting the trio freed.Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said he was “very relieved” that Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb were being brought home after “years of arduous imprisonment in Iran.” Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said that he was “happy and relieved that a Danish citizen is on his way home to his family in Denmark after imprisonment in Iran.” He didn’t name the person, saying their identity was “a personal matter” and he couldn’t go into details.Schallenberg thanked the foreign ministers of Belgium and Oman for providing “valuable support,” without elaborating on what form it took. Løkke Rasmussen also thanked Belgium and said that Oman ”played an important role.”Last week, a prisoner exchange between Belgium and Iran returned to Tehran an Iranian diplomat convicte...

Justice Department says it won’t charge Pence over handling of classified documents

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:40 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Department of Justice has informed former Vice President Mike Pence ‘s legal team that it will not pursue criminal charges related to the discovery of classified documents at his Indiana home.The department sent a letter to Pence’s attorney on Thursday informing him that, after an investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information, no criminal charges will be sought.The news comes days before Pence plans to launch his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination for president — a campaign that would put him in direct competition with former President Donald Trump.Attorney General Merrick Garland had named a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents, as well as Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, just three days after Trump formally launched his latest campaign. A Justice Department official confirmed the authenticity of the ...

Festival at Greece’s ancient theaters dedicated to Maria Callas and century since her birth

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:40 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The music from “Madame Butterfly” and other major operas is known to Greek audiences largely through the recorded performances of Maria Callas, the U.S.-born Greek artist who died in 1977 and is still revered here. For theatergoers in Athens, watching the tragic story of the young geisha Cio-Cio-San unfold in Puccini’s emotionally charged classic has become a familiar favorite at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the stone theater the Romans built at the foot of the Acropolis more than 1,800 years ago. Late Thursday, it hosted an open-air performance of “Madame Butterfly” to launch Greece’s main summer theater and arts festival, dedicated this year to Callas and the century since her birth in Manhattan on Dec. 2, 1923. She died of a heart attack at her home in Paris at age 53. Officially known as the Athens-Epidaurus Festival, the summer concerts and plays are also held at the ancient theater of Epidaurus, the UNESCO world heritage site in southern Greece. Mu...

Bug in Chase Bank online banking causing double transactions, fees

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:40 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Customers of Chase’s online banking services were seeing double transactions, fees and/or payments in their accounts, with the situation not immediately being resolved as of late morning on Friday.Numerous Chase customers were posting on social media that their rent or bill payments were taken out of their accounts twice and reporting hold times with customer service approaching more than an hour. “We’re sorry that some customers are seeing duplicate transactions and fees on their checking account,” a Chase spokesperson said. “We’re working to resolve the issue and will automatically reverse any duplicates and adjust any related fees.” Online banking services, while usually reliable, sometimes spectacularly fail or have temporary outages that tend to spook their customers. Banks typically will resolve an error in their services within hours, and no customer is liable for any errors in their accounts that occur when these happen. Ken Sweet, The...

Australian PM Albanese stresses need for diplomacy, guardrails in dealing with China

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:40 GMT

SINGAPORE (AP) — As tensions grow between the United States and China in the Asia-Pacific, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a gathering of top defense officials Friday that open channels of communication are critical for preserving peace, while also advocating effective deterrence.Albanese, who has been expanding Australia’s military power in response to China’s growing military assertiveness in the South China Sea, the South Pacific and the East China Sea, said he has also been working to stabilize the country’s diplomatic relations with China. “We recognize there are fundamental differences in our two nations’ systems of government, our values and our world views,” he said in his keynote address to the annual Shangri-La dialogue. “But we begin from the principle that whatever the issue, whether we agree or disagree, it is always better and it is always more effective if we deal direct.” Both U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and China’s new de...

Wegmans to close Natick, Massachusetts store because of slow business

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:40 GMT

NATICK, Mass. (AP) — The Wegmans supermarket chain is closing one of its largest and most unusual stores because it has not attracted enough business, the company said.The Natick, Massachusetts store will close on an undetermined date this summer, the Rochester, New York-based company said in a statement on Thursday.“Making these decisions is never easy. However, we do it for the long-term benefit of our people, our customers, and our communities,” Brien MacKendrick, the regional human resources director, said in the statement. “Unfortunately, with this nontraditional location we are unable to attract enough customers for our business model to work.”The 134,000-square-foot (12,450-square-meter) store opened in 2018 in a space within the Natick Mall once occupied by a JCPenney department store. It was the supermarket chain’s first two-level store within a major mall.The store also had a full-service Mexican restaurant, until it closed in 2019.The store has 365 employees and all...

Jay Roach goes into the desert with Patricia Arquette for quirky, noirish Apple series

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:40 GMT

Filmmaker Jay Roach usually has a moment of panic and doubt before production starts on a project. It’s something Sydney Pollack, who was a mentor of his, once assured him was normal. He’d also read something similar about Mike Nichols in Mark Harris’s biography. Good company to be in, sure, but still not the greatest feeling to be thinking “I’ve made a horrible mistake and how can I get out of this?”But for his latest endeavor, “ High Desert,” his first foray into episodic television, he didn’t have that. Currently five episodes into its eight-episode run on Apple TV+, “High Desert” stars Patricia Arquette as a hustler named Peggy Newman, an ex-addict and dealer scraping by in the Southern California desert, working as a saloon girl in an Old West themed park. Her husband (Matt Dillon) is in jail. Her mother (Bernadette Peters) has recently died. And more strait-laced siblings (Christine Taylor, Keir O’Donnell) are looking to sell the home she lives in. In an attempt to make some e...

Bicyclist, 56, hit by car in Hoffman Estates

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:40 GMT

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — A 56-year-old bicyclist was hit by a car in Hoffman Estates Thursday. According to a police report the crash took place at the intersection of Golf Road and Gannon Drive. The bicyclist was crossing the westbound lanes of Route 58, east of Gannon Drive when they were struck by the car. Child in serious condition after dog attack in Ottawa The bicyclist, who is a Schaumburg resident was transported to Luteran General Hospital in critical condition. No citations or arrests have been made at this time and the driver of the vehicle stayed on scene and is fully cooperating with the investigation.

Going electric: Volkswagen revamping iconic bus

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:40 GMT

HERNDON, Va. — Volkswagen is launching an electric version of its iconic Microbus.The new bus is called the three-row ID. Buzz and has a rear motor that will produce 282 horsepower.“The zero-direct emission ID. Buzz is the spiritual reincarnation of the Microbus, reimagined for our electric future,” said Pablo Di Si, President and CEO of Volkswagen of America, Inc. “It is practical, sustainable, and packaged in an unmistakably fun way that is classic Volkswagen. With its launch, the Bus will once again become our brand hero in America.”The new electric motor of the ID. Buzz increases the top speed to an electronically limited 99 mph.Visit here for more information.

CPD: Woman located after heading to North Side store

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:40 GMT

CHICAGO — A 28-year-old woman has been located after she was headed to a store, CPD said.