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US’s Blinken defends G20 statement on Ukraine amid criticism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday defended the United States’ decision to accept the joint statement from G20 leaders on Russia’s war in Ukraine that did not replicate the group’s previous stance condemning Russia for its invasion.“The G20 countries in this statement all stood up for the importance of territorial integrity, sovereignty — and that’s very clear,” Blinken said during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”The group’s statement this year did not call out Russia by name, but said that all countries should “refrain from action against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state.”The wording, which Western countries called for to signal a continued condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, could also appease complaints from Moscow that attacks inside Russia have escalated since the beginning of Ukraine’s counteroffensive. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was deeply involved in ...

Polish opposition threatens to go after central bank chief over inflation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

Poland’s leading opposition party said it will look to put the country’s central bank chief, Adam Glapiński, on trial for failing to successfully tame inflation if it wins next month’s election.The party, Civic Platform, vowed to hold Glapiński accountable for “destroying the independence” of the National Bank of Poland and “failing to implement the basic task” of fighting high prices, it said in publishing a package of pledges for its prospective first 100 days in office on Saturday. Glapiński joins a cast of Polish senior officials — including Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, President Andrzej Duda and Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro — whom Civic Platform has pledged to hold to account at state tribunals if the party wins the October 15 election.The threat against Glapiński comes after the central bank eased its monetary policy for the first time in three years on Wednesday, with a 0.75 percentage point cut in interest rates. The rate r...

New restaurant in Stow floods, postpones grand opening after severe thunderstorms

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

Melissa Simon has been dreaming of her own restaurant for the better part of two decades. However, her livelihood was put on hold when severe thunderstorms canceled the grand opening ceremony on Friday night.“We don’t have electricity and we don’t know when we’re going to be reopening,” she said.The opening of her new spot Fourth and Field is currently on hold.“I was looking for a café to extend my business to and grow my business because it was growing,” Simon said.Heavy rain and strong winds tore through Stow on Friday, toppling trees and knocking out power.“We finally got to the place that we wanted. At the last minute we were blowing up balloons and that’s when I looked up at the sky,” Simon said. “I noticed that it was getting really really dark and I think something is coming out right now and that’s what it just hit.”“We were so excited but it took the excitement out of it a little bit,” Simon saidThe patio and the front of the restaurant were flooded, and Melissa ...

Escaped murderer in Pennsylvania has changed appearance, is being sought in stolen dairy van

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say an escaped murderer who has eluded capture since breaking out of a southeastern Pennsylvania prison a week and a half ago has apparently slipped out of the search area, changed his appearance and is now being sought in a stolen vehicle.Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement on Sunday that Danelo Souza Cavalcante was seen overnight near Phoenixville in northern Chester County, more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of the area that until now has been the focus of the search.Cavalcante is now clean-shaven and wearing a yellow or green hooded sweatshirt, black baseball cap, green prison pants and white shoes, police said. He was driving a 2020 White Ford Transit van that has a refrigeration unit on the top and had been reported stolen by Baily’s Dairy and has Pennsylvania registration ZST8818.Cavalcante, 34, escaped from the Chester County Prison while awaiting transfer to state prison on Aug. 31 after being sentenced to life for fa...

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

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Delta Air Lines has learned that summer is a good time to prepare for winter — and how to de-ice planes so they can keep flying safely in freezing temperatures.Every summer, Delta brings about 400 workers to Minneapolis to a three-day summer de-ice “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 de-icing 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 de-icing 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 fr...

SIU investigating after man, 19, dies in Niagara Falls

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is looking into the circumstances of the death of a 19-year-old man who jumped into the Niagara Falls Gorge.Ontario’s police watchdog said Niagara Parks Police officers were attempting to look for a man in distress around 7 p.m. on Saturday. They located the 19-year-old in the River Road and Hiram Street area.The SIU reported the man jumped over the barrier and fell into the Niagara Gorge. His body was found a short time later.The SIU said one subject official and three witness officials have been designated.Authorities are urging members of the public with information to come forward.The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of officials that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and or the discharge of a firearm at a person.

Explosives drop steel trestle Missouri River bridge into the water along I-70 while onlookers watch

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

ROCHEPORT, Mo. (AP) — Onlookers online and on the banks of the Missouri River had to wait more than an hour to watch officials use explosives to drop a historic steel trestle bridge into the river that for years carried cars across the waterway along I-70.The blast just southeast of Rocheport, Missouri, which is is about 115 miles (185.07 kilometers) east of Kansas City, was delayed by fog Sunday morning. The demolition that was scheduled for 7:30 a.m. finally happened shortly before 9 a.m. after the view was clear.A small crowd of onlookers gathered along the banks of the river to watch the destruction with some of their heads temporarily blocking the livestream the Missouri Department of Transportation operated. Many others logged on from across the country to watch online. The feed switched to a wide shot that showed the entire bridge before the explosives were triggered.The state said crews will work to remove the roughly 1,100-foot-long (335-meter-long) bridge from the river wi...

Aftershock rattles Morocco as rescuers seek survivors from the earthquake that killed over 2,000

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

AMIZMIZ, Morocco (AP) — An aftershock rattled Moroccans on Sunday as they prayed for victims of the nation’s strongest earthquake in more than a century and toiled to rescue survivors while soldiers and workers brought water and supplies to desperate mountain villages in ruins. The disaster killed more than 2,000 people — a number that is expected to rise.The United Nations estimated that 300,000 people were affected by Friday night’s magnitude 6.8 quake and some Moroccans complained on social networks that the government wasn’t allowing more help from outside. International aid crews were prepared to deploy, but waited for the Morocco government to request their assistance.“We know there is a great urgency to save people and dig under the remains of buildings,” said Arnaud Fraisse, founder of Rescuers Without Borders, who had a team stuck in Paris waiting for the green light. “There are people dying under the rubble, and we cannot do anything to save them.”Help was slow to ar...

Motorcyclist critically injured, lost control and struck vehicle in city’s west end

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

A male motorcyclist is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after they lost control of their bike and struck a vehicle in the city’s west end.Toronto police were called to the Bloor Street West and Kipling Avenue area in Etobicoke at around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday for reports of a collision.Police said a 29-year-old man was operating a 2022 Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle southwest on Dundas Street West near Jerry Howarth Drive when he lost control and travelled through an enclosed grass area before striking a Kia near the intersection.A 47-year-old woman was operating the 2014 Kia Forte westbound on Bloor Street West at the time.The male motorcyclist was rushed to a trauma centre with life-threatening injuries. Police said the woman was not seriously injured in the crash.The investigation is ongoing.

North Macedonia police say a migrant was electrocuted as he descended from freight train roof

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:12:28 GMT

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Authorities in North Macedonia say a migrant was electrocuted as he tried to descend from the roof of a train carriage.The man in his 30s died instantly early Sunday when he touched a cable during an attempt to descend from the roof of a freight train container near the central town of Gradsko.Police said in a statement the accident was reported by the National Crisis Center. They did not provide details about the migrant’s origin.The police told The Associated Press that, in the first six months of 2023, a total of 5,280 attempts at illegal crossing were prevented, the vast majority of them at the southern border with Greece. That is a reduction of 43% on the same period last year.Most of the migrants attempting to cross into North Macedonia are Syrians, police said. Konstantin Testorides, The Associated Press