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Israel begins airstrikes in Gaza following rocket fire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:58:19 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says it has struck targets in the Gaza Strip following a day of rocket fire from the Palestinian territory and from Lebanon.A pair of explosions were heard in Gaza late Thursday. It was not immediately clear what was targeted.The airstrikes came as Israel’s Security Cabinet was meeting to discuss a response to the rocket fire.Tensions have been rising in recent days following unrest at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site — where police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque and beat Palestinians who had barricaded themselves inside. The violence in Jerusalem has led to repeated rocket fire from Gaza. On Thursday, militants in Lebanon fired over 30 rockets into Israel as well.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised an “aggressive response.” THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.JERUSALEM (AP) — Militants in Lebanon fired a heavy barrage of rockets at Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said, forcing...

Few details in SF stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:58:19 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Details of how tech executive Bob Lee came to be fatally stabbed in downtown San Francisco early Tuesday were scarce as friends and family continued to mourn the man they called brilliant, kind and unlike others in the industry.San Francisco police found Lee, 43, on the sidewalk in front of a condominium building with stab wounds shortly after 2:35 a.m. Tuesday. He was taken to a hospital where he died. He leaves behind two children. The neighborhood where the stabbing occurred is near the Embarcadero waterfront and full of tech offices, towering condominium buildings and not much else late at night. Lee is known for creating the widely-used mobile payment service Cash App while working as chief technology officer of the payment company Square, now known as Block. He was chief product officer for cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin at the time of his death.Lee was back in San Francisco for a visit after moving to Miami in October, his father, Rick Lee, said on social...

Family looking for answers after man dies in custody at Etobicoke detention centre

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:58:19 GMT

The family of Anthony Chatzimanolakis is looking for answers after the 30-year-old died while in custody at the South Toronto Detention Centre in Etobicoke in late March.An overdose is being investigated as the likely cause.“He was just like a crazy, in a good way, good-hearted person that would take the shirt off his back for anybody and he had a big heart, and he loved his family a lot,” shared his sister Melissa. “Anytime he walked into a room, he lit up the room. He was the life of the party.”She tells CityNews her late brother was her best friend and an involved uncle with a keen interest in motorcycles and dirt bikes. Anthony was also recently engaged.Melissa described their family as small but close knight. “We’re devastated. We’re broken. In complete shock.”Anthony was arrested in mid-September of last year on charges including car theft and possessing a loaded gun. His case was still before the courts, and he had not been convicted.“Your first thought is how are...

Kansas OKs bill on opting kids out of LGBTQ-themed lessons

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:58:19 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers approved a bill Thursday aimed at helping parents opt their children out of public school lessons with LGBTQ-themed materials, as a Democratic lawmaker whose vote was crucial to banning transgender female athletes from girls’ and women’s sports faced calls to resign.The Republican-controlled Kansas House voted 76-46 to approve a “parental rights” measure that would allow a parent to place their child in an alternative to a public K-12 school lesson or activity that “impairs the parent’s sincerely held beliefs, values or principles.” The GOP-dominated Senate approved the measure last week, so it goes next to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.“If there is one family who are denied their rights, we need to address it,” said Republican state Rep. Susan Estes, of Wichita. While the measure covers lessons and materials dealing with race and possibly even evolution, it also is in line with the push by Republicans in statehouses across the U.S. to ...

New details of Johnston mandate emerge as MPs allege obstruction on foreign meddling

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:58:19 GMT

OTTAWA — More details have come to public light about the mandate and remuneration for former governor general David Johnston, whom Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed to investigate allegations of foreign interference in the last two federal elections.Orders in council made public this week show that Johnston will receive between $1,400 and $1,600 per day while working on a part-time basis, over a term expected to end in December. Trudeau’s office had previously announced that Johnston would have access to classified national-security documents during his tenure, that he would report on whether a public inquiry is needed by May 23, that he would provide regular reports to Trudeau and that he would release his final conclusions by the end of October.His mandate includes assessing the extent and impact of foreign interference in Canada’s electoral process and reviewing the federal government’s response to threats in the past two elections, including the extent t...

Biden vetoes bill that sought to toss EPA water protections

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:58:19 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defending his administration’s actions on clean water, President Joe Biden on Thursday vetoed a congressional resolution that would have overturned protections for the nation’s waterways that Republicans have criticized as overly intrusive.Republicans — and some Democrats — targeted an Environmental Protection Agency rule protecting thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways, labeling it an environmental overreach that harms businesses, developers and farmers.In separate votes, the House and Senate used the Congressional Review Act to enact a measure blocking the clean water rule, which was adopted at the end of last year. In his veto message Thursday, Biden said the bipartisan measure would leave Americans without a clear definition of “Waters of the United States. ” A dispute over the term — and the breadth of the landmark Clean Water Act — stretches across at least three presidential administrations.Environmentalists and Democratic presidents...

Large police presence descends on Northern California city

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:58:19 GMT

ROSEVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A large police presence descended on a park Thursday in a Northern California city in response to a possible shooting.The Roseville Police Department said there was an “active law enforcement situation” near a local park. “The area is safe but please avoid it until further notice. More information will be coming,” the Roseville Police Department wrote in a statement.Earlier, a police dispatcher said the department was responding to a shooter but that no other details were immediately available. Roseville is a city of about 150,000 roughly 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Sacramento. A local fitness center and library were put on lockdown in response, the Roseville Parks, Recreation, & Events department said in a Facebook post. “Mahany Fitness Center and Riley Library are currently in lockdown. All staff, visitors and children in camps are safe. Please avoid the area and do not attempt to pick up your children from camp until the situation is resolve...

Police digging out body found in concrete grave under condo

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:58:19 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Police in Colorado on Thursday continued to dig out a body encased in concrete that was found in a condo crawl space they believe is of a man killed by a friend and alleged partner in crime during a fight last year.The mounded concrete grave, with apparent human remains visible through its cracks, was discovered Tuesday underneath a condo unit after police got information from the mother of the missing man, 36-year-old Karl Beaman, as well as a neighbor in the condo complex in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, according to court documents.“Detectives are working with outside contractors to carefully recover the body. The excavation process is estimated to last through the end of the week,” Aurora police said in a statement. The woman who lived in the unit, Casie Bock, told police that her former boyfriend and father of her two children, Leroy Crawford, killed Beaman, possibly by suffocating him with a plastic bag, most likely in June 2022 though she was not sure of the exact...

Buenos Aires airport turns into unofficial homeless shelter

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:58:19 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — At the start of the long Easter weekend, the airport in Argentina’s capital is eerily quiet before dawn, hours before it will fill with travelers. About 100 people who sleep inside the facility are getting ready to start their day.One of them is Ángel Gómez, who has been living in the Jorge Newbery International Airport for two years and has seen how the number of people joining him has soared.“After the pandemic, this became a total invasion,” Gómez said early Thursday as he sat next to a sign that advertised the Perito Moreno glacier, an iconic tourist attraction in Argentine Patagonia.The airport, known colloquially as Aeroparque, has practically become a homeless shelter at night. It’s a stark reflection of the rising poverty in a country where some of the world’s highest inflation rates are making it difficult for many to make ends meet.“If I pay rent I don’t eat, and if I pay for food I’m on the street,” said Roxana Silva, who has been living at ...

Cause of death revealed for Chicago fire lieutenant

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:58:19 GMT

CHICAGO -- The cause of the death for the Chicago fire lieutenant who passed away Wednesday morning has been revealed.The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office revealed that 55-year-old Jan Tchoryk died from natural causes due to hypertensive-arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.The Chicago Fire Department dispatched crews to the 1200 block of North Lake Shore Drive just before 7:30 a.m. Wednesday on a still-and-box response. A short time later, a mayday response was called for a firefighter down.The Chicago Fire Department said Lt. Jan Tchoryk was making his way up the stairs to the 27th floor when he went down at the 11th floor.He was rushed by colleagues to the lobby where life-saving measures were performed. He died as a result of his injuries, CFD said. ORIGINAL: Firefighter dies after Gold Coast high-rise blaze; second in last 2 days The CFD said the fire was initially out and they were just battling hot spots. However just before 9 a.m. Wednesday, the fire reignited and ...