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US sanctions Lebanon-South America network accused of financing Hezbollah

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:13 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday slapped terrorism sanctions on a family network of seven individuals and businesses in Lebanon and South America accused of financing the militant group Hezbollah, including a Lebanese man who officials say was involved in two deadly attacks in Argentina in the 1990s.Amer Mohamed Akil Rada was described as “one of the operational members” who carried out the attack on the Argentine-Israelite Mutual Association in Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed 85 people and wounded hundreds. A 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina killed 29 people.“Today’s action underscores the U.S. government’s commitment to pursuing Hezbollah operatives and financiers no matter their location,” said Brian Nelson, the Treasury’s under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, in a statement.The Iran-backed group is designated a “foreign terrorist organization,” and Washington also claims that the group has been involved in drug traffick...

Helping mothers and babies survive childbirth is a personal goal, says Melinda French Gates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:13 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Melinda French Gates says she takes personally the deaths of hundreds of thousands of women and babies during child birth each year and believes more people should get involved in the fight for improving maternal health care.French Gates, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-founder and co-chair told The Associated Press that when her daughter, Jennifer, gave birth to Leila — Jennifer’s first child and the Gateses’ first grandchild — earlier this year, she couldn’t help but think of her own experience giving birth. “That’s a terrifying day whether you’re in a great hospital in the U.S. in a high-income setting or in a low-income setting. It’s a scary day for moms, right?” French Gates said. “And you want to survive and you want your baby to survive.”Several low cost and low tech interventions would increase those chances of survival, according to a new report released Tuesday by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that tracks progres...

Alabama walk-on football player arrested on sodomy charge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:13 GMT

WEAVER, Ala. (AP) — A walk-on member of the Alabama football team has been arrested on a charge of second-degree sodomy involving a juvenile female.Antonio Ross, 19, a freshman defensive back with the 10th-ranked Crimson Tide, was arrested at his home in Weaver on Monday after being indicted by a Calhoun County grand jury. Ross was released from Calhoun County Jail on Monday on $50,000 bond.“Tonio Ross is no longer part of the program and has been removed from campus,” Alabama said in a statement.The case was initially reported to and investigated by the Anniston Police Department. The juvenile, whose name and age were not released, was interviewed at Calhoun County Children’s Advocacy Center.An attorney for Ross wasn’t immediately able to be contacted.Ross did not see action in the Tide’s first two games.___AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-pollSource

Northwest League Playoffs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:13 GMT

Northwest League PlayoffsAll Times EDT(x-if necessary)Championship(Best-of-5)Vancouver vs. EverettTuesday, Sept. 12: Vancouver at Everett, 10:05 p.m.Wednesday, Sept. 13: Vancouver at Everett, 10:05 p.m.Friday, Sept. 15: Everett at Vancouver. 10:05 p.m.x-Saturday, Sept. 16: Everett at Vancouver, 10:05 p.m.x-Sunday, Sept. 17: Everett at Vancouver, 4:05 p.m.Source

Gun-rights advocates protest New Mexico governor’s order suspending right to bear arms in public

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:13 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Customers filed in and out of Mark Abramson’s gun shop on the outskirts of Albuquerque as outrage grew over the governor’s order to suspend the right to carry firearms to address what she said is an epidemic of gun violence. Abramson agreed that a debate is long overdue on how to tackle irresponsible, unjustified shootings such as the ones in Albuquerque that led to the deaths of an 11-year-old and a teen. “But to ban the largest city and the most populous county in the state simply because bad people engaged in bad behavior seems overkill,” said Abramson, who is also a lawyer. “It’s not the law-abiding citizen that is the problem.”Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued the order Friday, saying she felt compelled to act because of recent killings, including the death of an 11-year-old outside a minor league baseball stadium last week and the August shooting death of 13-year-old Amber Archuleta in Taos County. She has since ignited a firestorm, ...

Bea Romer, Colorado first lady who championed state-funded preschool, dies at 93

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:13 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Former Colorado first lady Bea Romer, who helped establish public funding for preschool to help the state's neediest children in the 1980s, has died. She was 93.Romer, the wife of former Democratic Gov. Roy Romer, championed early-childhood education nationwide throughout her life. She died in her daughter’s Colorado home on Sunday after a “long illness,” according to a statement from her family. Specifics of the illness were not provided. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox The Colorado Preschool Project, as it was called then, was an early incarnation of what's steadily grown into a universal preschool program for Colorado children that launched in 2023.“Children were the light of her life. Nothing compares to the smile on Bea’s face in the presence of a child. She never stopped thinking about how to make the world better for them,” said Liz Romer, one of Romer's seven children.Romer was born in 1929 in Laramie, Wyoming. Her mother an...

BSO deputies respond to shots fired call, subdue armed suspect in Tamarac

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:13 GMT

Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) deputies responded to a call after reports of gunfire in a Tamarac neighborhood. At approximately 8:57 a.m., BSO deputies arrived at the scene near the 8100 block of Northwest 73rd Avenue when they encountered a tense standoff with an adult male, the suspected shooter, who remained inside the residence and declined to exit the property. The subject, who was the sole occupant of the home at the time of the incident, engaged in a verbal dispute with his wife, according to detectives. During their phone conversation, the wife reported hearing gunshots and alerted authorities.A BSO SWAT team was dispatched to the scene, where they executed a tactical operation to safely apprehend the armed individual. The suspect was taken into custody without any further incident or injuries.As of now, there have been no reported injuries resulting from the incident. The investigation remains ongoing as detectives work to piece together the circumstances that led to...

Germany dithers on EIB choice

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:13 GMT

BERLIN — Germany’s ruling coalition has yet to decide whom it will support in the race to lead the European Investment Bank, but Finance Minister Christian Lindner signaled he wants continuity, stressing that the winning candidate should champion “sound banking” and preserve the bank’s cautious approach to lending.“It’s important for us that the bank retain its good rating and remain on a solid footing,” Lindner told POLITICO in an interview. “We also see scope to improve the agility of the bank and the tempo of decision making.”Lindner, the leader of Germany’s liberal Free Democrats, declined to say which of the five candidates vying to lead the EIB he would prefer or if he would endorse one of the two frontrunners — Denmark’s Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner who is currently on leave from that role to focus on her candidacy; and Nadia Calviño, Spain’s socialist finance minister. All told, five candidates are vying to lead the EIB, which was founded by EU...

Let the US in to EU arms deals, says Lithuanian minister

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:13 GMT

LONDON — European countries should not exclude American companies from defense procurement, Lithuania’s Deputy National Defense Minister Greta Monika Tučkutė told POLITICO. “Our transatlantic bond is making us strong and allows us to deter any adversary, any temptations to cross our border,” she said Tuesday, in an interview on the sidelines of the DSEI defense show in London. “We should compete with our allies and friends when it comes to innovation, but with regards to procurement in general, we need to have the defense market open not only to European actors, but also to the transatlantic allies,” she said. How to deal with companies from outside the Continent has become a thorny political issue as European countries boost defense budgets in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the European Union turns into a significant player in defense procurement.Heavyweights such as France are pushing for European countries to spend Europea...

Germany’s Lindner blasts EU over ‘enormously dangerous’ green plans

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:29:13 GMT

BERLIN — German Finance Minister Christian Lindner slammed politicians in Brussels for seeking to enact stricter clean energy rules for buildings, warning that such plans could spark a dangerous voter backlash and fuel the rise of the far right.Speaking to POLITICO during an interview in the garden of the finance ministry in Berlin on Monday, Lindner argued that Europeans are suffering from overregulation — or “red tape all over the place.” He urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to “pause” new EU legislation aimed at curtailing greenhouse gas emissions during a time of economic stagnation wrought in part by high energy costs.The high-level intervention by the German minister comes days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz unveiled a plan to remove “bureaucratic obstacles” to economic growth at home, while also promising to push for the same on the EU level.Lindner, the head of the&...