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Robbers break into home of Brazilian soccer star Neymar’s partner, she said on social media

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Thieves entered the home of Brazilian soccer star Neymar ‘s partner and took her parents hostage early Tuesday morning, Bruna Biancardi, the mother of Neymar’s baby girl, wrote on her verified Instagram account.Local media reported that the home is located in Cotia, a city in Sao Paulo’s metropolitan area, and that one of the three armed robbers, a neighbor of Biancardi’s parents, has been apprehended.News outlet R7 reported that the trio had insistently asked after the whereabouts of Biancardi and her baby girl. Biancardi said on Instagram that she and her daughter had no longer been living at the house. Online news outlet G1 reported that Biancardi’s parents were bound and gagged, and that the assailants made off with luxury purses, watches and jewelry. Security camera footage revealed that the escape car was owned by a neighbor, who told authorities that he had loaned it to his son. The 20-year-old was soon found and confessed to the ...

California unveils Native American monument at Capitol, replacing missionary statue toppled in 2020

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — An eight-foot-tall bronze statue of a late Native American leader known for preserving cultural dances now stands surrounded by trees in a historic park outside of California’s state Capitol building, replacing a statue of a Spanish missionary that protesters toppled it in 2020.California lawmakers, tribal leaders and hundreds of others on Tuesday celebrated the unveiling of a statue depicting Miwok leader William J. Franklin, Sr., in recognition of the Native American tribes whose ancestral lands are now the grounds of the state Capitol.“Finally, the California Indian people will have a monument here on the Capitol grounds for all those visiting to know that we are still here,” said Assemblymember James C. Ramos, the first Native American in the state Legislature. “We’re here because of the resiliency of our elders and ancestors.”It is one of several moves that California lawmakers have made in recent years to acknowledge the history of Native ...

2 demonstrators die in Panama during latest protests over Canadian company’s mining contract

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Two people died Tuesday while participating in a third week of protests against a controversial government mining contract in Panama, officials confirmed. One person was arrested in connection with the incident, Panama’s attorney general said on the social network X, formerly Twitter.Officials did not say how the demonstrators died while blocking a road in the east of the country, but local reports suggested they were shot by a driver attempting to get past the protest.A video circulating on social media appeared to show the alleged attacker carrying a gun and removing a tire from the road blockade, while a body lies on the road nearby.The deaths followed local reports that a demonstrator was run over and killed Nov. 1 by a foreigner attempting to cross a roadblock during a protest in the west of the country. The contract, given final approval Oct. 20, allows the local subsidiary of Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals to continue operating an open...

Cheetahs become more nocturnal on hot days. Climate change may up conflicts among Africa’s big cats.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

Cheetahs are usually daytime hunters, but the speedy big cats will shift their activity toward dawn and dusk hours during warmer weather, a new study finds.Unfortunately for endangered cheetahs, that sets them up for more potential conflicts with mostly nocturnal competing predators such as lions and leopards, say the authors of research published Wednesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.“Changing temperatures can impact the behavior patterns of large carnivore species and also the dynamics among species,” said University of Washington biologist Briana Abrahms, a study co-author.While cheetahs only eat fresh meat, lions and leopards will sometimes opportunistically scavenge from smaller predators.“Lions and leopards normally kill prey themselves, but if they come across a cheetah’s kill, they will try to take it,” said Bettina Wachter, a behavioral biologist who leads the Cheetah Research Project at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. “The c...

Victim’s mother says drunk driving charge was wrongly dropped in fatal UBC crash case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

RICHMOND, B.C. — The mother of a young man killed by a speeding driver on the University of British Columbia campus says the criminal justice system “leaves victims in the dust,” after her son’s killer was sentenced to three years in jail on Tuesday. Debbie O’Day-Smith’s son Evan Smith and fellow University of B.C. student Emily Selwood were hit and killed by a vehicle driven by Tim Goerner on Sept. 26, 2021. Goerner was originally charged with impaired driving causing death, but those charges were dropped and he pleaded guilty last month to dangerous driving causing death.A two-day sentencing hearing in provincial court in Richmond, B.C., concluding Tuesday. A joint submission from the defence and Crown prosecutor said Goerner, 23, should serve three years in jail and be banned from driving for five years. Provincial court Judge Glenn Lee accepted the submission, ruling that the punishment was in line with similar cases in the past. He told the court t...

Peace Corps agrees to pay $750,000 to Chicagoland family of dead volunteer

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

The Peace Corps has agreed to pay $750,000 to the family of a 24-year-old volunteer from Illinois who died in 2018 in East Africa after the agency’s doctors misdiagnosed a case of malaria, a law firm announced Tuesday.Bernice Heiderman of Inverness, Illinois, died in January 2018 on the island nation of Comoros after texting her mother that the local Peace Corps doctor wasn’t taking seriously her complaints of dizziness, nausea, fever and fatigue, said Adam Dinnell, a partner at the Houston-based law firm of Schiffer Hicks Johnson PLLC.The doctor told her to drink water and take aspirin, said Dinnell, whose firm filed a federal lawsuit for damages in Chicago on behalf of the Heiderman family. Senator proposes plan that lifts nuclear moratorium and requires new oversight rules in Illinois The woman’s mother, Julie Heiderman, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview the family feels that with the settlement, the Peace Corps has taken some accountability for her daughter's ...

Veteran's Voices: WWII pilot Ed McGuire's long journey home to Chicago

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

CHICAGO — Eighty years after he left Chicago’s South Side to fight in World War II, Ed McGuire finally made it home.The journey stretched across three continents, eight decades, and a lifetime of questions for his relatives.  A HERO’S WELCOME, A SOLIDER’S SENDOFFOn Saturday, October 28, those distant relatives – joined by hundreds who lined the streets – gave McGuire a hero’s welcome and a soldier’s sendoff. “That sense of community is what makes this country great,” said Ned McAuliffe, one of McGuire’s grand nephews.Among the mourners was retired U.S. Army Colonel Wayne Kirkpatrick: “Citizens with their hands over their heart as the American flag and the hearse goes by,” said Kirkpatrick, who is the chairman of Rolling Thunder Illinois, which provided an escort for McGuire’s casket.At Most Holy Redeemer parish in Evergreen Park, family and community members gathered for a long-delayed funeral. None of those who attended the funeral ever met McGuire, but there is no doubt ...

Chicago city council meets after bullying allegations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

CHICAGO — The Chicago City Council met Tuesday to consider bringing up censuring Mayor Brandon Johnson's former council floor leader over a case of alleged bullying last week.Last Thursday, Ald. Ray Lopez (15th Ward) said he had to stand between Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th Ward), the former floor leader, and Ald. Emma Mitts (37th Ward) so Mitts could enter the chamber to vote on an advisory referendum that would ask Chicago voters to decide if the city should remain a sanctuary city. Lights shut off during immigration chaos at Chicago City Council special meeting The former floor leader was trying to prevent the chamber from having enough elected leaders to conduct a meeting legally.“It’s completely unacceptable to grab, restrain and block one of our colleagues and physically restrain and block to do her dully elected job,” Lopez said.On Monday, Ramirez-Rosa resigned his two leadership positions and issued an apology saying, “I feel awful about everything that happened. I have ...

Investigation underway after woman, 12-year-old girl robbed, carjacked on Far South Side

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

CHICAGO — An investigation is underway after a robbery and carjacking on the city's Far South Side last week, police say.According to Chicago police, it all unfolded just before 9 p.m. on Thursday in the 9300 Block of South Pleasant Avenue in the city's Beverly neighborhood.  Chicago crime experts offer tips on how to avoid carjackings, minimize harm Police say a 46-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl were exiting a black Audi A7 in the area when they were approached by two men on foot. The two men then held the victims up at gunpoint and pushed the older woman to the ground before demanding her car keys.According to police, the two men then took the victim's belongings and fled the scene in the stolen car, heading eastbound. Neither of the victims were injured in the robbery and carjacking and police say no arrests have been made.  Tips from Chicago crime experts on how to avoid robberies, minimize harm Anyone with information that could help authorities in their investi...

Democrat Andy Beshear wins reelection in Kentucky governor's race

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:17 GMT

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear was projected to win reelection in Kentucky, according to Decision Desk HQ, fending off a challenge from his Trump-backed Republican challenger. Beshear, who has seen strong approval despite being the Democratic governor of a red state, defeated Republican state Attorney General Daniel Cameron after a competitive race, winning his second term in the governor’s mansion. He will hold onto the seat he flipped blue back in 2019, when he beat then-Gov. Matt Bevin (R). Polls generally showed Beshear holding onto a lead ahead of Tuesday’s elections — but an Emerson College Polling survey released last week found Beshear and Cameron tied at 47 percent each. Kentucky has been a closely watched contest amid the off-year elections, sandwiched between last year’s midterms and next November’s presidential election. The gubernatorial race in the Bluegrass State — as well as another in Mississippi — are being looke...