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Coalition jockeying revs up in Slovakia after Fico’s victory

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:34:54 GMT

Slovakia woke up Sunday to the likelihood of its new government being led by leftist-populist Robert Fico and his pro-Russia Smer party following their convincing victory in Saturday’s election.Smer drew 23 percent support, five points ahead of the liberal, pro-Western Progressive Slovakia (PS), which took 18 percent. The two parties exemplify the political polarization in Slovakia. Fico has rejected sanctions against Moscow over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and proposes to end military support for Kyiv. PS leader Michal Šimečka, meanwhile, acclaims Slovakia’s allegiance to the EU and NATO, and defends the rights of LGBT+ people — a rarity in the deeply conservative country. “I regard a government led by Robert Fico as an abiding evil,” Šimečka said following the release of the final results of the ballot.Fico, who did not address Smer’s victory until early afternoon on Sunday, said he would wait for a formal invitation from President ...

IRS contractor charged with leaking tax info

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:34:54 GMT

WASHINGTON — A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service was charged Friday with leaking tax information to news outlets about thousands of the country’s wealthiest people.Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., is accused of stealing the tax return information and giving it to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020, the Justice Department said in a statement. Littlejohn declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press, which also left a message for his attorney, Lisa Manning.Both organizations published numerous articles about the tax information, some of which dated back more than 15 years, charging documents state.The outlets are not named in charging documents, but the description and time frame align with stories about former President Donald Trump’s tax returns in The New York Times and reporting about wealthy Americans’ taxes in the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica.The 2020 New York Times report found Tr...

‘PAW Patrol’ shows some bite at box office

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:34:54 GMT

After several quiet weeks in movie theaters, four films entered wide release over the weekend. “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” came out the top dog, with $23 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.The performances of all four films – “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” “Saw X,” “The Creator” and “Dumb Money” – told a familiar story at the box office. What worked? Horror and animated franchises. What didn’t? Originality and comedy.“PAW Patrol,” from Paramount Pictures and Spin Master, had timing on its side. The film, a sequel to the 2021 “PAW Patrol” movie adapted from the Nickelodeon TV series, was the first family animated movie in theaters since “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” was released in early August.The first “PAW Patrol,” released during the pandemic, debuted with $13 million while simultaneously releasing on Paramount+, and its ...

Suspected DUI crash on Palomar Mountain leaves one dead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:34:54 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- One person is dead and another was taken to the hospital following a single-vehicle crash on Palomar Mountain Saturday, authorities said. According to California Highway Patrol, a 20-year-old man from Escondido was driving a black Subaru Legacy in the southbound lane of South Grade Road, north of State Route 76, around 2:30 p.m. Northbound lanes of I-5 reopen following repair work For reasons still under investigation, authorities say the Subaru veered off the roadway down a steep embankment, where it rolled over and collided into a tree.A female passenger was pronounced dead at the scene, and the driver of the Subaru was transported to a local hospital for major but non-life threating injuries, CHP said. The identity of the female passenger will be released through the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office. Does San Diego County owe you money? It’s now or never to find out The driver of the Subaru, now identified as Jean Ramirez, was subsequently arrested by o...

2 women killed and 2 men wounded in Houston shooting, sheriff says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:34:54 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — A woman and her daughter-in-law were killed and two men hospitalized with gunshot wounds in a shooting authorities believe stemmed from a romantic dispute, a Houston-area sheriff said Sunday. A small child escaped the gunfire unharmed. Deputies were called to a home in northwest Houston Sunday morning and arrived to find multiple gunshot victims, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a news conference. Gonzalez said a 65-year-old woman and her 28-year-old daughter-in-law, who both lived at the home where the shooting occurred, were confirmed dead on the scene. Two men were taken to a hospital, where they were in serious but stable condition, the sheriff said.A 2-year-old was inside the house at the time of the shooting, but a relative carried the toddler to safety, he said.Investigators were still trying to piece together what happened in the dispute, which involved as many as three shooters and seven people total, the sheriff said. He said in an earlier statement...

John Herdman takes over as coach of Toronto FC but plans to be an observer this week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:34:54 GMT

John Herdman plans a soft landing with Toronto FC. Probably a sound move given the mess that awaits.The former Canada coach, who was scheduled to arrive in Toronto on Sunday evening from the West Coast, will essentially spend his first week on the job observing the underperforming MLS club. Toronto (4-17-10) has two road games this week, at Charlotte FC on Wednesday and the New York Red Bulls on Saturday, before closing out the season at home against Orlando City on Oct. 21.Herdman will take charge for the season finale, using the international break that precedes it for extended training time with his new team.Interim coach Terry Dunfield will run practice and be on the sidelines for the Charlotte and Red Bulls games.Herdman has been watching TFC from afar. Now he will do it on location for the next week or so with his new staff, which is expected to borrow heavily from the team around him with the Canadian men.“As a staff, we’ve been thinking about this, talking about ...

Arizona’s biggest city has driest monsoon season since weather service began record-keeping in 1895

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:34:54 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — After a summer of extreme heat, Arizona’s most populous city is in the record books again. This time Phoenix is notching a record for dry heat.The National Weather Service said the monsoon season this year in the arid Southwest dropped only 0.15 inches (.38 centimeters) of rainfall from June 15 to September 30. That’s the driest since the agency began keeping records in 1895. The previous mark was 0.35 inches in 1924.The monsoon season normally runs for about three months each year starting in June, when rising temperatures heat the land and shifting winds carry moisture from the eastern Pacific and Gulf of California to the Southwest via summer thunderstorms.Phoenix’s average rainfall during a monsoon season is 2.43 inches (6.1 centimeters). Arizona gets less than 13 inches (33 centimeters) of average annual rainfall as America’s second driest state behind Nevada, which meteorologist say averages less than 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) of rain per year compared to the...

A woman who fled the Maui wildfire on foot has died after weeks in a hospital burn unit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:34:54 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — A woman who escaped a wildfire that destroyed Hawaii community by running through a burning field has died after spending more than seven weeks in a hospital burn unit.Laurie Allen died Friday at Straub Medical Center in Honolulu, according to a gofundme page set up for her and her husband, Perry Allen.“Laurie slipped away peacefully. Her heart was tired, and she was ready,” her sister-in-law, Penny Allen Hood, wrote on the website.Allen’s husband, two brothers, a sister and other relatives were at her side.Allen was among at least 98 people killed by the fire Aug. 8 that devastated historic Lahaina on the west coast of Maui. The fire was the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century and destroyed 2,200 buildings, most of them homes.The fire began when strong winds appeared to cause a Hawaiian Electric power line to fall and ignite dry brush and grass. After being declared contained, the fire flared up and raced through the town.Allen was a physical therapis...

10 Cuban migrants are killed in a freight truck crash in southern Mexico, 17 seriously injured

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:34:54 GMT

TAPACHULA, Chiapas (AP) — At least 10 Cuban migrants died and 17 others were seriously injured after a freight truck they were riding in crashed on a highway in southern Mexico near the border with Guatemala. The National Immigration Institute said all of the dead Cuban migrants were women, and one of them was under 18. The Institute said the driver of the vehicle had apparently been speeding and lost control of the truck, which was carrying 27 migrants at the time. The driver fled the scene.The Chiapas state civil defense office said the crash happened Sunday on a highway near the town of Pijijiapan. Photos showed a truck with an open cargo box tipped on its side, and the victims on the side of the highway. An employee of the state prosecutor’s office said the migrants had been hitching rides on passing vehicles. Mexican authorities generally prohibit migrants without proper documents from riding buses, so those without the money to hire smugglers often walk along the side of highw...

Man killed, 3 injured in shooting on West Side

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:34:54 GMT

CHICAGO — A man is dead and three others, including a child, are injured after a shooting on the city's West Side, according to Chicago Police.Officers say the shooting happened near West Madison Street and South Sacramento Boulevard in Garfield Park just after 2:30 p.m.Police say the three men and a 9-year-old boy were standing in a vacant lot in the area when a car, which was traveling southbound, pulled up and a person inside opened fire on the group.Officers say a 33-year-old man was shot in the head and was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.According to police, the 9-year-old boy suffered a graze wound to the head and was taken to the hospital in fair condition. The two other men, a 38-year-old man who was shot in the lower back and a 31-year-old man who was shot in the head, were both taken to the hospital in critical condition.Currently, it is unclear what led to the shooting and police have not said if any arrests have been made.Police say Area Four Detectiv...