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UN complains Russia blocks aid workers from area of Ukraine dam collapse; Moscow says it’s unsafe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:44:04 GMT

By SUSIE BLANN (Associated Press)KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Kremlin’s spokesman said Monday that U.N. aid workers who want to visit areas ravaged by the recent Kakhova dam collapse in southern Ukraine can’t go there because fighting in the war makes it unsafe.The United Nations rebuked Moscow on Sunday for allegedly denying aid workers access to Russia-occupied areas where residents are stranded amid “devastating destruction.” The U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, said in a statement that her staff were engaging with both Kyiv and Moscow, which control different parts of the area, in a bid to reach civilians in need. They face a shortage of drinking water and food and a lack of power.Brown urged Russian authorities “to act in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law” and let them in.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn’t explicitly admit that Russia had blocked U.N. access, but told a ...

Everett girl, 14, standing in Chelsea pot shop parking lot was struck by vehicle; Watertown driver charged after crash

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:44:04 GMT

A 14-year-old Everett girl was critically injured in a crash Sunday night when a Watertown man behind the wheel of a Mercedes Benz allegedly drove through a metal fence and struck her as she was standing in a Chelsea pot shop parking lot.Massachusetts State Police and Chelsea Police are now investigating the crash that caused life-threatening injuries to the 14-year-old girl shortly after 8 p.m. on Sunday in the parking lot of RISE Recreational Marijuana Dispensary Chelsea on Beacham Street.The girl was transported to a Boston hospital after the crash, and she was in critical condition on Monday, police said.Ceserino Borelli, 44, has been charged with numerous motor vehicle offenses by Chelsea Police, and additional charges against the suspect are possible depending on the results of the investigation.Related ArticlesCrime & Public Safety | Suffolk DA Hayden gives quarter million in seized funds to nonprofits At around 8:10 p.m. on Sunday, Borelli was allegedly d...

Search on for tourist sub that takes people to see the Titanic

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:44:04 GMT

A search is underway for a missing submersible that carries people to view the wreckage of the Titanic, according to media reports.The U.S. Coast Guard told BBC News that a search was underway Monday off the coast of Newfoundland. OceanGate Expeditions confirmed it owned the missing vessel.“We are exploring and mobilising all options to bring the crew back safely,” the company said in a statement to BBC News. “Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families.”The U.S. Coast Guard in Boston did not immediately return messages sent by The Associated Press.In 2021, OceanGate Expeditions began what it expected to become an annual voyage to chronicle the deterioration of the iconic ocean liner that struck an iceberg and sank in 1912.The company said at the time that in addition to archaeologists and marine biologists, the expeditions also would include roughly 40 paid tourists who would take turns operating sonar equipment and performin...

Guatemala prepares to vote after a tumultuous presidential campaign

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:44:04 GMT

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — This has been one of the most turbulent election seasons in Guatemala’s modern history.Some of the most popular aspirants will be on the sidelines in Sunday’s voting because electoral authorities and courts blocked some from running and cancelled the candidacies of others who were initially allowed to enter the race. There is no re-election in Guatemala, so President Alejandro Giammattei is not among the 22 permitted presidential candidates. Guatemalans will also elect all members of congress and hundreds of mayors across the country.HOW ARE GUATEMALA’S ELECTIONS CONDUCTED?Guatemalans age 18 and older can vote in elections held every four years, and some 9.2 million are registered — more than half of them women. Voting is not compulsory.At polling places, voters will receive five ballots covering the various races in their districts.In the presidential contest, the ballot will feature the faces of the presidential and vice presidential candidates on...

Mobile home fire kills 5 in North Carolina, including a couple, their friend and his boys

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:44:04 GMT

BROADWAY, N.C. (AP) — Authorities have identified five people who died in a mobile home fire in a rural North Carolina town Sunday as a husband and wife, a family friend and his two young sons.The Harnett County Sheriff’s Office identified the victims as homeowners Michael Breymeyer, 74, and his wife, Tammy Breymeyer, 58; Daniel Garner, 39, and Garner’s two sons. Their names and ages weren’t immediately released.Kayla Gonzalez, who works in town, said the deaths will have a impact in the close-knit community, where everyone knows each other.Tammy Breymeyer “was there for anybody if you needed it. She always had something positive to say and a good outlook on what’s to come,” Gonzalez told WTVD-TV. “It happened so unexpectedly. Life is precious and time is really short.”The sheriff’s office told news outlets that the fire marshal’s office has joined its investigation into the cause of the fire in the Broadway community, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southwest of Raleigh....

Search underway for sub missing near Titanic wreck off Newfoundland

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:44:04 GMT

HALIFAX — A search is underway off the coast of Newfoundland for a small submersible reported missing near the wreck of the Titanic.The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax says a research submarine was reported overdue around 9:13 p.m. Sunday, about 700 kilometres south of St. John’s, N.L.Lt.-Cmdr. Len Hickey says an Aurora military aircraft and the Canadian Coast Guard vessel Kopit Hopson are assisting the search effort, which is being led by the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston.Chief Mi’sel Joe, who is head of the Newfoundland and Labrador Mi’kmaq band that owns the ship from which the small submarine is launched, confirms it is operated by OceanGate Expeditions.Joe couldn’t say how many people were on board the submersible, which can seat up to five people.Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey tweeted that he is thinking of those affected and hopes the U.S. Coast Guard finds “the sub and those on it very soon.”This report by The Canadian Press w...

UN calls on Middle East and European nations to raise money for the humanitarian crisis in Sudan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:44:04 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — The United Nations called on countries in the Middle East and Europe on Monday to ramp up aid efforts in Sudan to address the deepening humanitarian crisis.Sudan has been rocked by fighting for more than two months as the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces battle for control of the country. Sudan’s Health Ministry said Saturday that more than 3,000 have been killed in the conflict, which has decimated the country’s fragile infrastructure and sparked ethnic violence in the western Darfur region.“The scale and speed of Sudan’s descent into death and destruction is unprecedented,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said at the opening of a U.N.-sponsored meeting co-hosted by Egypt, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the African Union in the Swiss city of Geneva.Guterres said the organization’s emergency aid program launched after the war broke out on April 15 has received less than 17% of the required $3 billion in aid.As the meeting progressed, nu...

Power outages continue across southern US; triple-digit heat wave grips Texas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:44:04 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — More than 100,000 customers in the southern U.S. remained without power Monday following damaging storms, leaving residents searching for relief as sweltering temperatures continued to scorch the region.Power outages for some customers in the piney woods of Texas could stretch late into this week as crews scrambled to make repairs. In some parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, the heat wave has been accompanied by heavy rain, punishing winds, thunderstorms and hail.In Louisiana, officials closed nearly two dozen state offices Monday because of the risks of severe weather. “It’s been unbearable,” Leigh Johnson, a resident of Mount Vernon, Texas, told Dallas television station KXAS. She had not had power for about three days.“It’s been horrible because it’s like, the heat index has been so bad that literally, we’re having to sit in the cold baths to cool ourselves down. Our animals as well, we’re having to stick them in the bathtub just to keep them from having a he...

Fire situation eases slightly, but risks remain as more than 400 wildfires still burn

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:44:04 GMT

OTTAWA — More than 200 wildfires are still burning out of control in Canada this morning as the country’s record-setting forest fire season continues to raze thousands of square kilometres every day.Rain helped ease the fire situation in parts of Alberta and Quebec over the weekend, but the fire risk remains high in most of the country.As of this morning, 420 fires were burning in nine provinces and two territories, and 207 of those are still considered to be out of control.More than 58,000 square kilometres has burned so far this year, or an area almost twice the size of Vancouver Island.Environment Canada says the air quality is good in most areas, though pockets of moderate risk remain in and around Edmonton and Toronto and in some parts of northeastern British Columbia.The Donnie Creek fire north of Fort St. John, B.C., is now the largest fire that province has ever recorded and is still burning out of control more than a month after it started.This report by The Canadian ...

Trump faces questions about whether he’ll drag down the Republican Party after his indictments

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:44:04 GMT

Donald Trump’s grip on the Republican faithful was evident from the moment he left the federal courthouse in Miami last week.Fresh off becoming the first former president to face criminal charges levied by the government he once oversaw, Trump’s motorcade moved through a crowd of hundreds of mostly adoring fans. He met more supporters at a Cuban restaurant in Little Havana, a Miami neighborhood that, like much of south Florida, has swung toward Republicans in recent years. A federal indictment on charges of mishandling the nation’s most sensitive national security secrets would doom any other White House hopeful. But Trump’s reception in Miami — and the more than $7 million he raised after the indictment — was a reminder of the central tension coursing through the Republican Party as the 2024 presidential primary gets underway.For now, no one comes close to Trump in his command of the voters who will decide the GOP’s nominee next year. But Trump’s...