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Evacuated Illinois residents return home after ammonia leak from truck crash that killed 5 people

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Five people were killed and five were seriously injured after a truck overturned in central Illinois, causing a toxic substance to leak from its cargo and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of area residents, authorities said Saturday. A semitruck carrying caustic anhydrous ammonia toppled about 9:25 p.m. Friday night in Teutopolis, spilling more than half its 7,500-gallon (28,390-liter) load, according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.Effingham County Coroner Kim Rhodes said the five dead included three from the same family: one adult and two children under 12. The other two were adult motorists from out of state, Rhodes said. Additionally, five people were airlifted to hospitals, their conditions unknown.Names of the victims were not released, nor would authorities discuss causes of death. About 500 residents within a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) radius of the crash site were evacuated after the accident, including northeastern parts of Teutopolis...

Pakistani Taliban attack a police post in eastern Punjab province, killing 1 officer

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani Taliban fighters attacked a police post in eastern Punjab province early Sunday, killing one officer and injuring three others, and triggering a shootout that killed two of the attackers, officials said.The attack occurred in the Mianwali district of Punjab province and led to an intense exchange of fire as reinforcements arrived at the besieged police post, said Imran Nawaz, a spokesman for the counterterrorism police. A group of 10 to 12 militants attacked the Kundal police post in the Easa Khel area of Mianwali, close to the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, after midnight, Nawaz said. The exchange of gunfire continued for hours, during which two of the attackers were killed and a third was wounded but escaped with the others, Nawaz said. A search operation was underway in the area to find the attackers, he said.Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack.The Pakistani Talib...

Yemen’s state-run airline suspends the only route out of Sanaa over Houthi restrictions on its funds

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Yemen’s state-run carrier has suspended the only air route out of the country’s rebel-held capital to protest Houthi restrictions on its funds, officials said Sunday.Yemen Airways canceled its commercial flights from Sanaa’s international airport to the Jordanian capital of Amman. The airline had been operating six commercial and humanitarian flights a week between Sanaa and Amman as of the end of September.The Sanaa-Amman air route was reintroduced last year as part of a U.N.-brokered cease-fire between the Houthis and the internationally recognized government. The cease-fire agreement expired in October 2022, but the warring factions refrained from taking measures that would lead to a flare-up of all-out fighting.Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and forced the government into exile. The Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try restore the government to power.The airline blamed the Iranian-backed H...

Overdoses from smoking toxic drugs outpace B.C. prevention sites

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

VANCOUVER — Nearly two-thirds of the overdose deaths in British Columbia this year came after smoking illicit drugs, yet only 40 per cent of the supervised consumption sites in the province offer a safe place to smoke, and the chief coroner says that needs to change.Lisa Lapointe said the latest data show 65 per cent of overdose deaths in 2023 came after smoking drugs, compared to 15 per cent involving injection, 14 per cent snorting and five per cent from oral consumption. The coroners’ office notes that people can consume using multiple methods.Also in the data, the updated overdose death toll since the province declared a public health emergency in April 2016. Almost 13,000 have died since then, more than 1,600 this year. The Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions said of the 47 overdose prevention sites in B.C., only 19 provide the option to smoke drugs.B.C.’s original supervised consumption site is a safe injection site, but Lapointe said methods for consuming dru...

Save the Children advocate says aid cut hinders Canada’s leadership in youth rights

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

OTTAWA — Save the Children’s global advocate says Canada could lead an effort to have youth steer the reform of global institutions to fight climate change, while urging Ottawa to reverse aid cuts.“Canada is uniquely placed today to really help the world to lead differently, to help young people to find hope for the future,” said Rotimy Djossaya, the charity’s global policy head, during a recent visit to Ottawa.“Canada can play a critical role in ensuring that the world is prioritizing gender and human rights.”In mid-September, leaders gathered at the United Nations to take stock of the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of objectives such as gender equality, ending extreme poverty and ensuring a quality secondary education for every child. The goals involve 140 specific targets agreed upon in 2015, to be achieved by 2030.Yet the United Nations says just 15 per cent of those targets have been reached, and 193 countries have agreed to speed up pr...

Daily horoscope for October 1, 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

Moon Alert: There are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions today. The Moon is in Taurus.Happy Birthday for Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023:You are intelligent, capable, modest and flirtatious. (Appealing!) You are also warm-hearted, friendly, ethical, hardworking and persevering. This year is the last year of a nine-year cycle for you, which means it’s time to let go of anything or anyone holding you back. Clear the decks!ARIES(March 21-April 19) ★★★★This is an excellent day for finance and business. You might boost your earnings or score something today that pleases you. It could be a find in an auction house or a garage sale. Tonight: Cooperate. This Week: Cooperate with people close to you.TAURUS(April 20-May 20) ★★★★★Oh, happy day! The Moon is in your sign lined up with lucky Jupiter, which makes you feel generous. Note: Today you will receive what you give, especially in terms of kindness, friendship and support to others. Tonight: Work. This Week: It’s a product...

Iran protesters mark anniversary of “Bloody Friday” in south-eastern Sistan and Baluchestan province

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

Iranian authorities opened fire on protests in several cities throughout south-eastern Sistan and Baluchestan province on Friday, one year after riot police shot and killed at least 100 people, and wounding hundreds in a massacre.  According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran authorities wounded at least 19 protesters, including several children, during the protests marking the first anniversary of “Bloody Friday,” also known as the Zahedan massacre.“Bloody Friday,” occurred in the wake of the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini while in Iranian morality police custody. Her death sparked nationwide protests against the regime that was widely regarded as the most serious challenge to the theocratic system since it was established in the wake of the 1979 revolution.According to the country’s leading pro-democracy opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, at least 750 people overall were killed in that crackdown, within about three months of the upr...

DC artist’s paintings were stolen, but she refuses to call police

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

D.C. artist AnaYelsi Velasco Sanchez celebrated her first-ever solo exhibition at the Festival Center in Adams Morgan last month.It was an honor, she said, until someone stole her artwork on Sept. 14.“The two paintings that this person stole were on a wall behind the front desk,” she said. “He took one off the wall (and) slipped it into a bag. Then he took the other one and put it in the bag. And walked right out.”Velasco Sanchez, whose art focuses on justice and liberation, said the theft occurred in less than three minutes. She has surveillance video of the thief but refuses to take it to detectives.She’s an abolitionist.AnaYelsi Velasco Sanchez during her show at the Festival Center. (Courtesy AnaYelsi Velasco Sanchez)“I’m not scared to call them,” she said. “I’m not willing to call them. For me, the harm that comes out of engaging with police is much more violent than anything that has occurred.”The artist was at a talk...

Dutch top flight match between Waalwijk and Ajax halted after goalkeeper Vaessen knocked unconscious

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch Eredivisie match between RKC Waalwijk and Ajax was suspended Saturday night after the home team’s goalkeeper, Etienne Vaessen, collided with Ajax striker Brian Brobbey and lost consciousness.Waalwijk director Frank van Mosselveld told Dutch broadcaster NOS that medics administered CPR on the pitch before Vaessen was carried off on a stretcher and taken to a hospital. “You think heart problem, but it doesn’t look like that,” Van Mosselveld said. He said that Vaessen was knocked out in the collision with Brobbey but regained consciousness before he was stretchered off.He said that in the locker room after being taken off the pitch Vaessen “didn’t know what had happened or where he was.”Ajax sent a message on its official social media saying: “We’re with you, Etienne.”The match was called off in the 85th minute with Ajax leading 3-2.___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerSource

AFGE workers huddle with president amid government shutdown debates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:07:51 GMT

AFGE National President Everett Kelley speaks with members of District 14, American Federation of Government Employees, during their picnic on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023 in Fort Washington, Maryland. (WTOP/Dick Uliano) AFGE National President Everett Kelley speaks with members of District 14, American Federation of Government Employees, during their picnic on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023 in Fort Washington, Maryland. (WTOP/Dick Uliano) Cheers erupted at a picnic for D.C.-area government workers Saturday as Congress moved to pass a continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown.Members of District 14, American Federation of Government Employees, carried out their annual picnic amid shutdown concerns.The local chapt...