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Flames devour forests and homes as wildfires that have left 20 dead in Greece burn out of control

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Advancing flames devoured forests and homes as wildfires that have killed 20 people raged across swathes of Greece Wednesday, with blazes also burning in neighboring Turkey and in Spain’s Canary Islands. Greece’s largest forest fire was burning out of control for the fifth day near the city of Alexandroupolis in the northeast. Another major blaze on the outskirts of Athens torched homes, reducing some to piles of smoking rubble, and encroached into the national park on Mount Parnitha, one of the last green areas near the Greek capital. From Friday to Tuesday, 355 wildfires broke out, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said. On Wednesday, firefighters were tackling 99 blazes, fire department spokesman Ioannis Artopios said in an evening briefing, including 55 that had broken out in the previous 24 hours.Authorities made 140 wildfire-related arrests, including 117 for negligence and 23 for deliberate arson, Artopios said, adding ...

Giuliani is expected to turn himself in on Georgia 2020 election charges as bond is set at $150,000

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Rudy Giuliani is expected to turn himself in at a jail in Atlanta on Wednesday on charges related to efforts to overturn then-President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.The former New York mayor was indicted last week along with Trump and 17 others. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said they participated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to subvert the will of the voters after the Republican president lost to Democrat Joe Biden in November 2020. Giuliani faces charges related to his work as a lawyer for Trump after the general election. At a meeting Wednesday with Willis’ team, Giuliani’s bond was set at $150,000, an attorney for Giuliani told The Associated Press. That’s higher than any of the defendants so far, except for Trump whose bond has been set at $200,000.“I’m feeling very, very good about it because I feel like I am defending the rights of all Americans, as I did so many times as a United S...

North Dakota Gov. Burgum will do a walk-through of the GOP primary debate stage on his injured leg

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

MILWAUKEE (AP) — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum plans to have a walk-through of the Republican presidential debate stage on his injured leg on Wednesday and then assess with his campaign if he can do the debate. Burgum hurt his Achilles tendon playing basketball with members of his campaign staff on Tuesday and was taken to the emergency room. Campaign spokesman Lance Trover said that it was “unclear if he will be able to stand at the debate,” set for Wednesday night in Milwaukee. He said Burgum’s team would have more information later on the injury, which was first reported by CNN.Missing the two-hour debate would be a major setback for Burgum, who is the least known of the eight candidates expected to take the stage at Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee, home to the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team. The first debate of the GOP primary, which early front-runner Donald Trump has said he’s skipping, is Burgum’s best opportunity to introduce himself to voters. Bu...

Video captures ‘incredibly rare’ B.C. wildfire tornado over lake

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

LILLOOET, B.C. — The BC Wildfire Service has shared a video showing what it calls an “incredibly rare” fire tornado, also known as a fire whirl, that was whipped up over Gun Lake in the Central Interior.It says the video, showing a giant vortex of gas and flame disappearing into the night sky, was shot by its firefighters last week as they battled the Downton Lake wildfire near Lillooet.The service says a combination of extreme fire intensity, plummeting humidity and very low dew point produced conditions that created the fire tornado.It says “complex terrain” and downslope winds also contributed to the creation of the phenomenon.The service says on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that these “unique conditions” are not usually experienced in B.C.The video has been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 23, 2023.The Canadian Press

Lebanese army helicopter crashes near Beirut killing 2 crew members and injuring 1

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanese army helicopter crashed during a training mission in a forest east of Beirut on Wednesday night, killing two crew members and wounding one, the army said.The army, in a terse statement, said the helicopter crashed near the mountain town of Hammana. It gave no further details.Lebanon is in the grips of the worst economic crisis in its modern history and the army has been severely affected. The nearly four-year meltdown is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by the country’s ruling class. The economic meltdown is putting unprecedented pressure on the U.S.-backed army’s operational abilities, wiping out soldiers’ salaries and wrecking morale. The Associated Press

Belarus outlaws prominent rights group Viasna, declaring it extremist

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarusian authorities Wednesday declared the country’s oldest and most prominent human rights group an extremist organization. The move against Viasna, founded by imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, comes amid a yearslong crackdown on dissent in Belarus and exposes anyone involved in its activities to criminal prosecution. Belarus was swept by massive protests, some of which drew more than 100,000 people, after the August 2020 presidential vote handed a sixth term to the country’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. The election was rejected as fraudulent by the opposition and the West. Authorities responded with a brutal crackdown. More than 35,000 people were arrested, thousands were beaten by police while in custody, and hundreds of nongovernmental organizations and independent media outlets were shut down and outlawed as extremist.The move against Viasna significantly ramped up the pressure on dissenters in Belaru...

Police officer who shot driver sitting in car is being suspended, will be fired, commissioner says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia’s police commissioner says a police officer who shot and killed a driver who was sitting in his car last week in north Philadelphia is being suspended and will be fired.Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said Wednesday that Officer Mark Dial will be suspended with intent to dismiss him in 30 days for refusing to cooperate in the investigation of the Aug. 14 shooting death of 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry.She cited administrative violations of insubordination, refusal to promptly obey proper orders from a superior officer and a conduct unbecoming violation for “failure to cooperate in any departmental investigation.” Outlaw said the investigation into the shooting itself continues.Irizarry was shot as he sat in his car by Dial after officers spotted a car being driven erratically shortly before 12:30 p.m. Aug. 14 and followed it for several blocks, then approached as the driver turned the wrong way down a one-way street and stopped, po...

Signs return to Tennessee statehouse grounds after judge blocks new House GOP rule

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — People held signs without problems at the Tennessee Capitol complex Wednesday after a judge agreed to temporarily block a new rule advanced by House Republicans that had banned the public from doing so during floor and committee hearings.The ruling came in a lawsuit that was filed after state troopers removed three people Tuesday who held small signs urging gun control at a hearing on the same statehouse grounds where Republicans also drew attention this year for expelling two young Black Democratic lawmakers for breaking procedural rules.This week’s removals came at the order of a GOP subcommittee chair, who later instructed troopers to kick the rest of the public out of the committee room after deeming the crowd too unruly. That included grieving parents closely connected to a recent Nashville school shooting, who broke down in tears at the decision.The emotional and chaotic scene irked both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, while others pointed ou...

Betty Tyson dies at 75, spent 25 years in New York prison before murder conviction was overturned

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

Betty Tyson, a woman who spent 25 years in prison for a 1973 murder until being exonerated on the basis of new evidence, has died in upstate New York, her sister said Wednesday.Tyson, 75, died at a Rochester hospital on Aug. 17 following a heart attack and will be laid to rest Friday, said sister Delorise Thomas. Thomas noted her sister had recently marked a milestone, having spent as much time in freedom after her incarceration as she had behind bars.“It felt good. She was free,” Thomas, 72, said by phone from her Rochester home, where Tyson also lived. “She enjoyed herself, going out driving, playing cards, going out to different parties … She enjoyed her life.”Tyson was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in February 1974 for the death of Timothy Haworth. The Philadelphia business consultant had left his Rochester hotel around midnight on May 24, 1973, apparently to look for a prostitute, and was found strangled with his necktie in an alley the next day.In May 1998, a j...

Suburban Cook County resident dies from West Nile virus

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:32 GMT

CHICAGO — A suburban Cook County resident in their 90s is the first human in the state to die from the West Nile virus in 2023, the Illinois Department of Public Health announced Wednesday. The individual had an onset of symptoms of West Nile virus in early August and died soon after, IDPH added. The state's health department confirms 11 non-fatal cases of West Nile virus thus far this year. CDPH spraying Beverly, Washington Heights to protect against West Nile virus Of the 12 human cases reported this year, seven were reported from Cook County, including two in Chicago. To date, Kane, Macon, Madison, Will, and Woodford counties have each reported one human West Nile virus case.Health officials reminded Illinoisians to prevent West Nile virus by practicing the "3 R's"Reduce: Make sure doors and windows have tight-fitting screens. Repair or replace screens that have tears or other openings. Try to keep doors and windows shut. Eliminate, or refresh each week, all sources of standi...