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Tourist boat capsizes in southern India; at least 22 dead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:05:40 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — A double-decker boat carrying more than 30 passengers capsized Sunday night off a beach in southern India, and more than 22 people including children died, officials said.Police officer Abdul Nazar said the rescue teams were expecting to recover more bodies from inside the boat after pulling it ashore from the muddy waters. He said India’s National Disaster Response Force and the Indian Coast Guard personnel were engaged in rescue work and trying find those who were still missing.The tourist boat capsized near the estuary of Poorappuzha River in Tanur, a coastal town in Kerala state’s Malappuram district, and most of the passengers were tourists. Nazar said authorities were investigating the cause of the accident and it appeared the boat capsized due to overcrowding.The dead included children who had come for a ride on the boat during their school vacation, Sports Minister V. Abdurahiman told the Press Trust of India news agency, adding that four people in critical ...

Ukraine shoots down 35 drones over Kyiv as attacks kill 3

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:05:40 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine air defenses shot down 35 Iranian-made drones over Kyiv in Russia’s latest nighttime assault, as attacks across Ukraine by the Kremlin’s forces killed three civilians, officials said Monday as Moscow enforced tight security on the eve of traditional Red Square commemorations marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.Five people in the capital were injured by falling drone debris, according to Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Air raid alarms sounded for more than three hours during the night.Drone wreckage struck a two-story apartment building in Kyiv’s western Svyatoshynskyi district, while other debris struck a car parked nearby, setting it on fire, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a Telegram post.Facing economic sanctions and limits on its supply chains due to its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has routinely turned to Iran’s Shahed drones to bolster its firepower.Russian shelling of 127 target...

Diaper bank nonprofit founder reflects on decade of service in DC region

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:05:40 GMT

This is part of WTOP’s continuing coverage of people making a difference from our community authored by Stephanie Gaines-Bryant. Read more of that coverage.A mother founded a D.C.-area nonprofit to give a helping hand to other caregivers throughout the area, providing diapers and other supplies and resources. Now, she’s stepping down after over a decade of service.When Corinne Cannon had her first child in 2009, she and her partner were excited to have a baby. They had planned to have the child, but said they were also “ill-prepared to have a baby in terms of the emotional and physical toll that it took on us.”Cannon described her infant as difficult and was blown away by how hard it was to care for a baby.After her son grew out of the infant stage, Cannon began thinking about other mothers. She was lucky enough to have a partner who was in the relationship 100%, family in the area and financial resources; and yet, she struggled.She wondered about what happens to p...

Stock market today: World shares gain after Wall St rally

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:05:40 GMT

European shares opened little changed and Asian shares were mostly higher Monday after a widespread rally on Wall Street partly spurred by Apple’s report of better profit than expected. Tokyo’s benchmark fell while markets in China advanced. U.S. futures were flat and oil prices rose. A report Friday showed hiring accelerated across the economy by much more than expected last month. The government’s jobs report also showed workers won bigger pay raises than expected. Such trends helped calm worries that a recession is looming, even as time grows short on reaching an agreement on the U.S. government debt ceiling, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. “But anxiety is building early this time and shifted into high gear last week after Secretary Yellen warned that a default could occur as soon as June 1,” he said. Early Monday, Germany’s DAX was unchanged at 15,962.77 while the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.1% higher, to 7,437.81. Markets in Britain were closed for...

Un posible caso de extremismo de derecha y una “carnicería” inolvidable para los testigos: lo que sabemos del tiroteo en Alex, Texas, que dejó 8 muertos

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:05:40 GMT

(CNN) — El hombre que abrió fuego este sábado en un centro comercial en Allen, Texas, y dejó ocho personas muertas y al menos siete heridas fue identificado como Mauricio García, de 33 años, dijo este domingo el Departamento de Seguridad Pública de Texas.Las autoridades aún no han encontrado un motivo específico del tiroteo en Allen, pero los investigadores descubrieron una amplia presencia en las redes sociales del atacante, incluido un posible vínculo con el extremismo de derecha, dijo a CNN una fuente policial familiarizada con la investigación.A medida que continúa la investigación, otra comunidad estadounidense sufre las consecuencias de otro tiroteo masivo en un lugar público que alguna vez se sintió seguro: supermercados, escuelas y desfiles del 4 de julio.La masacre se desarrolló en la misma semana en que un hombre armado abrió fuego en un centro médico en Atlanta, matando a una mujer e hiriendo a otras cuatro. Y llegó pocas semanas antes de que Texas cumpliera un año ...

Historian claims to have located mystery ‘Mona Lisa’ bridge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:05:40 GMT

(CNN) — Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” is one of the best-known artworks in the world, famous for its beauty as well as the mystery surrounding the identity of the model and the location painted behind her.A source of debate for centuries, the village of Ponte Buriano, a suburb of Arezzo in the Tuscany region of Italy, is so convinced the bridge behind Mona Lisa is the Ponte Buriano that they’ve made it a key feature of their local tourism campaign, even laying claim to the bridge on the village’s welcome sign.But now, historian Silvano Vinceti says that the bridge behind Mona Lisa is actually the Romito Bridge in the nearby Tuscan town of Laterina.“The distinctive form of the Arno [River] along that stretch of territory corresponds to what Leonardo portrayed in the landscape to the left of the woman depicted in the famous painting,” Vinceti said at a media conference at the Foreign Press Association in Rome on Wednesday.Vinceti also ...

EU to host Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:05:40 GMT

Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders are set to hold talks in Brussels this weekend as speculation grows that the two sides could sign a peace agreement after decades of violent conflict.European Council President Charles Michel will host Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the Financial Times reported Monday, citing diplomatic sources.Two EU officials confirmed to POLITICO that the talks are planned for May 13-14, but the agenda is yet to be formally outlined. Both the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministries declined to comment on the news.“We see this as a continuation of efforts for normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, a resumption of the trilateral meetings in the Brussels format and a follow-up to important and positive peace talks held in Washington last week,” one European Commission official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.Foreign ministers from the two former Soviet rep...

School bus drivers Marlboro go on strike amid contract negotiations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:05:40 GMT

Fifty-five bus drivers in Marlboro are going on strike Monday after the union and the school bus company failed to reach a new contract. The bus company, NRT Bus, operates in three different districts – Marlboro, Westboro, and Framingham. According to Teamsters Local 170, bus drivers in Framingham struck a deal Sunday night to avoid a strike and drivers in Westboro do not plan to strike despite having no deal yet. Despite the strike, school is still on in Marlboro Monday morning. According to a contingency plan up on the district’s website, students who live within a mile and a half of their schools will be expected to walk. Police are being called in to help students get to school safely and a limited number of outside buses have been called in for certain area. Parents were notified Sunday if those buses were coming to their neighborhoods. The union says pay, health care, and benefits were among the issues with the current contract.NRT says it gave bus drivers in Marlb...

Child in Maine tests positive for measles, first case in state since 2019

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:05:40 GMT

(CNN) — A child in Maine has tested positive for measles, officials said, marking the first case in the state since 2019.The child who tested positive had received a dose of the measles vaccine, but the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in a news release Friday that it “is considering the child to be infectious out of an abundance of caution.”The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends all children get two doses of the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine; the first dose between 12 to 15 months of age and the second between the ages of 4 to 6.Some people may still get measles if they have received the vaccine, but those individuals typically have a milder version of the illness and are less likely to be contagious, according to the CDC.The Maine CDC listed several locations where others could have been exposed to measles, including a “Family Time Dine and Play” at a mall and two medical centers between A...

Senior Treasury officials reiterate dire warnings if debt ceiling isn’t lifted, pour cold water on invoking the 14th Amendment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:05:40 GMT

(CNN) — Ahead of a highly anticipated meeting between President Joe Biden and Congressional leaders on Tuesday, senior Treasury officials reiterated dire warnings of economic “chaos” and “catastrophe” if the US doesn’t raise the debt ceiling as the country barrels toward default in early June.“I know he wants to set up a process in which spending priorities and levels are discussed and negotiated but these negotiations should not take place with a gun, really, to the head of the American people,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday on ‘ABC This Week.’While congressional Republicans want to tie any debt ceiling hike to spending and budget cuts, the administration has said the two issues are separate.Yellen and her No. 2, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, both painted a stark picture of “economic chaos” if the debt ceiling isn’t lifted and confirmed that the latest Treasury data s...