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Armed rebellion by Wagner chief Prigozhin underscores erosion of Russian legal system

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:10 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russia’s rebellious mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin walked free from prosecution for his June 24 armed mutiny, and it’s still unclear if anyone will face any charges in the aborted uprising against military leaders or for the deaths of the soldiers killed in it.Instead, a campaign is underway to portray the founder of the Wagner Group military contractor as driven by greed, with only hints of an investigation into whether he mishandled any of the billions of dollars in state funds.Until last week, the Kremlin has never admitted to funding the company, with private mercenary groups technically illegal in Russia. But President Vladimir Putin revealed the state paid Wagner almost $1 billion in just one year, while Prigozhin’s other company earned about the same from government contracts. Putin wondered aloud whether any of it was stolen.The developments around Prigozhin, who remains unpunished despite Putin’s labeling of his revolt as treason...

Zelenskyy visits Bulgaria, Czech Republic and draws support for Kyiv’s NATO membership bid

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:10 GMT

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the capitals of Bulgaria and the Czech Republic on Thursday, discussing military aid and receiving assurances of support for Ukraine’s entry into NATO after i ts war with Russia is over.Czech President Petr Pavel said it is in the interest of his country and Ukraine that soon as the war ends negotiations about NATO membership begin. “I’m convinced that Ukraine will be part of NATO,” Zelenskyy said in Prague, adding that an “ideal” result of next week’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania would be an invitation for Ukraine to join the alliance.Earlier Thursday, during a brief visit at the invitation of Bulgaria’s new pro-Western government sworn in a month ago, Zelenskyy also discussed European integration and bilateral energy cooperation. Talking to reporters after the meetings, he defended Ukraine’s right to fight Russian aggression and to seek help to do so.“Occupiers came to our land, killed, torture...

France’s small towns are reeling from the spread of rioting. ‘Now it’s affecting the countryside’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:10 GMT

PARIS (AP) — After a pleasant evening of wine-tasting — joyfully billed “Grapes and Friends!” — with a hundred or so people and oysters, charcuteries and cheeses, the mayor of the picturesque French town of Quissac was on his way home.Then his phone rang: Urban unrest that was engulfing France after the deadly police shooting of a teenager on Paris’ outskirts, hundreds of kilometers (miles) and a world away to the north, had careened into Quissac’s tranquility, too.In a quick hit-and-run, a small group of people — seemingly no more than four, the mayor says — bombarded the local gendarmes’ barracks on Quai de la Gare road with powerful fireworks, denting its metal shutters and setting fire to a cypress tree. In the grander scheme of things, it wasn’t much compared to orgies of destruction, arson, looting and rioting unleashed on multitudes of other communities across France in six nights of mayhem. Still, for the town of 3,300 people in the Gard region of sou...

Amid criticism over his war on gangs, El Salvador’s President Bukele turns to sports

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:10 GMT

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador President Nayib Bukele stood before tens of thousands of roaring sports fans with a message: I am not a dictator.“They say we live in a dictatorship,” Bukele said, but “ask bus passengers, people eating in restaurants, waiters. Ask whomever you want. Here in El Salvador, you can go anywhere and it’s totally safe. … Ask them what they think of El Salvador, what they think of our government, what they think of our supposed dictatorship.”In the opening ceremonies of the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games, the remark was met with a burst of applause and, in some swathes of the remodeled stadium, chants of “Reelection!”The games have offered Bukele – the bitcoin-pushing 41-year-old leader who has sparked a sort of populist fervor in his Central American nation and beyond – an opportunity to showcase a safer El Salvador in the largest international event here since his government entered an all-out war against gangs. But the compet...

West clashes with Russia and Iran at UN over Tehran’s uranium enrichment and drones for Russia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:10 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and its Western allies clashed with Russia and Iran at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday over Tehran’s advancing uranium enrichment and its reported supply of combat drones to Moscow being used to attack Ukraine.The sharp exchanges came at the council’s semi-annual meeting on implementation of its resolution endorsing the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major countries known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which the U.S. under then-President Donald Trump left in 2018.At the start of the meeting, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused Britain, which hold the council presidency, of seeking to hold “an openly politicized show” by inviting Ukraine to take part in the meeting when it is not part of the JCPOA. He demanded a procedural vote on its participation.U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood countered, accusing both Iran and Russia of participating in the transfer of drones used in Ukraine without prior Secu...

Digital tech restore relics in museum in East China's Hangzhou

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:10 GMT

Thanks to the ingenious use of digital technologies, a museum featuring the remains of Deshou Palace, a royal palace dating back to China's Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, has brought more people closer to the royal life and palaces in the Southern Song Dynasty, while inheriting and protecting historical and cultural relics, People's Daily Online.The reconstructed Chonghua Hall, the main building of the Deshou Palace, and the digital facilities at the remains of the hall introduce visitors to the rise and fall of the Deshou Palace and the exquisite craftsmanship and design of buildings in the Song Dynasty (960-1279).Chonghua Hall has been reconstructed according to historical materials, said Zhou Ji, an executive of the museum. The remnants of the hall, considered to be the essence of the museum, have been carefully preserved and are kept in good condition below the ground level of the reconstructed hall.Visitors can now see ...

Family devastated after wrong-way driver kills 5-year-old, grandmother in Van Nuys

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:10 GMT

A family that suffered unimaginable loss in a violent head-on collision last week in Van Nuys is speaking out, asking the community for support and pleading with authorities to help bring closure.  Anna Cordova Calderon struggled to hold back tears as she remembered her young son, 5-year-old Yeshua, and her mother, both of whom died as a result of the June 29 crash.  “Everything happened really fast,” Calderon said in Spanish. The grieving woman said her son loved soccer and his grandmother, 74-year-old Aura De La Cruz Calderón de Tobar.  “She was with us every minute that she could be,” Calderon said of her mother. “I can’t imagine my life without her.”  The family was on their way to dinner last Thursday night. In the car, Yeshua and his grandmother sat in the back seat. The young boy’s older stepsister and her boyfriend were up front. They were traveling southbound on Woodley Avenue just south of Victory with Anna and her husband a short distance behind in ano...

3 teens arrested for murder of pizza deliveryman helping assault victim in Stanton

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:10 GMT

Three teens were arrested Thursday for a shooting that killed a pizza delivery driver in Stanton who was stopping to help an assault victim in 2022.The suspects were identified as Henry Diep Le, 19, from Garden Grove, Adrian Castaneda, 19, and Damian Ivan Mayorga,18, both from Anaheim.The suspects are accused of their involvement in a shooting that killed Juan Cristalinas, 49, a Santa Ana resident and left a 76-year-old man hospitalized, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.On June 28, authorities responded to the 7000 block of Lessue Avenue on a call of unknown trouble.Arriving deputies found both victims lying on the street with gunshot wounds.It was later discovered that Cristalinas was a pizza delivery driver who had stopped driving and hopped out to intervene when the 76-year-old victim was being assaulted by the suspects.Authorities respond to a fatal shooting in Stanton on June 29, 2022. (OnScene.TV)Both men were transported to the hospital where Cristalinas la...

Charges filed in cyber attack on East Bay water treatment plant

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:10 GMT

DISCOVERY BAY – A 53-year-old Tracy man is facing federal criminal charges in connection with an alleged attack on the computer systems of a Discovery Bay water treatment plant more than two years ago, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.Rambler Gallo was a full-time employee of a private Massachusetts-based company that contracted with Discovery Bay to operate the town’s water treatment plant, prosecutors said, citing an indictment that was filed June 27 and unsealed Thursday.The plant provides treatment for the town’s water and wastewater systems for 15,000 residents.As the company’s “instrumentation and control tech” from July 2016 to December 2020, Gallo was responsible for maintaining the instrumentation and computer systems used to manage electromechanical processes at the plant, according to prosecutors.During that period, Gallo allegedly installed software on his personal computer and the company’s private network that allowed him to gain remote access to the plant’s net...

Airbnb bookings decline in San Francisco

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:59:10 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Summer is off to a slow start for Airbnb hosts in San Francisco. Some are reporting a major decline in bookings. A long-time Airbnb host in SF tells KRON4 usually this time of year his bookings are full.However, that's not the case right now -- forcing hosts like him to offer lower rates. Over 40 firefighters respond to ‘accidental’ blaze at SF home "Much much less traffic than last year," Hostwell CEO and Airbnb host Keith Freedman said. "The rates are down quite a bit. Occupancy is down about 25 percent."Freedman rents a room in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood on Airbnb. He is also the CEO of Hostwell, a company that manages short-term rentals for homeowners.Freedman says he and other Airbnb hosts in the city have seen a major decline in bookings so far this summer."We are finding that there are fewer business travelers," Freedman said. "Tourism is down too, but business is what really drives the rates. Tourism drives occupancy and business drives rat...