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Israeli mother of two boys taken hostage by Hamas pleads for their release: ‘Bring them home now’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:15 GMT

The desperate mother of two boys who were taken hostage by Hamas during the terrorist attacks 10 days ago is continuing to push for their release, calling on the Israeli government and world governments to help “bring them home now.”Renana Gome, whose 12-year-old and 16-year-old boys were kidnapped in Israel and brought to Gaza, told her gut-wrenching story and relived the terrorist attack on Tuesday. The mother was away from her sons at the time of the attack, as they tried to hide from the terrorists in a safe room.“I could hear my youngest who was on the phone with me saying, ‘Don’t take me! I’m too young!’ ” Gome said during a Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel press conference. “And that was the last I heard from him.“Since Saturday, Oct. 7, I’ve heard nothing. I know nothing of there whereabouts,” she added. “I’ve heard nothing of how they are, what they’re doing, how they’re hel...

Triston Casas named AL Outstanding Rookie finalist in MLBPA Players Choice Awards

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:15 GMT

Triston Casas enjoyed a terrific rookie season with the Red Sox and is expected to rank among the top finishers when the American League Rookie of the Year results are announced next month.That award is voted on by members of the media, but it appears Casas has made a strong impression on his fellow players as well.Tuesday the MLB Players Association announced the finalists for this year’s Players Choice Awards, and Casas was among the three finalists for AL Outstanding Rookie along with Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson and Texas’ Josh Jung.After getting off to a difficult start Casas emerged as one of the most impactful hitters in baseball, especially in the second half. The 23-year-old first baseman batted .263 with 24 home runs, 65 RBI, an .856 OPS, 21 doubles and 70 walks, and  in the second half he batted .317 with 15 home runs and a 1.034 OPS over his final 54 games.In addition to Casas, former Red Sox great Mookie Betts was among the three finalists for Player o...

East Bridgewater Police searching for driver in hit-and-run involving young girl

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:15 GMT

Police in East Bridgewater are searching for a woman who fled after colliding into an 11-year-old girl riding a bike in the area of an elementary school in town over the weekend.The driver, wearing blue hospital-type scrubs, exited the blue Lexus NX she had been driving Sunday and spoke with the girl before leaving the scene near Central Elementary School on Route 18, Chief Michael Jenkins said in a release Tuesday.The girl’s mother responded and declined medical transportation on behalf of her daughter, who was evaluated by emergency responders, according to authorities.Police received a call just after 5:30 Sunday evening reporting the crash involving a bicyclist and motor vehicle in the area of 143 Bedford St..Initial investigation results show the girl riding a bike through a small path that connects Route 18 to the back parking lot of the school. The woman in the car entered the lot from Central Street, attempting to use it as a cut-through to Bedford Street, according to polic...

Britney Spears writes of abortion while dating Justin Timberlake in excerpts from upcoming memoir

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:15 GMT

Britney Spears wrote that she had an abortion while dating Justin Timberlake more than 20 years ago, according to a peek inside her hotly anticipated memoir.“If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it,” she writes of the procedure, according to the excerpt from “The Woman in Me” published Tuesday in People magazine. “And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”The pregnancy “was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy,” she wrote in the excerpt, saying that she had wanted to start a family with Timberlake — it was just earlier than expected.“But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young,” she wrote. The couple broke up in 2002. It’s unclear when the pregnancy happened.Representatives for Spears declined to offer further comment. Representatives for Timberlake did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. The AP has not been able t...

Ticker: IRS to launch free file pilot by invitation; Retail sales rise in September

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:15 GMT

The IRS plans to invite select taxpayers across 13 states, Massachusetts among them, to try out the agency’s pilot electronic free file tax return system beginning in January.The agency estimates that hundreds of thousands of taxpayers will participate in the limited rollout of the program for the 2024 filing season.The IRS faces intense blowback from private tax preparation companies that have made billions by charging people to use their software. The introduction of a government-run option could upend the industry and fundamentally change the way taxpayers interact with IRS.Related ArticlesBusiness | Ticker: Gas prices drop in Bay State; CCC names acting executive director Business | Ticker: Wall Street struggles as war worries collide with hope for stronger profits Business | Ticker: Biden awards $7 billion for clean hydrogen hubs; Wall Street struggles as war worries collide with hope for stronger profits Business | ...

Jurors in New Mexico deliver split verdicts in kidnapping and terrorism case

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:15 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Jurors on Tuesday delivered split verdicts in a case that stemmed from the search for a 3-year-old boy who went missing from Georgia and was found dead hundreds of miles away at a squalid compound in northern New Mexico.Four members of the family were on trial. Three were found guilty on federal kidnapping charges. Two were convicted on related terrorism charges. The boy’s father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, was one of the two people found guilty of terrorism-related charges.His brother-in-law, Lucas Morton, was found guilty of the same charges, as well as conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death and kidnapping resulting in death. Jurors reached their decision Tuesday after deliberating for two-and-a-half days. They heard weeks of testimony from children who had lived with their parents at the compound, other family members, firearms experts, doctors and forensic technicians. The defendants, who are Muslim, argued that federal authorities targeted them becau...

‘Causalities everywhere’: Canadian in Gaza describes chaos, hopes for evacuation

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:15 GMT

Mahmoud Nasser said he could feel the ground shake as he watched two missiles land in the distance in Gaza, where essential supplies are running short and living conditions are becoming more desperate as he and other Canadians hope for an opportunity to evacuate. The 30-year-old is sheltering at a relative’s house at the southern end of the Palestinian territory and said homes in the area are “wall-to-wall” with people who have fled northern Gaza ever since Israel ordered a mass evacuation of about half of the enclave’s population ahead of an expected ground invasion.“There’s casualties everywhere and everyone is so accustomed to death,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday from the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.“Every day that passes, we just hope that we’re not another statistic. There’s nothing we can do. It’s a very strange feeling.”Some people have been venturing outdoors, even as Israel’s retaliat...

B.C. premier says spat over Surrey police force ‘no longer up for discussion’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:15 GMT

VICTORIA — British Columbia Premier David Eby says a court challenge by the City of Surrey over being forced to continue the transition to a municipal police service “will not be successful.”Eby said Tuesday that Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke “fought a good fight” in attempting to move the RCMP back to its police force of jurisdiction, but the decision to move ahead with a municipal force has been made by his government and is no longer up for discussion.Surrey filed a petition to the court this month, asking for a judicial review of the government’s directive earlier this year to continue its transition to a local police force, claiming the province doesn’t have the authority to force the change without enough funding to support it.Solicitor General Mike Farnworth introduced changes to the Police Act on Monday that he said would provide “finality” for the residents of Surrey on the future of police services in the city. The legislation, i...

Former Brooklyn resident sentenced to life in prison for aiding Islamic State group as sniper

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:15 GMT

New York (AP) — A former New York stock broker who fled his job and family to fight alongside Islamic State militants in Syria, then maintained his allegiance to the extremist group throughout his trial, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday. Ruslan Maratovich Asainov, who served as a sniper and instructor for the Islamic militant group at the height of its power, sat grinning in the Brooklyn courtroom, flashing a thumbs-up and stroking his bushy beard as a judge read out the sentencing. His own court-appointed attorney, Susan Kellman, declined to ask for a lighter sentence, noting her client was not interested in distancing himself from the Islamic State fighters in exchange for leniency. “It’s rare that I start my remarks at sentencing by saying I agree with the government,” Kellman said. “This is who he is. This is what he believes, fervently.”Asainov, a 47-year-old U.S. citizen originally born in Kazakhstan, was living in Brooklyn in late 2013 when he abandoned his young da...

Rep. Jim Jordan has lost the first ballot for speaker. Here’s what’s next

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:12:15 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Jim Jordan faced strong opposition to his House speakership bid Tuesday as more than a dozen Republicans voted against him on a first ballot.It’s second time this Congress that the House has faced multiple rounds of voting for speaker, following the protracted struggle in January, when Kevin McCarthy won the gavel on the 15th attempt. Twenty GOP lawmakers voted for a candidate other than Jordan, as many protested the removal of McCarthy as speaker earlier this month and the process that has unfolded to replace him. Conservatives have been mounting an intense pressure campaign to persuade the final holdouts to support Jordan, but some of his opponents appear even more determined to stop him from becoming speaker. Jordan will need to flip at least 16 Republicans to become speaker, as Democrats are certain to continue backing their own nominee, Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Republicans currently control the House 221-212. The House is expected to come...