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A fire at a wedding hall in northern Iraq has killed more than 100 people and injured 150

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — A fire that raced through a hall hosting a Christian wedding in northern Iraq killed at least 100 people and injured 150 others, authorities said Wednesday, warning the death toll could rise.The fire happened in Iraq’s Nineveh province in its Hamdaniya area, authorities said. That’s a predominantly Christian area just outside of the city of Mosul, some 335 kilometers (205 miles) northwest of the capital, Baghdad. Television footage showed flames rushing over the wedding hall as the fire took hold. In the blaze’s aftermath, only charred metal and debris could be seen as people walked through the scene of the fire, the only light coming from television cameras and the lights of onlookers’ mobile phones. Survivors arrived at local hospitals, receiving oxygen and bandaged, as their families milled through hallways and outside as workers organized more oxygen cylinders. The health department in Nineveh province raised the death toll to 114. Heal...

Lahaina family finds heirloom in rubble of their home on first visit after deadly wildfire

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Leola Vierra stepped gingerly among the hardened pools of melted metal, charred wood and broken glass that are almost all that remain of the home where she lived for nearly 50 years.Sifting through the rubble, she found two cow-patterned vessels, part of her extensive collection of bovine figurines. Nearby, her son discovered the blackened remnants of his late grandfather’s pistol, dating to his days as a Lahaina policeman in the 1950s. There was no sign of the beloved cat, Kitty Kai, that used to greet her when she came home from work.“I’m so sad — devastated,” she said. “This was my home.”Vierra, her husband and two adult children returned to the property Tuesday for the first time since the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century whipped through on Aug. 8, obliterating the historic town of Lahaina and killing at least 97 people. They were among the first small group of residents to be allowed back into the burn zone to see where their hom...

Firefighter injured battling blaze at North York home

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

A Toronto firefighter was seriously injured battling a blaze at an unoccupied home in North York on Tuesday night.The three-alarm firm broke out at a home under construction on Wedgewood Drive at around 8:30 p.m.When crews arrived the basement and first floor were ablaze. The fire was doused around an hour later.Paramedics say the firefighter was taken to hospital with serious, but non life-threatening injuries.The cause of the fire is under investigation.First and foremost, my thoughts and prayers are with our injured team member. We are all deeply appreciative for our Paramedic and trauma centre healthcare professionals for all they do to protect our team.— Matthew Pegg (@ChiefPeggTFS) September 27, 2023 More to come

Congress says its wants to avoid a shutdown. But the House and Senate are moving even further apart.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Congress is starkly divided over very different paths to preventing a federal shutdown — the Senate charging ahead with a bipartisan package to temporarily fund the government but the House slogging through a longshot effort with no real chance of finishing by Saturday’s deadline.With days remaining before a federal closure, the stakes are rising with no resolution at hand. A shutdown would furlough millions of federal employees, leave the military without pay, disrupt air travel and cut off vital safety net services, and it would be politically punishing to lawmakers whose job it is to fund government.President Joe Biden, who earlier this year reached a budget deal with Speaker Kevin McCarthy that became law, believes it’s up to the House Republicans to deliver.“A deal is a deal,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “This is for them to fix.”Late Tuesday, the Senate pushed ahead in sweeping bipartisan fashion to break the stalemate...

Oregon Gov. Kotek directs state police to crack down on fentanyl distribution

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said Tuesday she has directed state police to launch new strategies aimed at disrupting the fentanyl supply chain and holding sellers of the frequently deadly drug accountable. Kotek said in a statement that she made the announcement at a Tuesday meeting of her task force created to revitalize downtown Portland. “I want all Oregonians to know that the state is moving forward with several new fentanyl strategic enforcement and disruption strategies,” Kotek’s statement said.The plans include increasing and reallocating state police staff to local drug enforcement teams, holding trainings with the Oregon Department of Justice to address potential biases and avoid unlawful searches, and leading interagency patrols that emphasize intercepting fentanyl using drug dogs and detectives, Kotek said.She said a pilot project using a data-driven approach to identifying drug- and alcohol-impaired drivers would also be extended.During one weekend in ...

9 years later, families of 43 missing Mexican students march to demand answers in emblematic case

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Chanting from one to 43, relatives of students abducted nine years ago counted out the number of the missing youths as they marched through Mexico City Tuesday to demand answers to one of Mexico’s most infamous human rights cases.With President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s term ending next year, family members face not only the prospect of a ninth year of not knowing what happened to their sons but fears that the next administration will start the error-plagued investigation over from scratch yet again.In 2014, a group of students were attacked by municipal police in the southern city of Iguala, Guerrero, who handed them over to a local drug gang that apparently killed them and burned their bodies. Since the Sept. 26 attack, only three of their remains have been identified.After an initial coverup, last year a government truth commission concluded that local, state and federal authorities colluded with the gang to murder the students in what it called...

An Abe Lincoln photo made during his 1858 ascendancy has been donated to his museum in Illinois

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — During his momentous U.S. Senate campaign against Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln sat for a photograph after politicking in western Illinois and presented one of the copies to a man severely injured while testing a cannon for Lincoln’s campaign rally. As a small measure of compassion, Lincoln presented one version of the image to the injured man, Charles Lame, who overcame a deadly infection in an arm torn up by the blast with the help of flesh-eating maggots. The tale provides an unlikely, ghastly background to the original 1858 ambrotype created during the future nation-saving Civil War president’s ascendancy, an image which the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum has added to its collection, officials said Tuesday. “Original images of Abraham Lincoln are extraordinarily rare, and images with a fascinating back story like this are even more rare,” said Christina Shutt, executive director of the library and museum. “Lincoln...

2 Aurora city workers credited with saving 1-year-old boy

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

AURORA, Ill. — Two Aurora city workers were honored tonight with saving the life of a one-year-old baby.The city honored Daniel Chavez and Josh Elrod at the city council meeting on Tuesday. Pat Tomasulo and friends raise over $600K for rare pain disorder at this year’s Laugh Your Face Off Chavez and Elrod are credited with saving little Julian's life last week. The water and sewer workers heard a woman yelling for help while out on routine duties.It was Julian's mother crying that her baby wasn't breathing. Chavez and Elrod jumped in to help, called 911 and performed CPR.The city employees said it was because of CPR training that they were able to help."I'd like to thank our management for putting us through this training," Josh Elrod said. "It helps. You never think you're going to need it until you do."

Slow moving closed upper level low pressure system to bring another day of unsettled weather and scattered thunderstorms before drier weather and a significant warm-up gets underway in September's final days and the opening of October

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

Model forecasts starting 7 AM Wednesday through 7 PM WednesdayTHE HARVEST MOON ARRIVES THURSDAYThe Harvest Moon is the name given to the full moon that happens closest to the Fall Equinox. This particular full moon's rise and set coincides closely with the sunset and sunrise. In ancient times, the full moon this time of year helped farmers harvest crops late into the evening. This is also the last "super moon" of the year—which is when the moon is slightly closer to the Earth and appears 30% brighter and about 14% larger in the sky. If you want to catch the sky show, this year's Full Harvest Moon rises on Thursday at 6:32 PM and reaches it's peak at 4:59 AM on Friday morning. The moon will set at 6:51 AM on Friday.ONLY FOUR DAYS LEFT IN SEPTEMBERThe month currently ranks 13th warmest of the past 153 years, dating back to 1871. Rainfall is also running a slight surplus.Chicago weather history suggests 58 of past 81 Octobers (or about 72%) have produced at least one 80-degree or warme...

Two Twins make long-awaited return in win over Athletics

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:34 GMT

Chris Paddack was just a few feet away from the mound, a few feet away from making a return that he had waited a year and a half for on Sunday when the skies opened. The rain intensified and instead of taking the mound, Paddack and the Twins headed inside to wait out a 50-minute rain delay. When the game resumed, it was Louie Varland, not Paddack, on the mound.Paddack’s long-awaited return had to wait until Tuesday, when he threw two innings in Tuesday’s 11-3 over the Oakland Athletics in the series opener at Target Field.The starter, who will be in a relief role for the remainder of the season, gave up a single to the first batter he had faced since May 8, 2022. He then proceeded to strike out the next three batters, touching 99 miles per hour on the radar gun.His next inning didn’t go quite as well. The 27-year-old allowed a single, home run, walk and double to the first four batters, producing three runs and prompting a trip to the mound by pitching coach Pete Maki. He then settl...