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Storms and heavy rain flood roads, block railway lines in Germany

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:57 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Storms and heavy rain across a large swath of Germany flooded roads and forced the closure of some major railway routes on Friday, but there was no immediate word of any injuries.Germany’s national weather service had warned earlier this week of severe storms with significant amounts of rainfall, which hit on Thursday. In the western city of Duisburg, the fire service said it rescued several people from cars that got stuck on flooded streets. Shops were flooded and streets inundated in the northern city of Braunschweig, and there were similar reports from Kassel. In Hattersheim, near Frankfurt, trees fell on houses and cars, German news agency dpa reported.Germany’s national railway operator, Deutsche Bahn, said that the main line between Hamburg and Berlin was closed because of storm damage, as was a major north-south route between Kassel and Goettingen.The Associated Press

Germany’s biggest Jewish educational and cultural complex since the Holocaust to open in Berlin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:57 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — When Berlin Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal first talked about his dream of building Germany’s biggest Jewish educational and cultural complex since the Holocaust, most people who heard about the plan were skeptical.But five years after the groundbreaking, Teichtal, a Berlin rabbi and head of the local Chabad community, beams as he steps onto the seventh-floor balcony of the new curved, blue-tiled building overlooking the campus amphitheater, garden, playground and a plot still covered with containers and construction material that will eventually become a sports field.“We’re changing the narrative about Jews in Germany,” Teichtal told The Associated Press earlier this week.“Too often people only think about the Holocaust and antisemitism when it comes to Jews in Germany,” the 51-year-old rabbi said. “Our Jewish campus is about the future, it’s about joy, about studying and living together.”The Pears Jewish Campus, in the German capital’s Wilmersdorf neighborhood, officially ope...

Greek elections a one-horse race after conservatives topple left-wing strongholds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:57 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greeks return to the polls Sunday for a second general election in five weeks, with the conservative front-runners eyeing a landslide win after toppling strongholds dominated by their opponents for decades.Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the 55-year-old conservative leader, is seeking a second four-year term as prime minister. His center-right New Democracy party won by a huge margin in May elections but is heading to a second ballot to take advantage of election law changes that favor the winning party.Sunday’s vote comes days after hundreds of migrants died and went missing in southern Greece when an over-crowded fishing trawler capsized and sank, drawing criticism over how Greek authorities handled the rescue.But the disaster did little to dent Mitsotakis’ 20-point lead in opinion polls over left-wing rivals.As Greece emerges from a major financial crisis in the previous decade and turmoil caused by the pandemic, voters are happy to return a prime minister who delivere...

Oklahoma death row inmate plans to reject chance for clemency despite maintaining his innocence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:57 GMT

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A man scheduled to be executed in September for the 1996 killing of a University of Oklahoma dance student plans to reject his chance for a clemency hearing, saying there is little hope the state’s Republican governor would spare his life.Anthony Sanchez, 44, said in a telephone interview Thursday from Oklahoma’s death row that even in the rare case when the five-member Pardon and Parole Board recommends clemency, Gov. Kevin Stitt is unlikely to grant it.“I’ve sat in my cell and I’ve watched inmate after inmate after inmate get clemency and get denied clemency,” Sanchez said. “Either way, it doesn’t go well for the inmates.”Sanchez cited the recent cases of Bigler Stouffer and James Coddington, both of whom were executed after the board voted 3-2 for clemency that was later rejected by Stitt.“They went out there and poured their hearts out, man,” Sanchez said. “Why would I want to be a part of anything like that, if you’re goi...

UN chief calls for acceleration of Black Sea grain deal exports

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:57 GMT

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (pictured) called for an acceleration of Black Sea grain shipments from Ukrainian ports under a deal allowing safe wartime exports, a UN spokesperson said on Tuesday (20 June) as Russia threatens to quit the pact next month.The United Nations and Turkey brokered the Black Sea Grain Initiative with Russia and Ukraine in July 2022 to help tackle a global food crisis worsened by Moscow's invasion of its neighbor and blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports.But food exports "have dropped significantly from a peak of 4.2 million metric tonnes in October 2022 to 1.3 million metric tonnes in May, the lowest volume since the Initiative began last year", said deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq.Guterres was disappointed by a slowing pace of ship inspections and the exclusion of Pivdennyi (Yuzhny) port - one of three Ukrainian ports covered by the Black Sea export deal."The Secretary-General calls on the parties to accelerate operations and urges t...

Estonia becomes first central European country to allow same-sex marriage

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:57 GMT

Estonia's parliament approved on Tuesday (20 June) a law to legalize same-sex marriage, making it the first central European country to do so.Same-sex marriage is legal in much of western Europe but not in central European countries which were once under communist rule and members of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact alliance but now members of NATO and, largely, the EU."It's like the state is finally accepting me," said Annely Lepamaa, 46, a lesbian."Until now, I needed to fight for everything. I had to go to court to adopt my own children, which is like, why?" she added. "Now, I'm a human with rights."The bill received 55 votes in the 101-seat parliament, from the coalition of liberal and social democratic parties which Kallas has assembled following her strong win in the 2023 election."My message (to central Europe) is that it's a difficult fight, but marriage and love is something that you have to promote," Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told Reuters after the vote."We have developed a lot...

Abducted Fontana toddler found safe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:57 GMT

A missing toddler who was abducted out of Fontana on Thursday was found safe.Fontana Police identified the suspect as Alexus Gonzalez, 24, and the boy as Sebastian Sanchez, 5. Gonzalez is the child’s mother, police said.Gonzalez also has a warrant from the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office on unrelated charges for kidnapping her one-and-a-half-year-old son, Mateo, just three weeks earlier."Detectives and our Fugitive Apprehension Team continuously worked this case until Alexus was tracked down to a residence in San Bernardino where she was arrested and both children were found safe," police said.According to officers, an unknown person entered a home on the 15700 block of Paine Street between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Thursday and kidnapped Sanchez.No further details were released as the case remains under investigation.

Estos pueblos fueron liberados en la contraofensiva ucraniana. Son poco más que ruinas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:57 GMT

(CNN) — Los estruendos de los bombardeos entrantes y salientes son la banda sonora del frente ucraniano. Pero su presidente advirtió esta semana que la contraofensiva no debe verse a través del lente de una película de Hollywood.A las afueras de los pueblos recién liberados de Neskuchne y Storozheve, los soldados ucranianos se refugian en casas destruidas que han dejado vacías los rusos, esperando órdenes para disparar morteros contra las líneas enemigas.Hay mucho trabajo. Los hombres de la 35ª Brigada de Infantería de Marina trasladan a su escondite temporal proyectiles de mortero de 120 milímetros de fabricación estadounidense recién llegados. Los limpian y preparan para el lanzamiento y garabatean mensajes en los proyectiles para su enemigo. Otro grupo obtiene las coordenadas y ajusta el mortero para apuntar mejor.Las primeras fases de la contraofensiva de Ucrania “no cumplen las expectativas en ningún frente”, dicen funcionarios occidentales a CNNEl avión no tr...

Time for Ja Morant to change his behavior, there’s been enough talking, Grizzlies GM says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:57 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Memphis Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman said the 25-game suspension the NBA slapped guard Ja Morant with “was appropriate,” and it is up to Morant to change the behavior that led to two bans in four months. The Grizzlies’ vice president of basketball operations made the comments after Thursday night’s NBA draft. Kleiman is the first team official to publicly discuss Morant’s situation and the NBA’s punishment of the two-time All-Star for flashing a gun on social media after the season.Kleiman said the latest incident is part of a pattern of “problematic behavior” for Morant, the No. 2 overall pick in 2019 and the 2020 Rookie of the Year.“At this point, it doesn’t matter until he follows through,” Kleiman said. “I couldn’t care less about words. Ja has to prove it.”NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced the latest suspension June 16, and Silver made clear the guard must stop his “alarming” habit of flashing guns on social media.The...

India’s Modi meets the press at the White House — and takes rare questions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:37:57 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Narendra Modi did something very unusual on Thursday at the White House — he took questions from journalists.It’s a rare occurrence for the Indian prime minister who avoids unscripted moments and has presided over a steady decline in press freedom in his country. The news conference was more limited than the kind that U.S. presidents usually hold with foreign leaders, but even that wasn’t easy to arrange with Modi. Indian officials agreed to the event only the day before, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations. Administration officials told Modi’s advisers that taking questions from the media was a standard part of how White House state visits are conducted, the person said.An Indian reporter asked about addressing climate change, and an American reporter pressed Modi on human rights concerns— a particularly delicate topic as the United States seeks closer ties with India as a b...