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Australian authorities protect Outback town against huge wildfire

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Emergency crews were working to protect the Outback Australian town of Tennant Creek with containment lines on Wednesday as a huge wildfire threatened the remote community of 3,000.The fire has scorched 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 square miles) of grass and scrubland in the Northern Territory east of Tennant Creek, a former gold mining town.Police Acting Commander James Gray-Spence said authorities had worked through the night to burn protective containment lines east and south of the town.“There is a high level of confidence that those containment lines are in place, planned and prepared,” Gray-Spence told Australian Broadcasting Corp.Wildfires are common across Australia’s northern tropical region during the current dry season that will end when the monsoons arrive during the Southern Hemisphere summer.Because water is in short supply across the region, fire fighting largely involves excavating fire breaks with earthmoving equipment.But teams were al...

Rescuers retrieve over 2,000 bodies in eastern Libya wrecked by devastating floods

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Rescuers have found more than 2,000 bodies as of Wednesday in the wreckage of a Libyan city where floodwaters broke dams and washed away neighborhoods. Officials fear the death toll could exceed 5,000 in the nation made vulnerable by years of turmoil and neglect.Mediterranean storm Daniel caused deadly flooding in many eastern towns, but the worst-hit was Derna. As the storm pounded the coast Sunday night, Derna residents said they heard loud explosions when the dams outside the city collapsed. Floodwaters washed down Wadi Derna, a river running from the mountains through the city and into the sea.More than 2,000 corpses were collected as of Wednesday morning and over half of them had been buried in mass graves in Derna, said eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel. Rescue teams were working day and night to recover many other bodies scattered in the streets and under the rubble in the city. Some bodies were retrieved from the sea.The startling devastation p...

New Scope 3 report sent to the SEC ahead of Climate Week

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

Orbitas, who provide data to the US government and work with seven other countries, are releasing a new report ahead of Climate Week that assesses the financial risks US businesses and investors face from overseas Scope 3 deforestation emissions in vital commodities such as beef, coffee, palm oil, cocoa, and rubber imported into the US. The report highlights that the total value at risk to US investors across three different scenarios ranges from $7.28 billion to $114.98bn. The report is being sent to the SEC this evening (13 September). The report authors have been engaging governments on climate related financial risks and regulations, including mandatory climate emission disclosures for several years. Specifically with the US government they’ve engaged the FDIC, CFTF, SEC, and Federal Reserve. Other governments engaged include Canada, Finland (as co-chair of the Coalition of finance ministers during Glasgow period), Germany, UK, Chile, Brazil, and Mexico. Additionally, they engag...

Dear Abby: Does my husband’s brother deserve another chance after what he did?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

DEAR ABBY: I am a man who has been married to my husband for two years. My problem is his brother.Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: Her selfish husband acts like he doesn’t remember the hell she went through Advice | Dear Abby: If I wear this T-shirt, people might guess the secret I’ve only told my husband Advice | Dear Abby: Why do I meet so many dumb men? Advice | Dear Abby: The houseguests know my sheet rule but they refuse to comply Advice | Dear Abby: I’m worried about my 12-year-old’s serious dating He tries to sabotage our marriage every chance he gets — from making rude comments to propositioning me and sending me nude pics of himself.The other problem is, my husband always takes his brother’s side. He knows his brother is dysfunctional but insists I should keep giving him another chance even though, when I have, it never turns out well.What should I do?̵...

Three-bedroom home sells for $1.9 million in San Jose

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

1075 Mazzone Drive – Google Street ViewThe property located in the 1000 block of Mazzone Drive in San Jose was sold on Aug. 15, 2023 for $1,900,000, or $1,003 per square foot. The house, built in 1979, has an interior space of 1,895 square feet. The layout of this single-story home consists of three bedrooms and two baths. On the exterior, the home features wood shake roofing / shingles. Inside, a fireplace enhances the ambiance of the living area. In addition, the house features a two-car garage.Additional houses have recently changed hands nearby:On Cross Springs Court, San Jose, in April 2023, a 3,273-square-foot home was sold for $2,337,000, a price per square foot of $714. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.A 3,872-square-foot home on the 6000 block of Sylvaner Way in San Jose sold in July 2023, for $2,421,000, a price per square foot of $625. The home has 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.In April 2023, a 2,655-square-foot home on Mazzone Drive in San Jose sold for $2,480,000, a...

North Korea’s Kim concludes one-on-one talks with Putin at Russian space launch base

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — One-on-one talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have ended, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported Wednesday. The meeting of the two leaders at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Siberia followed wider talks between delegations headed by the two leaders. Before the talks, the two leaders toured some of the facilities of the strategic spaceport.In remarks before the private meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday his country’s “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s “sacred fight” to defend its security interests, in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine, and said Pyongyang will always stand with Moscow on the “anti-imperialist” front.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday his country’s “full and uncond...

One-on-one talks between Russia’s Putin and North Korea’s Kim conclude, Russian state media says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — One-on-one talks between Russia’s Putin and North Korea’s Kim conclude, Russian state media says.Source

Kim Jong Un’s train travel has a storied history. His father and grandfather did the same thing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — In a vast and elaborate complex on the edge of the North Korean capital, they sit frozen in time; two luxurious train carriages designed specifically for two supreme leaders — father and son, the predecessors of the man who is now in the middle of his own unusual railway diplomacy in Russia. When it comes to North Korea’s dynastic dictators, the tradition of train travel — and, some have said, the insistence upon it — extends across the generations. That’s in evidence at the massive Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where reconstructions of Kim Jong Un’s father’s and grandfather’s train cars — and, not incidentally, the leaders’ preserved and displayed remains — are enshrined.The prominent place that the elder two Kims’ highly secure train cars occupy in the shrine to their leadership hints at the central role of train travel among North Korean leaders, who have used trains for travel domestically and sometimes abroad since the early day...

Von der Leyen invokes ‘call of history’ as she backs EU membership for Ukraine

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

STRASBOURG — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen invoked the “call of history” as she urged Europeans to bring Ukraine into an EU of more than 30 countries, casting enlargement as an epoch-defining decision for the 27-nation bloc. “The future of Ukraine is in our Union,” the Commission chief declared in her annual state of the union address in Strasbourg, in which she also opened the door to EU treaty change, if needed. “I will always support this House — and all of those who want to reform the EU and make it work better for citizens. And yes, that means including through a European Convention and Treaty change if and where it is needed,” she said from the podium at the European Parliament.In fact, the former German defense minister also said the European Union could proceed with enlargement even without a change to the EU treaties — the governing documents underpinning the legal basis of the EU. “We cannot — and we should not — wait for Treaty change t...

Ukrainian missiles strike Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Crimea, Moscow says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:54:00 GMT

KYIV — Ukraine launched a series of missile strikes on a Russian ship repair base in occupied Crimea early Wednesday morning, the Russian defense ministry said.Locals in Sevastopol reported hearing a series of massive blasts near Southern Bay in the Russian-occupied region, with some posting videos on social media of the explosions that followed.A huge fire erupted at the Sergo Ordzhonikidze shipyard, which Russia uses as a repair base for its Black Sea fleet.  The Russian defense ministry said Ukraine launched 10 cruise missiles at the shipyard, while three uncrewed vessels attacked Russian ships in the nearby bay.  “Air defense systems shot down seven cruise missiles, and the patrol ship Vasily Bykov destroyed all unmanned boats,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that, “As a result of being hit by enemy cruise missiles, two ships undergoing repairs were damaged.” Sevastopol’s Russian-backed Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev claimed 24 people were inj...