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Japan protests China’s detention of citizen, maritime action

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:13:38 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi protested in a meeting Sunday with his Chinese counterpart the detention of a Japanese national in Beijing and raised “strong concern” about China’s escalating military activity near Taiwan and around Japan.Hayashi is making a two-day visit in China, becoming Japan’s first diplomat to make the trip in more than three years as frictions grow between the countries. He was also due to meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang and top diplomat Wang Yi later Sunday.During his talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Hayashi demanded an early release of an employee of the Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma, who was detained in Beijing last month over what the Chinese Foreign Ministry described as spying allegations. Neither side has offered further details about the man or the allegations against him. Hayashi told reporters he also raised “serious concern” about China’s increasingly assertive maritime ac...

Donald Trump isn’t first ex-president to face legal trouble

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:13:38 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has made history so many times. The first president without government or military experience. The first to be impeached twice. The first to aggressively challenge the certification of his successor. Now, he adds another: Even as he hopes to return to the White House in 2025, he is the first former president to be indicted. The latest line crossed by Trump challenges again the aura of the American presidency, nurtured in the infallibility of George Washington but made human over and over, through scandals born of greed and the abuse of power, corruption and naivete, sex and lies about sex. Trump is hardly the first president, in or out of office, to face legal trouble.In 1974, Richard Nixon may well have avoided criminal charges on obstruction of justice or bribery, related to the Watergate scandal, only because President Gerald Ford pardoned him just weeks after Nixon resigned the presidency. Bill Clinton’s law license in his native Arkansas was s...

Montenegro voters choose president amid political turmoil

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:13:38 GMT

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Voters in Montenegro cast ballots Sunday in a runoff presidential election that is a contest between a long-serving pro-Western incumbent and a newcomer promising changes in the small NATO member nation located on Europe’s Balkan peninsula. Observers think President Milo Djukanovic, who is credited with leading Montenegro to independence from Serbia in 2006 and later into NATO, could be defeated by Jakov Milatovic, a former economy minister. Milatovic has the backing of the country’s governing parties, which advocate closer ties with Serbia.The runoff vote was scheduled after none of the contenders won a majority in the first round of voting two weeks ago. Some 540,000 people were eligible to vote. Montenegro has a population of 620,000 and borders Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and the Adriatic Sea.The outcome of Sunday’s election is likely to reflect on an early parliamentary election set for June 11. That vote was scheduled becau...

PHOTOS: Tornado victims recall flying debris, destroyed buildings

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:13:38 GMT

WYNNE, Ark. (AP) — With tornadoes hitting the Midwest and the South this weekend, some survivors said they emerged from their homes to find buildings ripped apart, vehicles tossed around like toys, shattered glass and felled trees.J.W. Spencer, 88, had never experienced a tornado before, but when he and his wife saw on TV that a tornado was nearing their town of Wynne, Arkansas, he opened a front window and rear door in his house to relieve air pressure. The couple scurried into the bathroom, where they got into the bathtub and covered themselves with quilts and blankets for protection.Fifteen minutes later, the storm unleashed its fury on the town nestled among the flat fields and fertile farmland of eastern Arkansas. Debris came whistling through their house.“We just rode it out," Spencer said on Saturday. "We heard stuff falling, loud noises. And then it quit. It got quiet.” 12 tornadoes touchdown in Chicago area, NWS confirms After it passed, the couple emerged to se...

Severe thunderstorm threat today and this evening

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:13:38 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Storm Prediction Center is keeping a watch on Central Texas today with much of the area under a Slight risk (Category 2 of 5) for severe thunderstorms. Large hail and strong damaging winds are the main concerns. Severe weather potential this afternoon and early eveningAn upper-level disturbance is moving through New Mexico headed to Central Texas. Winds locally have returned Gulf moisture with a southeast flow this morning that will become more southerly this afternoon with speeds increasing to 10 to 20 mph and gusty.This upper disturbance is moving quickly. Rain totals will be under .05" for most areas that do get rain. A few isolated areas may pick up .10" to .25". UPDATED April forecast increases chances for rain Highs this afternoon will warm to the middle 80s. Some Hill Country cities will warm to the upper 80s to around 90 because there will be more sunshine there. Most of our eastern cities will stay in the upper 70s to low 80s because of more cloud cov...

Spring and summer arts and fun: Tradition and innovation in classical music

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:13:38 GMT

From new commissions to new takes on historic music material, this spring’s classical music scene has a rich landscape of history and innovation. Guest artists from around the world enliven Twin Cities concerts, adding to the wealth of talent that we’ve grown to know and love.Baroque Splendor!University of Minnesota singers and Bach Society concert in 2022 (Courtesy the Bach Society of MN).The University of Minnesota Singers and the Bach Society of Minnesota anticipate the coronation of King Charles with a concert featuring G.F. Handel’s Four Coronation Anthems, first premiered for King George II’s coronation ceremony in 1727. The two groups also perform Claudio Monteverdi’s 1610 Magnificat for the concert, led by Matthew Mehaffey, who is a professor of music and associate director of choral activities at the University of Minnesota’s School of Music. 4 p.m. April 2, Ted Mann Concert Hall, events.tc.umn.edu/music/all, 612-626-9269.Express Concert: Ethereal Voices with Ab...

Resident death, employee arrests and lawsuit put spotlight on one of Colorado’s top senior care companies

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:13:38 GMT

Balfour Senior Living prides itself on providing luxury accommodations full of “extraordinary choices” for its older residents.“Exquisitely prepared meals” are served from a seasonal menu, its website boasts. The staff is “meticulous about the details.”Its Cherrywood Village facility in Louisville is at the “forefront of innovative memory care communities,” the company states, providing residents living with dementia a range of activities from music to pet therapy.The company, though, has fallen under increased scrutiny after two employees and a contractor at Cherrywood Village were arrested last month, accused of falsely reporting an assault between two residents that police say never occurred. That came a year after a 97-year-old resident of a second Balfour facility in Louisville froze to death after being locked out of the building. One employee, now facing charges, has been tied to both incidents.But a Denver Post review of state ...

Sharing profits from sale of company is “doing the right thing,” Travelers Haven founder says

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:13:38 GMT

Elia Wallen, founder of Denver-based Travelers Haven, shared the profits from the recent sale of the company. Wallen, also founder of Hotel Engine, says he wanted to give back to the team that made his business a success. (Photo provided by Hotel Engine)In this era of inflation and the growing gulf between executives’ compensation and everyone else’s, a story of a business owner giving his employees a cut of the profits from the sale of his company stands out.Elia Wallen sold Denver-based Travelers Haven, which provides temporary housing for business people nationwide, to Blueground, a worldwide provider of temporary lodging. The two privately held companies declined to disclose the terms of the sale, which closed in October.Travelers Haven, which operates in about 20,000 cities across the country, continues to do business independently, so employees’ daily work hasn’t changed. But Wallen’s decision to share 20% of the sale’s profits with employee...

Post Premium: Top stories for the week of March 27-April 2

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:13:38 GMT

COKEDALE — Jack Van Heesch experimented hard with all sorts of psychedelics back in the day.“It was a party,” said the full-bearded, 66-year-old resident of this former Colorado mining town perched in the shadows of the Spanish Peaks in Las Animas County.Van Heesch was one of nearly 1.3 million Coloradans last November to vote for Proposition 122, which decriminalized the growing, use and sharing of psilocybin and psilocin — key compounds found in “magic mushrooms” — along with ibogaine, mescaline and dimethyltryptamine, or DMT.But his was a rare yes vote in Cokedale, a tiny hamlet of 150 hardscrabble residents seven miles west of Trinidad. The town, with its 350 defunct coke ovens signifying its legacy as a one-time coal mining hub, isn’t jazzed about psilocybin healing centers coming in.Residents cite concerns about crime, transients, exposure of psychedelics to children and any funding that might be needed to regulate the industry.“It’s a quality of life thing here,” Cokedale May...

49ers’ 53-man roster projection: Where things stand before NFL Draft

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 19:13:38 GMT

As Nick Bosa cleaned out his locker for the offseason, he foreshadowed what was to come of the 49ers.“There’s going to be a lot of the same guys back, so that’s exciting,” Bosa said Jan. 31. “It’s obviously never the same group, which makes the NFL tough. You just have to appreciate life and keep living.”Indeed, a familiar cast remains on the roster, more than enough to appreciate and keep title hopes alive.A rookie class will come aboard in a month, so the roster is far from set, not to mention the other personnel moves and hard-luck injuries that are inevitable. Then, cuts from the 90-man roster don’t have to be made until Aug. 29.That said, here is how the 53-man roster might look ahead of the April 27-29 draft:QUARTERBACK (3)Brock PurdyTrey LanceSam DarnoldHealth concerns with Purdy (elbow) and Lance (ankle) enticed the 49ers to sign Darnold. Who starts Week 1? Purdy’s timeline remains a mystery — otherwise, the starting job is his, if healthy. Thus, Lance could be Q...