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Families in Israel and abroad wait in agony for word of their loved ones taken hostage by militants

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:26 GMT

TEL AVIV (AP) — One of those taken hostage is a grandmother who learned Arabic in hopes of building bridges with her neighbors. Others include 10 members of an extended family, one an elderly man in a wheelchair who requires hospital care. Still another is a nurse who delivered thousands of babies over the years to parents both Israeli and Palestinian.All are among roughly 150 people abducted by Hamas militants early Saturday during sweeping raids on Israeli towns and villages near the heavily fortified border with the Gaza Strip. They include citizens of Brazil, Britain, Italy, the Philippines and the United States, as well as many Israelis. The number of hostages, provided by Hamas and Israeli officials, has not been independently confirmed.Militants have vowed to start killing hostages if Israel’s airstrikes target civilians inside Gaza without first providing a warning allowing them to flee. It has placed the families and friends of those taken in a terrifying and desperate situ...

Caroline Ellison, saying Sam Bankman-Fried corrupted her values, found relief when truth came out

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:26 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Sam Bankman-Fried ’s former top executive, testifying in Manhattan federal court Wednesday, blamed the FTX founder for corrupting her values so she could lie and steal and got emotional when describing the cryptocurrency empire’s final days, saying the collapse of his businesses resulted in a “relief that I didn’t have to lie anymore.”Caroline Ellison, who eventually was made chief executive of Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency hedge fund, Alameda Research, blamed the man she was entwined with romantically for several years since 2018 for creating justifications so that she could do things that she now admits were wrong and illegal.Testifying for a second day, she recalled that Bankman-Fried said he wanted to do the greatest good for the most people and that rules like “don’t lie” or “don’t steal” must sometimes be set aside.Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon asked Ellison how she was affected by Bankman-Fried’s philosophy.“I th...

Photographer who captured horrifying images of Challenger breaking apart after launch has died

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:26 GMT

TITUSVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Bruce Weaver, a Florida-based photographer who captured a definitive image of space shuttle Challenger breaking apart into plumes of smoke and fire after liftoff, has died. He was 77.A statement released by the North Brevard Funeral Home said Weaver died in his sleep Friday with his wife and family by his side. He was living in Titusville, Florida, along the state’s Space Coast.Working as a freelance photographer for The Associated Press, Weaver was among hundreds of witnesses on the ground at the Kennedy Space Center who watched Challenger lift off from the launch pad carrying aboard New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe and six other astronauts on Jan. 28, 1986.The space shuttle disintegrated 73 seconds later, killing all seven crew members. Launched on an exceptionally cold morning, Challenger was brought down by eroded O-ring seals in the right booster.At a time when film was still being used, Weaver had not filled up the 36 frames on his ro...

Man who found bag of cash, claimed finders-keepers, pays back town, criminal charge dropped

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:26 GMT

A Connecticut man who found a bag containing nearly $5,000 in cash outside a bank and claimed “finders-keepers” had a criminal charge against him dropped Wednesday after he gave the money back.Robert Withington, 57, went to Bridgeport Superior Court for a scheduled court hearing, but a state prosecutor informed Withington’s lawyer the charge was being dropped.Withington found the bank bag with $4,761 on May 30 outside a bank in his hometown of Trumbull, near Bridgeport. It turned out the money belonged to the Trumbull tax collector’s office, and a town employee had dropped the bag while walking to the bank to deposit the money, police said.Police said the bag had the bank’s name on the outside, and there were deposit slips inside indicating the money belonged to the town, authorities said. A police officer had escorted the town employee to the bank, but neither noticed the bag being dropped, police said.Withington, a dog trainer, happened to be near the bank at the...

Prosecutors say a reckless driving suspect bit an NYPD officer’s finger tip off

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:26 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police officer lost his left ring finger up to the first knuckle when a reckless driving suspect bit him, prosecutors said Wednesday.Lenni Rodriguez Cruz, 28, could be sentenced to 25 years in prison for leading police on a wild car chase, crashing into several vehicles and biting a sergeant who was trying to put him in a holding cell, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.The episode started shortly before midnight on Sept. 20. A police officer patrolling in the Jamaica section of Queens spotted Rodriguez Cruz driving a car with license plates that weren’t registered to the vehicle, Katz said in a news release.The officer tried to pull Rodriguez Cruz over, but he sped off, mounted a sidewalk and drove through a park, scattering parkgoers as they ran to safety, Katz said.Rodriguez Cruz kept driving and hit four vehicles including an unmarked police car that was part of a barricade set up to stop him, Katz said. The driver of one of the cars...

Exxon’s US$59.5B bet on fossil fuels has implications for Canadian oilpatch: experts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:26 GMT

CALGARY — Exxon Mobil Corp.’s acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources in a US$59.5 billion mega-deal is being seen by some as a massive vote of confidence in fossil fuels that also bodes well for the Canadian oilpatch.Dan Tsubouchi, principal and chief market strategist with SAF Group, says Exxon is clearly confident that global demand for oil will remain strong in the immediate future.He says while the energy transition will mean declining demand for oil in the long-term, Exxon likely believes it has at least a 15-year window before that effect is significant.Tsubouchi says Exxon’s bullish view on fossil fuels is shared by many in the Canadian oilpatch, adding he wouldn’t be surprised to see an uptick in merger and acquisition activity here — particularly among producers using hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the Montney region of northeast B.C. and northwest Alberta.Exxon’s blockbuster deal announced Wednesday is the U.S. super-major’s largest buy...

B.C. First Nation ‘furious’ after federal government rejects order to protect owls

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:26 GMT

VANCOUVER — The chief of a British Columbia First Nation says members of his community are “furious” after the federal government reversed course on an emergency order to protect the endangered northern spotted owl.Spuzzum First Nations Chief James Hobart says the nation’s anger comes after the Canadian Wildlife Service, a branch of the Department of Environment, said the federal government will not bring in an emergency order to prevent logging in two watersheds in B.C.’s lower Fraser River canyon.Federal Minister of Environment Steven Guilbeault said earlier this year that he was recommending the emergency order to cabinet to protect the spotted owl from imminent threats to its survival and recovery.In a letter announcing the reversal, the federal government says cabinet is instead endorsing “a collaborative approach” with the provincial government and Indigenous communities after considering factors such as socio-economic and legal impacts.Hoba...

French ballooning team goes the distance to finish ahead in prestigious long-distance race

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:26 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Spending more than three and a half days aloft and traveling more than 1,653 miles (2,660 kilometers), a French ballooning team has traveled the farthest in the world’s oldest and most prestigious air race. Pilots Eric Decellières and Benoît Havret landed just shy of the North Carolina coast Wednesday after having launched from an annual balloon fiesta in Albuquerque on Saturday night along with 15 other teams representing nine countries.Organizers of the Gordon Bennett Cup said Decellières and Havret surpassed a German team by about 46 miles (74 kilometers) to take the lead. The unofficial results will have to be confirmed by a jury of ballooning experts.The balloonists spend days in the air, carrying everything they need to survive at high altitudes as they search for the right combination of wind currents to push their baskets as far as they can go.Their hydrogen-filled balloons fly throughout the night and into the next day, with pilots trading off so...

French troops are starting to withdraw from Niger and junta leaders give UN head 72 hours to leave

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:26 GMT

COTONOU, Benin (AP) — French troops have started leaving Niger more than two months after mutinous soldiers toppled the African country’s democratically elected president, the military said Wednesday. More than 100 personnel left in two flights from the capital Niamey on Tuesday in the first of what will be several rounds of departures between now and the end of the year, said a French military spokesman, Col. Pierre Gaudilliere. All are returning to France, he said. Niger’s state television broadcast images of a convoy leaving a base in Ouallam in the north, saying it was bound for neighboring Chad, to the east. The departure comes weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will end its military presence in Niger and pull its ambassador out of the country as a result of the coup that removed President Mohamed Bazoum in late July. Some 1,500 French troops have been operating in Niger, training its military and conducting joint operations.Also Tuesday, the jun...

Jill Biden recognizes 15 young women from 13 states for advocacy to improve their communities

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:26 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fifteen young women were honored at the White House on Wednesday for their advocacy on a range of issues in their communities across the United States, from lobbying for tighter gun laws and against book bans to encouraging civic engagement and ensuring access to menstrual supplies.The issues that earned these 15 teenagers a trip to the White House are also priorities for the Biden administration, including first lady Jill Biden, who hosted the first “Girls Leading Change” event to celebrate Wednesday’s designation by President Joe Biden as International Day of the Girl. The honorees, including a pair of twins, range in age from 15 to 18 and represent 13 states.“They’re protecting and preserving our earth, writing and sharing stories that change minds, using their summer breaks to testify before their state legislature and turning their pain into purpose,” Jill Biden said. “You saw something that you knew was wrong and you decided to fix it. You represe...