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After sailing through House on bipartisan vote, Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal now goes to Senate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:48 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Veering away from a default crisis, the House overwhelmingly approved a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, sending the deal that President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated to the Senate for swift passage in a matter of days, before a fast-approaching deadline.The hard-fought compromise pleased few, but lawmakers assessed it was better than the alternative — a devastating economic upheaval if Congress failed to act. Tensions ran high as hard-right Republicans refused the deal, but Biden and McCarthy assembled a bipartisan coalition to push to passage on a robust 314-117 vote late Wednesday.“We did pretty dang good,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said afterward.Amid deep discontent from Republicans who said the spending restrictions did not go far enough, McCarthy said it is only a “first step.”Biden, watching the tally from Colorado Springs where Thursday he is scheduled to deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy, phoned McCarthy...

Court rules Austria can’t be held liable for early COVID infection at ski resort

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:48 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — An Austrian federal court said Thursday that the state can’t be held liable for a COVID-19 infection from an outbreak at an Alpine ski resort as the pandemic hit Europe in early 2020.The Supreme Court of Justice announced its verdict in a long-running legal battle involving a German resident who traveled to Ischgl on March 7, 2020 and visited several apres-ski venues before returning home six days later. He experienced the first coronavirus symptoms shortly afterward. The plaintiff sought damages and a ruling that the Austrian federal government was liable for harm to him resulting directly or indirectly from authorities’ errors or failings connected to the “mismanagement” of COVID-19 in Tyrol province in late February and early March 2020.The outbreak in Ischgl, a popular resort in western Austria, was considered one of Europe’s earliest “super-spreader” events of the pandemic.An independent commission concluded in late 2020 that authorities in Tyrol acted too s...

In the Amazon region where pair was killed, neglect and allegations of harsh justice

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:48 GMT

LADARIO, Brazil (AP) — One year ago on a Friday afternoon, Bruno Pereira, an expert on Indigenous affairs, and Dom Phillips, a British journalist, motored along the Itaquai river in far western Brazil, to the settlement of Ladario. The line of wooden houses here marks a boundary — between the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon, and the non-Indigenous world.They were greeted by the man everyone knows as Caboclo. Pereira’s relationship with these river communities had often been tense. He had been the lead official with the nation’s Indigenous agency, and these non-Indigenous communities were frequent trespassers onto Indigenous land to hunt and fish. He had fought this, confiscating fishing gear.But Pereira now sought a different approach. He was on leave from the government, helping build alternative livelihoods in these remote and desperately poor communities, which receive virtually no support from the government, although they are entitled to it.“I told Br...

Mississauga man charged in violent home invasion robbery in Regent Park

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:48 GMT

A 22-year-old man is in custody following a home invasion robbery in Regent Park last month.Police say on May 12 a man went to a home in the Shuter and Parliament streets area after contacting a sex worker and arranging a meet.When the woman opened the door, the man produced a gun and demanded cash. A second woman who came to the door was also threatened and asked to hand over money. The women told the man they had no cash, and the suspect fled the scene empty-handed.The next day, Peel Regional Police arrested a man in connection with a similar incident involving a sex-trade worker. He was subsequently released on bail that same day.Peel police contacted their counterparts in Toronto and informed them that the suspect they had arrested was likely the same person wanted in the home invasion robbery in Regent Park.Yousef Babiker of Mississauga was arrested again on May 19 and he is facing eight charges including two counts of robbery with a firearm and uttering threats.“Investig...

EU data authority launches probe into Frontex migrant interview breaches

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:48 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s border and coast guard agency is collecting information from migrants that could end up identifying vulnerable people seeking sanctuary from persecution in their homelands, according to a report by the EU’s data protection watchdog.The European Data Protection Supervisor, or EDPS, also announced that it is launching an investigation into whether Frontex gathered information that it is not entitled to collect and illegally provided those details about migrants to the EU’s police agency Europol.Frontex said Thursday that it conducts “debriefing interviews” with migrants entering Europe without authorization “on a voluntary and anonymous basis.” It said the interviews aim to collect information about migratory routes and cross-border crime and help to plan its operations.But in a report submitted to Frontex last week, the EDPS said that some debriefings reveal “a combination of distinguishing features about that individual and their journey that wou...

Senegal opposition leader Sonko convicted of corrupting youth, acquitted of rape

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:48 GMT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Senegal opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was convicted Thursday of corrupting youth but acquitted on charges of raping a woman who worked at a massage parlor and making death threats against her.The court sentenced Sonko to two years in prison. He did not attend his trial in the capital, Dakar, and was judged in absentia. His lawyer said a warrant had not been issued yet for the politician’s arrest. “With this verdict, the authorities want to prevent him from standing in the next presidential election,” lawyer Cire Cledor Ly said. Sonko placed third in Senegal’s 2019 presidential election, and he and his supporters maintain his legal troubles are part of a government effort to derail his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election. Sonko is considered President Macky Sall’s main competition. Under Senegalese law, the conviction would bar Sonko from running in next year’s election, said Bamba Cisse, another defense lawyer.“The conviction for corruptio...

PSG coach confirms Lionel Messi’s departure from French league club

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:48 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Lionel Messi will leave Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season after two years at the club, coach Christophe Galtier said Thursday.Galter said ahead of PSG’s game against Clermont on Saturday that it would be Messi’s last match at the Parc des Princes.“I had the privilege of coaching the best player in the history of soccer,” Galtier said. “This will be his last match at the Parc des Princes, and I hope that he will receive the warmest of welcomes.”___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsThe Associated Press

4-year-old girl accidentally shot, killed by another child inside home in River Grove

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:48 GMT

RIVER GROVE, Ill. — An investigation is underway after a 4-year-old girl was accidentally shot and killed by another child inside a home in River Grove.Officers responded around 10 a.m. Wednesday to a residence in the 2400 block of West Street. Upon arrival, police discovered that a child was accidentally shot by another child who lives in the same household.The child later died, according to police. The medical examiner has identified her as 4-year-old Camila Arianaduart. Officer injured in Blue Island shooting; investigation underway According to police, the father of the child told authorities he was outside when he was alerted of the accidental shooting and immediately called 911.Police said the father is a FOID cardholder and admitted to being the owner of the gun, which he claimed to store on a high shelf in a closet.The father is cooperating with investigators, police said.

US tries to force company to issue recall of air bag inflators after deaths, injuries

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:48 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government is stepping up its quest to force ARC Automotive to recall 67 million potentially dangerous air bag inflators by ordering the company to answer questions under oath and threatening fines if it doesn't respond.NHTSA argues that the recall is justified because two people have been killed in the United States and Canada and at least seven others have been injured by ARC’s inflators. The explosions, which first occurred in 2009, have continued as recently as this year.The special order from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asks multiple questions about whether ARC expects any of its inflators to blow apart in the future, and whether it has notified customers about the risk. 2.5M vehicles with ‘urgent recalls’ unrepaired in US The agency wants ARC Automotive Inc., based in Knoxville, Tennessee, to recall the inflators, which could explode with such force as to blow apart a metal canister and expel shrapnel. But ARC is ref...

Over 100 bees attack 81-year-old Oklahoma man for hours, causing him to break hip

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:48 GMT

NORMAN, Okla. (KFOR) - An 81-year-old man was saved by a Good Samaritan after a bee attack left him with a broken hip. Carl Amos, of Maysville, was mowing his yard last Friday when bees started to swarm him. “I hit some of them with my hands and you just can’t kill 'em fast enough,” said Amos. The man said they were aggressive and relentless. OSU professor killed when wrong-way driver causes head-on collision during busy holiday “They were going in my hair and going in my ears and in my nose, and I thought I better keep my mouth shut because those bees will be in my mouth,” said Amos. He did everything to get rid of them.  “I crunched ‘em and then they didn’t come out, so I blew and then some of them came out and then I stuck my finger in my nose and pulled them out," he said. At one point he started to run, but he fell and injured his leg. “I fell to the ground and I knew I had broken my leg because I heard it pop, so I thought this is not good,” said Amos, who had actually...