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Heavy rains in Afghanistan and Pakistan unleash flash floods that killed dozens of people

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:25:27 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Heavy flooding from seasonal rains in Afghanistan killed at least 31 people and left dozens missing over the past three days, while in neighboring Pakistan 13 people died due to heavy rains and landslides.Shafiullah Rahimi, the ruling Taliban’s appointed spokesman for Afghanistan’s State Ministry for Natural Disaster Management, said Sunday that at least 31 people were killed, 74 were injured and 41 others were missing. Flash floods hit the capital, Kabul, the Maidan Wardak and Ghazni provinces. He added that the majority of the casualties were in west Kabul and Maidan Wardak.Rahimi also said around 250 livestock perished in the floods.The flooding brought further misery to the already suffering Afghanistan. In April, the U.N.’s humanitarian affairs agency said the south Asian country is facing its third consecutive year of drought, its second year of severe economic hardship and the consequences of decades of war and natural disasters.The most recent flash fl...

Netanyahu deals with a medical emergency as Israel reaches a new level of unrest

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:25:27 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was recovering in a hospital on Sunday after an emergency heart procedure, while opposition to his government’s contentious judicial overhaul plan reached a fever pitch and unrest gripped the country.Netanyahu’s doctors said Sunday the heart pacemaker implantation went smoothly and that Netanyahu, 73, felt fine. According to his office, he was expected to be discharged later in the day. But tensions were surging as lawmakers began a marathon debate over the first major piece of the overhaul, ahead of a vote in parliament enshrining it into law on Monday.Mass protests continued, part of seven straight months of the most sustained and intense demonstrations the country has ever seen. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across Israel on Saturday night, while thousands marched into Jerusalem and camped out near the Knesset, or parliament, ahead of Monday’s vote.Netanyahu’s sudden ho...

A salvage team is set to begin siphoning oil out of rusting tanker moored off Yemen, UN says

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:25:27 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — An international team is set to begin siphoning oil out of the hull of a decrepit tanker moored off the coast of war-torn Yemen this week, a U.N. official said Sunday. It will mark the first concrete step in an operation years in the making aimed at preventing a massive oil spill in the Red Sea.More than 1.1 million barrels of oil stored in the tanker, known as SOF Safer, will be transferred to another vessel the United Nations purchased as a replacement to the rusting storage tanker, said Achim Steiner, administrator of the U.N. development program.“We have reached a critical stage in this salvage operation,” Steiner told The Associated Press hours after the salvage team on Saturday managed to moor the replacement vessel alongside the Safer tanker in the Red Sea. “This marks, in a sense, the completion of the month-long preparatory phase.”The rusting tanker is a Japanese-made vessel built in the 1970s and sold to the Yemeni government in the 1980s to store up to 3 mill...

Search continues for four people missing after record rainfall in Nova Scotia

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:25:27 GMT

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia RCMP say the search continues for four people, including two children, after intense thunderstorms dumped record amounts of rain across the province.Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay released no other details, but says police would update the progress of the search later today.All four people were reported missing Saturday in separate incidents in West Hants – a largely rural municipality northwest of Halifax.Police say the children were with three other people who managed to escape from a car that got stuck in floodwaters. A second vehicle carrying four people was also submerged and two people escaped, but a youth and a man remain unaccounted for.Meanwhile, municipal emergency officials in West Hants lifted an evacuation order for the area early Sunday.Environment Canada says the downpour, which began Friday, dumped between 200-250 millimetres of rain along the province’s South Shore, across the Halifax area and into central and western parts of Nova Scotia....

‘A long journey’: Reconciliation happening day by day, one year after Pope’s apology

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:25:27 GMT

Phil Fontaine has had a year to reflect since he heard an apology from the head of the Roman Catholic Church, something the former Assembly of First Nations national chief fought much of his life to have delivered on Canadian soil.“Without an apology, it would be impossible to forgive,” Fontaine says after taking a few moments to contemplate the historic moment. “And without forgiveness, there can’t be any true healing.”This week marks a year since Pope Francis arrived in Canada. He delivered his first apology in Maskwacis, a Cree community south of Edmonton, in front of thousands of survivors, leaders and community members.Pope Francis said he was sorry for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the cultural destruction and forced assimilation of Indigenous people, which culminated in residential schools.The pontiff would deliver further apologies as he made stops in Alberta, Quebec and Nunavut during the six-day tour. On his flight back to Rome, in...

Inflation has fallen, but the Bank of Canada hasn’t backed off rate hikes. Here’s why

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:25:27 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s inflation rate has returned to the country’s target range after a tumultuous couple of years of soaring prices.Statistics Canada reported on Tuesday that inflation fell to 2.8 per cent in June, down significantly from the eye-popping peak of 8.1 per cent reached last summer.That’s within the country’s one to three per cent inflation target and, as Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has boasted, the lowest inflation rate in the G7.But despite the good news, the Bank of Canada is still in inflation-fighting mode and seems more likely to raise interest rates further than cut them anytime soon.Earlier this month, the central bank raised its key interest rate again by a quarter percentage point, bringing its key rate to five per cent. At the time, the most recent inflation reading showed the annual rate had fallen to 3.4 per cent in May.Though the decline in inflation was praised by governor Tiff Macklem, he also issued a warning that the central...

6 dead, 14 injured in reported shootings in Chicago over weekend

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:25:27 GMT

CHICAGO — Six people have died and more than 14 people have been shot due to gun violence since Friday night. According to the Chicago Police Department, the shootings took place from the Loop, all the way down to the West Pullman Neighborhood with the victims ages ranging from 16 to 50.Police reposed to a call of a person shot in Little Village around 1:25 a.m. Sunday morning and found a man with a gunshot wound to the head inside of a flipped over vehicle. He was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition and later died of his injuries.Community activist Andrew Holmes said he and his team has been assisting impacted families. Here's a breakdown of what we know from each shooting, in chronological order, beginning late Friday night:1200 Block of West 81st Street (Auburn Gresham) - Friday, around 10:15 p.m.According to CPD, a 16-year-old boy, who had been shot multiple times in the chest, was discovered on the sidewalk and taken to Comer Children's Hospital, where he ...

Sunday Forecast: Partly sunny, chance of isolated showers at night

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:25:27 GMT

Sunday: Partly sunny with PM chance of isolated showers/thunderstorms. SE 0-5 mph. Air quality is in the Good category. Highs mid 80s, near 80 lakeside.Sunday Night: Partly cloudy & warm. SE 5-10 mph. Lows in the upper 60s, some 70s in the city.Monday: Getting hot and humid. Chance of iso. showers/thunderstorms. SE 10-15 mphChicago Area Radar | WGN TVExtended outlook calls for temps to stay warm to hot and humid as we get into the week ahead. Mon/Tue/Wed all see temps in the mid to low 90s. Thursday looks like the peak of our mini heat wave and we'll get closer to 100. Each day has a chance of afternoon showers/thunderstorms with the humid environment. 

Map shows the contaminated Superfund sites closest to your home

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:25:27 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – More than 1,300 sites around the country are suspected of being so contaminated, hazardous or polluted – or are at risk of becoming so polluted – that they have been deemed a national cleanup priority. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies places around the country that pose a risk to people's health because they have been contaminated by hazardous waste. Since 1980, the agency has taken charge of cleaning up those sites under a law with the nickname "Superfund." (Its full name is The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or CERCLA.) Superfund sites include poorly managed landfills, mining areas, or industrial facilities. AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile? Maps show which cell provider gives your area best coverage As of June 27, when the National Priorities List was last updated, there were 1,336 sites, plus an additional 40 sites that were proposed as new additions. "It is a list of the worst hazardous waste ...

3 suitcases with human remains found in Florida waterway: police

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 20:25:27 GMT

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — Police in Delray Beach, Florida are investigating after a woman's remains were found in three suitcases seen floating in the water Friday. Police were called about a strange item seen floating along the Intracostal Waterway, north of Boca Raton on the state's east coast, local outlet WPTV reported.Three suitcases were found in the waterway, all containing human remains, Delray Police said. Body of girl found in river believed to be that of 2-year-old lost in Pennsylvania flash flood According to local reporting, authorities believe the remains belong to one woman, who has not yet been identified. The remains were sent to a medical examiner to be identified.Delray Police said the woman is white or Hispanic with brown hair. She is believed to be middle-aged, 5'4" tall, and may have tattooed eyebrows. The woman was wearing a floral tank top, a black undershirt, and black mid-thigh shorts. Neighbors confused, feel misled after search for Carlee Russell A...