A gunman in New Zealand kills 2 people hours ahead of first game in Women’s World Cup

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:53 GMT

A gunman in New Zealand kills 2 people hours ahead of first game in Women’s World Cup AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — A man stormed a high-rise construction site in downtown Auckland early Thursday morning, shooting at terrified workers and killing two people hours before New Zealand planned to host the first game of the FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament. The gunman was found dead after a police shootout, during which an officer was shot and wounded. Four civilians were also injured. The shooting happened near hotels where Team Norway and other soccer teams have been staying.New Zealand Prime Minster Chris Hipkins said the tournament would go ahead as scheduled.“Clearly with the FIFA World Cup kicking off this evening, there are a lot of eyes on Auckland,” Hipkins said. “The government has spoken to FIFA organizers this morning and the tournament will proceed as planned.”“I want to reiterate that there is no wider national security threat,” he added. “This appears to be the action of one individual.”The shooting jarred New Zealand, where active s...

Reportan ocho heridos y seis detenidos en protestas en Lima contra el gobierno de Dina Boluarte

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:53 GMT

Reportan ocho heridos y seis detenidos en protestas en Lima contra el gobierno de Dina Boluarte (CNN Español) — El ministro del Interior de Perú, Vicente Romero, informó este miércoles en cadena nacional que seis personas fueron arrestadas y ocho personas resultaron heridas durante las protestas contra el gobierno de Dina Boluarte.Romero añadió que uno de los detenidos había lanzado previamente una bomba molotov a la policía y que ya está plenamente identificado.Retornan las protestas en Perú en contra del gobierno de Dina BoluarteSobre las ocho personas heridas, Romero informó que cuatro son civiles y cuatro son policías.El ministro agregó que no se presentaron protestas en las regiones de Piura, Lambayeque, San Martín, Madre de Dios y Ucayali.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.Source

‘I haven’t really played up to my expectations yet’: Can Seiya Suzuki get hot and help spark the Chicago Cubs offense?

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:53 GMT

‘I haven’t really played up to my expectations yet’: Can Seiya Suzuki get hot and help spark the Chicago Cubs offense? Seiya Suzuki’s behind-the-scenes work is the essence of where he hones his swing and timing, areas that have been out of whack for stretches this season.Suzuki typically does not offer much insight when asked about the specifics of any mechanical adjustments he works on, though it doesn’t have anything to do with concerns about giving too much information to the opposing team.“I just don’t like to talk too much,” Suzuki said through interpreter Toy Matsushita on Wednesday before the series finale against the Washington Nationals at Wrigley Field.Suzuki’s pregame and postgame cage work is where the foundation of his in-game success is built. After Monday’s loss to the Nationals, that’s where he headed to get in additional late-night work in an effort to get on track. His four-hit game, including a home run, in Tuesday’s 17-3 blowout victory is the type of hitter the Cubs believe he can tap into more frequently than they’ve s...

At least 21 injured in third night of Russian air attacks against southern Ukraine

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:53 GMT

At least 21 injured in third night of Russian air attacks against southern Ukraine KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A third night of Russian air attacks targeted Ukraine’s southern cities, including the port city of Odesa, and wounded at least 21 people, Ukrainian officials said Thursday. At least 19 people were injured in Mykolaiv, a southern city close to the Black Sea, the region’s Governor Vitalii Kim said in a statement on Telegram. Russian strikes destroyed several floors of a three-story building and caused a fire that affected an area of 450 square meters (4,800 square feet) and burned for hours. Kim said two people were hospitalized, including a child.In the port city of Odesa, at least two were injured following a Russian air attack that damaged buildings in the city center and caused a fire affecting an area of 300 square meters (3200 square feet), said Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper. The attacks come one day after an intense Russian bombardment using drones and missiles damaged critical port infrastructure in Odesa, including grain and oil terminals. The at...

German police search for a lioness suspected to be on the loose in Berlin’s suburbs

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:53 GMT

German police search for a lioness suspected to be on the loose in Berlin’s suburbs BERLIN (AP) — German authorities warned people in Berlin’s southern suburbs on Thursday to watch out for a potentially dangerous animal, suspected to be a lioness, that was on the loose.Police in Brandenburg state, which surrounds the capital, issued a warning in the early hours of Thursday of an “escaped wild animal” and asked people in and around Kleinmachnow, Teltow and Stahnsdorf — just outside Berlin’s city limits — not to leave their houses and to bring their pets indoors.The warning was later extended to southern areas of Berlin and an alert was sent on an official warning app that the animal was suspected to be a lioness. Vets and hunters were participating in a search for the creature. Police had no immediate information on who owned it.Two men reported seeing a big cat running after a wild boar, the latter common in and around Berlin, police spokesman Daniel Kiep told local public broadcaster rbb.“The two gentlemen recorded a smartphone video and even experienc...

Pakistani Taliban kill 2 policemen and wound 2 others in gun attack in Peshawar city, police say

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:53 GMT

Pakistani Taliban kill 2 policemen and wound 2 others in gun attack in Peshawar city, police say PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani Taliban shot and killed two police officers and wounded two others in a gun attack at a roadside checkpoint in the city of Peshawar, police said Thursday, the latest violence in the restive northwestern region bordering Afghanistan.The attack took place overnight in the Regi Model Town neighborhood, area police chief Arshad Khan said. A search operation was launched in an effort to trace and arrest the attackers, who fled the scene by taking advantage of darkness, he said.The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan group, or TTP, claimed responsibility in a statement.The latest attack comes two days after a suicide car bomber wounded six soldiers and two civilians by targeting a truck carrying security forces in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group but an ally of the Afghan Taliban. They have become emboldened since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in ...

The female suspect in the fire at Wyoming abortion clinic is set to take a plea deal

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:53 GMT

The female suspect in the fire at Wyoming abortion clinic is set to take a plea deal CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A judge is set to consider a plea deal Thursday for an abortion opponent who investigators say burned Wyoming’s first full-service abortion clinic in years.Lorna Roxanne Green, 22, told investigators she broke in and used gasoline to set fire to the Wellspring Health Access clinic in Casper because it was giving her anxiety and nightmares, according to court documents.Green is scheduled to appear in court for a change-of-plea hearing Thursday before U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson in Cheyenne. Details of her proposed deal with prosecutors have been off-limits to the public pending Johnson’s approval of the agreement.Charged with arson, Green faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, though a plea deal could bring a lighter sentence. Green has been free from jail since March while her case proceeds, and she pleaded not guilty at a court hearing in June.Her deal with prosecutors, revealed by court documents filed last week, suggests sheR...

Flooded with sightseers, Europe’s iconic churches struggle to accommodate both worship and tourism

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:53 GMT

Flooded with sightseers, Europe’s iconic churches struggle to accommodate both worship and tourism BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A recent Saturday evening Mass at Sagrada Familia parish had all the hallmarks of a neighborhood worship service, from prayers for ill and deceased members to name-day wishes for two congregants in the pews.But it also featured security checks to get in and curious tourists peering down to take photos of the worshippers from above. The regular Mass is held in the crypt of modernist architect Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece church, one of Europe’s most visited monuments.With tourism reaching or surpassing pre-pandemic records in Barcelona and across southern Europe, iconic sacred sites are struggling to accommodate the faithful who come to pray and the millions of visitors who often pay to view the art and architecture.“We’re working to get ahead of this, so that we don’t get to a collapse,” said the Rev. Josep Maria Turull, rector at Sagrada Familia and the Barcelona archdiocese’s director for tourism, pilgrimage and sanctuaries.An increasingly popular strategy is...

Israeli army fire kills Palestinian man during clashes at West Bank shrine

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:53 GMT

Israeli army fire kills Palestinian man during clashes at West Bank shrine JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man near a shrine in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, in the latest bloodshed in a cycle of violence that has gripped the region.The months of fighting with rising fatalities have shown no signs of abating and has become the worst violence between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank in nearly two decades.Thursday’s shooting took place as Israeli forces escorted Israeli worshippers, including the Israeli police chief and the head of the local Jewish settler council, to a site known as the biblical Joseph’s Tomb in the Palestinian city of Nablus. The shrine has long been a flashpoint for clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops. Nablus has also become a central point of violence in the current escalation.The Israeli military said that during the visit, suspects opened fire and threw explosives, rocks and burning tires at troops, who returned fire. Palestinian news ...

In a refugee camp in Kenya, food shortages left kids hungry even before Russia ended grain deal

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:46:53 GMT

In a refugee camp in Kenya, food shortages left kids hungry even before Russia ended grain deal DADAAB, Kenya (AP) — Abdikadir Omar was trapped in an extremist-controlled town in Somalia for years until May, when he slipped out to make a 12-day journey with his wife and seven children to neighboring Kenya in search of food and safety.To his surprise, “I found peace but no food,” the 30-year-old told The Associated Press. He stood near the withered maize he tried to plant around his family’s makeshift shelter of branches and plastic sheeting outside one of the world’s largest refugee camps.As global food insecurity suffers another shock with Russia’s termination of a deal to keep grain flowing from Ukraine, the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have fled climate change and insecurity offer a stark example of what happens when aid runs low.Omar, a farmer, was forced to give most of his produce as tax to al-Shabab, the al-Qaida-linked extremists who have controlled parts of Somalia for years, and the little that remained wasn’t enough to feed his family during Somalia’s ...