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Hurricane Idalia unleashes fury on Florida and Georgia, swamping wide stretch of coast

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:14 GMT

CEDAR KEY, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Idalia made landfall Wednesday in Florida as a Category 3 storm and unleashed devastation along a wide stretch of the Gulf Coast, submerging homes and vehicles, turning streets into rivers, unmooring small boats and downing power lines in an area that has never before received such a pummeling.More than 330,000 customers in Florida and Georgia were without electricity while rushing water covered streets near the coast. As the eye moved inland, high winds shredded signs, sent sheet metal flying and snapped tall trees.“We have multiple trees down, debris in the roads, do not come,” posted the fire and rescue department on the island of Cedar Key, where a tide gauge measured the storm surge at 6.8 feet (2 meters) — enough to submerge most of the downtown. “We have propane tanks blowing up all over the island.”Idalia came ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula. It made landfall near Keaton B...

Spain has condemned inappropriate World Cup kiss. Can it now reckon with sexism in soccer?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:14 GMT

MADRID (AP) — When Patricia Otero watched the president of Spain’s soccer federation tarnish the greatest victory in the history of women’s sports in Spain by forcibly kissing a player on the lips during the Women’s World Cup medal ceremony, she was saddened — but not surprised.For this amateur soccer player, the kiss that Luis Rubiales pressed on Spain forward Jenni Hermoso was simply the most public and notorious example of the treatment she and her teammates received as girls and young women.“We have seen that all our lives,” the 30-year-old told The Associated Press from the southern city of Malaga, where she still plays soccer when not teaching high school. And when Rubiales tried to justify the kiss by saying it was like one he would have “given my daughters,” it sounded eerily familiar.“I had a coach who would pat our butts, and always while acting friendly, saying, ‘You are like a daughter to me.’ And that was when you are still not adult enough to know what he is doin...

Former official under Belarus President Lukashenko to face Swiss trial over enforced disappearances

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:14 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — A former member of Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko’s special security forces is to face trial in Switzerland next month for the forced disappearances of political opponents in the late 1990s, rights groups said Wednesday.Activists called it a “watershed moment” in international justice that could trigger prosecutions abroad of other Belarus officials — including Lukashenko, whose regime has come under renewed criticism over a crackdown against opposition leaders that began in August 2020 and support for Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine last year, among other things.The case against Yuri Harauski, a former member of a military unit known as SOBR, is due on Sept. 19-20 in the northern Swiss regional court of St. Gallen and focuses on the enforced disappearances of three people in 1999. An extract of the court filing, obtained by The Associated Press, indicated that prosecutors planned to seek a three-year prison sentence — of which two would be s...

Longest alligator in Mississippi history captured by hunters

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:14 GMT

YAZOO CITY, Miss. (AP) — A group of hunters have captured the longest alligator ever to be recorded in Mississippi, according to the state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. Four state residents — Donald Woods, Will Thomas, Joey Clark and Tanner White — harvested a male alligator Saturday in west Mississippi’s Sunflower River. It weighed 802.5 pounds (364 kilograms) and measured 14 feet, 3 inches (4.3 meters) long, breaking the previous record by over 2 inches, the department said. After capturing the animal, the hunters hoisted it with a forklift and posed for a picture at Red Antler Processing in the Mississippi Delta town of Yazoo City. The area is located in a designated alligator hunting zone. Mississippi’s alligator hunting season opens on the last Friday in August each year. In 2023, the season ends Sept. 4.The Associated Press

Teen arrested in fatal shooting of 16-year-old during Oklahoma high school football game

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:14 GMT

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old at an Oklahoma high school football game, the authorities said Wednesday.Deputies working with other law enforcement agencies took the boy into custody without incident early Wednesday in the Oklahoma City suburb of Spencer, Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson III said.The boy’s name was not released because he is a juvenile, Johnson said.Johnson referred other questions to Choctaw police, who are leading the investigation into the shooting. The sheriff’s office is investigating a shot fired during the gunfire by an off-duty police officer who, along with another off-duty Del City officer, was providing security for the Del City team at the game in Choctaw, east of Oklahoma City.Choctaw Police Chief Kelly Marshall said no other suspects are being sought but that the investigation is ongoing.“I’m confident that we have the prime suspect in custody,” Marshall said, decl...

Hurricane Idalia makes landfall in Florida’s Big Bend, the ‘Nature Coast’ far from tourist areas

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:14 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s Big Bend is one of the last truly natural places in the state. It’s not Disney World. It’s not South Beach. This is where people go to hunt alligators, fish for tarpon and search for scallops in the shallow waters. On Wednesday, it became the bull’s-eye of a major hurricane.The Big Bend is where the peninsula merges into the Panhandle, just southeast of the capital, Tallahassee, and well north of the Tampa metro area. Hurricane Idalia made landfall Wednesday morning near Keaton Beach in the lightly populated region as a high-end Category 3 hurricane, becoming the first major storm to hit the Big Bend region since Hurricane Easy in 1950, according to the National Hurricane Center.This is where people go to appreciate nature and be left alone.“The counties of Florida’s Nature Coast believe that many people — our residents, and those who travel here from far away — think having a good time involves more than expensive restaurants, theme parks,...

White House says Putin and Kim Jong Un traded letters as Russia looks for munitions from North Korea

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:14 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Wednesday said that it has new intelligence that shows Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have swapped letters as Russia looks to North Korea for munitions for the war in Ukraine.National Security Council spokesman John Kirby detailed the latest finding just weeks after the White House said that it had determined that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a recent visit to Pyongyang called on North Korean officials to increase the sale of munitions to Moscow for its Ukraine war.Kirby said that Russia is looking for additional artillery shells and other basic materiel to shore up its defense industrial base. He added that the letters were “more at the surface level” but that Russian and North Korean talks on a weapons sale were advancing. The leaders exchanged the letters following Shoigu’s visit, he said.“Following Shoigu’s visit another group of Russian officials traveled to Pyongyang f...

Metro, Unifor reach second tentative deal for striking grocery workers in Toronto

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:14 GMT

TORONTO — The union representing striking grocery store workers at 27 Metro stores in the Greater Toronto Area has reached a tentative agreement with the retailer that could serve as a precedent for the union’s coming contract talks with the other big grocers.If ratified, the deal will bring an end to a month-long strike that saw grocery stores shuttered and later, distribution warehouses blocked from making deliveries as the dispute ramped up.Unifor national president Lana Payne said in statement Wednesday that the union was able to negotiate the tentative deal thanks to the “unwavering commitment” of the workers. “I commend the workers and the bargaining committee for their solidarity and also the customers who supported them during this difficult time.”The contract talks with Metro were the first for Unifor in a two-year stretch of negotiations for more than a dozen collective agreements with the major grocers. The union has said it hopes the Metro d...

Woman threatened with golf club while being robbed in Lincoln Park

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:14 GMT

CHICAGO — A woman was threatened with a golf club during a robbery in the city's Lincoln Park neighborhood.The robbery happened around 11:50 p.m. Tuesday in the 500 block of West Wrightwood Avenue. Police said the woman was standing on the sidewalk when two unknown males approached her and demanded her property.According to police, one of the offenders was holding a golf club and threatened the woman while the other offender forcefully grabbed her purse. The two then fled eastbound in a white vehicle.The woman was not injured. No one is in custody.Area Three detectives are investigating.

PHOTOS: Hurricane Idalia slams into Florida

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:14 GMT

CEDAR KEY, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Idalia made landfall Wednesday in Florida as a Category 3 storm and unleashed devastation along a wide stretch of the Gulf Coast, submerging homes and vehicles, turning streets into rivers, unmooring small boats and downing power lines in an area that has never before received such a pummeling.People look out at the flood waters from Hurricane Idalia surrounding their apartment complex on August 30, 2023 in Tarpon Springs, Florida. Hurricane Idalia is hitting the Big Bend area on the Gulf Coast of Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)A woman surveys the flooding on Bayshore Blvd., along Old Tampa Bay after winds from Hurricane Idalia pushed water over the sea wall Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, in Tampa, Fla. Idalia made landfall earlier this morning along the Big Bend of the state. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)A person canoes through the flooded streets caused by Hurricane Idalia passing offshore on August 30, 2023 in Tarpon Springs,...