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Intensive talks underway to free a larger number of hostages held by Hamas but major obstacles remain

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:26 GMT

(CNN) — Talks to secure the release of a large number of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza are ongoing, two sources familiar with the matter and one western diplomat familiar with the discussions told CNN, but the negotiations are being complicated by a number of factors.The United States, Israel, Qatar, Egypt and Hamas are engaged in the ongoing deliberations. Four hostages – two American and two Israeli – have been freed so far. But the hope now is to reach a deal for a bigger group of hostages released at once.Israel is pressing for a comprehensive plan for such a release, another source said, after seeing just two sets of two hostages released so far. Israel has said there are more than 200 hostages believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza.Israel has so far held off on making a ground incursion into Gaza, and the US has pressed Israel to further delay its invasion to allow for the release of more hostages held by Hamas.The sources said the timin...

Michelle Deal-Zimmerman: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are desperate distraction from a world on fire | STAFF COMMENTARY

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:26 GMT

I’m not a Swiftie. I don’t own a single friendship bracelet, concert merch or a ticket stub from her “Eras Tour” movie.But I know everything about Taylor Swift and her now official boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce.Well, saying I know “everything” might be stretching it a bit. But I certainly know way more than I should about the love life of two 30-somethings I’ve never met.And now, I’m deeply invested in this must-see-NFL-TV romance.They were on “Saturday Night Live” together, swoon! He helped her from the car like a true gentleman! They even held hands! And omg, his hand is larger than hers! Finally, Taylor has security in a relationship! Not some manboy like the other guys she dated, every one of whom I have never laid eyes on and could not name if I wanted to.Still, I hope this romance never ends because then I will have to peel my eyes from the VIP box of practically any and every NFL stadium to look a...

Unsung heroes: Filipino WWII veterans

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:26 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Broken promises on the war front. Cenon Audencial was a guerilla with the Philippine Resistance Movement turned second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East in the early 1940s. Like many of the 260,000 Filipinos who fought and served under and alongside the U.S. military during World War II, Audencial may never be recognized for his war efforts because of lost documentation. This story dates back several decades. There was a call for Filipinos to serve under the U.S. Armed Forces in 1941 when the Japanese advanced on Philippine soil during World War II. Among the organized military forces were the young men and women in recognized guerilla units, The Philippine Commonwealth Army and Philippines Scouts.  MORE: Veterans Voices “It wasn’t their war to fight,” recalled Cita Gruta, whose father worked as a spy for the U.S. during that time. Bienvenido Guiam disguised himself as a poker player who was well liked by the Japanese. His war stor...

AI pioneers Hinton and Bengio call for more regulation in new proposal

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:26 GMT

TORONTO — Several Canadian pioneers in artificial intelligence have signed a new document urging governments to better manage the technology’s risks as its capabilities continue to advance.Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton are among 24 signatories of a letter warning that AI has already surpassed some human abilities because these systems can act faster, absorb more knowledge and communicate faster than humans.They warn further advances mean AI could exacerbate global inequities, facilitate automated warfare, orchestrate mass manipulation and pervasively surveil people. To keep up with the pace of AI innovations and mitigate risks, the signatories are urging governments and companies to allocate one-third of their AI research and development funding to the safe and ethical use of systems.They also want creators of AI systems to adopt safety measures that can counter their products’ dangerous capabilities and companies who make these technologies to be held liable for the...

A German tourist who went missing in a remote Zimbabwe wildlife park is found alive 3 days later

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:26 GMT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A German tourist who went missing in a national park teeming with wild animals in northern Zimbabwe has been found alive and in “good health” along with his rental car three days later, a spokesperson for the national parks agency said Tuesday.Tinashe Farawo with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said Andreas Hoberg had last been seen buying a drink at the park shop in Matusadona National Park before going for a game drive around 3.30 p.m. on Saturday.He failed to return by 6 p.m., when all game drives should end, and the car rental company failed to locate him on its GPS tracking system, Farawo said.Authorities deployed a helicopter, vehicles and sniffer dogs to scour the remote 1,400-square-kilometer (540-square-mile) park that is home to lions, buffalo, leopards, elephants “and all the dangerous animals you can expect in the bush,” Farawo said.The spokesman said the telephone network is poor in the area and he was yet to get more informa...

Prosecutors close investigation of Berlin aquarium collapse as the cause remains unclear

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:26 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Prosecutors in Berlin said Tuesday they have closed their investigation into the spectacular collapse of a huge aquarium last December after an expert report failed to pin down a reason why the tank burst.The AquaDom aquarium, which stood in a hotel lobby in the center of the German capital, burst in the early hours of Dec. 16, sending 1 million liters (264,000 gallons) of water gushing into the building and the street outside. Two people were slightly injured.Prosecutors said they have closed an investigation of persons unknown on suspicion of causing bodily harm by negligence after evaluating the export report, commissioned by the building’s owners, which they received on Oct. 6.Its author, engineer Christian Bonten, has presented three theories but said there was no clear evidence to prove any of them. The hypotheses were that an adhesive seam holding together the cylinder may have failed; that the tank may have been damaged by a dent in its base when the aqua...

Pan American Games start in disarray with cleaners still working around the National Stadium

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:26 GMT

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Workers and volunteers at the Pan American Games were still removing bricks, pieces of wood and construction machinery from outside competition venues on Tuesday, the fourth day of the largest multi-sport event in the region.Construction material is scattered around many of the entrances to the National Stadium compound, where six venues are set to stage 30 events at the Pan American Games in Santiago.Chile is hosting the Olympic-style event for the first time and public officials have invested $507 million in the area.Near the stadium’s main entrance, dozens of empty boxes, crates and pieces of wood were untouched between Friday, the day of the opening ceremony, and Saturday. Some of those leftovers are linked to the last-minute installation of rootless trees, two volunteers told The Associated Press.The volunteers spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.One of the workers continued cleaning and picking up ...

Coroner faults police response in case of two girls killed by father in 2020

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:26 GMT

MONTREAL — A coroner investigating the deaths of two Quebec girls who were killed by their father three years ago has described the police efforts to find them as “too little, too late.”Coroner Luc Malouin says Quebec provincial police erred in not quickly launching a ground search for Romy and Norah Carpentier after they and their father mysteriously went missing after a car crash on the evening of July 8, 2020.After crashing his car on Highway 20, Martin Carpentier fled the scene and later killed 11-year-old Norah and six-year-old Romy in the woods near St-Apollinaire, Que., southwest of Quebec City. He then killed himself.While witnesses told police after the crash that Carpentier was a good and loving father, Malouin said they also suggested that he’d been struggling with depression, was scared of losing custody of his daughters and his behaviour was out of character.Malouin said that should have been enough for police to immediately call an emergency response ...

Lebanon’s prime minister visits troops at the country’s tense southern border with Israel

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:26 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Tuesday visited troops deployed near the border with Israel and U.N. peacekeepers, as Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops clash for a third week.The visit by Prime Minister Najib Mikati to the tense southern province is his first since clashes erupted along the border following a surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7. It also came two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops along the border on Sunday.Mikati and international governments have been scrambling to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from expanding to Lebanon, where the powerful Hezbollah group warned Israel about a ground incursion into the blockaded Gaza Strip. Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Kassem said the group is in the “heart” of the war to “defend Gaza and confront the occupation.”“Its finger is on the trigger to whatever extent it deems necessary for the confrontation,” Kassem tweeted.Clashes bet...

COVID-19 passports convinced few people to get vaccinated in Ontario: study

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:26 GMT

COVID-19 vaccine passports in Quebec and Ontario did little to convince the unvaccinated to get the jab and did not significantly reduce inequalities in vaccination coverage, a new peer-reviewed study has found.The passports, which forced people to show proof of vaccination to enter places such as bars and restaurants, were directly responsible for a rise of 0.9 per cent in the vaccination rate in Quebec and 0.7 per cent in Ontario, says Jorge Luis Flores, a research assistant at McGill University and lead author of the paper published Tuesday in the CMAJ Open journal.Compared to wealthier parts of Quebec and Ontario, low-income neighbourhoods in both provinces tended to have higher rates of COVID-19 and lower vaccine coverage, he said in an interview. Areas in Quebec with large racialized populations also had lower vaccination rates, though the opposite was true in Ontario.“What we saw was that, overall, the vaccine passport had very little impact on reducing those inequaliti...