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Lots of dignitaries but no real fireworks – only electronic flash – as the Asian Games open

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:34:04 GMT

HANGZHOU, China (AP) — The opening ceremony of the Asian Games on Saturday in China offered all the staples of a major international sports event.Dignitaries greeted General Secretary Xi Jinping, fans packed the 80,000-seat Olympic Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou to capacity, and many of the 12,417 participants from 45 nations and territories paraded to officially open the two-week show.By comparison, next year’s Paris Olympics will field about 10,500 competitors.One big thing, however, was missing: real fireworks, the exploding kind that smell of power and burnt fuses. Instead, the high-tech games — billed of course as “green games” — offered electronic flash, three-D animations, and a virtual torchbearer.Xi was greeted by wild cheers when he appeared, and fans were handed LED star lights, adding sparkle to the stands when the lights dimmed and eight well-polished soldiers arrived carrying the national flag above their heads.Delayed for a year by the pandemic, the Asian Gam...

Tropical Storm Ophelia promises high winds, heavy rain as it rolls through DC region

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:34:04 GMT

Beach-goers brave the weather and walk along the sand at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, as Tropical Storm Ophelia approaches in Virginia Beach, Va. The storm was gaining strength as it churned toward the North Carolina coast on Friday, promising a weekend of heavy rain and windy conditions throughout the mid-Atlantic. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)(AP/Kendall Warner) Beach-goers brave the weather and walk along the sand at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, as Tropical Storm Ophelia approaches in Virginia Beach, Va. The storm was gaining strength as it churned toward the North Carolina coast on Friday, promising a weekend of heavy rain and windy conditions throughout the mid-Atlantic. (Kendall Warner/The...

Denver Weather: Pleasant start to fall

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:34:04 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Get ready for a perfect first day of fall.Temperatures Saturday morning start out in the middle to lower 40s -- a little bit chilly for this time of the year -- before they make their way into the upper 70s nearing 80 degrees.It'll be a touch breezy as well, with gusts up to 20 mph possible. Weather tonight: Cool with clear skiesConditions remain clear and calm overnight as temperatures are expected to sink down into the middle to lower 40s. There could be a few clouds to the NE, but besides that things will be cool but comfy. Winds will be coming out of the SW from 5-10 mph. Weather tomorrow: Sunny, breezy and seasonalLet's do it again tomorrow! Temperatures are forecasted to max out in the upper 70s nearing 80 degrees. It'll be tough to find clouds too! Winds could gust as high as 20 mph at times. It'll be cooler in the mountains with highs in the 60s, with 70s across the metro area and the Front Range. Looking ahead: A dry and warm stretchThe weather pattern for t...

Ukraine claims senior Russian navy officers killed, injured in Crimea missile strike

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:34:04 GMT

A Ukrainian missile attack on the Russian navy’s Black Sea fleet headquarters on Friday killed and injured “dozens” of Russian troops, including a number of senior officials, Ukraine’s armed forces claimed on Saturday. The claim, which couldn’t be verified, came as another rocket attack was launched on the Crimean city of Sevastopol, where the fleet is based, on Saturday. The Russia-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on Telegram that debris from intercepted missiles fell near a pier during the latest assault.Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said on Telegram that more details of Friday’s missile attack would be communicated “when possible.” The strike was in the city of Sevastopol in Crimea, the region of Ukraine occupied illegally by Russia in 2014 and which extends into the Black Sea.Ukraine’s intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told U.S. broadcaster Voice of America that at least nine people were...

Pope says migrant surge into EU not emergency but long-term reality

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:34:04 GMT

Pope Francis on Saturday urged EU leaders to treat migrants humanely and challenged the characterization of the recent surge in arrivals across the Mediterranean Sea as an emergency, calling it a long-term reality instead. “Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome, for life,” the pope said in a speech in the French city of Marseille, the Associated Press reported.“As for the emergency, the phenomenon of migration is not so much a short-term urgency, always good for fueling alarmist propaganda, but a reality of our times, a process that involves three continents around the Mediterranean and that must be governed with wise foresight, including a European response capable of coping with the objective difficulties,” the pontiff said.“There is a cry of pain that resonates most of all, and it is turning the Mediterranean, the ‘mare nostrum,’ from the cradle of civilization into the ‘mare mortuum,’ the graveyard of dignity — it is...

Crews respond to rollover crash in Spencer

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:34:04 GMT

An ambulance flight team responded to a serious rollover crash in Spencer early Saturday morning, officials said.The crash was on Maple Street at Demers Drive around 3 a.m. Crews said an occupant was trapped in the vehicle and had to be extricated. Spencer Fire and Emergency Services shared an image of the crash on social media, showing a heavily damaged vehicle on its side. A Life Flight team was called to the scene.

A bombing at a checkpoint in Somalia killed at least 15 people, authorities say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:34:04 GMT

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — An explosives-laden vehicle detonated Saturday at a security checkpoint in the central Somalia city of Beledweyne, killing at least 15 people and wounding 40 others, authorities said. Abdifatah Mohamed Yusuf, the director-general of the Hirshabelle Ministry of Humanitarian and Disaster Management, confirmed the deaths. “Twenty of the wounded have been admitted to Beledweyne hospitals, while another 20 are in critical condition, prompting a request for their airlift to Mogadishu for advanced medical treatment,” he said. Hirshabelle is a state that includes Beledweyne, which is the capital of the Hiran region and has been the center of the Somali government’s latest military offensive against extremists from East Africa’s al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Shabab.Images on social media showed black smoke billowing and a smashed truck cab blazing at the checkpoint.Dr. Suleyman Abdi Ali, the director of Beledweyne General Hospital, said the bodies of 10 victims were brough...

Biden faces foreign policy trouble spots as he aims to highlight his experience on the global stage

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:34:04 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — This probably wasn’t how President Joe Biden envisioned his big foreign policy week ending.Biden spent much of the time trying to make the case to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly as well as to Democratic donors and voters that his decades of foreign policy experience and demonstrated moral clarity set him apart from Donald Trump, the early front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.But just as Biden is looking to spotlight his foreign policy chops with his 2024 reelection bid heating up, he is facing a growing list of national security headaches, several of which emerged in recent days. There is a diplomatic spat between U.S. allies Canada and India over the killing of a Sikh activist on Canadian soil, growing concern about the future of U.S. funding for Ukraine, and the indictment of the influential chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. Each will test Biden and his administration.Menendez and hi...

Youth jackets recalled due to possible strangulation, dragging hazard

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:34:04 GMT

Canadians who purchased youth jackets from Mountain Equipment Company (MEC) are being asked to stop wearing the product due to an entanglement and possible dragging hazard. Health Canada says the drawstring and cordlock mechanism on the Vancouver-based retailer’s Tremblant Youth Jacket can become caught on playground equipment, fences, or other objects and result in strangulation, or in the case of a vehicle, the child being dragged.The insulated jacket with hood comes in three colours: Fortune Red, Plum Perfect, Dark Neptune Blue, and in sizes 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 with an MEC Style number of 6017-367. “Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled jacket, cut off and pull out the drawstring at the waist to eliminate the hazard,” the federal agency said in a statement. MEC says 837 of the affected jackets were sold in Canada between September 2022 and September 2023. The company says it has received no reports of incidents or injuries in Canada.

Croatian police detain 9 soccer fans over the violence in Greece last month that killed one person

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:34:04 GMT

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Croatian police have arrested nine soccer fans sought on European warrants for involvement in deadly violence last month in Greece, state television station HRT reported on Saturday. Greece has issued arrest warrants for 10 fans of Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb soccer club, but one of them remains at large, the report said. Croatia’s Justice Ministry said in a statement it had been informed of the warrants by the Croatian police. The fans, members of the so-called Bad Blue Boys fan group, are suspected of taking part in the August violence in Athens that killed one person.Dozens of other Croatian soccer fans already have been detained in Greece over the violence, during which a 29-year-old Greek fan was stabbed to death outside AEK Athens’ stadium, prompting the cancellation of a Champions League qualifier against Dinamo Zagreb.Amateur video of the attack showed dozens of youths wielding bats and iron bars running past the stadium as flares and firebombs...