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Police: Serbia school shooter had list of students to target

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:35:39 GMT

By JOVANA GEC and DUSAN STOJANOVIC (Associated Press)BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A teenager who opened fire Wednesday at a school in Serbia’s capital drew sketches of classrooms and wrote a list of people he intended to target in a meticulously planned attack, police said. He killed eight fellow students and a school guard before being arrested.The shooter first killed a guard at the school in central Belgrade and then three students in a hallway, according to senior police official Veselin Milic. He then entered a classroom — apparently choosing it simply because it was close to the entrance — and opened fire again, Milic said. The assailant called police himself when the attack was over, though authorities had already been alerted to the shooting.A father of a student said the shooter entered his daughter’s classroom, firing at her teacher and then her classmates as they ducked under their desks. Most students were able to flee through a back door, accord...

Sheriff: Wife of suspected Texas gunman has been arrested

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:35:39 GMT

By JUAN A. LOZANO and NOMAAN MERCHANT (Associated Press)CLEVELAND, Texas (AP) — A Texas sheriff tells The Associated Press the wife of the man suspected of killing five of his neighbors, including a 9-year-old, has also been taken into custody.The news comes a day after authorities arrested Francisco Oropeza, following a days-long manhunt.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.CLEVELAND, Texas (AP) — A four-day manhunt in Texas for a gunman accused of killing five neighbors ended Tuesday when authorities, acting on a tip, said they found the suspect hiding underneath a pile of laundry in the closet of a house.Francisco Oropeza, 38, was captured without incident near the community of Conroe, north of Houston and about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from his home in the rural town of Cleveland. That’s where authorities say he went next door and shot his neighbors with an AR-style rifle shortly before midnight Friday.Oropeza had been shooting...

Gone 20 years, New Hampshire’s Old Man of Mountain lives on

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:35:39 GMT

By KATHY McCORMACK (Associated Press)CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Two decades after New Hampshire’s famous Old Man of the Mountain crumbled to pieces, the state is paying tribute to the granite profile that symbolizes its independence with new geological research, poetry, a song, and a scavenger hunt.The 40-foot-tall (12-meter-tall) natural rock formation — a series of ledges that resembled an old man’s face — was suspended 1,200 feet (366 meters) above Franconia Notch, held in place by turnbuckles and rods to fight erosion. It collapsed, and the rubble was discovered the morning of May 3, 2003.“When he was up there, he represented a kind of reliantly steady, reassuring presence in a world that was otherwise changing really rapidly,” said Brian Fowler, a geologist and president of the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund that plans to lead an online tribute Wednesday, with shared stories, poetry, and a new song. His departure was a stunning and shocking event, Fowler said.The Old Man was cre...

Barrick Gold reports US$120M Q1 profit, down from US$438M a year ago

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:35:39 GMT

TORONTO — Barrick Gold Corp. reported its first-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago as its revenue also moved lower.The gold miner, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says its profit attributable to equity holders amounted to US$120 million or seven cents per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31, down from US$438 million or 25 cents per diluted share in the first quarter 2022.Revenue totalled US$2.64 billion, down from US$2.85 billion in the same quarter last year.Gold production in the quarter totalled 952,000 ounces, down from 990,000 ounces a year earlier, while Barrick sold 954,000 ounces compared with 993,000 ounces a year earlier. The company’s average realized gold price rose to US$1,902 per ounce, up from US$1,876 a year ago.On an adjusted basis, Barrick says it earned 14 cents per share, down from an adjusted profit of 26 cents per share in the first three months of 2022.Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of 11 cents per share and...

Turkey closes airspace to Armenian flights over monument

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:35:39 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey has closed its airspace to flights by Armenian aircraft in retaliation for the erection of a monument in the Armenian capital that Ankara says honors people responsible for the killings of Turkish officials, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday. In an interview with NTV television, Cavusoglu warned that Turkey would take further measures if the monument in Yerevan is not removed.The movecomes as Turkey and Armenia, which have no diplomatic relations, had been engaged in talks to normalize ties and put decades of acrimony behind. They appointed special envoys who have held several rounds of talks. Their discussions had resulted in an agreement to resume charter flights between Istanbul and Yerevan. The two countries have a more than century-old bitter relationship over the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in massacres, deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey. Historians widely view the event as genocide...

Russia says it foiled an alleged drone attack on Kremlin

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:35:39 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attempting to attack the Kremlin with two drones overnight in an effort to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin decried the alleged attack attempt as a “terrorist act” and said Russian military and security forces stopped the drones before they could strike. In a statement carried by Russian state-run news agencies, it said no casualties took place. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti that Putin wasn’t in the Kremlin at the time and was working from the Novo-Ogaryovo residence. The Kremlin added that Putin was safe and his schedule was unchanged. There were no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities. The Kremlin didn’t present any evidence from the reported incident, and its statement included few details.Tass quoted the statement as saying that the Kremlin considered the development to be a deliberate attempt on Putin’s life ahead of the Victory Day that...

What to know about King Charles III’s coronation

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:35:39 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Great Britain’s royal family turns the page on a new chapter Saturday with the coronation of King Charles III. The pomp, pageantry and symbolism dates back more than 1,000 years, but the crowning of this king will feature new twists on the tradition and changes from the coronation of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, 70 years ago. Plans for the ceremony at Westminster Abbey call for a more toned-down affair than the last one, even though royals from other nations, heads of state and most of Charles’ family will be there, and the monarch plans to wear the same vestments as Elizabeth did. Here are some things to know about the coronation:WHY HAVE THE CORONATION IF CHARLES IS ALREADY KING?Charles automatically ascended to the throne when Elizabeth died Sept. 8, and he was officially proclaimed Britain’s monarch two days later in an ascension ceremony broadcast for the first time on television. Charles said he was “deeply aware of this great inheritance and of the duti...

Brazil police search Bolsonaro’s home, seize his phone

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:35:39 GMT

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s Federal Police searched former President Jair Bolsonaro’s home on Wednesday and seized his phone, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.The official, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said that Bolsonaro will be deposed at Federal Police headquarters and also confirmed that one of his closest allies, Mauro Cid, was arrested.Asked about the search of Bolsonaro’s home, the Federal Police’s press office provided a statement saying officers were carrying out 16 searches and six arrests in Rio de Janeiro related to the introduction of fraudulent data related to the COVID-19 vaccine into the nation’s health system. The statement didn’t name Bolsonaro or Cid. Television network Globo broadcast images that showed police inside Bolsonaro’s condominium complex in Brasilia. Local media reported that the vaccine cards of Bolsonaro and his family members were altered. During the pandemic, Bolsonaro repea...

EU seeks to extend sanctions programs to include corruption

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:35:39 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is working on plans to extend the sanctions regime that it uses to punish third countries for human-rights abuses to include grand corruption. The EU’s executive Commission on Wednesday proposed the expansion because it believes serious corruption can undermine the rule of law, human rights and democracy. If adopted, the plans would include asset freezes and travel bans.“Based on this framework, the European Union could ban perpetrators of corruption from entering the European Union to freeze perpetrators’ assets in the European Union and any European Union person from making funds and economic resources available to perpetrators,” said EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell.Grand corruption in third countries not only affects democracy there but can also turn against the EU when money is used to buy political influence in the 27-nation bloc. Belgian prosecutors are investigating several EU legislators and officials that are accused of ...

For open water swimmers, even chilly, choppy water beckons

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:35:39 GMT

Many beaches won’t open for weeks, but already one dedicated group is quietly pacing the shore.You might not have noticed them, but these quiet few are the ones who seem most keen on noting the shifting tides, the current, the wind. They’ll gush about the color of the water, the angle of the sun, the shape of the clouds. They are the first to plunge in when those on the shore are still shivering in sweaters. And they are the last to, very reluctantly, call it a season in late fall. And occasionally not even then.“A lot of us look longingly at the water all year long, but it’s still a little cold for me now,” says Dorothy Harza, 93, of Evanston, Illinois, who swims nearly daily in Lake Michigan from May to November.“It makes my body feel so good!” she exclaims. “Like most people my age, I have various aches and pains that one just lives with at my point of life. Swimming makes me feel so much better.”Her passion for open-water swimming is about much more than physical exercise.“It’s ...