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5 sought after deadly chocolate factory explosion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

WEST READING, Pa. (AP) — An explosion at a chocolate factory in Pennsylvania on Friday killed two people and left five people missing, authorities said. One person was pulled from the rubble overnight.Rescue crews using dogs and imaging equipment continued to search through the rubble Saturday — hours after the blast that erupted just before 5 p.m. Friday at the R.M. Palmer Co. plant in the borough of West Reading, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia.West Reading officials said Saturday they could confirm only two fatalities. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency had earlier said there were five fatalities, citing county emergency management officials, but after an update from the county also indicated that two had died and five were missing.Chief of Police Wayne Holben said the rescue of one person from the rubble “provides hope that others still may be found.” Rescue workers were continuing a thorough search using specialized equipment and techniques. O...

Protesters clash with police over water reservoirs in France

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

Green campaigners clashed with French police on Saturday when protesting against the construction of water reservoirs for farmers in western France.More than 25,000 protesters gathered in the rural town of Sainte-Soline in the Deux-Sèvres department on Saturday to call on the government to stop the construction of water reservoirs for farmers to use for irrigation during the summer months, according to the NGOs that organized the protest.Some 3,000 police and 10 helicopters were present on site to contain the demonstrators and prevent them from entering the water reservoir that is currently under construction. Another 15 such reservoirs are planned to be built in the region.The reservoirs are designed to help farmers faced with more frequent droughts brought on by climate change. They allow water to be pumped from the underground water table in the winter and stored for use in the dry summer months.But activists say water is a common good and farmers are “stealing” the r...

Spoelstra, as Heat honor Haslem, ‘Our forever captain, our forever mentor, our forever leader’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

It is with mixed emotions, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, that he approaches moments such as Saturday’s Udonis Haslem Night at Miami-Dade Arena.No, not out of any sort of lack of respect for the 42-year-old team captain who is retiring after this 20th season with the team, but simply because the finish line now is near.“He’s everything to our franchise, so we all are looking forward to him getting recognized for all that,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat hosting the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night. “But I also feel a certain way about it, as well. I haven’t known a locker room as a head coach without UD in it, and I don’t want to start thinking about that yet.”As the Heat move closer to their April 9 regular-season finale and then whenever their postseason ends, it will mean an end in Heat colors for No. 40. To that end, the team designated Saturday to designate Section 305 in his honor, on a night of Haslem posters being distribu...

These San Diego breweries won medals at the 2023 Brewers Cup of California

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Several San Diego breweries were awarded gold medals at the 2023 Brewers Cup of California this week.That may not come as a surprise as America's Finest City is known as "The Capital of Craft" with more than 150 brewery locations throughout the county, according to the San Diego Brewers Guild. Local brewery creates beers made from SAN’s purified condensate The 2023 Brewers Cup of California is a statewide brewing competition in Sacramento that has been held every other year since 2019. This year’s competition included 1,306 entries from 191 breweries in the state. A total of 13 gold medals were awarded to breweries within the county. Here's a list of local gold medal beers, along with the brewers behind the craft creations. Gold medals -- Alesmith Brewing Company (Miramar) – Nut Brown for “English-Style Brown Ale”-- Black Plague Brewing (Oceanside) – Medusa for “Specialty Stout”-- Burgeon Beer Company (Carlsbad) – Clever Kiwi for “Session Beer”-- Doubl...

Canada pledges Great Lakes funding after Trudeau-Biden talks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Canada has pledged a significant increase in spending to improve water quality in the Great Lakes following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, whose administration also has boosted funding for the shared waters.Following their discussion Friday in Ottawa, Trudeau said his government would spend $420 million — about $306 million in U.S. dollars — over the next decade on the lakes, still suffering fron 20th century industrial pollution and newer challenges such as climate change, PFAS chemicals and microplastics.The announcement came weeks after U.S. Congress members prodded Biden to seek more support for the lakes from Canada, which critics have accused of doing too little.“The Great Lakes are a source of drinking water for 40 million people, and this shared resource needs to be protected,” Trudeau said. “This is why Canada will make a major new investment … to continue safeguarding the Great Lakes for genera...

Brazil’s Lula postpones trip to China because of pneumonia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has indefinitely postponed his trip to China after contracting pneumonia, the presidential palace said on Saturday.Lula, 77, was admitted to a hospital in the capital of Brasilia with flu-like symptoms and was diagnosed with “bacterial and viral bronchopneumonia due to influenza A,” the palace said in a statement, quoting a medical note signed by Dr. Ana Helena Germoglio.The leftist leader’s health was reassessed on Saturday and, despite improvement, he was advised to “postpone the trip to China until the cycle of viral transmission ends,” the medical note said.Chinese authorities have been informed, “with the reiteration of the desire to schedule the visit on a new date,” the palace said.Lula had been expected to leave for China on a multi-day visit on Friday or Saturday, but the trip was pushed back on Friday.A delegation composed of ministers, senators, lawmakers and hundreds of businessmen had been set to accompa...

Idaho governor signs firing squad execution bill into law

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed into law a bill allowing firing squads to execute death row inmates when lethal injection drugs are unavailable, making Idaho the fifth U.S. state to allow the execution method. The new law, which takes effect in July, will give the Department of Correction up to five days after a death warrant is issued to determine whether lethal injection is available. If not, the department must carry out the execution by firing squad. Little signed the bill on Friday.“While I am signing this bill, it is important to point out that fulfilling justice can and must be done by minimizing stress on corrections personnel,” Little wrote in a transmittal letter after signing the bill, as reported by the Idaho Statesman. “For the people on death row, a jury convicted them of their crimes, and they were lawfully sentenced to death. It is the responsibility of the state of Idaho to follow the law and ensure that lawful criminal sentences are...

Push to expand voting rights in US for those held in jails

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — The voting precinct could have been any one of hundreds throughout Chicago, except that these voters in the first round of the mayoral election were all wearing the same beige smocks. And the security at this polling place wasn’t intended to keep disrupters and campaigners out, but the voters in.When first-time voter Tykarri Skillon finished studying the list of nine candidates, looking for those who shared his priorities on jobs and affordable housing, he marked his ballot and then was escorted with other voters back to their cells in the Cook County Jail.The 25-year-old, awaiting trial on a weapons charge, is part of a group not always mentioned in discussions about voting disenfranchisement. People serving sentences for felony convictions lose their right to vote. Detainees awaiting trial or serving misdemeanor sentences do retain that right, but face barriers to exercising it in many parts of the United States.The Cook County Jail, with more than 5,500 inmates and...

Hungary: Criticism makes it hard to cooperate with West

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The West’s steady criticism of Hungary on democratic and cultural issues makes the small European country’s right-wing government reluctant to offer support on practical matters, specifically NATO’s buildup against Russia, Hungary’s foreign minister said.In an interview with The Associated Press, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó also said Friday that his country has not voted on whether to allow Finland and Sweden to join NATO because Hungarian lawmakers are sick of those countries’ critiques of Hungarian domestic affairs.Lawmakers from the governing party plan to vote Monday in favor of the Finnish request but “serious concerns were raised” about Finland and Sweden in recent months “mostly because of the very disrespectful behavior of the political elites of both countries towards Hungary,” Szijjártó said.“You know, when Finnish and Swedish politicians question the democratic nature of our political system, that’s really unacceptabl...

Jehovah’s Witnesses mourn victims of Hamburg shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:31:50 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany held a memorial service Saturday for the six people killed during a mass shooting at a religious service in Hamburg this month. A 35-year-old German man who opened fire during the March 9 service killed himself as police arrived at a Jehovah’s Witnesses hall where the service was taking place. The attack wounded nine people, including a pregnant woman who lost her unborn child.“We are speechless in the face of the violence and brutality. There’s no word for this,” Dirk Ciupek, a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, said in his sermon. “This was an attack not just on a few of us, but an attack on all of us.”Ciupek expressed gratitude to the police officers who he said prevented more deaths and to the medical personnel who tended to the wounded with dedication and empathy.“Do not let evil defeat you,” he said, addressing the family members of those who died. He spoke about each victim individually, including the unb...