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Turkish candidate drops out in boost to Erdogan’s main challenger

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:42 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A candidate in Turkey’s presidential election announced his withdrawal from the race Thursday, a move that’s likely to benefit President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main challenger.The candidate who pulled out, Muharrem Ince, is the leader of the center-left Homeland Party. He was one of four contenders running in Sunday’s presidential election. Turkey holds a parliamentary election the same day. Ince had faced criticism for potentially ciphering support from the six-party Nation Alliance, which has united behind the candidacy of opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, and thereby forcing the presidential contest into a second-round.“I am withdrawing from the race,” Ince told reporters in front of his party’s headquarters, following weeks of resisting calls to step down. “I am doing this for my country.” Erdogan, who has led Turkey as prime minister and president since 2003, is facing the most challenging election of his 20-year rule. Pol...

New York attorney general sues manufacturer over magazine lock used in Buffalo store massacre

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:42 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s attorney general sued a gun accessory manufacturer Thursday for selling a lock that can be easily removed to attach high-capacity magazines, which are illegal in the state.The white gunman who massacred 10 Black shoppers and workers in a Buffalo supermarket last year carried out the attack with a semiautomatic rifle he purchased legally, but then modified so he could load it with illegal high-capacity ammunition magazines, as previously reported. New York law bans the possession of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. “We lost 10 innocent lives because a hate-fueled individual was able to make an AR-15 even deadlier through a simple change at home,” Attorney General Letitia James, an elected Democrat, said in a statement. “We cannot undo the devastating harm that was done, but this lawsuit against Mean Arms is part of our ongoing effort to pursue justice for the ten innocent lives that were unjustly taken.”Email messages seeking...

Trump turned his liabilities into laugh lines at CNN town hall, underscoring GOP rivals’ challenge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:42 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Republicans in the audience laughed when former President Donald Trump mocked a woman who accused him of rape. They cheered when he defended his role during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. And they applauded again after he said he was “honored” to “terminate Roe v. Wade.”Trump’s defiant performance at the CNN town hall on Wednesday may ultimately hurt his standing with key groups of voters in next fall’s general election, especially women, suburbanites and independents. But the reaction of those who attended also demonstrated his extraordinary grip on the conservative voters who will soon decide the fight for the GOP presidential nomination.The magnitude of the challenge ahead for Trump’s Republican rivals was clear as the former president repeatedly turned his greatest political liabilities into jokes and applause lines for the GOP base. On Thursday, a day after the town hall, Trump’s Republican critics conceded they don’t kn...

Oklahoma police rush to respond to cries for help … from a goat

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:42 GMT

ENID, Okla. (AP) — Sometimes a wrong call can really get your goat.Police in Enid, Oklahoma at first walked slowly and cautiously through the grassy, wooded area of a farm seeking the source of faint cries in the distance.“That’s a person,” one of the officers said to the other on a video that has been widely shared from a Facebook post by the police department in the city about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of Oklahoma City. The distressing noise that sounded like human cries for help escalated as officers David Sneed and Neal Storey began running to help who they thought was perhaps a person trapped under farm equipment.Instead, it was a goat.“That’s a goat? … from a long distance it sounds it sounds like help,” Sneed asked through laughter.“The farmer said he had two male goats in the barn, and he took one out and he wasn’t happy,” according to police spokesperson Cass Rains. Now the town and the police department are enjoying the tale of the rescue ...

Republicans continue push to restrict teachings on race in South Carolina

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:42 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Republicans are one step closer to restricting how teachers discuss race in K-12 classrooms.As conservatives nationwide push bans on so-called “critical race theory,” the state Senate passed a likeminded effort Wednesday in a late night 27-10 vote after nearly six hours of debate. Parents could challenge any educational materials they say violate banned teachings around white privilege and implicit bias under a bill sent back to the GOP-controlled House.Missing from the bill is the explicit phrase “ critical race theory.” It instead prevents teaching that an individual “bears responsibility for actions committed in the past” by other members of their race, and that someone is inherently privileged or should receive “adverse or favorable treatment” due to their race.The bill states that nothing prevents teachings about any ethnic group’s history or the “fact-based discussion” of “controversial” periods and current events. Senate Majority Lea...

What is Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Gaza militant group now fighting Israel?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:42 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — The cycle has become grimly familiar. Over three days, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have killed at least 28 people, including senior Palestinian militants, as well as children as young as 4 years old. Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired over 600 rockets toward Israel, killing one person, setting off warning sirens as far north as the coastal city of Tel Aviv and sending tens of thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters. The most violent conflagration in months between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza has pitted the Israeli military against Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s second-largest militant group after Hamas. But Hamas, the militant group that runs the Gaza Strip, has sat this one out. As it tries to rein in its conflict with Israel and improve the miserable quality of life for the 2 million Palestinians under its control, Hamas has let the smaller Islamic Jihad group take the lead, as it did in a similar round of fighting last summer. Here’s a look ...

Sweden’s Loreen could win Eurovision – for the second time

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:42 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Loreen’s favorite moment of Eurovision comes as she’s rolled onstage, lying flat between two horizontal screens and sporting spiky jeweled nails, waiting for the music to start.It’s a moment of calm, about 40 seconds, when the Swedish singer can look at the audience and connect with the crowd, she says. It’s also a stark contrast to the energetic performance that follows, one that has her tipped to come first at the Eurovision Song Contest — for a second time.Loreen won in Baku, Azerbaijan, at Eurovision 2012 with “Euphoria” and now it’s looking like she could do the double and triumph again more than a decade later with “Tattoo.” If she does win it all, she’d only be the second person in Eurovision history to win twice — and it’s been 36 years since Johnny Logan pulled off that feat for Ireland.Loreen has already made it through Tuesday’s semifinal to earn a place for Sweden in Saturday’s Grand Final in Liverpool. This time feels differen...

Slain OPP sergeant, two injured officers ‘ambushed’ by alleged gunman: Commissioner

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:42 GMT

BOURGET, Ont. — Ontario Provincial Police say three officers shot east of Ottawa today were “ambushed” when they arrived at a home. One of the officers died and two others were injured after the shooting at a home in Bourget, Ont. OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique says Sgt. Eric Mueller, who died after the shooting, was an exemplary officer, a well-respected mentor and 21-year law enforcement veteran. Carrique says one of the injured officers has been treated and released from hospital, while the other officer is being treated for serious injuries. OPP say a 39-year-old man was taken into custody without further incident by a second group of responding officers and charges are expected. Carrique says no one else appeared to be inside the home during the shooting and the three officers were the only ones shot. He says a long gun was found at the scene. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2023.The Canadian Press

Ukraine pushes to extend wartime grain deal at talks with Russia, Turkey and U.N.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:42 GMT

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — The Ukrainian government is seeking to extend a wartime deal that allowed the country’s grain to get to nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger is a growing threat, a top Ukrainian official said Thursday after the latest talks on prolonging the agreement. The two-talks in Istanbul involved Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian and United Nations officials but yielded no decisions for an extension. The deal is due to expire next Wednesday. Additional discussions are expected in an online format, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said. He said in a statement released after the talks that the grain deal “should be extended for a longer period of time and expanded.”“This will give predictability and confidence to both the global and the Ukrainian markets,” Kubrakov said. Previous extensions lasted 120 days and 60 days. However, Russia opposes both broadening the agreement and its “indefinite expansion,” Russian Deputy Foreign Ministe...

Manitoba government offers money for new WestJet direct flights to Atlanta

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:52:42 GMT

WINNIPEG — WestJet is to start new direct flights between Winnipeg and Atlanta in September with a financial backstop from the Manitoba government.The five-times-a-week, year-round service is aimed at connecting Winnipeg with a major Delta Air Lines hub and allowing for quick connections to destinations around the globe.“Manitobans will be able to connect to more than 200 vacation destinations throughout the U.S., the Caribbean, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia,” Premier Heather Stefanson said Thursday.The direct, three-hour flight may also make for improved trade. Gerry Price, chief executive officer of Price Industries, said the new flights will address long travel times that have been a hurdle for American customers of his manufacturing company.“We had dozens and dozens and dozens of visits planned to our headquarters for site visits (by) engineers and contractors and owners — to witness, (and) test products that we would build here and ship there...