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Electrical fire at Camden Yards on day Orioles played ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ disrupted complex’s cooling system

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:41 GMT

Before there were bees, there was a fire.A month before a swarm of honeybees in Oriole Park’s outfield interrupted gameplay on Aug. 27, an electrical fire started in the Camden Yards complex’s cooling plant around 2 p.m. on July 30, five hours ahead of the red-hot Orioles’ home game against the New York Yankees on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball.”The fire damaged one of the complex’s three chillers — the machines that cool the ballpark and M&T Bank Stadium and weigh, in total, roughly 3,000 tons. Another of the three chillers suffered a mechanical problem, likely related to the fire, said Jeff Provenzano, the Maryland Stadium Authority’s vice president of facilities.“In the matter of an hour, we lost two-thirds of the plant’s capacity to cool the complex,” Provenzano told the authority’s board on Tuesday. “Not a good time. Not a good time.”Electrical fires can start because of faulty electric...

9 tactics for home buyers grappling with high mortgage rates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:41 GMT

By Holden Lewis | NerdWalletMortgage rates have risen to their highest levels in more than 20 years, making it harder to afford a home. And yet, out of necessity or desire, hundreds of thousands of people buy homes every month.With the 30-year fixed rate topping 7%, NerdWallet asked real estate agents and mortgage loan officers for advice on how home buyers can stretch their homebuying dollars in this time of high interest rates. Here are nine tactics that they suggested.1. Ask the seller to reduce the mortgage rateTemporary mortgage rate buydowns have become commonplace since rates surged in early 2022. With a temporary rate buydown, the seller pays a portion of the buyer’s interest payments upfront. This reduces the house payments for the first one, two or three years of ownership.“This is a common strategy for new-home builders, but it can also be used in the purchase of resale homes,” said John Bianchi, executive vice president for loanDepot. (All sources in th...

Patriots eager to celebrate Tom Brady’s return ‘the right way’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:41 GMT

FOXBORO — When Matthew Slater was drafted by the Patriots in 2008, he didn’t think too fondly of Tom Brady.“I didn’t like him when I got here,” Slater cracked on Wednesday.It was in good nature. Slater grew up a Rams fan because his father Jackie played all 20 seasons of his career for them, and he certainly didn’t forget Brady beating them for his first Super Bowl victory.“I was like, ‘I don’t know about this Brady guy,’ ” Slater joked.But it didn’t take long for Slater’s view of Brady to change.“I’ll never forget my first day in here, he came up and introduced himself to me,” Slater said. “He knew a little bit about my college career, there wasn’t much to know, but he knew it. The kindness that he showed me, that he didn’t have to really has stuck with me ever since then. I remember calling my parents, I’m like, ‘Hey, Tom Brady knows my name. He introduced himself.’ And he was like that with everyone. It wasn’t just me. … He was just a genuine, humble human being.”More than the le...

Catholic-Jewish research substantiates reports that Catholic convents sheltered Jews during WWII

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:41 GMT

ROME (AP) — Researchers have discovered new documentation that substantiates reports that Catholic convents and monasteries in Rome sheltered Jews during World War II, providing names of at least 3,200 Jews whose identities have been corroborated by the city’s Jewish community, officials said Thursday.Researchers from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust research institute and Rome’s Jewish community released the findings at an academic conference Thursday held at the Museum of the Shoah, part of Rome’s main synagogue.The documentation doesn’t appear to shed any new light on the role of Pope Pius XII during the Nazi occupation of Rome. Historians have long debated Pius’ legacy, with supporters insisting he used quiet diplomacy to save Jewish lives and critics saying he remained silent as Roman Jews were rounded up and deported from the Vatican’s backyard.Rather, the new documentation provides names and addresses of people who were sheltered in Catholic in...

Fiji is deporting leaders of a South Korean sect that built a business empire in the island country

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:41 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Fijian authorities on Thursday said they were in the process of deporting six leaders of a South Korean religious sect that a decade ago moved hundreds of followers to Fiji and built a series of thriving businesses into an empire.But authorities said they were only able to apprehend four of the principals of the Grace Road Church, and that senior director Daniel Kim and another man were on the run. It’s unclear how the deportations will affect the estimated 400 South Korean adherents who remain in Fiji and the hundreds of local Fijians they employ. Grace Road businesses are prominent across the island country and include farms, restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations and dentists.The sect first moved to Fiji under Daniel Kim’s mother, Shin Ok-ju, who told her followers that Fiji provided a safe haven from impending war and famine. She is currently imprisoned in South Korea after being found guilty of various crimes, including holding followers ca...

Police comb the UK and put airports on alert for an escaped prison inmate awaiting terrorism trial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:41 GMT

LONDON (AP) — British police hunted across the country on Thursday and put ports and airports on alert for a former soldier who escaped from a London prison while awaiting trial on terrorism charges.Opposition politicians demanded to know how Daniel Abed Khalife managed to slip out of medium-security Wandsworth Prison and why he was not being held at a maximum-security facility.Khalife, 21, is accused of planting fake bombs at a military base and of violating Britain’s Official Secrets Act by gathering information “that could be useful to an enemy.”He was discharged from the British army after his arrest earlier this year and had denied the allegations. His trial was set for November.Police said Khalife was dressed in a kitchen uniform of white T-shirt and red checkered trousers when he escaped from the overcrowded Victorian prison in south London.Opposition politicians linked the escape to years of austerity under the Conservative Party, which has governed Britain since 2010. Many ...

Australian minister says invasive examinations were part of reason Qatar Airways was refused flights

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:41 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Transport Minister Catherine King said on Thursday that invasive gynecological examinations conducted on passengers at Doha’s international airport in 2020 were part of the reason she refused to allow Qatar Airways to double its services to Australia.King has faced intense questioning over why she decided on June 10 not to allow the airline to double its current 28 flights per week to Australia.She said the decision was made in the “context” of women being examined in 2020 by authorities at Hamad International Airport in Doha who were trying to find the mother of a newborn baby found dumped in a trash can.Women on a number of flights leaving Doha were invasively examined, including 13 on a flight to Sydney. “There is no one factor that I would point to that swayed my decision one way or the other,” King told reporters.“Certainly, for context, this is the only airline that has had something like that where that has happened,” she said.“I was not ...

The UK is rejoining the European Union’s science research program as post-Brexit relations thaw

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:41 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Britain is rejoining the European Union’s $100 billion science-sharing program Horizon Europe, the two sides announced Thursday, more than two years after the country’s membership became a casualty of Brexit.British scientists expressed relief at the decision, the latest sign of thawing relations between the EU and its former member nation.After months of negotiations, the British government said the country was becoming a “fully associated member” of the research collaboration body U.K.-based scientists can bid for Horizon funding starting Thursday and will be able to lead Horizon-backed science projects starting in 2024. Britain is also rejoining Copernicus, the EU space program’s Earth observation component.“The EU and U.K. are key strategic partners and allies, and today’s agreement proves that point,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who signed off on the deal during a call with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday. “We will contin...

Russian officials say 5 drones were shot down, including 1 that targeted Moscow

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:41 GMT

Five drones were shot down over three Russian regions overnight, with one targeting the capital, officials said Thursday. There were reports of no casualties. Meanwhile, Russia launched a fourth day of air attacks on the Ukrainian port city of Izmail, located on the Danube river. Oleh Kiper, regional Governor of Odesa, said infrastructure was damaged in the attack, including grain silos, and one person was injured. The attack came one day after a Russian missile struck a busy market in the eastern city of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk, killing 17 and wounding at least 32. The attack overshadowed a two-day visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, aimed at assessing Ukraine’s 3-month-old counteroffensive and signaling continued U.S. support for the fight. One drone targeted Moscow, but was shot down southeast of the city without causing any damage or injuries, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.Two more drones were shot down over the southern region of Rostov, which borders Ukraine, said ...

The long road winding down at the World Cup, where semifinals await Team USA

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:41 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — This seemed so far away in the beginning. There was a week of training camp in Las Vegas for USA Basketball to get through, then a week in Spain, then a week in Abu Dhabi, the group stage of the World Cup, then the second round, then the quarterfinals. They’ve flown 14,000 miles, eaten more than 100 meals away from home, played 11 games, posed for countless photos.All for this. The medal round at the Basketball World Cup is here.The U.S. plays Germany on Friday night in the World Cup semifinals, with a berth in Sunday’s gold-medal game awaiting the winner. It’s a rematch of an exhibition from three weeks ago, when the U.S. rallied from 16 points down to win 99-91. Germany hasn’t lost since and is the only team still unbeaten in this tournament.“Everything that we’ve done in preparation for the last five and a half weeks has been to get to this point,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s not like we’re all of a sudden going to give them a Knute Rockne speech,...