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Ukraine's Avdiivka becoming 'post-apocalyptic', official says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:33 GMT

Russia is making Ukraine's Avdiivka "a place from post-apocalyptic movies", intensifying the shelling and forcing a near complete shutdown of the frontline, a top local official stated on Sunday (26 March).Officials estimate that there are approximately 2,000 civilians still in Avdiivka. It is a Donetsk city located 90 km (56 miles) south of the besieged Bakhmut. According to officials, the city was home to more than 33,000 people before the war.Vitaliy Barabash, the head of the military administration in the city, stated that Avdiivka was becoming "more and more like a movie set" via the Telegram messaging app.Barabash said that the evacuation of utility workers who were left in the city is underway and that mobile reception will soon be cut "because there are informers for the Russian occupiers" in the city.The Russian forces have made recent steady gains on the flanks Avdiivka's Avdiivka. Last week, the Ukrainian military warned that the city could become "second Bakhmut". This i...

Miss Manners: Best man is on the hook for 5-day bachelor party and two weddings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:33 GMT

DEAR MISS MANNERS: My daughter’s husband, Liam, has been asked to be the best man at the fall wedding of his friend Cody. Cody and Liam have communicated, at most, three or four times via text in the last three years.Cody has asked Liam to throw a five-day destination bachelor party. Not only that, he and his fiancee are asking the members of the wedding party to fly to Austria for their “first” wedding, stay there for six days, then travel to Italy for their “second” wedding and stay there for another six days. (No one in the wedding party has any connection to these places.) And of course they are also expected to bestow a gift on the greedy couple.My daughter figures attending the wedding would cost them about $20,000, and that’s without the bachelor party. They would also have to take their young son with them.Liam is afraid that if he says no, he will lose Cody as a friend, while my daughter is telling him that Cody already isn’t his fr...

Dear Abby: I was at a dinner party and there was a big problem with my salad

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:33 GMT

DEAR ABBY: I was at a semiformal dinner party with my wife and five other couples. During the first course, I found a large green caterpillar (alive) in my salad.What’s the best way to handle this type of situation? YIKES! IN TEXASDEAR YIKES: It goes without question that the “uninvited visitor” be evicted. A way to do that without embarrassing your host would be to quietly pick the critter up, excuse yourself from the table and release it into the wild out a window or the back door.If you are a devout animal lover, take a bit of lettuce with you so it won’t go hungry.DEAR ABBY: I’ve been married for more than 30 years. My husband and I split all bills and everything else.Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: I forgave my wife’s affair and started one of my own. What do I do now? Advice | Dear Abby: I worry that the TV weather report will harm emotionally vulnerable people Advice | Dear Abby: She torpedoed ...

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis calls May 21 election after a train crash last month stirred public anger

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:33 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis calls May 21 election after a train crash last month stirred public anger.Source

Rusia dispara misiles de crucero en aguas próximas a Japón durante un ejercicio de entrenamiento

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:33 GMT

(CNN) — La Flota rusa del Pacífico disparó este martes por la mañana un par de misiles supersónicos contra un objetivo simulado en aguas próximas a la costa de Japón, informó el Ministerio de Defensa ruso.“Un equipo de dos lanchas misileras llevó a cabo un ataque conjunto con misiles contra un escudo marino que simulaba un buque de guerra enemigo simulado”, dijo el ministerio en un post de Telegram. “El objetivo fue alcanzado con éxito a una distancia de 100 km (62 millas) por un impacto directo de dos misiles de crucero Moskit”.Los misiles son capaces de destruir un buque a una distancia de hasta 120 kilómetros (75 millas), según Reuters.Un buque de la Flota rusa del Pacífico dispara un misil de crucero Moskit contra un objetivo enemigo simulado en aguas de la costa japonesa el 28 de marzo. (Crédito: Russian Defence Ministry/Reuters)La maniobra de este martes se produce después de que Rusia realizara simulacros a principios de este mes en el Mar de Jap...

Police: 47-year-old Lexington man killed in pedestrian crash at Logan Airport terminal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:33 GMT

A 47-year-old man from Lexington was struck and killed by a Dartmouth Coach bus at a Logan Airport terminal, according to state police. Officials said the crash happened around 5 p.m. on the Terminal B lower roadway. A preliminary investigation shows the victim was at the airport to pick up a friend and was standing on the drivers side of his SUV when the bus hit him and dragged him along the side of his car. Police said the man was pronounced dead at the scene after suffering severe injuries. Terminal B passengers were redirected to other parts of the airport to get picked up or to catch a bus. The scene around the crash reopened around 9 p.m. Monday. Speaking with 7NEWS, passengers in the area said they were sad to hear news of a death. “I feel for their family, I mean, my heart goes out to them,” one person said. “I can’t imagine.”The 54-year-old bus driver was interviewed by state police. Officials have not said if he will face any charges. Dartmouth Coach issued a statemen...

Guregian: No ultimatums, but Patriots owner Robert Kraft got his points across

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:33 GMT

PHOENIX — Robert Kraft stole headlines last year at the NFL owners meetings when he seemingly drew a line in the sand with members of his football staff by voicing his displeasure over not winning a playoff game in three seasons.That tone didn’t change after the Patriots’ 8-9 season last year, as Kraft sent a letter to season ticket holders in January once again voicing dissatisfaction with the product and promising “critical evaluations.”Let’s just say being irrelevant in the NFL is not Kraft’s cup of tea.So did he toss any more verbal grenades during his session with the media Monday at the owner’s meetings?Let’s just say spliced in between numerous compliments for his head coach — “I still believe in Bill” — and the optimism he now feels given moves made thus far, most notably the addition of Bill O’Brien, Kraft still managed to launch a few zingers.Asked if he still had confidence in Bill Belichick, Kraft closed his answer with this: “In the end, this is a business. You ei...

Former Taiwan leader begins mainland tour at historic tomb

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:33 GMT

NANJING, China (AP) — Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou began a 12-day tour of China with a symbolism-laden visit to the mausoleum where the founding father of both China and Taiwan is entombed.Ma visited the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, the capital when Ma’s Nationalist Party (Kuomingtang) ruled China in the early part of the 20th century. The party claimed to be the legitimate ruler of China for decades and is seen as more sympathetic to integration or unification with the mainland than the ruling Democratic People’s Party.There, he paid tribute to Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China and the Nationalist Party, giving a short speech and then bowing in front of the memorial. “The people of both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the Chinese nation, are children of Yandi and the Yellow Emperor,” he told a group of Chinese and Taiwanese reporters who had been allowed to follow him on the trip, referring to mythical emperors revered as founders of China’s ...

France braces for violence in new wave of pension protests

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:33 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Striking workers waving burning flares on Tuesday invaded and blocked train tracks serving one of Paris’ main railway stations, joining a new day of nationwide protests against unpopular pension reforms. Dozens of railway workers with flags and flares marched along tracks outside Gare de Lyon. Peaceful marches were also getting underway in other cities, in the latest day of nationwide marches and strikes against President Emmanuel Macron’s push to raise France’s legal retirement age from 62 to 64.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.PARIS (AP) — France’s government unfurled ramped-up security measures and warnings that violent demonstrators intend “to destroy, to injure and to kill” as trade unions launched a new flurry of marches and strikes Tuesday against pension reforms that have triggered an intense months-long firestorm of protest.Fears that violence could mar demonstrations planned across the country prompted what Interior ...

US, Japan reach deal on vital minerals for EV batteries

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:33 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan and the United States have reached an agreement on trade in critical minerals for electric vehicle batteries, part of an effort to diversify supply chains and reduce reliance on China for strategically important resources. The deal struck Tuesday is expected to help electric vehicles using metals processed in Japan qualify for tax incentives under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. “This announcement is proof of President Biden’s commitment to building resilient and secure supply chains,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement. The Inflation Reduction Act, enacted in August, requires a portion of the critical minerals used in EV batteries to be mined in or processed domestically or from countries with which the U.S. has free trade agreements. Japan and the U.S. have no such FTA, but the deal will grant Japan the same treatment as an FTA partner regarding such minerals, Japanese officials said. As a result, the two sides said ...