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French court refuses to extradite Italian former militants

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:08 GMT

PARIS (AP) — France’s highest court ruled Tuesday against extraditing 10 former far-left militants who were convicted of attacks in Italy carried out in the 1970s and 1980s.The two women and eight men fled Italy after their convictions and before they could be sent to prison. Now ranging in age from 62 to 79, they have lived freely in France for decades.The crimes of which they were convicted include the killing of a Carabinieri paramilitary general and the kidnapping of a judge, both in 1980.A Paris court also had ruled against their extraditions, and the decision was appealed last year. But Tuesday’s decision by the Court of Cassation is the final French legal ruling on the decades-long affair.Resistance by French authorities to incarcerating the Italians has long been a thorny issue between Paris and Rome.Over the years, Italy has sought the extradition of around 200 convicted former militants believed to be in France.Under a 1980s policy known as the “Mitterrand doctrine,” named...

What we know about the Covenant school shooting in Nashville

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:08 GMT

NASHVILLE (AP) — Six people were killed at a small, private Christian school just south of downtown Nashville on Monday after a shooter opened fire inside the building containing about 200 students, police said.Police received a call about an active shooter at The Covenant School — a Presbyterian school — around 10:15 a.m. Authorities said that about 15 minutes after that call to police, the shooter was dead. The remaining students were ferried to a safe location to be reunited with their parents.Here’s what we know and don’t know about the shooting:HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE KILLED?Nashville police said six people, including three students, were killed. The victims were identified as Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; Mike Hill, 61; and Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all age 9. Police officers also killed the shooter.The website of The Covenant School, founded in 2001, lists a Katherine Koonce as the head of the school. Her LinkedIn profile says sh...

Mexico: Migrants set mattresses on fire at detention center

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:08 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A fire inside a Mexican immigration facility at the U.S. border that left 39 migrants dead was started by migrants who set mattresses alight in protest after learning they would be deported, Mexico’s president said Tuesday. Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the incident unfortunate and said the director of country’s immigration agency was on the scene.“They never imagined that this would cause this terrible misfortune,” López Obrador said.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.MEXICO CITY (AP) — A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center near the U.S. border left more than three dozen migrants dead, a government agency said Tuesday, in one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup in the country.Hours after the fire broke out late Monday, rows of bodies were laid out under shimmery silver sheets outside the facility in Ciudad Juarez, which is across from El Paso, Texas, and a major crossing point...

Indonesia’s turn as world soccer host in peril over Israel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:08 GMT

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia could lose its chance to host a global youth soccer tournament, and its chance to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, after refusing to welcome a team from Israel.FIFA canceled an important preparatory step after regional governors and protesters demanded Israel’s team be excluded, and the tournament, planned for May 20-June 11, appears to be on hold.The official draw for group assignments in the Under-20 World Cup, was supposed to take place in Bali Friday, but FIFA canceled the event after the island’s governor, Wayan Koster, called for a ban on the Israeli team playing there.The Israeli team, which will participate in the Under-20 world tournament for the first time, had been expected to be based in Bali, home to one of the six stadiums scheduled to be used for the tournament.The Israel-Palestinian conflict is an emotional issue in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, whose 277 million people broadly support the Palestinian...

Stocks tick lower as some calm remains on Wall Street

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:08 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are holding relatively steady as Wall Street regains some cool at the tail end of tumultuous month. The S&P 500 fell 0.2% in early trading Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%. There was relative calm even in the bond market, which has been home to some of Wall Street’s wildest moves since fears flared about the banking system earlier this month. Yields were holding relatively steady following historic-sized moves in prior weeks. The yield on the two-year Treasury was little changed at 4%.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.U.S. futures are flat in light trading Tuesday as anxiety over the strength of the global banking sector, triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, eased. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 shifted between small gains and losses before the bell.Markets have been in turmoil following Silicon Valley Bank’s co...

Ukrainian president extends tour of war’s front-line areas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:08 GMT

OKHTYRKA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s president visited the Sumy region in northern Ukraine on Tuesday, continuing his tour over recent days of areas of the country that have felt the brunt of Russia’s full-scale invasion and as the stage increasingly looks set for a Ukrainian counteroffensive.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with officials and local people in two cities in the region, which borders Russia. It was partially occupied by Russian forces after the war started more than a year ago. The Russians withdrew from the region by early April.The Associated Press was granted exclusive access as Zelenskyy visited the Sumy region cities of Okhtyrka, which saw fierce battles last year but was never occupied, and Trostianets, which was held by the Russians for a month after the invasion but retaken by Ukrainian forces on March 26, 2022.Zelenskyy’s trip followed his visits over the past seven days to the Kherson and Kharkiv regions, parts of which were retaken last year from the Kremlin...

New sports wagering code bans college betting partnerships

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:08 GMT

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — The U.S. gambling industry is adopting a new responsible marketing code that will ban sports books from partnering with colleges to promote sports wagering, bar payments to college and amateur athletes for using their name, image or likeness, and end the use of the terms “free” or “risk-free” to describe promotional bets.The American Gaming Association told The Associated Press on Tuesday the changes are necessary to keep up with developments in the fast-growing legal sports betting industry, which currently operates in 33 states plus Washington, D.C. The group is the national trade association for the commercial gambling industry.But they also follow criticism of the gambling industry from regulators and those who treat gambling addiction; several states are outlawing the kind of betting partnerships covered by the code, and others are taking a renewed look at overall sports betting advertising.One New York congressman has introduced legislation that woul...

Uncrewed Russian spacecraft that leaked coolant lands safely

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:08 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian space capsule safely returned to Earth without a crew Tuesday, months after it suffered a coolant leak in orbit.The Soyuz MS-22 leaked coolant in December while attached to the International Space Station. Russian space officials blamed the leak on a tiny meteoroid that punctured the craft’s external radiator. They launched an empty replacement capsule last month to serve as a lifeboat for the crew.The damaged capsule safely landed Tuesday under a striped parachute in the steppes of Kazakhstan, touching down as scheduled at 5:45 p.m. (7:45 a.m. EDT) 147 kilometers (91 miles) southeast of Zhezkazgan under clear blue skies.Space officials determined it would be too risky to bring NASA’s Frank Rubio and Russia’s Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin back in the Soyuz in March as originally planned, as cabin temperatures would spike with no coolant, potentially damaging computers and other equipment, and exposing the suited-up crew to excessive heat.The three...

Warehouse fire kills 11 people in northern Chinese province

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:08 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities are investigating the cause of a fire that broke out at an abandoned refrigerated warehouse in the northern industrial province of Hebei, killing 11 people, the local government said Tuesday. The Cang County government said the blaze started Monday afternoon when the warehouse was being dismantled. Firefighters extinguished the fire at about 11 p.m. and rescuers recovered 11 people, but none showed signs of life, it said in a statement. A relative of one of the victims learned from others who managed to escape that the 11 people were among 14 workers who were demolishing the warehouse, according to Jimu News, part of the Chinese government-owned Hubei Daily Media Group.The Associated Press

EU defends its Libya migrant record over UN team allegations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:12:08 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Tuesday defended its record on helping relieve the suffering of migrants in Libya after U.N.-backed investigators accused the 27-nation bloc of abetting human rights abuses and other crimes in the largely lawless north African country.Libya is a major departure point for people from northern Africa and elsewhere willing to make the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing in poorly maintained boats in search of better lives or sanctuary in Europe.At least 529 migrants were reported dead and 848 others missing off Libya last year, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM). More than 24,680 people were intercepted by the Libyan coastguard as they tried to leave, and brought back.Presenting a report on Monday by a U.N.-commissioned fact-finding mission to Libya, investigator Chaloka Beyani said that EU assistance to the Libyan authorities, migration department and the coastguard “has aided and abetted the comm...