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Reports: Myanmar soldiers kill and burn bodies of 19 villagers, including 4 children

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:24:44 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Soldiers from Myanmar’s military government raided a village in the country’s central region, killing 19 villagers including four children and burning their bodies, independent media and a resident said Friday.The killings on Wednesday in Nyaung Pin Thar village in Bago region’s Htantabin township may have been in retaliation for an attack by resistance forces opposed to army rule.Radio Free Asia, a U.S.- funded news service, quoted a member of the locally formed People’s Defense Force as saying the killings occurred after fighting the same day between the army and his group and its allies from the Karen National Liberation Army, an ethnic rebel group that operates in the area. He said the resistance forces killed 20 soldiers and captured three officers.A farmer from the village told The Associated Press that he lost his wife, 7-year-old daughter and nine other relatives in the raid by about 10 soldiers.The farmer, who spoke on condition of anonymity becau...

‘Tears of the Kingdom’ gives ‘Zelda’ creators more time to play in their world

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:24:44 GMT

Hidemaro Fujibayashi and Eiji Aonuma were not done playing in the sandbox they helped create.Fujibayashi was the director and Aonuma the producer of Nintendo’s “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.” The 2017 release eschewed the beloved series’ familiar conventions and presented gamers with a massive adventure in the inviting open world of Hyrule.It was arguably the most ambitious game Nintendo had produced, but even with two releases of extra downloadable content, the development team felt they left a lot of ideas on the table.With this week’s release of “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” a direct sequel to “Breath of the Wild” six years in the making, gamers get to see many of those ideas finally take form.“Looking at the Hyrule we created, I became convinced that there were still a lot of different opportunities and possibilities to play in that world,” Aonuma told The Canadian Press from New York through a translator in a recent interview.“And we kind of became exc...

Palestinian militants fire more rockets, as Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza despite cease-fire efforts

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:24:44 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli fighter jets struck targets in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants fired rockets toward Jerusalem on Friday, further escalating the most violent flare-up in months despite efforts to broker a cease-fire.An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinians in an residential building in Gaza City in the afternoon, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The Israeli military said it targeted a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad movement. The militant group did not immediately offer comment.The strike sparked a fire on the seventh floor of the apartment tower. Rescuers pulled two lifeless bodies from the rubble. Neighbors crowded around the damaged building after the bombing. Earlier in the day, bursts of rocket fire from Gaza sent warning sirens wailing as far north as the contested capital of Jerusalem — about 48 miles (77 kilometers) from the Gaza border — breaking a 12-hour lull that had raised hopes regional powers could soon broker a truc...

US-Spain collaboration on migration looms large as Biden, Sánchez hold White House talks

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:24:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez are set to hold talks Friday as their countries are collaborating along with Canada to establish migration hubs in Latin America where asylum seekers fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries can go to apply for protection.The two leaders are also expected to discuss Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, climate change and other issues. But efforts by the U.S. and Spain to cooperate on asylum processing will loom large over the White House talks as the Biden administration rolls out new immigration measures now that COVID-19 immigration restrictions have ended. The changes could fundamentally alter how migrants arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border.The new efforts are designed to crack down on illegal border crossings while opening up legal pathways meant to incentivize migrants to apply for asylum online where they are, instead of making the dangerous and often deadly journey to the border. Those m...

Pakistani court grants former Prime Minister Imran Khan bail, broad protection from arrests

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:24:44 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A high court in Islamabad on Friday granted former Prime Minister Imran Khan broad protection from arrest in multiple cases against him and ordered him freed on bail. The ruling struck a blow to the government in a stand-off that has sparked days of rioting by Khan’s followers.Khan and his lawyers spent hours in the Islamabad High Court, to ensure the rulings were fully documented, trying to close off any legal loopholes that could allow his arrest again later. In the evening, shots were heard in the area of the courthouse, delaying his departure for security reasons. Police were investigating who opened fire, the interior minister said.Khan was expected to head later to his residence in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, officials in his party said. The long list of around 100 court cases, on charges ranging from fomenting violence to corruption, still stands against Khan. But the week’s turmoil illustrated the danger of moving against him. After h...

Philadelphia mayoral race homes in on crime policies

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:24:44 GMT

In Philadelphia’s first mayoral race since crime spiked during the coronavirus pandemic, the crowded Democratic field is trying to make public safety a campaign cornerstone, advocating approaches that range from mental health interventions and cleaner streets to echoes of “tough-on-crime” Republican rhetoric. Six Democrats are considered serious contenders to succeed term-limited Mayor Jim Kenney. Because Philadelphia weighs heavily Democratic, their May 16 primary will likely determine who leads the nation’s sixth-largest city.They’re talking not only about gun violence — 473 people were fatally shot and 1,789 were wounded by gunfire last year, according to city statistics — but also about how they would address other public health and safety detriments, including darkened streetlights and issues with trash pickup.“A two-year spike in crime leaves deep scars on cities and we’re seeing that in this election cycle,” said John Roman, director of the nonpartisan Center on P...

Biden taps Philip Jefferson to be Fed’s vice chair, Adriana Kugler as first Hispanic on Fed board

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:24:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has nominated Philip Jefferson, a member of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, to serve as vice chair of the board, the White House announced Friday.Biden has also chosen Adriana Kugler, a Georgetown University economist, to join the Fed’s board. If confirmed by the Senate, she would become the first Hispanic American on the Fed’s interest-rate-setting committee. The two nominations arrive as the Fed is grappling with an increasingly fraught economy marked by rising interest rates, still-high inflation and a shaky banking system. Since March 2022, the Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate 10 times, to the highest level in 16 years, in an aggressive drive to cool price increases. After a policy meeting last week, Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the Fed may now pause its rate hikes.In the coming months, the Fed will face tough decisions about whether to keep rates unchanged for the rest of this year or resume raisin...

Turkish Red Crescent chief, slammed for selling tents meant for quake survivors, steps down

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:24:44 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The head of Turkey’s Red Crescent organization has stepped down, the state-run news agency reported Friday, months after the aid agency came under intense criticism for selling tents to a charity instead of dispatching them directly to areas devastated by a powerful earthquake in February. Kerem Kinik’s resignation came a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the Red Crescent’s actions during a town hall meeting with young people while campaigning ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary and presidential elections.Erdogan had previously remained silent on the scandal that had led to widespread outrage and calls for Kinik to resign.“I was seriously saddened by this issue,” Erdogan said in the campaign event on Thursday. “The Red Crescent cannot engage in the sale of tents. He (Kinik) must rectify this wrong.”The organization was criticized for selling thousands of tents to a charity days after the Feb. 6 earthquake, amid a shortage of tents and shelte...

US Postal Service honors civil rights leader, Ponca tribe Chief Standing Bear, with stamp

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:24:44 GMT

A Ponca tribe chief whose landmark lawsuit in 1879 established that a Native American is a person under the law was honored Friday with the unveiling of a U.S. Postal Service stamp that features his portrait.The release of the stamp of Chief Standing Bear comes 146 years after the Army forced him and about 700 other members of the Ponca tribe to leave their homeland in northeast Nebraska and walk 600 miles (965 kilometers) to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Chief Standing Bear was arrested and imprisoned in Fort Omaha when he and others tried to return. This prompted him to file a lawsuit that led to an 1879 ruling ordering his release and finding that a Native American is a person with a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.“For so long people didn’t know his story or the Ponca story — our own trail of tears,” Candace Schmidt, chairwoman of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska said. “We are finally able to tell his story of perseverance and how we as a tribe are...

Maine West High School deemed safe after active shooter alarm goes off; school canceled

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:24:44 GMT

DES PLAINES, Ill. — Maine West High School was deemed safe Friday morning after authorities responded to a report of shots fired due to a potential accidental push of an active shooter button.Officers are currently holding a perimeter at the school, located in the 1700 block of South Wolf Road, and there have been no reports of injuries. The district said the building has been cleared by authorities and students and staff are "safe."District officials believe "there was an accidental push of the active shooter button or a short in the system that caused that alarm to go off."The reunification area for parents to pick up their children is at Prairie Lakes, located at 515 E. Thacker St.Police asked residents to avoid the area until further notice.It is unknown when the alarm went off.SkyCam9 over the school earlier showed several students exiting the school and some were running.No other information is available at this time. WGN News will update this story once more details become av...