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Hezbollah chief: Israel didn’t hit Hamas in Lebanon strikes

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:22 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group on Friday claimed that Israel did not hit Hamas or Hezbollah targets in last week’s strikes on southern Lebanon.The strikes last Friday in south Lebanon came a day after militants fired nearly three dozen rockets from there at Israel, wounding two people and causing some property damage. The Israeli military said it had targeted installations of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, in southern Lebanon. Speaking at an a ceremony in Beirut marking “Quds Day,” or Jerusalem Day — an annual show of support for the Palestinians held on the last Friday of every Islamic holy month of Ramadan — Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah called the Israeli statements “a barefaced lie” and that “no Hezbollah or Hamas infrastructure was struck.”Rather, he said, the Israelis hit “banana groves” and a water irrigation channel. There was no immediate comment from Israel.While Israeli military officials have not said they hit any Hezbollah targ...

Olymel to close pork plant in Vallée-Jonction, Que., lay off nearly 1,000 workers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:22 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec pork producer Olymel says it will close a major slaughterhouse south of Quebec City and lay off 994 workers.The company said today the Vallée-Jonction plant in the Beauce region will be the latest factory to shutter, after previously announcing the closure of several other facilities in recent months.Olymel CEO Yanick Gervais told reporters in St-Hyacinthe, Que., that the pork industry has lost $400 million in the last two years because of factors including the COVID-19 pandemic, labour shortages and the instability of export markets.He says the Vallée-Jonction plant was chosen because of the decline in the available workforce and the poor condition of the facilities, which he says require tens of millions of dollars in renovations.Gervais says the company is open to relocating any of the laid-off workers who want to work at Olymel’s three remaining slaughterhouses or its other facilities.He says the plant’s operations will wind down gradually over the ...

Black church, NHL’s Penguins reach historic land-use accord

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:22 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — More than 60 years ago, a historic Black church was forced to give up its sanctuary, compensated for what it says was a fraction of its value, to an urban renewal project that wiped out the heart of an African American neighborhood known as the Hill District.Now, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is poised to recoup some of that loss and reclaim a spot near its former home. It has reached an agreement with the Pittsburgh Penguins — the NHL franchise that now holds development rights to the site near its current arena — for the church to use a 1.5-acre parcel that it envisions using for housing and other revenue-generating development.The agreement came after years of public calls and demonstrations by the church, which has described its efforts as seeking reparations. And the church battle is a microcosm of a larger one over the legacy of the 1950s project, in which leaders in the Black community have long sought redress from the powers that be in Pittsburg...

‘Golden Age of homelessness’ is over, says one former homeless man

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:22 GMT

Editor’s note: Olivier prefers the word “homeless” over the term “unhoused” since he strongly identifies with the former term.The “Golden Age of homelessness” is over, says one Toronto man who was chronically homeless for over a decade.Olivier M., who preferred not to be identified by family name, first sought temporary shelter in Toronto 14 years ago. He says that from 2009 to 2013, it was easier to find help in the city, compared to today.“I call it the ‘Golden Age of Homelessness in Toronto,’ because I could arrive through the Greyhound station at Bay and Dundas, and maybe sleep somewhere at a friend’s place or book into a backpacker’s hostel with whatever little dollars I [had],” Olivier explained. “The next day, I’m not worried. I came to the Salvation Army [Hope Shelter] here [at College Street and McCaul Street] and they got a bed for me. It was not a worry. There was no stress.”As of late 202...

Elisabeth Kopp, first woman in Swiss Cabinet, dies at 86

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:22 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — Elisabeth Kopp, an advocate of equal rights and the environment who was the first woman elected to Switzerland’s seven-member executive branch, has died. She was 86. Kopp died April 7 in the town of Zumikon, near Zurich, from complications related to an unspecified “long illness,” the federal chancellery said Friday.Once one of Switzerland’s leading figure skaters, Kopp was inspired to work on behalf of refugees, human rights and democracy after seeing the Communist government of Hungary, a Warsaw Pact country, lead a violent repression against a popular uprising in 1956.According to a database of Swiss elites hosted by the University of Lausanne, Elisabeth Kopp, née Iklé, was born in Zurich on Dec. 16, 1936.After obtaining a law degree in Zurich, Kopp became a local councilor for a center-right party in Zumikon and won a seat in the lower house of parliament in 1979. She was re-elected four years later with one of the biggest vote tallies of any candidate runnin...

‘The Pope’s Exorcist’: The real priest who inspired the film

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:22 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Rev. Edward Siebert’s journey with “The Pope’s Exorcist,” a film about arguably the most famous exorcist in the Catholic Church, began with an adventuresome visit to Milan about six years ago.The Jesuit priest recalls sitting at a restaurant sipping wine and mulling the costly airline ticket he had purchased a day earlier. He also worried about the deal he had just closed with the Society of St. Paul to purchase the rights to the life story of the Rev. Gabriele Amorth — the late Pauline priest known as “the James Bond of exorcists.”Siebert, who teaches film at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and runs the college’s film production company, had no motion picture credits to his name and wondered at the time: “What have I gone and done?”Today, he heaves a sigh of relief as a version of Amorth’s life unfurls on the big screen as “The Pope’s Exorcist,” starring Oscar-winner Russell Crowe in the titular role. It opens in U.S. theaters Friday. A...

El Chapo sons among 28 Sinaloa cartel members charged by US

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:22 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday charged 28 members of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel, including sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in a sprawling fentanyl-trafficking investigation.Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the charges Friday alongside Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram and other top federal prosecutors. The charges were filed against cartel leaders, as well alleged chemical suppliers, lab managers, fentanyl traffickers, security leaders, financiers and weapons traffickers.The indictments announced Friday charge three of Guzman’s sons — Ovidio Guzmán López, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Sálazar — who are known as the Chapitos, or little Chapos, and who have earned a reputation as the more violent and aggressive faction of the cartel.Only Guzmán López is in custody, in Mexico.The indictments also charge Chinese and Guatemalan citizens accused of supplying precursor chemicals required t...

Man saved after car plunges into lake: Oak Forest PD

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:22 GMT

OAK FOREST, Ill. — A man was saved from a sinking car after driving off the roadway into a lake in Oak Forest Thursday evening. Leon Santor, 56, was charged with one count of driving under the influence of alcohol and another count of reckless driving. Illinois State Police investigate after body found on Dan Ryan Expressway Police responded to a call of a car that was travelling southbound on Cicero Avenue when it left the roadway at 165th Street and entered the water at Twin Lakes. Police say a witness swam out to the sinking vehicle and located the driver, Santor, in the driver's seat and brought him to the shoreline. 59-year-old man dies after Antioch Township shooting Santor was charged accordingly.

Russia's Pacific Fleet put on high alert for snap drills

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:22 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — The entire Russian Pacific Fleet was put on high alert on Friday for snap drills that will involve practice missile launches in a massive show of force amid tensions with the West over the fighting in Ukraine.Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the goal of the war games was to test the capability of Russia’s armed forces to mount a response to aggression.Along with the missile launches, the drills will also involve nuclear-capable strategic bombers and other warplanes besides the naval aviation of the Pacific Fleet, Shoigu said.The Russian military has concentrated the bulk of its forces on the front lines in Ukraine, but also continued conducting regular drills across Russia to train its forces and demonstrate their readiness.The Russian Defense Ministry released videos showing warships and submarines sailing off to take part in the maneuvers. As part of the drills, marine units deployed to amphibious landing vessels and coastal defense missile systems moved to f...

Dunkin' adding 'adored' seasonal drink to year-round menu after 10 years

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:22 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – One of Dunkin’s seasonal drinks isn’t so seasonal anymore.The coffee-and-doughnut chain announced Friday that its Butter Pecan Swirl coffee items, which were normally offered for a limited time only during the spring, will now be permanent fixtures of the Dunkin’ menu starting April 26.“On the 10-year anniversary of Butter Pecan Swirl’s debut, we knew it was time to make thisadored flavor a core menu staple,” said Jill McVicar Nelson, Dunkin's chief marketing officer, in a press release issued Friday. Dunkin’s new item sounds like something Taco Bell would offer McVicar noted that Butter Pecan Swirl was added to Dunkin’s permanent offerings following requests from customers and social media users. A representative for Dunkin, in an email to Nexstar, also cited two petitions to bring back the flavor on Change.org, which together garnered just over 2,200 signatures.The chain further claimed that Butter Pecan Swirl was the “second most sought-after” Dunkin’ flavor after P...