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Wind-fanned wildfires force thousands to flee seaside resorts outside Greek capital

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:21:39 GMT

LOUTRAKI, Greece (AP) — Wildfires outside Athens forced thousands to flee seaside resorts, closed highways and gutted vacation homes Monday, as high winds pushed flames through hillside scrub and pine forests parched by days of extreme heat. Authorities issued evacuation orders for at least six seaside communities as two major wildfires edged closer to summer resort towns and gusts of wind hit 70 kph (45 mph). The army, police special forces and volunteer rescuers freed retirees from their homes, rescued horses from a stable, and helped monks flee a monastery threatened by the flames. Before nightfall, water-dropping planes and helicopters tackled the flames near Lagonisi, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the capital. The second large wildfire broke out in a wooded area near the resort town of Loutraki, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Athens, where a children’s summer camp and rehabilitation center for seniors were evacuated, local officials said.Fire Service s...

Stock market today: Asian shares extend losses after China reports lower growth than expected

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:21:39 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Shares were mostly lower Tuesday in Asia as optimism over a Wall Street rally was countered by worries about the Chinese economy. Shares edged higher in Tokyo but fell in most other regional markets. Hong Kong’s benchmark lost 2% as it reopened after a weather related closure on Monday. On Monday, China reported weaker economic growth for the spring than most economists had expected. Its recovery following the removal of anti-COVID restrictions has fallen short of forecasts. That has helped to limit inflation globally but it also is hindering a main engine of growth for the world economy. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.2% to 32,438.27. Markets in Tokyo also were closed Monday, for a holiday. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.5% to 7,264.90. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.3% to 2,611.96. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gave up more than 400 points, falling to 19,008.06, while the Shanghai Composite dropped 0.4% to 3,196.86. On Wall Street, the S&P 500...

Israel’s president will meet with Biden as concerns over settlements, judicial overhaul continue

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:21:39 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday is hosting Israel’s figurehead president Isaac Herzog at the White House, as they seek to sustain ties despite U.S. concerns over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial plans to overhaul his country’s judicial system and ongoing settlement construction in the West Bank.Herzog’s visit comes a day after Biden spoke with Netanyahu by phone and invited him to meet in the U.S. this fall, although the president expressed reservations about several of Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition’s policies. Netanyahu’s government is pushing forward with judicial changes that have sparked widespread protest in Israel and he also has authorized the construction of thousands of new housing units in the West Bank.Netanyahu and his allies, a collection of ultra-Orthodox and ultranationalist parties, say the plan is needed to rein in the powers of unelected judges. Opponents say the plan will destroy Israel’s fragile s...

The architect of Detroit’s bankruptcy filing 10 years ago says it was the best fix for a broken city

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:21:39 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Detroit’s newly hired emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, stood before reporters in March 2013 and issued a warning to city creditors, unions, vendors and others: “Don’t make me go to bankruptcy court. You won’t enjoy it.”On July 18, 2013, the restructuring expert did just that, making Detroit the largest city in the U.S. to file for bankruptcy.What followed was months of negotiations, federal court hearings and an unlikely coming together of foundations to keep city-owned artwork from being sold to help pay off the debt.“Bankruptcy is a miserable process,” Orr, 65, told The Associated Press earlier this month, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the filing. “It puts everybody outside of their ordinary course, their common spaces.”Detroit was determined by a state-appointed review team to be in severe financial distress in 2012. Soon after, then-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder hired Orr — an attorney with the international law firm Jones Day — to take on the ...

Trump’s classified documents case set for first pretrial conference hearing before Judge Cannon

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:21:39 GMT

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida judge who issued a court ruling last year that critics said was unduly favorable to Donald Trump is set to preside Tuesday over the first pretrial conference in his landmark criminal case concerning the mishandling of classified documents.Prosecutors and defense lawyers are scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to discuss the rules and procedures that will govern how classified evidence is used in the case. It’s a routine subject for any prosecution that concerns classified information, but it’s notable because it will be Cannon’s first time hearing arguments in the case since the former president’s indictment last month.At issue during Tuesday’s arguments is a 1980 law known as the Classified Information Procedures Act. That statute governs how classified information is handled by the parties in a criminal prosecution. It’s meant to balance a defendant’s right to access evidence that prosecutors inten...

Archaeologists in Louisiana save artifacts dating back 12,000 years from natural disasters, looters

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:21:39 GMT

VERNON PARISH, La. (AP) — Long buried under the woods of west central Louisiana, stone tools, spearpoints and other evidence of people living in the area as long as 12,000 years ago have become more exposed and vulnerable, due to hurricanes, flooding and looters. This summer, archaeologists have been gingerly digging up the ground at the Vernon Parish site in the Kisatchie National Forest. They have been sifting through dirt to unearth and preserve the evidence of prehistoric occupation of the area.“The site appears to have been continuously occupied throughout prehistory, as evidenced by a wide range of stone tools and pottery dating to each Native American cultural era up to European contact,” the U.S. Forest Service said in an news release. The site was found by surveyors in 2003, according to the Forest Service. After hurricanes Laura and Delta uprooted trees, disturbing and exposing some of the artifacts, Kisatchie National Forest officials used hurricane relief money to begin ...

House Republicans propose planting a trillion trees as they move away from climate change denial

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:21:39 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Speaker Kevin McCarthy visited a natural gas drilling site in northeast Ohio to promote House Republicans’ plan to sharply increase domestic production of energy from fossil fuels last month, the signs of rising global temperatures could not be ignored. Smoke from Canadian wildfires hung in the air.When the speaker was asked about climate change and forest fires, he was ready with a response: Plant a trillion trees.The idea — simple yet massively ambitious — revealed recent Republican thinking on how to address climate change. The party is no longer denying that global warming exists, yet is searching for a response to sweltering summers, weather disasters and rising sea levels that doesn’t involve abandoning their enthusiastic support for American-produced energy from burning oil, coal and gas.“We need to manage our forests better so our environment can be stronger,” McCarthy said, adding, “Let’s replace Russian natural gas with American...

Twins’ Sonny Gray loses control, lead in fifth inning of 7-6 loss to Mariners

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:21:39 GMT

SEATTLE — After sweeping the A’s over the weekend in Oakland, the Twins had a chance to win their fourth consecutive game for the second time this season, and first since April 11-14, on Monday at T-Mobile Park.The Mariners had other ideas.Twins starter Sonny Gray started the fifth inning with a 2-0 lead and just 45 pitches on his scorecard. But the right-hander lost his command, walking two batters and hitting another, as Seattle scored four before holding on for a 7-6 victory in front of 25,770.With Cleveland’s 11-0 victory at Pittsburgh, the Twins’ lead in the American League Central was trimmed to 1½ games.The Twins made it interesting in the ninth against right-hander Ty Adcock, who started the night with an 0.69 earned-run average. Edouard Julien hit a one-out single and, after Byron Buxton’s third strikeout, Donovan Solano singled to right to bring up Max Kepler.Kepler hammered a drive into the right-field bleachers to cut the Twins’ deficit to 7-6. But Paul Sewald relieved a...

Investigators mum on Fargo shooting that killed officer

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:21:39 GMT

Authorities are answering few questions about the Friday shooting in Fargo that killed a police officer, including why the shooter opened fire.This photo provided by The City of Fargo, N.D., on Saturday, July 15, 2023 shows police officer Jake Wallin. On Saturday, Fargo’s police chief said a gunman opened fire on police and firefighters as they responded to a traffic crash in North Dakota. One officer, Wallin, was killed and two others were wounded before a fourth officer killed him. (The City of Fargo via AP)The Fargo Police Department has declined to discuss the Friday shooting that killed 23-year-old Officer Jake Wallin. Fargo Chief Communications Officer Gregg Schildberger referred questions to the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, or BCI, noting the state agency is leading the investigation.Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski did not return a message left by The Forum seeking comment on this story, but City Deputy Chief Communications Officer Katie Ettish said ...

Neighbor recalls moment house exploded in St. Charles

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:21:39 GMT

ST. CHARLES, Mo. - The St. Charles Fire Department is investigating a home explosion that sent three adults and two children to the hospital on Monday."It was very scary to see it happen. I couldn't even imagine," said Kara Schemkes.Video from her front door showed the moments after the explosion."The family was in my front yard. So I got them water, whatever they needed," Schemkes said. "They had two little babies, so I was consoling them, and I was just trying to help any way I could. I just heard this massive boom kind of like a firework in a way."Several neighbors called 911. Officials with the St. Charles Fire Department said eight fire trucks and more than 60 first responders immediately arrived on the scene. Reported house explosion in St. Charles; 5 people rushed to hospital "We had multiple victims outside the building and a one-story home fully involved," said Deputy Chief Steve Brown. "Immediate medical care began on three adults and two children."He said the victims we...