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Brutal killings of women in Western Balkan countries trigger alarm and expose faults in the system

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:24:44 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A man in Bosnia killed his wife and streamed the murder live on Instagram. In neighboring Serbia, 27 women were killed in gender-based attacks this year, despite efforts to raise awareness and reverse the trend. Activists in Kosovo say violence against women there is a “national emergency.”Throughout the Western Balkans, women are harassed, raped, beaten and killed, often by their partners and after repeatedly reporting the violence to the authorities. The region is staunchly conservative, with a centuries-old tradition of male dominance, but the problem surged following the wars in the 1990s and the political, economic and social crises that have persisted since the conflicts ended. In response, women’s groups in the region have organized protests to draw public attention and demand action. They have set up help lines and shelters for women. But activists blame authorities for not acting more decisively to protect women and counter a culture of impunity. The...

AP PHOTOS: Photographers in Asia capture the extraordinary, tragic and wonderful in 2023

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:24:44 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Individually, the photographs are the product of a moment, capturing glimpses of joy, grief, rage, hope, and resilience. As a whole, the work this year of Associated Press photojournalists in Asia forms a visual patchwork quilt, an extraordinary reflection of the varied panoply of human experience in one of the world’s most fascinating regions.Some of these pictures delight. Some horrify.Some, even after repeated examination, retain a sense of mystery.Take an American ballerina, clad in shimmering white, caught in a blur of revolving motion as she rehearses in China. Or a Muslim bride who gazes pensively through a saffron-colored veil during a mass wedding ceremony in Indian-controlled Kashmir.Or footprints left in a patch of green moss after prayers in New Delhi.In Malaysia, a base jumper dives from a tower above the sparkling city lights of Kuala Lumpur at night. Blood splatters like raindrops from the tattooed body of a Filipino penitent as he flagellates himself to ...

Handcuffed and sent to the ER – for misbehavior: Schools are sending more kids to the hospital

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:24:44 GMT

SALISBURY, Md. (AP) — Three times a week, on average, a police car pulls up to a school in Wicomico County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. A student is brought out, handcuffed and placed inside for transport to a hospital emergency room for a psychiatric evaluation.Over the past eight years, the process has been used at least 750 times on students. Some are as young as 5 years old. The state law that allows for these removals, known as petitions for emergency evaluation, is meant to be limited to people with severe mental illness, who are endangering their own lives or safety or someone else’s. It’s the first step toward getting someone involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital. But advocates say schools across the country are sending children to the emergency room for psychiatric evaluations in response to behaviors prompted by bullying or frustration over assignments. The ER trips, they say, often follow months, and sometimes years, of their needs not being met. Black student...

Biden is spending most of the week raising money at events with James Taylor and Steven Spielberg

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:24:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is making a big push to raise money for his reelection effort before the end of the year, appearing at seven events through next Monday — with more to come. Biden was traveling to Massachusetts on Tuesday to schmooze with donors at a trio of Boston fundraisers to benefit his campaign and the broader Democratic Party, including an event in the city’s theater district featuring a concert by singer-songwriter and guitarist James Taylor.Later this week, the Democrat will touch down on the West Coast on Friday for his first Los Angeles fundraisers since the end of the strikes by actors and screenwriters, featuring film director Steven Spielberg and “Scandal” showrunner Shonda Rhimes, among other celebrities. Biden will also attend a fundraiser Wednesday near the White House and another one on Monday in Philadelphia. “This next election is going to be different,” the president said last week at a money event in Denver, where he sought to draw co...

The Supreme Court is taking up a case that could rule out a tax on wealth favored by some Democrats

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:24:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking up a case Tuesday over a Washington couple’s $15,000 tax bill that is widely seen as a test of a never-enacted tax on wealth.A decision in favor of Charles and Kathleen Moore of Redmond, Washington, could strike down a provision of the 2017 tax bill that is expected to bring in $340 billion, threaten other provisions of the tax code and rule out a wealth tax that is favored by some Democrats who argue that the wealthiest Americans don’t pay their fair share of taxes.Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who was Speaker of the House when the tax bill was passed by a Republican Congress and signed into law by then-President Donald Trump, has called the challenge “misguided” and said “a lot of the tax code would be unconstitutional if that thing prevailed.”The couple is backed by conservative political groups and business interests, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.The law applies to companies that are owned by Americans, bu...

The fourth GOP debate will be a key moment for the young NewsNation cable network

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:24:44 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — By airing the fourth Republican presidential primary debate scheduled for Wednesday — again, minus Donald Trump — the young NewsNation television network will almost certainly reach the largest audience in its history.Yet with two of the three debate moderators associated with conservative media and not NewsNation, including podcast star Megyn Kelly, the event threatens to be at odds with the centrist image the network is trying to cultivate.“I think it’s an amazing opportunity and allows us to have more people fully sample the network and see who we are and what we’re doing,” said Cherie Grzech, NewsNation’s senior vice president of news and politics.Her advice to those who have doubts about how NewsNation can pull it off: Just watch.A NETWORK STILL SEEKING AN AUDIENCEThe debate is to air from 8 to 10 p.m. ET and will also be shown on the CW network, which like NewsNation is owned by the Nexstar Media Group. The CW will show it live in the eastern ...

In the salt deserts bordering Pakistan, India builds its largest renewable energy project

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:24:44 GMT

KHAVDA, India (AP) — Rising from the bare expanse of the large salt desert that separates India from Pakistan is what will likely be the world’s largest renewable energy project when completed three years from now.The solar and wind energy project will be so big that it will be visible from space, according to developers of what is called the Khavda renewable energy park, named after the village nearest to the project site. At the site, thousands of laborers install pillars on which solar panels will be mounted. The pillars rise like perfectly aligned concrete cactuses that stretch as far as the eye can see. Other workers are building foundations for enormous wind turbines to be installed; they also are transporting construction material, building substations and laying wires for miles. When completed, the project will be about as large as Singapore, spreading out over 726 square kilometers (280 square miles). The Indian government estimates it will cost at least $2.26 billion...

Emotional vigil held for 17-year-old shot, killed in Westlake

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:24:44 GMT

Family and friends gathered for an emotional vigil Monday night in L.A.’s Westlake neighborhood to remember a 17-year-old boy who was shot and killed Saturday night.  According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the original call regarding an assault with a deadly weapon with shots fired came in around 7:10 p.m. in the 200 block of North Lake Street across from Lake Street Primary School.   The 17-year-old victim, identified by family as Gabriel Quintas, suffered at least one gunshot wound to the chest, police said, and he was quickly transported to a local hospital in critical condition.   He died due to his injuries on Sunday, law enforcement officials confirmed. “My son, he had a beautiful spirit. He was very special, he was very unique,” the teen’s mother, Marisel Rams told KTLA at the vigil. “He was kindhearted. He wanted everybody to be in a good mood and whoever killed him, they didn’t know that. They didn’t know him. They took my boy from me....

Former Olympian sentenced for deliberately crashing plane in YouTube publicity stunt

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:24:44 GMT

LOS ANGELES - An extreme sports athlete from Santa Barbara County was sentenced to six months in federal prison on Monday for intentionally crashing a small plane for a YouTube stunt and then destroying the wreckage.In November 2021, authorities say Trevor Jacob, 30, took off from the Lompoc City Airport in his single-engine Taylorcraft BL-65 on a solo flight purportedly destined for Mammoth Lakes.About 30 minutes later, while flying above the Los Padres National Forest, a YouTube video titled “I Crashed My Airplane” shows Jacob saying the plane's lone engine had failed.“Holy ****! I’m over the mountains and I have an engine out,” he says.On Nov. 24, 2021, Jacob took off from the Lompoc City Airport in his single-engine Taylorcraft BL-65 on a solo flight purported destined for Mammoth Lakes. (YouTube: @TrevorJacob)Jacob jumped from the plane and videotaped himself parachuting to the ground. Cameras mounted inside and outside of the plane showed the aircraft descend and eventually cr...

Here’s how Malibu plans to get drivers to slow down

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:24:44 GMT

An ambitious multi-million-dollar project begins Monday to improve safety and traffic flow along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, including the area where four Pepperdine University students were killed in a crash in October.As part of the “Traffic Signal Synchronization Project,” crews will install communication lines between existing traffic signals on PCH between John Tyler Drive and Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Officials said this will allow signals to be controlled remotely by Caltrans to lower speeds and reduce congestion.Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California. (Getty Images)“The new equipment will capture real-time traffic data and send it to the traffic signal controllers, which will use state-of-the art software to adjust the traffic signal timing to actual traffic volume,” the city of Malibu said on its website. “Vehicles going the speed over the speed limit will encounter red lights, while those going the speed limit will encounter green lights.”The project also include...