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Gaza authorities say at least 45 Palestinians killed in Israeli strike on a refugee camp

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:36 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Gaza’s interior ministry on Thursday said that an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza has killed at least 45 people and wounded dozens more.Eyad Bozum, the spokesperson of the interior ministry, told The Associated Press that a late afternoon airstrike hit the al-Shihab family house at the center of the Jabaliya camp. The al-Shihab house was packed with dozens of relatives at the time of the airstrike. Some family members had fled heavy bombing from other parts of the strip and taken refuge there. Bozum said the death toll was likely to rise from that airstrike, because civil defense workers were still pulling bodies from the rubble and counting the dead.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israel military pulverized the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with airstrikes, prepared for a possible ground invasion and said Thursday its complete siege on the terr...

French police are probing possible poisoning of Russian journalist who denounced Ukraine war on TV

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:36 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French prosecutors are investigating a suspected poisoning Thursday of a Russian journalist who fled after denouncing the war in Ukraine on live TV.Marina Ovsyannikova called emergency services and was hospitalized after suddenly falling ill as she left her Paris apartment and said she suspected she was poisoned, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.Police were examining her apartment and an investigation was underway, the prosecutor’s office said.Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, which helped Ovsyannikova escape Russia and settle in France, said its team has been ‘’at her side’’ since she sought medical attention. The group, known also by its French acronym RSF, did not have further information about what happened.Ovsyannikova, who worked at Russian state television Channel One, drew international attention in March 2022 after appearing behind the anchor of an evening news broadcast with a sign that said, “Stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lyin...

California governor signs 2 major proposals for mental health reform to go before voters in 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:36 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two major pieces of legislation Thursday to transform the state’s mental health system and address the state’s worsening homelessness crisis, putting them both before voters in 2024.The Democratic governor needs voters’ approval because he wants to borrow billions of dollars through a bond to pay for the proposals. They would allow the state to borrow $6.38 billion for 11,150 new treatment beds, housing and 26,700 outpatient treatment slots to serve up to 100,000 people a year. The measure also would overhaul how counties pay for mental and behavioral health programs. Newsom spoke to state and local leaders at an event Thursday in a historic hospital in Los Angeles, cheered by those present as he signed the measures. The vacant General Hospital is being converted into roughly 1,000 affordable units.Newsom said the proposals will bring accountability to the system, adding he understands why residents in C...

2nd grand jury indicts officer for involuntary manslaughter in Virginia mall shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:36 GMT

McLEAN, Va. (AP) — A special grand jury in Virginia indicted a former police officer on Thursday for involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed shoplifting suspect outside a suburban shopping mall.Wesley Shifflett, a Fairfax County police officer assigned to patrol the busy Tysons Corner Center shopping mall at the time of the shooting in February, was also charged with reckless discharge of a weapon. Timothy McCree Johnson, 37, was shot and killed outside the mall after two officers chased him when a security guard said he had stolen sunglasses from a Nordstrom department store. While both officers shot at Johnson, an investigation determined Shifflett fired the fatal shot, police said.In April, a grand jury declined to indict Shifflett. It was then that Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano initiated a special grand jury to reinvestigate. Descano said Virginia law gives him greater ability to oversee the investigation. When the initial grand ...

Gaza’s interior ministry says at least 45 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on house in northern refugee camp

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:36 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza’s interior ministry says at least 45 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on house in northern refugee camp.Source

First-place Lions, Buccaneers look to improve on fast starts in matchup of one-loss division leaders

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:36 GMT

DETROIT (4-1) at TAMPA BAY (3-1)Sunday, 4:25 p.m. EDT, FOXFANDUEL SPORTSBOOK NFL LINE: Lions by 3.AGAINST THE SPREAD: Detroit 4-1; Tampa Bay 3-1.SERIES RECORD: Lions lead 31-29, including postseason.LAST MEETING: Buccaneers beat Lions 47-7 on Dec. 26, 2020, in Detroit.LAST WEEK: Lions beat Panthers 42-24 in Detroit, Buccaneers bye.LIONS OFFENSE: OVERALL (6), RUSH (7), PASS (9), SCORING (4).LIONS DEFENSE: OVERALL (6), RUSH (3), PASS (17), SCORING (15).BUCCANEERS OFFENSE: OVERALL (22), RUSH (25), PASS (14), SCORING (T20).BUCCANEERS DEFENSE: OVERALL (11), RUSH (10), PASS (16), SCORING (8).TURNOVER DIFFERENTIAL: Lions plus 1; Buccaneers plus-7.LIONS PLAYER TO WATCH: RB David Montgomery. The former Bears standout set a Detroit record with six touchdowns in his first four games with the franchise. ​If he runs for a score Sunday, he will be the first non-rookie in league history to have seven rushing touchdowns in his first five games with a new team. Montgomery is averaging 93 yards rushi...

Zimbabwe opposition leader demands the reinstatement of party lawmakers kicked out of Parliament

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:36 GMT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader on Thursday urged the Parliament speaker to reinstate 15 of his party’s lawmakers, saying they were removed from their positions because of a fraudulent letter.Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa said the lawmakers’ removal was part of an attempt by the ruling ZANU-PF party “to silence us.”The issue has added to the political tension in the southern African nation since President Emmerson Mnangagwa won a second term and ZANU-PF retained its parliamentary majority in disputed elections in August. Chamisa rejected the results of the elections as a “blatant and gigantic fraud.”The lawmakers from Chamisa’s Citizens Coalition for Change party were removed Tuesday after a man claiming to be the secretary-general of the CCC sent a letter to Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda saying they were being withdrawn.Chamisa told Mudenda the man who sent the letter had no authority in his party and was an impostor, and h...

Former Fairfax Co. officer who shot unarmed man outside Tysons mall indicted by special grand jury

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:36 GMT

A former Fairfax County, Virginia, police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man suspected of shoplifting from the Tysons Corner Center mall, has been indicted by a special grand jury.Sgt. Wesley Shifflett was indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless discharge of a firearm, according to the office of Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano.Shifflett shot Timothy McCree Johnson, 37, on Feb. 22 after Shifflett and another officer chased Johnson on foot outside the mall after getting a report that a man had stolen sunglasses from a Nordstrom store.“The work of public safety includes charging officers for crimes when such actions are legally warranted,” Descano said in a statement. “After reviewing the evidence in this case, I believe that probable cause existed that Shifflett committed a crime, and that the entirety of the evidence should be put to a jury of community members.”This is the second grand jury to investigate the sho...

Walt Garrison, who played for Cowboys in college and NFL and competed as cowboy in rodeos, has died

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:36 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — Walt Garrison, who led the Big 8 in rushing as an Oklahoma State Cowboy, won a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys, and in the NFL offseason competed as a rodeo cowboy, has died. He was 79.The NFL team said in a story posted on its website Thursday that Garrison died overnight. It did not give a cause of death. A fifth-round draft choice out of Oklahoma State University, Garrison played nine years in Dallas and retired in 1974 as the No. 3 rusher and No. 4 receiver in franchise history. He is still fourth on Dallas’ all-time list with 4.32 yards per carry and ninth with 3,491 rushing yards.But it was Garrison’s rodeo career — which he called his first love — that made him the ultimate cowboy. As a little-used backup during his rookie season, the Cowboys said he would go out after team meetings and compete in local rodeos as a steer wrestler, then get back to the hotel before 11 p.m. curfew.“I wasn’t starting,” Garrison was quoted as saying. “I was returning punts and ki...

Political action committee fined in Maryland for text message without identifying line

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:55:36 GMT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A conservative political action committee has been fined $20,250 in Maryland for failing to include information in the text message to identify who was sending it during a school board election, officials said Thursday.The 1776 Project PAC was fined for sending 13,879 text messages to Carroll County voters in last year’s school board election without noting it was the source of the message, according to a news release from Maryland State Prosecutor Charlton Howard and State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis.Maryland law requires campaign messages sent on behalf of candidates to record who paid for the information to be distributed.Violations have traditionally been sanctioned with minimal citations, but Howard and DeMarinis noted that technology now allows candidates to reach thousands of people with the press of a button.“Being able to identify the source of information for campaign material is essential to honesty and transparency in our electo...