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Massive blast in Dominican Republic kills at least 10

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:15:19 GMT

By Gerardo Lemos and Jessica Hasbun | CNNAt least 10 people died and 37 more were injured in an explosion in the Dominican Republic on Monday, according to the office of President Luis Abinader.A further 11 people are missing following the blast, which occurred in the town of San Cristobal in the south of the country, the president’s office said in a statement Tuesday.More than two dozen rescue units responded to the explosion, and the injured were taken to various hospitals. The cause of the explosion has not been established, added the statement.In remarks from the National Palace on Monday, President Luis Abinader expressed his concern for the situation and said he is closely following events, state broadcaster RTVD’s Central 4 Noticias reported.

Taliban have no plans to lift ban on female education

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:15:19 GMT

By Riazat Butt | Associated PressKANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Taliban view their rule of Afghanistan as open-ended, drawing legitimacy from Islamic law and facing no significant threat, their chief spokesman said in an interview marking the second anniversary of the Taliban takeover of the country. He also indicated a ban on female education will remain in place.Zabihullah Mujahid brushed aside any questions from The Associated Press about restrictions on girls and women, saying the status quo will remain. The ban on girls attending school beyond sixth grade was the first of what became a flurry of restrictions that now keep Afghan women from classrooms, most jobs and much of public life.The Taliban seized power on Aug. 15, 2021, as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew from the country after two decades of war. To mark the anniversary, Tuesday was declared a public holiday. Women, largely barred from public life, didn’t take part in the festivities.In the southern city of Kandahar, th...

Bay Area, California hotel sales implode as investors flee sector

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:15:19 GMT

OAKLAND — Sales activity for the hotel markets in the Bay Area and California, in a renewed sign of the sector’s collapse following the coronavirus outbreak, imploded during the first half of 2023.The number of hotels sold in the Bay Area and statewide tumbled over the first six months of this year at a pace that was reminiscent of the nosedive that the lodging industry suffered in California in the wake of the last recession of 2008 and 2009.“We have seen nothing like this, nothing this bad,” said Alan Reay, president of Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group, which tracks the hotel industry in California.Reay’s reference point is broad: Atlas Hospitality has been analyzing the statewide lodging sector for more than 20 years.Specifically, the number of hotels sold in California during the first half of 2023 plunged by 52.9% compared with the first six months of 2022, Atlas Hospitality Group reported.In 2009, at the tail-end of the last recession, hotel s...

GetDandy: The First AI-Powered Reputation Automation Platform

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:15:19 GMT

Sponsored ContentReputation can make or break businesses, and GetDandy is here to ensure sterling and reliable reputation management services for companies big and small. Founded by CEO Alex Bellini, the California-based company has developed a trailblazing reputation management platform.GetDandy applies AI’s limitless possibilities to both customer experience and reputation management. The pioneering business is the first AI-powered reputation automation company for businesses with a first-of-its-kind review scoring and dispute tool. With GetDandy’s ability to remove negative reviews, bad online reviews no longer have to cause irreparable damage to a business’s sales and image.Bellini’s family-owned San Diego auto repair shop first taught the CEO the importance of online reviews, shedding light on how more reviews often equate to more traction and sales. Gaining insight into the damage that unfair and illegitimate bad reviews can cause businesses, Bellini sought solutions by foundi...

Recall Alameda DA Pamela Price movement files official notice

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:15:19 GMT

(KRON) -- A movement to recall Alameda District Attorney Pamela Price became official Tuesday as members of the group backing it filed a Notice of Intent with Alameda County officials. Members of "Save Alameda for Everyone (SAFE)" sent photos of themselves filing the paperwork to begin the recall process. Teen girls nabbed after San Francisco business ransacked After being duly elected by voters last year, DA Price has frequently come under attack for what critics say are overly progressive policies toward criminal justice."As crime spirals out of control on Alameda County streets, DA Price reduces sentencing for criminals and even refuses to charge violent felons with crimes," read a statement from the recall effort.The statement cited statistics from the Oakland Police Department, stating that homicides are up 80% compared to pre-pandemic numbers and that violent crime and burglaries are up from a year ago at 15% and 40% respectively."African Americans are disproportionately hit...

New dates for Madonna's Celebration Tour SF shows announced

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:15:19 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Madonna has announced new dates for her Celebration Tour at San Francisco's Chase Center. The tour had been delayed due to an unspecified health problem the singer had reportedly been undergoing. Teen girls nabbed after San Francisco business ransacked Two of the shows, which were originally scheduled for October, have now been rescheduled for February 27 and 28. A third show, scheduled for January 15, has been canceled Chase Center announced in a social media post.Tickets purchased for the original October shows will be valid for the new dates. Refunds for the January 15 show will be applied at the point of purchase, according to Chase Center.

Burglar who hid in room while resident was home arrested in Santa Rosa

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:15:19 GMT

(KRON) -- Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies arrested a man on Friday night they say broke into a Santa Rosa home and hid behind a locked door in a room. Deputies were dispatched to the home on the 5200 block of Faught Road at around 11:10 p.m.The resident, police said, had been home for around eight hours when he noticed his safe was missing and that his dogs were agitated. There was a handgun in the safe, he told deputies. Federal workers in SF told to work from home due to safety concerns: reports Deputies conducted a search of the home and found a locked door. They heard noises coming from inside when they tried to open it. They kicked down the door and saw the suspect, later identified as Richard Robertson, Jr., 36, climbing out the window.The victim's safe was on the floor in the room. Teen girls nabbed after San Francisco business ransacked Despite deputies' orders to stop, Robertson Jr. ran and climbed a fence into a neighbor's yard. Police advised him they would deploy a ...

A study of links between fracking and health issues will be released by Pennsylvania researchers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:15:19 GMT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Researchers in heavily drilled Pennsylvania were preparing Tuesday to release findings from taxpayer-financed studies on possible links between the natural gas industry and pediatric cancer, asthma and poor birth outcomes.The four-year, $2.5 million project is wrapping up after the state’s former governor, Democrat Tom Wolf, in 2019 agreed to commission it under pressure from the families of pediatric cancer patients who live amid the nation’s most prolific natural gas reservoir in western Pennsylvania.A number of states have strengthened their laws around fracking and waste disposal over the past decade. However, researchers have repeatedly said that regulatory shortcomings leave an incomplete picture of the amount of toxic substances the industry emits into the air, injects into the ground or produces as waste.The Pennsylvania-funded study involves University of Pittsburgh researchers and comes on the heels of other major studies that are finding...

Georgia election indictment highlights wider attempts to illegally access voting equipment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:15:19 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A day after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, as the country was still reeling from the violent attempt to halt the transfer of presidential power, a local Republican Party official greeted a group of computer experts outside the election office in a rural county in south Georgia, where they were given access to voting equipment.Their intent was to copy software and data from the election systems in an attempt to prove claims by President Donald Trump and his allies that voting machines had been rigged to flip the 2020 election to his challenger, Democrat Joe Biden, according to a wide-ranging indictment issued late Monday.Several of those involved are among the 19 people, including the former president, charged with multiple counts in what Georgia prosecutors describe as a “conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”The charges related to the breach of election equipment in Coffee County highlight that the pressure camp...

‘Wounded Indian’ sculpture given in 1800s to group founded by Paul Revere is returning to Boston

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:15:19 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — A marble statue that depicts a felled Native American pulling an arrow from his torso is being returned to the Boston-area organization cofounded by Paul Revere that thought it had been destroyed decades ago.“Wounded Indian,” sculpted in 1850 by Peter Stephenson and modeled on the ancient Roman statue “Dying Gaul,” was a gift to the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association in 1893 and was displayed in its exhibition hall, according to Cultural Heritage Partners, the law firm that represented the Boston organization during negotiations.That hall was sold in 1958, and the association was told that during the chaos of moving and distributing its assets to other area cultural institutions, the sculpture was accidentally destroyed and tossed away.But the life-size piece showed up 30 years later at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia.The mechanic association started pressuring the Chrysler Museum for the sculpture’s return as far back as 1999 and stepp...