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Syria’s main insurgent group seeks to move away from al-Qaida past, get off Western terrorism lists

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:30:21 GMT

IDLIB, Syria (AP) — The leader of an insurgent group that rules much of northwest Syria rose to notoriety over the past decade by claiming deadly bombings, threatening revenge against Western “crusader” forces and dispatching Islamist religious police to crack down on women deemed to be immodestly dressed.Today the man known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani is trying hard to distance his group, Hayat Tahrir al Sham, known as HTS, from its al-Qaida origins, spreading a message of pluralism and religious tolerance.As part of the rebranding, he has cracked down on extremist factions and dissolved the notorious religious police. For the first time in more than a decade, a Mass was performed recently at a long-shuttered church in Idlib province.Al-Golani told a recent gathering of religious and local officials that Islamic law should not be imposed by force. “We don’t want the society to become hypocritical so that they pray when they see us and don’t once we leave,” al-Golani said, pointing to...

Rapids move on without Alves amid match-fixing allegations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:30:21 GMT

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (AP) — The Colorado Rapids played their first match Saturday night since attacker Max Alves was suspended by Major League Soccer after Brazil announced a national investigation into match fixing. While MLS and the Rapids did not name Alves in statements announcing the suspension, the player availability report on the league’s website listed him as “removed from team activities” ahead of a 2-1 loss at home to the Philadelphia Union. Alves, 21, played in 10 of the Rapids’ 11 games this season, with seven starts. He scored one goal.Rapids midfielder Connor Ronan said the drama surrounding Max’s suspension did not impact the team. “We’re professionals,” he said. “We had a meeting when it came out. We moved on.”Rapids coach Robin Fraser told reporters at training Thursday he had no comment beyond a team statement released Wednesday. “We are aware of the reports regarding a Colorado Rapids player in connection with unlawful sports gambling. We ...

Festival of construction equipment on the National Mall

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:30:21 GMT

Eighty big pieces of construction equipment, including excavators, cranes and asphalt pavers, painted yellow, green and red are on exhibit on the National Mall, in front of the Smithsonian Castle, Sunday through Tuesday.“The reason why we’re here, over the next three days is to really put a spotlight on all the great stuff that is happening in today’s construction industry,” said Nick Tindall, Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.The association views the exhibit as a celebration of construction equipment manufactured across the United States and worldwide.“First of all, all kids, big and small love big equipment. It’s just exciting to look at and even the little stuff is just really fascinating as well. People will be able to get inside the cabs and experience it and understand how much technology goes into the pieces of equipment. They’re not just big chunks of iron, they’re rolling comp...

Polls open in Turkey’s elections that could extend Erdogan’s term or set country on new course

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:30:21 GMT

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Polls open in Turkey’s elections that could extend Erdogan’s term or set country on new course.Source

Regional election in north German state of Bremen a test for center-left alliance

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:30:21 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Voters are going to the polls in Germany’s northern state of Bremen on Sunday to decide whether the center-left Social Democrats should continue to run a city they’ve governed since World War II.The party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz came second behind its conservative rivals for the first time in 70 years at the last election, but retained power with the help of the Greens and Left party.While recent polls show greater support for the Social Democrats than their challengers from the Christian Democratic Union, both of Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte’s junior coalition partners have lost ground.The Greens, in particular, have suffered setbacks due to criticism of their energy policies at the national level, where they are in a coalition with the Social Democrats and the libertarian Free Democrats.Almost 500,000 voters aged 16 and older in Bremen and its North Sea exclave, Bremerhaven, are eligible to cast their ballots. Polls close at 6 p.m. (1600GMT; 12 EDT), after whic...

Cease-fire between Israel and militants in Gaza appears to hold after days of fighting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:30:21 GMT

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — A fragile cease-fire between Israeli forces and militants in the Gaza Strip appeared to be holding on Sunday, after a five-day clash that killed 33 Palestinians and two people in Israel.The latest round of Gaza fighting was sparked Tuesday when Israeli jets killed three top commanders from the Islamic Jihad militant group in response to earlier rocket launches from Gaza. Those killings set off a barrage of militant fire and the conflagration threatened to drag the region into another all-out war until an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire took hold late Saturday.While the calm appeared to bring a sense of relief to Gaza’s 2 million people and hundreds of thousands of Israelis who had been largely confined to bomb shelters in recent days, the agreement did nothing to address the underlying issues that have fueled numerous rounds of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip over the years. In Gaza, residents surveyed the lat...

Large fight breaks out, police respond to political party’s Minneapolis city council campaign event

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:30:21 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A brawl broke out at a political party’s campaign event for Minneapolis City Council candidates Saturday, resulting in a call to police and injuries following the fight sparked by loud disagreements over nominations.At least one person was transported to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries and another was treated at the scene of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party’s endorsing convention for Minneapolis Ward 10, the Star Tribune reported.Officers made no arrests at the Ella Baker Global Studies & Humanities Magnet School, Minneapolis police spokesman Brian Feintech told the Star Tribune.Video posted on social media showed the disturbance begin after supporters of Minneapolis Council Member Aisha Chughtai took the stage, which caused an uproar among supporters of her challenger, Nasri Warsame.Some Warsame supporters jumped on stage, shouting, banging on tables and waving signs, the Star Tribune reported.Convention chair Sam Doten called the be...

German president welcomes Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Berlin on first visit to country since Russian invasion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:30:21 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — German president welcomes Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Berlin on first visit to country since Russian invasion.Source

‘In the hands of God’: One Venezuelan family’s journey to the US

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:30:21 GMT

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — When Luis López was lost in Panama’s Darien Gap last year with his wife, then seven months pregnant, their two young children and her grandmother, he often knelt in the mud to beg God not to abandon them.“If I was bad, let me die here, but I came with my family,” the Venezuelan asylum seeker, 34, recalled on Friday of his prayers. Now in El Paso, the family has found shelter with the Catholic diocese.But “la selva” — as many migrants call that particularly deadly stretch of their journey from South America to the United States — struck again two weeks ago. López’s sister called him in tears: She, too, had to flee and was now stuck in the jungle with their 68-year-old mother, who was badly injured from a fall trying to escape armed men.Rescued by Panama’s border police, the two women are now en route to Texas. They don’t know how they will cross into the U.S., though, as new restrictions on asylum went into effect last Thursday after pandemic-era immigrati...

Bangladesh, Myanmar brace as powerful Cyclone Mocha makes landfall

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:30:21 GMT

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh and Myanmar braced Sunday as a severe cyclone started to hit coastal areas and authorities urged thousands of people in both countries to seek shelter.The outermost band of Cyclone Mocha reached the coast of Myanmar’s Rakhine state on Sunday morning, and by afternoon the center of the storm was expected to make landfall near Sittwe township, which was under the highest weather alert, Myanmar’s Meteorological Department said Sunday.More than 4,000 of Sittwe’s 300,000 residents have been evacuated to other cities since Friday and more than 20,000 people are sheltering in sturdy buildings such as monasteries, pagodas and schools located on the city’s highlands, said Tin Nyein Oo, who is helping people in shelters in Sittwe. Many local residents live in areas more than 3 meters above sea level, places where residents believe the storm surge cannot reach, he added.Strong winds of 40 to 48 kilometers per hour (25 to 40 miles per hour) ...