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Norway’s Mowinckel becomes first skier to be disqualified under new rule banning fluorinated wax

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:12:55 GMT

SOELDEN, Austria (AP) — Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel left the finish area of the season-opening women’s World Cup race in tears Saturday after becoming the first skier to be disqualified for a forbidden type of wax on her skis.Mowinckel, a two-time Olympic silver medalist from the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, had finished the first leg in sixth place before her skis failed the mandatory post-run test by FIS officials, who took her out of the competition.The race was won by Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland, while Mikaela Shiffrin placed sixth.A rule in effect this season forbids the use of fluorinated wax in the pre-race preparation of skis.FIS banned the substance from its competitions after years of debate about the potential harm fluorinated wax can cause to health and the environment.“We must find out what happened. We are not trying to cheat, because that is the worst thing for me,” Mowinckel told Norwegian broadcaster TV 2.Peter Gerdol, the women’s race director of t...

Russia accuses Ukraine of damaging a nuclear waste warehouse as the battle for Avdiivika grinds on

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:12:55 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of damaging a nuclear waste storage facility in a drone strike on the Kursk nuclear power plant while fighting raged on for the control of the key eastern city of Avdiivika, where Russians apparently suffered heavy losses. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that three drones armed with explosives targeted the power plant on Thursday evening. 26, hitting both the station’s administration building and a warehouse storing nuclear waste.The press service for the Kursk nuclear power plant confirmed the strike on Friday, but told journalists that there had been no significant damage or casualties and that operations were continuing as normal.Russia’s Defence Ministry said that the country’s air defences shot down six Ukrainian drones in the early hours of Saturday, including four in the western Oryol region, and two more over the Tula region, south of Moscow.Ukraine’s air force reported four Iskander cruise missiles over the country’s...

Two people shot, injured in altercation at Worcester State University

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:12:55 GMT

WORCESTER, Massachusetts (AP) — A university campus in Massachusetts was locked down for seven hours Saturday after two people were shot in an altercation near a parking garage, authorities said.Neither the victims, who were hospitalized, nor the assailants were students at Worcester State University, according to a spokesperson for Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early. A shelter-in-place order was being lifted around 9:30 a.m. but authorities urged the public to avoid areas where police were working, spokesperson Lindsay Corcoran said.Massachusetts State Police said the shooting happened shortly before 3 a.m. near Wasylean Hall and Sheehan Hall. “Preliminary investigation suggests the incident was the result of an altercation and was not an active shooter incident,” Dave Procopio, director of media communications, said in a press release.“It is premature to state that a suspect is in custody. Investigators are still probing all the facts and circumstances of the in...

Pedestrian struck by City of Toronto vehicle at Mooregate Park

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:12:55 GMT

A pedestrian has been struck by a City of Toronto vehicle while reportedly sleeping in Mooregate Park.Toronto police say they were called to the park at Treverton Drive and Mooregate Avenue near Kennedy Road and Eglinton Avenue just after 8 a.m. Saturday morning.It’s believed the pedestrian was sleeping under a bay when they were struck by the vehicle. They were transported to hospital by paramedics.It’s unknow the severity of their injuries.

Louisiana and Amtrak agree to revive train service between New Orleans, Baton Rouge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:12:55 GMT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana is a step closer to connecting its capital city to New Orleans via a revived train line.Gov. John Bel Edwards has signed a service development agreement that will advance the return of intercity passenger rail service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, about an hour-long commute. The agreement, signed Thursday, is a breakthrough for a project that has been in the works since 2008.“All eight years I’ve been governor, I’ve been working to reestablish rail service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans,” Edwards told WBRZ-TV.According to the agreement, passenger service could start as early as 2027. The plan is to start with one round trip a day. More rides will be added as riders increase. Along the route, passengers can expect stops in Gonzales, Laplace, and Jefferson Parish.“An Amtrak line connecting Louisiana’s capital to the largest metropolitan area in the state will have immense economic benefits for both cities and the parishes in between,” Edwa...

Adel Omran, Associated Press video producer in Libya, dies at 46

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:12:55 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Adel Omran, a video producer in chaos-stricken Libya for The Associated Press, has died. He was 46. Omran died at his family home in the Egyptian Mediterranean city of Port Said early Friday after suffering a heart attack, his family said.Before joining the AP more than a decade ago, Omran worked as a hotel manager in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. He decided to return to his native Libya to work as a journalist in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. He became a pillar of AP coverage of the NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 and led to his killing. Omran was a mentor to many of the country’s younger journalists.“During a difficult period in the country’s history, Adel was able to network and establish contacts and stringers across Libya,” said Derl McCrudden, AP’s vice president and head of global news production. “He also had a competitive desire to get the story out and this was a great combination.”Omr...

WATCH LIVE | Maine mass killing suspect found dead, ending search that put entire state on edge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:12:55 GMT

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — The Army reservist who opened fire in a bowling alley and then at a bar in Lewiston, Maine, killing 18 people, was found dead Friday from a self-inflicted gunshot, ending an intensive two-day search that had the state on edge.Robert Card, a firearms instructor who grew up in the area, was found dead in nearby Lisbon Falls, Gov. Janet Mills said at a Friday night news conference.“Like many people I’m breathing a sigh of relief tonight knowing that Robert Card is no longer a threat to anyone,” Mills said.April Stevens, a Lewiston resident who knew one of the victims, said she was relieved to learn that the “monster and coward” who inflicted so much pain was no longer a danger.“I’m relieved but not happy," she said. "There was too much death. Too many people were hurt. Relieved, yes, happy, no.”Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said Card was found at 7:45 p.m. near the Androscoggin River, about 8 miles (13 kilometers) southeast of wher...

How do you minimize damage if a deer runs in front of your car?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:12:55 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — You may have noticed more deer making an appearance lately, especially near roadways.“This time of year is what we call the ‘deer rut,’ which is basically mating season for deer," said Falyn Owens, an extension wildlife biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. "They’re moving around a whole lot more than they do under normal circumstances.”More deer on the move means drivers should be extra careful on the road.According to Car and Driver, an average of about 2.1 million vehicle crashes involving deer occur in the U.S. each year. Additionally, most research indicates that over 90% of deer collisions result in damage to the vehicle involved, according to the Federal Highway Administration.A motorist comes to a complete stop on Route 88 in Wheeling, West Virginia, as a deer crosses the road, Monday, Nov. 15, 2004. Cars crash into deer more than 4,000 times a day. (AP Photo/The Wheeling Intelligencer, Scott McCloskey)Deer are active anytime...

David Brooks: Searching for humanity in the Middle East

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:12:55 GMT

We’re living through an era of collapsing paradigms. The conceptual frames that many people use to organize their understanding of the world are crashing and burning upon contact with Middle Eastern reality.Woke-ismThe first paradigm that failed this month was critical race theory or woke-ism.Yascha Mounk has a good history of this body of thought in his outstanding book “The Identity Trap.” But as it applies to the Middle East, the relevant ideas in this paradigm are these: International conflicts can be seen through a prism of American identity categories like race. In any situation, there are evil people who are colonizer/oppressors and good people who are colonized/oppressed. It’s not necessary to know about the particular facts about any global conflict, because of intersectionality: All struggles are part of the same struggle between the oppressors and the oppressed.This paradigm shapes how many on the campus left saw the Hamas terror attacks and were thus pushed into a series...

Soucheray: We’re just islands in the anti-automobile stream

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:12:55 GMT

Street construction in St. Paul features concrete islands being built on Fairview Avenue between Montreal and Randolph avenues. Maybe between Edgcumbe Road and Randolph. Hard to say. The Fairview project has been underway since about 1956, it seems, and it’s been difficult to get a picture of whatever the vision might be.The fellows could be hard at work in other parts of the city, too. Islands might be the new fad.The islands appear to be architectural affectations that serve only to remind motorists that they are unwanted. Perhaps they are intended to be calming. We seem to elect people who, if they even own a car, do so reluctantly and apparently believe that motoring is a wild exercise fraught with anxiety and danger. So, they fuss and jimmy with perfectly good streets and create, to induce calming, bump-outs, more bike lanes and islands, which only increase blood pressure.Perhaps the islands are meant to be sanctuaries for pedestrians. Maybe pedestrians are now supposed to cros...