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Fireworks workshop explosion leaves at least 4 dead in Mexico’s central state of Puebla

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:33 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The explosion of a fireworks workshop near Mexico’s Gulf coast left at least four men killed, authorities in the central state of Puebla said Wednesday.The blast occurred Tuesday in the township of Xiutetelco, Puebla, near the border with the neighboring state of Veracruz.Three of the men, including the owner of the workshop, died at the scene, according to the Puebla State Interior Department.Another man died of his injuries at a local hospital, and a fifth victim was severely injured. Four of the five victims were in their 20s. Fireworks explosions occur with depressing regularity in Mexico, often at unlicensed workshops with few safety precautions. However, officials said the most recent blast occurred at a shop that was licensed and inspected by Mexico’s Defense Department, which is responsible for regulating the industry.Fireworks feature prominently in local festivals, which use everything from firecrackers and roman candles to powerful rockets.I...

New ‘Spider-Man’ video game features more heroes and a bigger New York sandbox

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:33 GMT

Expect more of pretty much everything in “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.”The new video game features two playable Spider-Men in Peter Parker and Miles Morales, as well an expanded New York sandbox to play in. “Double the protagonists, double the city and a whole lot more sand in the sand box,” said Doug Sheahan, senior programming director at Insomniac Games.The boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens are featured in the game for the first time. Villains include Venom, Kraven the Hunter and Lizard, among others.Showcasing the game on PlayStation 5 allowed developers to “let our creativity run a little bit wider,” according to Sheahan.That’s shown in the game’s opening, a movie-like showdown with a supersized villain high above New York City streets, “a level of ambition I don’t think we would have done on a previous (console) generation.”The sequence also serves as the game tutorial, although gamers may not realize it.“Wh...

S&P/TSX composite up nearly 100 points, U.S. stock markets also higher

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:33 GMT

TORONTO — Strength in the technology and base metal stocks helped Canada’s main stock index gain nearly 100 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets also climbed higher.The S&P/TSX composite index was up 92.23 points at 20,115.96 after gaining more than 300 points on Tuesday.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 144.67 points at 34,972.37. The S&P 500 index was up 22.01 points at 4,517.71, while the Nasdaq composite was up 85.72 points at 14,180.10.The Canadian dollar traded for 73.20 cents US compared with 72.86 cents US on Tuesday.The December crude oil contract was down US$1.28 at US$76.98 per barrel and the December natural gas contract was up 11 cents at US$3.21 per mmBTU.The December gold contract was down 20 cents at US$1,966.30 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$3.72 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)The Canadi...

Bangladesh sets Jan. 7 date for elections that the opposition has vowed to boycott

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:33 GMT

DHAKA,Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s expected parliamentary elections will be held on Jan. 7, electoral authorities announced Wednesday, but the opposition reiterated its vow to boycott the polls unless the government hands power to a caretaker administration.Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has pledged free and fair elections, but the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Hasina’s archrival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, says they don’t trust the government.The opposition party has held demonstrations across the country in recent weeks to demand a nonpartisan caretaker government be appointed for the election, leading to deadly clashes that have heightened fears of instability in the South Asian nation.Bangladesh’s Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal announced Wednesday that the voting would be held on a single day on Jan. 7 in 300 parliamentary constituencies to elect members of parliament through direct vote. “Consensus and solutions are needed,” Awal said in a tel...

Emboldened by success in other red states, effort launched to protect abortion rights in Nebraska

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:33 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An effort to enshrine abortion rights in the Nebraska Constitution is being launched, following on the heels of successful efforts in other reds states where Republicans had enacted or sought abortion restrictions.Protect Our Rights, the coalition behind the effort, submitted proposed petition language to the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office late last month.That language was kept under wraps until Wednesday, when the state’s top elections office released it. Organizers plan to hold a news conference Thursday to kick off the effort, in which they will need to collect around 125,000 valid signatures by next summer to get the measure on the ballot in 2024.“We’re confident in this effort, and we’re energized,” said Ashlei Spivey, founder and executive director of I Be Black Girl, an Omaha-based reproductive rights group that makes up part of the coalition. Other members include Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebra...

Billy Porter hits the dance floor on his fifth album with the goal of ‘trying to heal people’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:33 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Billy Porter is strutting off in an entirely new sonic direction on his fifth album. The Broadway, runway and TV star has pivoted to dance music. “I’m a new artist. There’s a transformation that has happened,” the Tony-, Emmy- and Grammy-winner tells The Associated Press. “I’ve been offered a real second chance.”“Black Mona Lisa” sees Porter embrace club, house and old-school disco over 12 tracks, creating a warm, welcoming space that showcases his voice and redemption story. “It’s been fun. It’s been a healing. It’s been beyond anything that I could have dreamed,” he says. “I’m trying to bring some positivity into the world. I’m trying to heal people.”The songs veer from the dance anthem “Broke a Sweat,” to the soulful “Stranger Things,” the four-on-the-floor of “Baby Was a Dancer” to the pop of “New Shoes.” “I had a lot of different genres in this album and we manage to stay coherent because the cohesive energy comes from me,” he says. “It’s taken me 30 years...

York police identify suspect in 51-year-old murder using advanced DNA

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:33 GMT

York Regional Police say advanced DNA technology is responsible for solving what it called the “cruel and ruthless murder” of 16-year-old Yvonne Leroux.Leroux was last seen leaving a clinic on Oakdale Road — formerly the Humber River Hospital – near Finch Avenue West and Highway 400 around 10 p.m. on November 29, 1972. Her body was discovered the following morning by a passer-by in the middle of 16th Sideroad, between Jane Street and Keele Street some 24 kilometres north of where she was last seen.The cause of death was sustained blunt force trauma to the head.Despite multiple public appeals and twice offering $50,000 rewards for information about her death and who may be responsible, Leroux’s killer was never found.Investigators say in 2022 they turned to Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) to help identify suspect DNA which was left at the crime scene.“A DNA profile was generated and then uploaded to public genealogical databases,” police said...

Governor eases lockdowns at Wisconsin prisons amid lawsuit, seeks to improve safety

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:33 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Lockdowns at two of Wisconsin’s oldest and most understaffed prisons are being eased, the governor announced in a move that comes less than a month after inmates filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the conditions at one of the prisons amount to cruel and unusual punishment.Gov. Tony Evers’ announcement Tuesday about the eased lockdowns at the Waupun and Green Bay prisons, as well as a host of other efforts meant to increase safety at all Wisconsin prisons, comes amid calls from advocates and families of inmates who say the current conditions are inhumane.The Waupun, Green Bay and Stanley prisons have been under lockdown for months as the state grapples with deteriorating buildings and a worker shortage. Waupun’s lockdown began in March, Green Bay’s began in June, and Stanley’s lockdown, although less restrictive, began in early 2023.The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has said the prisons are in “a state of modified movement.” Evers announced t...

Hunter Biden calls for a Trump subpoena, saying political pressure was put on his criminal case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:33 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden asked a judge on Wednesday to approve subpoenas for documents from Donald Trump and former Justice Department officials, claiming the former president applied political pressure to a criminal investigation of him.Biden’s attorneys allege there were “certain instances that appear to suggest incessant, improper, and partisan pressure applied” by Trump to his then-Attorney General William Barr and two top deputies, Jeffrey Rosen and Richard Donoghue. While charges against President Joe Biden’s son were not brought until this year, the investigation into into his taxes and a gun purchase began in 2018, while Trump, a Republican, was still president. The court filing cites public comments made by Trump, information from the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and details from Barr’s book in which he described bubbling tension after Trump tried to pressure him over the status of the Hunter Biden probe....

13-year-old Texas boy sentenced to prison for murder in fatal shooting at a Sonic Drive-In

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:33 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — A 13-year-old Texas boy convicted of murder in the fatal shooting of a Sonic Drive-In employee has been sentenced to 12 years incarceration, authorities said.A judge issued the sentence Tuesday following days of evidentiary hearings over what punishment the boy should face in the rare murder case against a child, according to Amy Pardo of the Johnson County Attorney’s office. He will start the sentence in the custody of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department and he may later be transferred to the state’s adult prison system.The boy, whom authorities have not identified by name, faced sentences ranging from probation to 40 years behind bars. In October, a jury found him to have engaged in delinquent conduct, the juvenile equivalent of a guilty verdict, in the murder case over the May shooting of a Sonic employee who had a fight with his uncle.The child’s lawyer did not immediately respond to an email and phone message seeking comment.Police have said the boy, then 12, sh...