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Better weather conditions help slow down La Palma wildfire, Spanish authorities say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:25 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities said on Sunday more favorable weather conditions have helped firefighters slow down the advance of a wildfire on La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands that has forced the evacuation of more than 4,000 residents.The blaze, which started Saturday, has affected an area of about 4,600 hectares (11,300 acres) and burned some 20 houses and buildings.Authorities urged people not to go near the area on the northwest side of the island.Tourism Minister Héctor Gómez told reporters that thanks to the efforts to combat the blaze overnight, the outlook for bringing it under control had improved.More than 300 firefighters have been deployed and nine water-carrying helicopters and two planes are being used to try to extinguish the fire. A further 86 members of the army’s Military Emergency Unit were flown to the island on Sunday.The fire coincides with a heat wave that is hitting southern Europe.Temperatures in the Canary Islands, located off the northwest coas...

3 survivors rescued from rubble of collapsed apartment building in Naples, Italian media say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:25 GMT

ROME (AP) — A wing of a three-story apartment building collapsed Sunday in a seaside suburb of Naples, and at least two people were pulled out alive from the rubble as rescuers searched for any others who might be trapped, Italian firefighters said. “As of now, there are no indications of people missing,’ said Luca Cari, a spokesperson for Italy’s national firefighters’ corps. Still, firefighters were removing rubble to verify that no one else was buried in the collapse in Torre del Greco, he said.Italian state broadcaster Rai, reporting from the scene, said a third survivor was extracted from the debris, but there was no immediate official confirmation of that. Rai TV said five families were living in the building, which it described as run-down, in the town 12 kilometers (7 miles) from Naples, in Italy’s southern Campania region. It was not immediately clear how many people might have been in or near the building in the town’s center when it came down...

Pipestone carvers preserve revered Native spiritual tradition in Minnesota prairie

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:25 GMT

PIPESTONE, Minn. (AP) — Under the tall prairie grass outside this southwestern Minnesota town lies a precious seam of dark red pipestone that, for thousands of years, Native Americans have quarried and carved into pipes essential to prayer and communication with the Creator.Only a dozen Dakota carvers remain in the predominantly agricultural area bordering South Dakota. While tensions have flared periodically over how broadly to produce and share the rare artifacts, many Dakota today are focusing on how to pass on to future generations a difficult skillset that’s inextricably linked to spiritual practice.“I’d be very happy to teach anyone … and the Spirit will be with you if you’re meant to do that,” said Cindy Pederson, who started learning how to carve from her grandparents six decades ago.Enrolled in the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Nation, she regularly holds carving demonstrations at Pipestone National Monument, a small park that encompasses the quarries.In the worldview of the Dak...

Iraqi premier in Syria to discuss boosting cooperation during the first visit in over a decade

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:25 GMT

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister held talks Sunday with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus during the first trip of its kind to the war-torn country since the 12-year conflict began.Iraq and Syria have had close relations for years even after many Arab countries withdrew their ambassadors for Damascus and Syria’s membership in the 22-member Arab League was suspended because of the crackdown on protesters in 2011.Assad received Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who was heading a high-ranking delegation, at the presidential palace in Damascus. They discussed mutual relations and cooperation between the two neighboring countries among other issues, according to the office of Syria’s president.Al-Sudani’s office said in a statement that talks revolved around ways of expanding cooperation in the fields of trade, economy, transportation, tourism, how to combat climate change and collaboration to fight terrorism.Security cooperation against extremist groups was likely to be on to...

Man stabbed to death in Uptown: CPD

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:25 GMT

CHICAGO -- A man was found stabbed to death in Uptown Saturday night, police said.This will have been the second stabbing in Uptown this year, the first happened Friday.According to police, the victim was found in the 4600 block of North Sheridan Road around 7:40 p.m. with multiple stab wounds to the body. 5 people shot, 1 fatally, in Garfield Park drive-by: CPD He was transported to Illinois Masonic Hospital in critical condition. He was pronounced dead shortly after.There is currently no one in custody and police are investigating the incident.

A few days of record heat

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:25 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A few showers showed up on radar during the 6 a.m. hour. The rain fell mainly in eastern Lampasas County south to northeast Burnet County. There were a few small showers over northwest San Saba County north of Richland Springs. Saturday's high temperature in Austin was 107°. It brings the average temperature for the first 15 days of July to 90.1°, keeping it as the second hottest start to a July 1st to 15th. The record was set last year when the first 15 days of the seventh month yielded an average temperature of 90.7°.Forecast highs today will range from 102° to 106° for many locations. The normal high today is 97°. Most highs today will be a degree lower than Saturday'sMost of the area is under a Heat Advisory until 9 p.m. Blanco and Gillespie Counties do not have this heat alert.The highest heat index Saturday was 108° at Cameron and Camp Mabry. Expect the maximum heat indices this afternoon to rise to between 104° and 108°.Sunday's top heat indicesOne thing that...

VIDEO: Foxes spotted near St. Edward's University

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:25 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — On Friday, a KXAN viewer said she saw a family of foxes playing on the St. Edward's University campus.“I witnessed a treat this morning at work on campus. This family of grey foxes played in the street for 30 minutes,” Danielle Ostos, the viewer who filmed the foxes, said.According to the Texas Wildlife Association, there are three types of foxes that live in Texas: Swift or Kit Fox: Lives in the northwestern part of the stateRed Fox: Lives in the eastern and central parts of the stateGray Fox: Found statewide and is the most commonTWA said depending on the type, foxes could live anywhere from three to 10 years.According to TWA, foxes can have anywhere from one to seven babies, or kits, usually an average of three to four kits per litter in the springtime."After about three months, they will come out of the dens and learn to hunt for their own food by watching their mother," TWA said. "The kits are born in the spring and will stay together until fall when they will g...

Sunday Bulletin Board: Outdoors: Hot enough for ya? Indoors: Cold enough for ya?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:25 GMT

The simple displeasuresTHE LINGUIDIOT writes: “Subject: Please, enough!“Why do so many of our local merchants, restaurants, theaters and other public places hate summer?“I spend most of winter dreaming of wonderful, hot summer days that allow me to travel around town wrapped in nature’s gift of warm, soul-healing air. Over the last few years, however, it seems an alarmingly fast-growing number of public places are forcing me to take a jacket or sweatshirt with me lest I find myself trapped in eternal mid-March as I try to shop, eat or enjoy a film.“Are they at all aware of the service they can do those of us who spend eight months lusting after summer temperatures — to say nothing of the energy that can be conserved — by just being reasonable with their cooling systems? For most people, a simple difference of five or six degrees is a refreshing change.“We Minnesotans spend three-quarters of the year protecting ourselves from butt-puckering cold. W...

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock leaves behind accomplishments — and plenty of frustration — after 12 years in charge

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:25 GMT

Michael Hancock has been the mayor of Denver since before a train connected downtown’s Union Station with Denver International Airport.He was mayor before the first legal recreational marijuana purchase was made in the city.When he first took office, there was real concern the National Western Stock Show would pull up stakes and move to Aurora. Now the National Western Center campus in Denver is the site of one of the most significant capital improvement projects in the city’s history, even if voters in 2021 rejected Hancock’s request for bond money to build a new arena there.Hancock was mayor before older neighborhoods were widely remade with boxy apartment buildings. Before tents became much more common sights at parks and along public rights-of-way, despite his support of a camping ban more than a decade ago. Before Denver’s rents and housing prices hit the stratosphere.When one person holds power for three terms, unfolding over 12 years, his legacy and im...

A one-of-a-kind bat research facility coming to Fort Collins has CSU scientists fighting misinformation

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:25 GMT

A one-of-a-kind bat research facility is coming to Colorado State University with the potential for groundbreaking discoveries as scientists study how bats respond to viruses — and what that could mean for treating sickness in humans.The National Institutes of Health awarded CSU $6.7 million toward the 14,000-square-foot facility, slated for completion in 2025 at the university’s Foothills Campus on the west side of Fort Collins.The space is intended to mimic natural bat habitats, becoming one of few places in the world equipped to breed bat colonies, enabling scientists to have a baseline of knowledge about the animals’ age, health and other information needed to collect accurate data.“It’s absolutely critical work,” said Tom Monath, a virologist and chief science officer at the pharmaceutical company Crozet and former vector-borne infectious disease director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.But as scientists buzz about future pi...