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Returning to the Arab fold, Syria’s president invited to UAE-hosted COP28 climate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:39 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Syria’s embattled President Bashar Assad received an invitation to attend the upcoming COP28 climate talks in Dubai later this year, even as the yearslong war in his country over his rule grinds on. Assad’s invite, late Monday, to the climate talks comes as the Syrian president already is scheduled to attend the Arab League summit this Friday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, years after being frozen out of regional politics. A brutal crackdown by Assad’s government on demonstrators in a 2011 Arab Spring uprising challenging his rule descended into a civil war and consequently became a regional conflict.The war has killed half a million people and displaced half of its population. Assad’s invitation came in a letter from Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported. The agency published images of Assad reading the letter alongside an Emirati diplomat in Damascus. The UAE simila...

Germany: 5 sentenced to prison for 100-million-euro jewelry heist

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:39 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A German court on Tuesday convicted five men over the theft of 18th-century jewels worth more than 100 million euros from a Dresden museum in 2019. They were sentenced to prison sentences of between four years and four months and six years and three months, German news agency dpa reported. One defendant was acquitted.The Dresden state court ruled that the five men — aged 24 to 29 — were responsible for the break-in at the eastern German city’s Green Vault Museum on Nov. 25, 2019, and the theft of 21 pieces of jewelry containing more than 4,300 diamonds, with a total insured value of at least 113.8 million euros ($129 million). Officials said at the time that the items taken included a large diamond brooch and a diamond epaulette. They were convicted of particularly aggravated arson in combination with dangerous bodily injury, theft with weapons, damage to property and intentional arson.The men laid a fire just before the break-in to cut the power supply to street light...

Biden to mark Jewish American Heritage Month with Broadway stars, speak out on antisemitism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:39 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will mark Jewish American Heritage Month on Tuesday by highlighting his administration’s efforts to combat rising antisemitism when he speaks at a White House reception that will feature performances from the stars of the Broadway revival of “Parade.” While Biden plans to use his comments to celebrate the contributions of Jewish Americans, he also will reflect on how his decision to run for the White House in 2020 was shaped by a 2017 neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia, according to a White House official who previewed the president’s speech on condition of anonymity. The president, who just weeks ago announced he would run for reelection, spoke frequently during the 2020 campaign about the “Unite the Right” rally led by white nationalists bearing torches. Clashes between that group and a large gathering of counterprotesters led to the death of counterprotester Heather Heyer when a white nationalist drove his car into the cr...

CEO pay again in focus as the heads of failed banks appear before Senate panel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:39 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The recent failures of a trio of midsize banks has once again raised questions about whether senior executives in the U.S. are being rewarded more for short-term gains — like rising stock prices — than for ensuring their companies’ long-term health. Executives at Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank were paid millions of dollars over their tenures up until their banks failed, the bulk of the compensation coming in the form company stock. That stock is now largely worthless but the CEOs still pocketed millions from the planned sales of their shares before the banks’ collapse. The heads of the two of the three failed banks will appear Tuesday in front of the Senate Banking Committee to respond to questions about why their banks went under and what regulators could have done to avoid the calamities. Executive compensation is almost certainly to come up as well, most likely raised by senators including Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who wro...

South Korean court orders agency to compensate adoptee over his mishandled adoption to US

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:39 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court on Tuesday ordered the country’s biggest adoption agency to pay 100 million won ($74,700) in damages to a 48-year-old man for mishandling his adoption as a child to the United States, where he faced legal troubles after surviving an abusive childhood before being deported in 2016.However, the Seoul Central District Court dismissed Adam Crapser’s accusations against the South Korean government, which he saw as responsible for creating an aggressive, profit-driven adoption industry that carelessly removed thousands of children from their families during a child export frenzy in the 1970s and ’80s.The civil case, tried for over four years, was the first in which a South Korean adoptee sued the country’s government and a domestic adoption agency over fraudulent paperwork and screening failures.Holt Children’s Service, which handled Crapser’s adoption to American parents in 1979, and South Korea’s Justice Ministry, which represen...

Biden administration announces nearly $11 billion for renewable energy in rural communities

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:39 GMT

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a nearly $11 billion investment on Tuesday to help bring affordable clean energy to rural communities throughout the country.Rural electric cooperatives, renewable energy companies and electric utilities will be able to apply for funding through two programs, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said during a media briefing on Monday.Vilsack said it was the largest single federal investment in rural electrification since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act in 1936 as part of the New Deal.“This is an exciting opportunity for the Rural Utility Service to work collaboratively with our great partners, the Rural Electric cooperatives, in order to advance a clean energy future for rural America,” Vilsack said. “So this is an exciting and an historic day, and it continues an ongoing effort to ensure that rural America is a full participant in this clean energy economy.”The Empowering Rural America...

South Korea soccer international Son Jun-ho detained in China on suspicion of taking bribe

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:39 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — South Korea midfielder Son Jun-ho has been detained in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning on suspicion of accepting a bribe, China’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Son was placed in custody “recently” and was under investigation. The South Korean consulate in the provincial capital of Shenyang had been informed of Son’s detention and allowed access to the player as required by international treaty.Son had been playing for the Chinese Super League’s Shandong Taishan, and Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post said the bribery allegations concerned suspected match-fixing involving coach Hao Wei.Wang gave no details on the timing or conditions of Son’s detention, but the Post said he was detained at an airport with his family on Friday while preparing to leave the country.Lim Soo-suk, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said his government was providing Son with “necessary consular assistance” through th...

Senior Spotlight: Jake Sparks batting to new heights

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:39 GMT

HOOSICK FALLS, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- “I knew I obviously had a good game, I was feeling good about the game, but until I looked at the actual stats on paper, I wasn’t I was like holy," Hoosick Falls shortstop Jake Sparks said. "Then my friends were calling me like dude what did you just do?” Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! The Marshall signee balled out in a game against Waterford Halfmoon last week. Sparks produced a historic stat line for a high school baseball game in upstate New York history.“If you were to tell me I would have had 14 RBIs in a baseball game, I would have told you you’re crazy," Sparks said. "I think one day I was looking at the state records, and I was like who had 13 RBIs, but I mean I guess it’s possible. I want to see someone get 15 now, that would be special. It’s crazy to think that that could happen.”Along with 14 RBIs, Sparks hit three home runs, a triple, double, and single. Then to shake things up ...

Play of the Week winner - Colonie's Michael Currao

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:39 GMT

COLONIE, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Congratulations to this week’s winner of our Play of the Week poll, Colonie's Michael Currao! Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! Currao hit a triple in the eighth inning to complete the cycle against Saratoga Springs. The triple helped the Raiders take down the Blue Streaks. Vote here for this week’s Play of the Week poll!

Four Russian military aircraft shot down near Ukraine, Russian daily reports

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:39 GMT

The Russian news outlet Kommersant reported that two Russian fighter jets and two military helicopters had been shot down on Saturday (13 May) close to the Ukrainian border, in what would be a spectacular coup for Kyiv if confirmed.Kommersant, a respected, independent business-focused daily, said on its website that the Su-34 fighter-bomber, Su-35 fighter and two Mi-8 helicopters had made up a raiding party, and had been "shot down almost simultaneously" in an ambush in the Bryansk region, adjoining northeast Ukraine."According to preliminary data ... the fighters were supposed to deliver a missile and bomb attack on targets in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine, and the helicopters were there to back them up - among other things to pick up the 'Su' crews if they were shot down."The Russian state news agency TASS said a Russian Su-34 warplane had crashed in that region but did not specify a cause.TASS also cited an emergency services official as saying an engine fire in a helicopter ha...