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Dame Edna actor Barry Humphries stable in Sydney hospital

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Tony Award-winning comedian Barry Humphries, renowned for his garish stage persona Dame Edna Everage, a condescending and imperfectly veiled snob whose evolving character has delighted audiences over seven decades, is in a Sydney hospital with complications following hip surgery.St. Vincent’s Hospital described the 89-year-old’s condition on Friday as stable and rejected media reports that he had become unresponsive.Humphries was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday following hip replacement surgery last month. The surgery was conducted after a fall in February. His publicist, Wendy Day, said Humphries’ condition was unchanged since Thursday and he was resting.Seven Network entertainment reporter Peter Ford said three of Humphries’ four children have traveled to their father’s hospital bedside, two from London.“His children were told in the beginning of the week it would be advisable if they wanted to come see him to do so … and they are all there right n...

Historic investment in urban trees underway across the U.S.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — While Ameen Taylor feels fortunate he has a cooling tree cover in the front and back yards of his Detroit home, he knows it’s a different story for many residents of his hometown where neighborhoods often have little to no shade.“To me, 70 degrees is fair weather, but when you’re walking somewhere or you’re around a neighborhood that don’t have trees, it will feel like it’s like 87, 90 degrees. That’s what it feel like,” said Taylor. “You’re exposed to more sun than you are shade.”Like many cities in the U.S., parts of Detroit are packed with large amounts of impervious surfaces and heat-absorbing infrastructure like roads and bridges. Coupled with low levels of cooling tree cover, or canopy, it can make them dangerously hotter than the suburbs. Such an inequity of tree cover is behind the historic $1.5 billion in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act that’s set aside for the federal Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry P...

Russia’s air force accidentally bombs own city of Belgorod

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s military acknowledged that a bomb accidentally dropped by one of its warplanes caused a powerful blast in a Russian city not far from Ukraine’s border, injuring two and scaring local residents.Belgorod, a city of 340,000 located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the Russia-Ukraine border, has faced regular drone attacks during Russia’s current military operation in Ukraine. Russian authorities blamed the earlier strikes on the Ukrainian military, which refrained from directly claiming responsibility for the attacks.The explosion late Thursday was far more powerful than anything Belgorod residents had experienced before. Witnesses reported a low hissing sound followed by a blast that made nearby apartment buildings tremble and shattered their windows.It left a 20-meter (66-foot) -wide crater in the middle of a tree-lined boulevard flanked by apartments, damaged several cars and threw one vehicle onto a store roof. Two people were injured,...

Child among 10 family members killed in S. Africa shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Ten members of the same family, seven of them female and at least one of them a child, were killed in a mass shooting at a house in South Africa, police said Friday.A male suspect was killed in a shootout with police hours after and two men were arrested. A fourth suspect escaped but his identity is known and he is being sought, Police Minister Bheki Cele said.According to initial reports, the family was ambushed by gunmen at the home in the city of Pietermaritzburg in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, police said. The shooting happened Thursday night or early Friday morning.Police initially announced that the victims were seven women and three men but Cele said at least one child, a 13-year-old, was among the dead. The oldest victim of the mass shooting was 65, Cele said. He didn’t confirm the gender of the teenager who was killed and gave no other details on the ages of the other victims.Cele, who was at the scene, said police confronted four men on a s...

Once-a-week nightmare: US mass killings on a record pace

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. is setting a record pace for mass killings in 2023, replaying the horror on a loop roughly once a week so far this year.The carnage has taken 88 lives in 17 mass killings over 111 days. Each time, the killers wielded firearms.Children at a Nashville grade school, gunned down on an ordinary Monday. Farmworkers in Northern California, sprayed with bullets over a workplace grudge. Dancers at a ballroom outside Los Angeles, massacred as they celebrated the Lunar New Year.In just the last week, four partygoers were slain and 32 injured in Dadeville, Alabama, when bullets rained down on a Sweet 16 celebration. And a man just released from prison fatally shot four people, including his parents, in Bowdoin, Maine, before opening fire on motorists traveling a busy interstate highway. “Nobody should be shocked,” said Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was one of 17 people killed at a Parkland, Florida, high school in 2018. “I visit my daughter in a c...

4 million apply for tickets for Paris Olympics in lottery

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Four million applications were received for an online lottery where winners get to buy tickets for next year’s Paris Olympics, the local organizing committee said Friday.They hope to sell 1.3 million tickets for the 2024 Games as a result of the latest draw.Applications ended Thursday evening and winners will know early next month if they have been successful. They can start buying from May 11 and have a 48-hour timeslot to do so. They’ll be told 48 hours beforehand when their slot is.Figures on which countries the 4 million lottery applications came from, and whether more men or women applied, were not available. The five countries who bought the most tickets, and other statistics, will be made known after the sale has finished in June.By then, organizers expect that about half of the 10 million tickets for the Paris Games will have been sold.A total of 3.2 million tickets were sold from the first phase of sales, featuring packages, with the top buyers coming fro...

Barenboim made Berlin citizen of honor after long tenure

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Daniel Barenboim was made a citizen of honor of Berlin on Friday, months after he ended his three-decade tenure as the general musical director of the Berlin State Opera for health reasons.Mayor Franziska Giffey paid tribute to Barenboim’s musical talent and his commitment to communication between Israelis and Palestinians in a ceremony at city hall. Giffey said that Barenboim “demonstrates incomparable mastery both at the grand piano and at the conductor’s stand,” German news agency dpa reported. She told him that “as an artist and as a person, you are truly a figure of the century.”Barenboim, 80, was born in Argentina and raised there and in Israel. He has had long associations with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and with the Berlin State Opera, or Staatsoper, which he led from 1992 until early this year. He also co-founded the the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which united musicians from Israel and the Arab world. Giving up the Berlin post in January, he...

Burkina Faso investigates alleged abuses by security forces

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Burkina Faso’s government has opened investigations into allegations of human rights abuses by its security forces after a video surfaced that appeared to show the extrajudicial killing of seven children in the country’s north.“The conclusions of the said investigations will lead, if the facts are established, to legal proceedings against the persons responsible for these acts,” government spokesperson Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo said in a statement issued Thursday. “There will be no impunity for the proven perpetrators of human rights violations in Burkina Faso.” The announcement was in response to calls from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate the video, which circulated on chat groups starting in mid-February.The Associated Press this month published its own findings about the video. AP’s investigation determined that Burkina Faso’s security forces killed the children in a military base outside the town of...

Russia's air force accidentally bombs own city of Belgorod

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's military acknowledged that a bomb accidentally dropped by one of its warplanes caused a powerful blast in a Russian city not far from Ukraine's border, injuring two and scaring local residents.Belgorod, a city of 340,000 located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the Russia-Ukraine border, has faced regular drone attacks during Russia's current military operation in Ukraine. Russian authorities blamed the earlier strikes on the Ukrainian military, which refrained from directly claiming responsibility for the attacks.The explosion late Thursday was far more powerful than anything Belgorod residents had experienced before. Witnesses reported a low hissing sound followed by a blast that made nearby apartment buildings tremble and shattered their windows.It left a 20-meter (66-foot) -wide crater in the middle of a tree-lined boulevard flanked by apartments, damaged several cars and threw one vehicle onto a store roof. Two people were injured, and a third perso...

Six Flags Great America opening for 2023 season with park improvements and new events

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

Six Flags Great America kicks off its 2023 season this Saturday. We were in Gurnee earlier this week to see firsthand all of the work being done throughout the park. Crews have been repainting and remodeling many of the buildings, facades and structures throughout the park. We spoke with Rachel Kendziora, a communications specialist at Six Flags, about everything the park is working on for the new season. You can see our full report in the player above. Additions, changes and improvements you will see at Great America this year include:Events and Festivals"Flavors of the World Festival" including food items from around the world, happening in June and July"Neon Nights Festival" night parade happening select dates in June, July and August."Viva La Fiesta Festival" happening select days in August.New Food ItemsLoaded nachos at Macho Nacho featuring steak, chicken, brisket or vegetarian.Chicken and waffles served with warm syrup.Bubble Tea Station featuring bubble tea beverages and smo...