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Mayor: Napoli title will set off ‘big earthquake of joy’

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 17:51:22 GMT

NAPLES, Italy (AP) — Before Gaetano Manfredi was elected mayor of Naples in 2021, he was a university professor specializing in seismic engineering — preparing and designing buildings to withstand earthquakes.As Manfredi rose up to become chancellor of the University of Naples Federico II, a study was commissioned to measure the impact of fans celebrating goals scored by the Napoli soccer club inside what is now known as the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.“The engineering department building is near the stadium and there’s a seismograph there that whenever Napoli scored would record enough shaking that it nearly registered as an earthquake,” Manfredi told The Associated Press in a recent interview.So what magnitude might the university seismograph record when Napoli wins its first Italian league title in more than three decades? With a 17-point lead and seven games remaining, the first chance to clinch comes this weekend — a long holiday weekend for May Day (Europe’s Labor Day)...

Syrian pro-government media say Israel shelled border town

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 17:51:22 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian pro-government media said Israel shelled targets in southern Syria early on Monday, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, causing unspecified material damage. There was no immediate comment from Israel or a statement from the Syrian government.The pro-government Al-Watan newspaper and Sham FM radio said Israeli forces targeted the town of Talat Qars al-Nafl in Quneitra province but did not mention any casualties. Al-Watan posted a video of the attack, showing an explosion from what it said was one of the targets being hit in the distance.A Britain-based war monitor, the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the shelling targeted militias linked to the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group in Quneitra. It said that Israel had struck targets in the same area last Tuesday. Israel, which has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment next door, has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of neighboring Syria in recent year...

Waste Connections founder and exec chairman Ronald Mittelstaedt returns to CEO role

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 17:51:22 GMT

TORONTO — Waste Connections Inc. says founder and executive chairman Ronald Mittelstaedt has returned to his role as chief executive officer after the departure of Worthing Jackman from the top job.The solid waste services company says Jackman has also stepped down from its board of directors and withdrawn his name as a nominee at the company’s 2023 annual meeting.Mittelstaedt served as chief executive from 1997 until July 2019, when ‎he moved into the role of executive chairman.In connection with his reappointment as chief executive, Mittelstaedt will remain on the board but give up his role as executive chairman.Michael Harlan, the company’s lead independent director, has been named chairman.The company also reaffirmed its financial outlook for 2023 that it provided in February. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:WCN)The Canadian Press

Minnesota officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright freed

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 17:51:22 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kim Potter, the Minnesota police officer who mistook her gun for a Taser and killed Daunte Wright in 2021, was released from prison early Monday.The Minnesota Department of Corrections said Potter was set free around 4 a.m. “out of an abundance of caution.” The department confirmed Friday she would be released Monday but declined to say what time out of security concerns.Potter, a white officer for a suburban Minneapolis department, fatally shot Wright, 20, who was Black, during a traffic stop in April 2021. The shooting happened during the trial of Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed George Floyd, and Wright’s death set off several days of protests.The Associated Press

Report: Yacht with 3 Russians, 2 Egyptians missing off Yemen

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 17:51:22 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A yacht carrying three Russians and two Egyptians reportedly went missing days ago off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea. Its owner alleged on Monday that armed pirates took the vessel. The reported disappearance of the 30 Minutes, a 19-meter (62-foot) yacht registered in Panama to a Russian based in Dubai, comes as other vessels have faced attacks from Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels amid the war tearing apart the Arab world’s poorest nation. However, the Houthis did not immediately acknowledge taking the vessel and details about the ship remain scarce. The 30 Minutes last sent location data showing that it was off Farasan Island near Jazan, Saudi Arabia, on April 19, owner Dmitriy Chuguevskiy told The Associated Press. The vessel then disappeared, not reaching Djibouti, where it had been scheduled to arrive, he said. Chuguevskiy said the ship did not carry an Automatic Identification System transponder, which is standard for ship...

Proud Boys leaders’ trial jurors to hear closing arguments

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 17:51:22 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A historic trial over the deadly U.S. Capitol insurrection is drawing to a close, with prosecutors and defense lawyers set to make their final appeals to jurors before they decide the fate of Proud Boys extremist group leaders charged with plotting to use force to keep then-President Donald Trump in power. A federal jury in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to begin hearing closing arguments on Monday after more than three months of testimony in the seditious conspiracy case against former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants. Tarrio is one of the top targets of the Justice Department’s investigation of the riot that erupted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress prepared to certify Joe Biden’s presidential election victory over Trump. Tarrio wasn’t in Washington, D.C., that day but is accused of orchestrating an attack from afar.The Justice Department has already secured seditious conspiracy convictions against the founder and m...

What’s to blame for the senseless killing of a 16-year-old at a subway station?

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 17:51:22 GMT

In today’s Big Story podcast, the murder of Gabriel Magalhaes at a Toronto subway station shocked the city and the country. His alleged killer, Jordan O’Brien-Tobin, had been released from custody shortly before the attack and had been in and out of jail for years. In the immediate aftermath, many treated the incident as proof that Canada needs harsher sentencing and bail reform. Others, including most notably the victim’s mother, say the incident is emblematic of a failure to provide adequate treatment to people experiencing mental health issues.Jennifer Pagliaro is a crime reporter at the Toronto Star. She joined us to discuss what we know about the young victim in this case, and the extensive criminal history of the man who allegedly committed this senseless act of violence.“There are a lot of red flags here that that experts say are incredibly common, but unfortunately the system, it seems, in Ontario, is not set up to help people like Jordan O’Brien-Tobin,” she said...

Guaidó travels to Colombia ahead of Venezuela-focused summit

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 17:51:22 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó on Monday said he crossed the border into Colombia “on foot” to seek a meeting with international delegations gathering there for a conference focused on his country’s political crisis.Guaidó, one of the most recognizable figures of Venezuela’s opposition and a presidential hopeful, announced his trip to Colombia in a statement. His campaign told The Associated Press he crossed the border through one of the bridges connecting the neighboring South American countries.Tuesday’s international conference organized by Colombian President Gustavo Petro is meant to jumpstart official dialogue between the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his adversaries. The formal negotiations between both sides guided by Norwegian diplomats and hosted by Mexico stalled at the end of last year.“I will be requesting meetings with members of the international delegations attending the summit,” Guaidó said in the statement...

Maple Leafs aim to take stranglehold of increasingly hostile series with Lightning

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 17:51:22 GMT

Despite a sluggish performance, the Toronto Maple Leafs got the job done over the weekend.Now the team has an opportunity to seize control of their first-round playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Toronto leads the series 2-1 after stealing an overtime win in Saturday’s Game 3.“Huge, huge win for Toronto,” says Sportsnet’s Luke Fox.The focus now turns to Game 4 in Tampa on Monday night in what has been an increasingly hostile and violent series.“The challenge will be to get a two-game cushion, to actually stomp the throat here,” Fox says. “They’ve had a 2-1 series lead before and it hasn’t gone their way.”Coaches Jon Cooper, master puller of strings, and Sheldon Keefe, sick of settling for respect in the handshake line, are ratcheting up the off-ice gamesmanship in a series where one favourable whistle could prove the difference. @lukefoxjukebox explains. https://t.co/8MUc8JpfO1— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) Apri...

To help students, some colleges provide double the teachers

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 17:51:22 GMT

EVERETT, Wa. (AP) — Terrica Purvis squinted through goggles as her hands carefully guided a pipette full of indigo-tinted fluid into clear glass test tubes.It was the last chemistry lab of the winter quarter at Everett Community College. Purvis was working through the steps of what chemistry professor Valerie Mosser jokingly refers to as the “post-apocalypse survival” lab — an experiment using boiled red cabbage water to test the acidity of common household chemicals.Purvis, 27, is in her first year of study for an associate degree in nursing at Everett Community College. She is also one of more than 6,000 Washington community and technical college students enrolled in the state’s Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) program. Students who need extra help in subjects such as algebra struggle to learn if the content is taught in an abstract way, educators say. So I-BEST programs feature two teachers in the classroom: One provides job training and the other teaches b...