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South Sudan’s sluggish peace deal and unsteady road to elections

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:11 GMT

KOWACH, South Sudan (AP) — Martha Nyanguour didn’t have time to bury her husband, son or granddaughter when they were killed by gunfire in September. Instead, the 50-year-old paid her respects by throwing bits of grass over their bodies, grabbed her remaining children and fled.It had taken years for the mother of seven to muster the courage to return to South Sudan and trust its fragile peace deal ending a civil war. But weeks after she arrived in Atar town in Upper Nile state, fighting erupted between militias aligned with government and opposition forces.“I thought if there was peace I was supposed to go back to my land,” said Nyanguour, seated under a tree in Kowach village in Canal Pigi county where she now lives with thousands of other displaced people, five days’ walk through swamp water from her home village. “I thought maybe there would be peace in the future, but now, hearing gunshots daily, I think South Sudan will remain in war.”In 18 months, South Sudan is su...

Cases of check fraud escalate dramatically, with Americans warned not to mail checks if possible

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:11 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Check fraud is back in a big way, fueled by a rise in organized crime that is forcing small businesses and individuals to take additional safety measures or to avoid sending checks through the mail altogether.Banks issued roughly 680,000 reports of check fraud to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, also known as FinCEN, last year. That’s up from 350,000 reports in 2021. Meanwhile the U.S. Postal Inspection Service reported roughly 300,000 complaints of mail theft in 2021, more than double the prior year’s total.Early in the pandemic, government relief checks became an attractive target for criminals. The problem has only gotten worse and postal authorities and bank officials are warning Americans to avoid mailing checks if possible, or at least to use a secure mail drop such as inside the post office. Meanwhile, as the cases of fraud increase, victims are waiting longer to recover their stolen money.Check usage has been in decline for decades as Americans...

Spain to begin exhumation of 128 Civil War victims from burial complex

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:11 GMT

Forensic scientists on Monday (12 June) began the exhumation of 128 victims of the Spanish Civil War from a vast burial complex near Madrid, El Pais newspaper reported.It will be the first exhumation of its kind involving people whose bodies were moved from elsewhere after the 1936-1939 war and reburied without their families' permission in the Valley of Cuelgamuros, which was formerly known as Valley of the Fallen.El Pais reported that forensic scientists have installed a laboratory inside the vast burial site, which includes a monument and 150 metre high cross, on the outskirts of Madrid prior to the exhumation work beginning.The remains of some 34,000 people, many of them victims of Franco's regime, are buried anonymously in the complex. Relatives of those whose remains lie inside have been fighting for years to give their loved ones a burial under their own names near their families.Purificacion Lapena has been campaigning for the remains of her grandfather Manuel Lapena and his...

Detached house sells in Danville for $1.8 million

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:11 GMT

1033 Belleterre Drive – Google Street ViewA 2,292-square-foot house built in 1992 has changed hands. The spacious property located in the 1000 block of Belleterre Drive in Danville was sold on May 18, 2023, for $1,815,000, or $792 per square foot. The property features three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and an attached garage as well as two parking spaces. The unit sits on a 5,200-square-foot lot.Additional houses that have recently been sold close by include:On Mistral Court, Danville, in July 2022, a 2,292-square-foot home was sold for $1,585,000, a price per square foot of $692. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.In March 2023, a 2,292-square-foot home on Mistral Court in Danville sold for $1,780,000, a price per square foot of $777. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.A 3,892-square-foot home on the 100 block of Victoria Place in Danville sold in May 2023, for $2,850,000, a price per square foot of $732. The home has 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. 

Los Angeles visits Dallas following Ogunbowale’s 25-point outing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:11 GMT

Los Angeles Sparks (4-4, 3-4 Western Conference) at Dallas Wings (5-4, 4-0 Western Conference)Arlington, Texas; Wednesday, 1 p.m. EDTBOTTOM LINE: Dallas hosts the Los Angeles Sparks after Arike Ogunbowale scored 25 points in the Dallas Wings’ 102-93 loss to the New York Liberty.Dallas went 8-10 at home and 8-10 in Western Conference action during the 2022-23 season. The Wings allowed opponents to score 82.8 points per game and shoot 45.9% from the field last season.Los Angeles finished 13-23 overall and 6-12 in Western Conference play during the 2022-23 season. The Sparks averaged 8.6 steals, 3.9 blocks and 13.8 turnovers per game last season.INJURIES: Wings: Lou Lopez Senechal: out (knee), Diamond DeShields: out (knee).Sparks: Layshia Clarendon: out (foot), Jasmine Thomas: out (knee), Katie Lou Samuelson: out (personal).___The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.Source

El canciller de Cuba insiste en negar la existencia de una base de espionaje china en la isla

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:11 GMT

(CNN) — El ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez, reafirmó la noche de este lunes su firme negativa a la presencia de una base de espionaje china en Cuba en un discurso televisado, del que se publicaron extractos en su cuenta oficial de Twitter en español e inglés.“Las afirmaciones del secretario de Estado de EE.UU. sobre la presencia de una base de espionaje china en Cuba son falsas, totalmente falsas. La posición de Cuba al respecto es clara e inequívoca. Son acusaciones infundadas”.Rodríguez continuó afirmando que los propios EE.UU. tenían “decenas de bases militares en nuestra región y también mantiene contra la voluntad del pueblo cubano una base militar en el territorio que ocupa ilegalmente en la provincia de Guantánamo.”Los comentarios de Rodríguez fueron el desmentido de más alto nivel del gobierno cubano hasta la fecha desde que estalló la polémica sobre la supuesta base.China lleva años operando instalaciones militares y ...

Stop fighting the culture wars, Penny Mordaunt warns Tories

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:11 GMT

LONDON — The U.K.’s struggling Conservatives should spend less time fighting the culture wars, the former — and possibly future — Tory leadership contender Penny Mordaunt argued.Mordaunt — who has become one of the Tories’ most visible figures since she played a key role in the coronation of King Charles III — made the warning to her colleagues in a think tank speech in honor of the late U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.The House of Commons leader told those attending Monday’s Centre for Policy Studies event that she had warned current PM Rishi Sunak: “Your team is the nation, and we have to reframe our story in those terms — and that’s why the culture wars and all of that doesn’t help, because we’re here for everyone.”Mordaunt said she was “unapologetic” about the need for the Tories to be “talking about building more and taxing less — and not talking about culture wars, because it doesn’t move the country...

Boris Johnson: I’ll be back

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:11 GMT

LONDON — Boris Johnson channeled Arnold Schwarzenegger, vowed to fight for “total Brexit” and carried on beefing with his successor as he awaits what’s expected to be a damning report on his conduct. So just another day in British politics.The former prime minister is locked in a war of words with current leader Rishi Sunak, accusing him Monday of “talking rubbish” in a fight over Johnson’s attempt to reward allies with places in the U.K.’s unelected House of Lords.Sunak — who served as Johnson’s top finance minister before dramatically quitting last year — told reporters Monday that Johnson “asked me to do something that I wasn’t prepared to do because I didn’t think it was right,” as the two men traded public barbs about the vetting process for putting Johnson’s ex-colleagues in the Lords.In an overnight message to the pro-Brexit Daily Express newspaper, Johnson — who announced last week that he’s ...

UN says insurance coverage secured to salvage rusting oil tanker off Yemen

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:11 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — The United Nations has secured an insurance coverage to start a ship-to-ship transfer of 1.1 barrels of crude from a rusting tanker moored off the coast of war-torn Yemen — oil that could cause a major environmental disaster.The United Nations Development Program described the insurance is “a pivotal milestone” in a yearslong effort to evacuate the cargo of the FSO Safer, which is at risk of rupture or exploding. The UNDP has been trying to start a salvage operation to avert what it says could amount to “one of the world’s largest, man-made disasters in history.” It secured tens of millions of dollars in pledges for the operation, which started late in May with experts pumping inert gas to remove atmospheric oxygen from the oil chambers of the vessel.“Insurance became a critical element of enabling this salvage operation to proceed. Without it, the mission could not go forward,” said Achim Steiner, a UNDP administrator.Transferring the stored oil is expected to start la...

Philippine villagers flee ashfall, sight of red-hot lava from erupting Mayon volcano

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:14:11 GMT

SANTO DOMINGO, Philippines (AP) — Truckloads of villagers on Tuesday fled Philippine communities close to the erupting Mayon volcano, traumatized by the sight of red-hot lava flowing down its crater and fearful of sporadic blasts of ash.Nearly 15,000 people have left the mostly poor farming communities within a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) radius of Mayon’s crater in northeastern Albay province in forced evacuations since volcanic activity spiked last week. Albay’s governor extended the danger zone by a kilometer (more than half a mile) on Monday and asked thousands of residents to be ready to move anytime.But many opted to flee from the expanded danger zone even before the mandatory evacuation order.“There’s lava and ashfall already,” Fidela Banzuela, 61, said from a navy truck where she, her daughter, grandchildren and neighbors clambered up after leaving their home in San Fernando village close to Mayon. “If the volcano explodes, we won’t see anything because it would be so...