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Protesters storm Swedish Embassy in Baghdad ahead of planned Quran burning in Stockholm

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:17 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Protesters angered by the planned burning of a copy of the Quran stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad early Thursday, breaking into the compound and lighting a small fire. Online videos showed demonstrators at the diplomatic post waving flags and signs showing the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr ahead of a planned burning of the Islamic holy book Thursday in Stockholm. The videos showed dozens of men climbing over the fence at the complex, with the sound of them trying to break down a front door. Another showed what appeared to be a small fire being set. Other footage showed men, some shirtless in the summer heat, inside what appeared to be a room at the embassy, an alarm audible in the background.Others later performed predawn prayers outside of the embassy. As dawn broke, police and other security officials gathered at the embassy as small plumes of smoke still rose. Firefighters tried to douse the flames from the ladder of a f...

The wait is over as Powerball finally has a winner for its estimated $1 billion jackpot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:17 GMT

A winning ticket has been sold in California for the Powerball jackpot worth $1 billion, the 7th largest in U.S. history and the 3rd largest in the history of the game.The winning numbers for Wednesday night’s drawing were: white balls 7, 10, 11, 13, 24 and red Powerball 24.The winner can choose either $1 billion paid out in yearly increments or a $516.8 million, one-time lump sum before taxes.The game’s abysmal odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to build big prizes that draw more players. The largest Powerball jackpot was $2.04 billion Powerball in November.The last time someone had won the Powerball jackpot was April 19 for a top prize of nearly $253 million. Since then, no one had won the grand prize. Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.The Associated Press

Stock market today: Asian shares mixed as Japan reports weaker than expected trade data

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:17 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mixed Thursday after Japan reported weaker than expected trade data for June, with imports falling nearly 13% from a year earlier. Shares rose in Sydney and Hong Kong but fell in Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul. U.S. futures slipped and oil prices were higher. Japan logged a trade surplus in June for the first time in nearly two years as imports sank, largely due to lower oil prices. Exports rose only 1.5% from a year earlier despite sharp increases in shipments of vehicles as supply chain problems eased. Economists say they anticipate weaker exports in coming months as demand in other major economies slows. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 declined 1.1% to 32,542.52. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.2% to 7,335.70. South Korea’s Kospi edged down less than 0.1% to 2,606.81. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.2% to 19,984.90, while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.3% to 3,188.44. On Wednesday, Wall Street added to its big rally for the year fo...

Awash in pink, everyone wants a piece of the ‘Barbie’ movie marketing mania

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:17 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Pink sauce on that Burger King burger? What about “Barbie-fying” your pet with sweaters and beds with Barbie motifs? If that’s too low-brow, perhaps you’d be interested in hot pink Barbie monogrammed knit leggings by luxury designer Balmain instead, selling at Neiman Marcus for a cool $2,150.Welcome to the wonderful and weird world of “Barbie” movie marketing. Ahead of Friday’s U.S. release of the “Barbie” movie, parent company Mattel has created a product marketing blitz with more than 100 brands plastering pink everywhere.There are pink benches at bus stops and pink clothing displayed in store windows. Microsoft’s XBox has come up with a Barbie console series and HGTV is hosting a four-part Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge. And then there are all the unofficial collaborators trying to grab a piece of Barbie craze. Restaurants across the country are offering special pink cocktails, while interior decorators are showing options like vib...

RFK Jr. is set to testify at a House hearing over online censorship as GOP elevates Biden rival

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:17 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans will be delving into claims of government censorship of online speech at a public hearing, asking Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to testify despite requests from outside groups to disinvite the Democratic presidential candidate after his recent antisemitic remarks.The Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government is set to convene Thursday. Republicans claim conservatives are being unfairly targeted by technology companies that routinely work with the government to try to stem the spread of disinformation online. In announcing the hearing, the panel led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said it “will examine the federal government’s role in censoring Americans.” The panel said it will probe “Big Tech’s collusion with out-of-control government agencies to silence speech.”The hearing comes after a federal judge recently sought to halt the Biden administration from working with the social media companies to monitor misinf...

Hiker’s parents are retracing her final steps to raise money for safety education programs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:17 GMT

BRETTON WOODS, N.H. (AP) — A young girl chatters to her mother as they descend Mount Pierce, her voice as bright and bouncing as her footsteps.“You’re amazing!” she calls out to a slower couple she passes on the trail.Until then, the couple has been focused on the physical effort of hiking, the precision required to step just so onto the rocks and around the roots. Motion, yes. Emotion, no.But just for a moment, watching the girl disappear from view reminds them of their daughter.How could it not?___No one would blame Jorge Sotelo and Olivera Bogunovic if they stayed as far away as possible from New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Less than a year has passed since their oldest daughter Emily died cold and alone on Mount Lafayette in her quest to hike all 48 of the state’s mountains taller than 4,000 feet (1,220 meters).Though she had only a handful of peaks left, Emily had almost no experience with winter hiking, and officials say she was woefully unprepared for the brutal conditions t...

North Korea not responding to US attempts to discuss American soldier who ran across border

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:17 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea wasn’t responding Thursday to U.S. attempts to discuss the American soldier who bolted across the heavily armed border and whose prospects for a quick release are unclear at a time of high military tensions and inactive communication channels.Pvt. Travis King, who was supposed to have been heading to Fort Bliss, Texas, after finishing a prison sentence in South Korea for assault, ran into North Korea while on a civilian tour of the border village of Panmunjom on Tuesday. He is the first known American held in North Korea in nearly five years.“Yesterday the Pentagon reached out to counterparts in the (North) Korean People’s Army. My understanding is that those communications have not yet been answered,” Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, told reporters Wednesday in Washington.Miller said the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department are working together to gather information about King’s well-being and wh...

Senate Judiciary panel to consider ethics rules for Supreme Court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:17 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Thursday on a new ethics code for the Supreme Court, an attempt to respond to recent revelations about justices’ interactions with wealthy donors and others. Republicans are strongly opposed, arguing the ethics bill could “destroy” the high court. The committee’s legislation would impose new ethics rules on the court and a process to enforce them, including new standards for transparency around recusals, gifts and potential conflicts of interest. Democrats first pushed the legislation after reports earlier this year that Justice Clarence Thomas participated in luxury vacations and a real estate deal with a top GOP donor — and after Chief Justice John Roberts declined to testify before the committee about the ethics of the court. Since then, news reports also revealed that Justice Samuel Alito had taken a luxury vacation with a GOP donor. And The Associated Press reported last week that Justice Sonia Sotomayor, aide...

Oklahoma prepares to execute man for 1995 slaying of Tulsa woman

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:17 GMT

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma is preparing to execute a man Thursday for stabbing a Tulsa woman to death with a butcher knife in 1995 after his escape from a prison work center.Jemaine Cannon, 51, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 10 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. It will be the second execution in Oklahoma this year and the ninth since the state resumed lethal injections in 2021.Cannon was convicted of killing 20-year-old Sharonda Clark, a mother of two with whom Cannon had been living at an apartment in Tulsa after his escape weeks earlier from a prison work center in southwest Oklahoma. At the time, Cannon was serving a 15-year sentence for the violent assault of another woman who suffered permanent injuries after prosecutors say Cannon raped her and beat her viciously with a claw hammer, iron and kitchen toaster.A last-minute appeal seeking a stay of execution in which Cannon claims, among other things, that he is Native American and not sub...

IRS steps toward a new free-file tax return system have both supporters and critics mobilizing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:17 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — An IRS plan to test drive a new electronic free-file tax return system next year has got supporters and critics of the idea mobilizing to sway the public and Congress over whether the government should set up a permanent program to help people file their taxes without needing to pay somebody else to figure out what they owe. On one side, civil society groups this week launched a coalition to promote the move toward a government-run free-file program. On the other, tax preparation firms like Intuit — the parent company of TurboTax — and H&R Block have been pouring millions into trying to stop the idea cold. The advocacy groups are exponentially out-monied. An April AP analysis found that overall, Intuit, H&R Block, and other private companies and advocacy groups for large tax preparation businesses, as well as proponents in favor of electronic free file, have reported spending $39.3 million since 2006 to lobby on “free-file” and other matters. Federal law do...