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Aid convoys set course for Nagorno-Karabakh under new pact with Azerbaijan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:47 GMT

KORNIDZOR, Armenia — Tons of humanitarian aid were en route on Saturday to Nagorno-Karabakh under the terms of a deal struck with the breakaway region’s Armenian leadership, Azerbaijan said.The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Saturday said it had dispatched its first shipment of food and fuel to reach the mountainous territory from Armenia since Azerbaijan launched its military offensive earlier this week. The convoy of four trucks drove across the Hakari Bridge, crossing the border amid warnings of a growing humanitarian crisis among the civilian population.“We are looking at the different needs of the population,” a spokesperson for the ICRC told POLITICO. “And, underlining our role as a neutral intermediary, we are of course in dialog with all the decision-makers to be able to provide assistance that is much needed.”The delivery marks only the second time civilian aid will reach Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia since Azerbaijan closed...

Russian foreign minister lambastes the West but barely mentions Ukraine in UN speech

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:47 GMT

United Nations (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat lashed out at the U.S. and the West on Saturday as self-interested defenders of a fading international order, but he didn’t discuss his country’s war in Ukraine in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly. “The U.S. and its subordinate Western collective are continuing to fuel conflicts which artificially divide humanity into hostile blocks and hamper the achievement of overall aims. They’re doing everything they can to prevent the formation of a genuine multipolar world order,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. “They are trying to force the world to play according to their own self-centered rules,” he said. As for the 19-month war in Ukraine, he briefly recapped some historical complaints going back to the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union but didn’t delve into the current fighting. For a second year in a row, the General Assembly is taking place with no end to the war in sight. A three-month-long Ukrainian counte...

A Black student’s family sues Texas officials over his suspension for his hairstyle

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:47 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — The family of a Black high school student in Texas on Saturday filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the state’s governor and attorney general over his ongoing suspension by his school district for his hairstyle. Darryl George, 17, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, has been serving an in-school suspension since Aug. 31 at the Houston-area school. School officials say his dreadlocks fall below his eyebrows and ear lobes and violate the district’s dress code. George’s mother, Darresha George, and the family’s attorney deny the teenager’s hairstyle violates the dress code, saying his hair is neatly tied in twisted dreadlocks on top of his head.The lawsuit accuses Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton of failing to enforce the CROWN Act, a new state law outlawing racial discrimination based on hairstyles. Darryl George’s supporters allege the ongoing suspension by the Barbers Hill Independent School District violates the l...

Man facing multiple assault charges after standoff with police in Port Colborne

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:47 GMT

A 63-year-old man is facing multiple assault charges following a standoff with police in Port Colborne. Niagara regional police say they were called to a residence on Neff Street near Elm Street just after 5:30 p.m. on Friday following reports a man had been stealing items from a parked pickup truck in the area. Police say after leaving the area with the stolen items, the man returned and threatened the truck owner and another person. The man then armed himself with a shovel and struck the owner with it before running across the street and barricading himself inside a family member’s house. Police say the man assaulted a resident of the home and refused to surrender to police, smashing a window and throwing objects at police who were attempting to negotiate with him. Twice the man exited the home and taunted officers while throwing pieces of wrought iron fencing at them. Just before 7 p.m., the man exited the home for a third time and police used a taser to subdue him. Edward ...

Tropical Storm Ophelia moves inland over North Carolina as coastal areas lashed with wind, rain

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:47 GMT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Residents in coastal North Carolina and Virginia braced for potential flooding after Tropical Storm Ophelia made landfall near a North Carolina barrier island on Saturday morning, bringing rain, damaging winds and dangerous surges of water.The storm came ashore near Emerald Isle with near-hurricane-strength winds of 70 mph (113 kph) at around 6:15 a.m. but was expected to weaken it turns north Saturday and then shifts northeast on Sunday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, noting that the maximum sustained winds had dropped to 50 mph (80 kph) by mid-morning. Ophelia promises a weekend of windy conditions and heavy rain as it churns up the East Coast, with the storm moving north at about 13 mph (21 kph) as of Saturday morning. Parts of North Carolina and Virginia can expect up to 8 inches of rain (20 centimeters), with 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) forecast in the rest of the mid-Atlantic region through Sunday.Philippe Papin, a hurricane specialist w...

As the world’s diplomacy roils a few feet away, a little UN oasis offers a riverside pocket of peace

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:47 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Inside, with speeches and machinations and carefully deployed elbows, those who administer the world persist in their search for the elusive path to peace. Outside, on the wooded grounds of a place founded on the premise of ending conflict, sometimes they can find it. In the walled-off compound of the United Nations at the easternmost end of Manhattan, north of the towering Secretariat Building and the majestic General Assembly Hall, sits a quiet patch of wooded land that exists in placid contrast to the global cauldron of diplomacy and national interests a few hundred feet away. There are garden paths ringed by a canopy of trees so isolating that it’s easy to forget the massive metropolis just beyond the fence — until you arrive at a clearing, look up and see buildings that touch the sky. Around every bend are tiny rewards — a copse of trees with the Olympic rings poking out, a tiny reflecting-pool shrine that exhorts people to “remember here those who g...

'Not Fried Chicken' ice cream sold in 39 states recalled for possible listeria contamination

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:47 GMT

(WHTM) – The United States Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that Life Raft Treats has recalled two of their ice cream products — Not Fried Chicken and Life Is Peachy — due to possible listeria contamination.The recalled products were shipped to consumers in 39 states beginning August 28. Photo Courtesy United States Food and Drug AdministrationPhoto Courtesy United States Food and Drug AdministrationPhoto Courtesy United States Food and Drug AdministrationThe recall includes two varieties of the novelty Not Fried Chicken Ice Cream treats: a 64-ounce bucket and the individual 2.5-ounce bars. The treats, which are designed to look like pieces of fried chicken, are described at Goldbelly.com as Life Raft Treats' "signature offering," and contain waffle-flavored ice cream and crushed corn flakes surrounding a cookie "bone."The brand's 6-count Life Is Peachy treats, also involved in the recall, are peach flavored frozen desserts made to mimic the appearance of actual peaches...

Travel expert Natalie Preddie with fall trips to put on your list

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:47 GMT

WGN Weekend Morning News is joined by travel expert Natalie Preddie where she shares some spots to visit on your travels this fall season.Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.

You might be closer to student loan forgiveness in 2024

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:47 GMT

(NerdWallet) - More than 800,000 longtime federal student loan borrowers who were in repayment for at least 20 or 25 years saw their student loans erased in July as a result of the income-driven repayment (IDR) account adjustment. Millions of newer borrowers will benefit from the program in 2024, even though they won’t get loan forgiveness just yet.“The IDR account adjustment puts everybody closer to the statutory [student loan] cancellation that they could be eligible for under the income-driven repayment plans, regardless of whether or not they enrolled in an IDR plan in the past,” explains Kyra Taylor, a staff attorney focused on student loans at the National Consumer Law Center.Even if your loans aren’t automatically forgiven, the account adjustment will move you closer to the end of your repayment period and closer to forgiveness if you sign up for an IDR plan, which typically takes 20 or 25 years of full monthly payments.For borrowers who’ve been in repayment for less than 20 ...

Christmas in September? Downtown Round Rock is ready to celebrate the holidays

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:47 GMT

ROUND ROCK, Texas (KXAN) — While it might be early for some, Round Rock is ready for the holidays.“Too early?! No such thing!” the city said in a social media post.On Wednesday, crews decked the halls with festive lights ahead of the holiday season.Crews set up holiday lights in downtown Round Rock (Downtown Round Rock photo)Crews set up holiday lights in downtown Round Rock (Downtown Round Rock photo)Crews set up holiday lights in downtown Round Rock (Downtown Round Rock photo)Crews set up holiday lights in downtown Round Rock (Downtown Round Rock photo)Crews set up holiday lights in downtown Round Rock (Downtown Round Rock photo)Downtown Round Rock said it was "getting ready to shine."