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Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi loses Parliament seat

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:52 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Key Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has lost his parliamentary seat after a court found him guilty of defamation over his remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname and he was disqualified from the lawmaking body, a parliamentary statement said on Friday.Gandhi, who represented a constituency in southern Kerala state as a member of the Congress party, was disqualified from his membership in the lower house of Parliament from March 23, the date of his conviction, the statement said.Indian parliamentary rules say that a member loses his or her seat if convicted of a crime and sentenced to two or more years in prison.A court in the western city of Surat sentenced Gandhi to two years in prison on Thursday in the defamation case. But he won’t go to jail immediately because the court granted him bail for 30 days to file an appeal against the verdict. If an appeals court sets aside Gandhi’s conviction, he can get his seat back.Gandhi briefly visited t...

British king’s visit to France canceled amid mass protests

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:52 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said Friday that a state visit by Britain’s King Charles III has been postponed amid mass strikes and protests in France.The king had been scheduled to arrive in France on Sunday on his first state visit as monarch, before heading to Germany on Wednesday.The Elysee palace in France said in a statement that the French and British governments made the decision together after a call between Macron and Charles on Friday morning. The Elysee noted a new day of mass strikes and protests planned for Tuesday.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.PARIS (AP) — Protesters angry at French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms continued with scattered actions on Friday amid slowed train traffic, rows of trucks blocking access to Marseille’s commercial port and debris still littering the Paris streets following the previous day’s mass demonstrations. Over 450 protesters were arrested in Paris ...

Review: John Wick gets even more stylish in fourth episode

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:52 GMT

A trip to Paris should be on everyone’s bucket list, even John Wick. The Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre — what better way to refresh your soul, even as you kick everyone else’s bucket?The un-retired assassin does indeed dive into the City of Lights in the inventive and thrilling “John Wick: Chapter 4” a sequel which elevates and expands the franchise. The fourth installment is more stylish, more elegant and more bonkers — kind of like Paris itself.When we last saw Wick, he was half dead in the gutter after being shot and tumbling several stories off the Hotel Continental in New York. He was on the blacklist with a $14 million price on his head. (Inflation has even hit this franchise: The bounty swells to $40 million by the end of part four.)Wick, as always played with monosyllabic and brooding intensity by Keanu Reeves, leaves his customary trail of death, but there’s a shift here. So often the prey in the previous movies, Wick is on the offense in the fourth, taking ...

Feet for a king: Westminster Abbey to offer barefoot tours

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:52 GMT

LONDON (AP) — People who visit London’s Westminster Abbey after the coronation of King Charles III will be allowed to stand on the exact spot where he was crowned, but they will need to make sure they don’t have holes in their socks for the shoeless tour, designed to protect the abbey’s medieval mosaic floor.Abbey officials said Friday that the section of the church’s floor known as the Cosmati pavement, where the chair in which Britain’s monarchs are crowned has been placed for some 700 years, will be on display during Charles’ May 6 coronation after being hidden away under carpets for decades because of disrepair. The pavement area, normally roped off to the public, will be open to small guided “barefoot tours” after the crowning ceremony. Visitors will be asked to remove their shoes to avoid wear and tear to the floor, which was restored to its former glory after a two-year conservation project was completed in 2010.“Standing on the pavement an...

3 people die in Arizona after being caught in floodwaters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:52 GMT

PAYSON, Ariz. (AP) — At least three people were found dead this week after their vehicles were swept away by floodwaters in Arizona, authorities said.Gila County Sheriff’s officials said the bodies of a couple missing after their vehicle was stuck in floodwaters in the Payson area were located Thursday. They were identified as Phon Sutton, 85, and Dara Sutton, 72, both of Payson, Arizona. Separately, the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office said the body of a 64-year-old woman was recovered after the vehicle she was traveling in with her husband was swept downstream at a river crossing. Flooding caused by recent rainfall and snowmelt has created issues across parts of central and northern Arizona with residents in several low-lying communities told to evacuate.Gila County authorities said search and rescue crews were dispatched Wednesday morning after county authorities received a 911 call about a pickup truck found in Tonto Creek. The vehicle was located about 18 miles (29 kilometers) ea...

Hong Kong fire forces 3,400 people to evacuate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:52 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong firefighters were battling a blaze Friday at a warehouse that forced 3,400 people to evacuate, including students, police said. Thick smoke was seen pouring out from the building where the fire broke out around 2 p.m. at the warehouse on Fat Tseung Street in Cheung Sha Wan, a residential and industrial area in Kowloon, the government said. Two persons who worked near the site felt sick after inhaling thick smoke, and people from four schools and one residential building nearby had to be evacuated, police said. “There is a chance that the number of people involved in the evacuation will rise further,” police said. The cause of the fire was unclear. Officers at the scene had to wear breathing apparatus. The government opened a temporary shelter at a sports center for residents in need and advised members of the public to close their doors and windows if they were being affected by the smoke and odor. Kanis Leung, The Associated Press

UK demonstrators protest Israeli leader’s visit to London

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:52 GMT

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak welcomed Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to London on Friday while demonstrators gathered nearby to protest against the Israeli government’s right-wing policies.Israel faces a national crisis over the government’s plans to overhaul the judicial system. They have ignited Israel’s biggest protests in history and sparked rare dissent from across Israeli society, including military reservists, navy veterans, high-tech businesspeople and former officials.As thousands of people took to the streets across the country on Thursday, Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, defiantly pledged to proceed with the overhaul hours after his coalition passed a law making it harder to remove him from office.The overhaul plans would give Israel’s most right-wing coalition in history more control over judicial appointments, weaken the Supreme Court by limiting judicial review of legislation and allow Parliament to overturn court decisions with ...

Indigenous artists help skateboarding earn stamp of approval

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:52 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — Years ago, skateboarding was branded as a hobby for rebels or stoners in city streets, schoolyards and back alleys. Those days are long gone.Skateboarding, which has Native Hawaiian roots connected to surfing, no longer is on the fringes. It became an Olympic sport in 2020. There are numerous amateur and professional skateboarding competitions in the U.S. And on Friday, the U.S. Postal Service is issuing stamps that laud the sport — and what Indigenous groups have brought to the skating culture.Di’Orr Greenwood, 27, an artist born and raised on the Navajo Nation in Arizona whose work is featured on the new stamps, says it’s a long way from when she was a kid and people always kicked her out of certain spots just for skating. “Now it’s like being accepted on a global scale,” Greenwood said. “There’s so many skateboarders I know that are extremely proud of it.” The postal agency is debuting the “Art of the Skateboard” stam...

GOP sets vote on parents’ rights in clash over schools

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:52 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans will press forward Friday with a midterm campaign promise by voting on legislation to give parents greater say in what is taught in public schools, even as critics decry the “parents’ rights” bill as a burdensome proposal that would fuel a far-right movement that has resulted in book bans, rewrites of history curricula and raucous school board meetings across the country.Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has made the bill — labeled the Parents’ Bill of Rights Act — a top priority during the early weeks of his tenure atop the House. It will be an early test of unity for the chamber’s 222 Republicans, who have a thin majority.Even as House Republicans returned this week from a retreat where they insisted they are unified, lawmakers have proposed a score of potential changes to the bill, adding a degree of uncertainty to Friday’s vote.It showed how the adoption of an open amendment process in the House — a concession McC...

US launches airstrikes in Syria after drone kills US worker

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:52 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — A strike Thursday by a suspected Iranian-made drone killed a U.S. contractor and wounded five American troops and another contractor in northeast Syria, the Pentagon said. American forces said they retaliated soon after with “precision airstrikes” in Syria targeting facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, with activist groups saying they killed at least four people. The attack and the U.S. response threaten to upend recent efforts to deescalate tensions across the wider Middle East, whose rival powers have made steps toward détente in recent days after years of turmoil.U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the American intelligence community had determined the drone was of Iranian origin, but offered no other immediate evidence to support the claim.“The airstrikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against coalition forces in Syria” by groups affiliated with...