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Death toll from Johannesburg fire rises to 76 as city turns to tough job of identifying victims

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:52 GMT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Search teams finished checking a derelict Johannesburg apartment building a day after one of South Africa’s deadliest fires broke out there as pathologists faced the grisly task Friday of identifying charred bodies and body parts that were transported in large trucks to mortuaries across the city.The death toll from Thursday’s predawn blaze rose to 76 after two people died in a hospital overnight, Health Minister Joe Phaahla told reporters. At least 12 of the victims were children, authorities said.Homeless South Africans, poor foreign migrants and others who found themselves marginalized in a city often referred to as Africa’s richest but which has deep social problems inhabited the downtown building.The number of injured people hospitalized from the fire also increased to 88, according to a provincial health official.After conducting three searches through each of the building’s five stories, emergency services personnel believed that all huma...

‘Please share the road’: OPP reminding motorists to drive safely over long weekend

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:52 GMT

The unofficial end of summer is here, and with many hitting the road over the Labour Day long weekend provincial police are asking motorists to drive safely — with a sobering reminder.“Two hundred and thirty nine people have died already this year in road collisions” OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.“In the last five years, 946 people have died and when we look at those collisions, over half of them died as a result of one of the leading causes of death and injury on our highways. We call them the ‘big four’: aggressive driving, impaired driving, distracted driving, and not wearing your seatbelt.”Schmidt said there were five fatal incidents during last year’s Labour Day long weekend including two road deaths.He’s asking anyone travelling the roads this weekend to be sure they’re making good decisions.“Wherever you are, please share the road,” Schmidt said. “Use your safety equipment, focus on the task of driving, obey the s...

Proud Boy who smashed Capitol window on Jan. 6 gets 10 years in prison, then declares, ‘Trump won!’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:52 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former member of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group who smashed a window at the U.S. Capitol in the building’s first breach of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison — and then defiantly declared as he walked out of the courtroom, “Trump won!”The sentence for Dominic Pezzola is the latest handed down after leaders of the group were convicted of spearheading an attack aimed at preventing the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.Pezzola, 46, took a police officer’s riot shield and used it to smash the window, allow rioters to make the first breach into the Capitol, and he later filmed a “celebratory video” with a cigar inside the building, prosecutors said. He was a recent Proud Boys recruit, however, and a jury acquitted him of the most high-profile charge, seditious conspiracy, a rarely brought Civil War-era offense. He was convicted of other serious charges, and p...

Civil rights group wants independent probe into the record number of deaths in Alaska prisons

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:52 GMT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A civil rights group is asking the state court system to order an independent investigation into the Alaska Department of Corrections after a record number of deaths were reported last year.The request from the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska came Thursday when it announced separate lawsuits against the state Department of Corrections on behalf of two men who died by suicide while in prison in the last year, the Anchorage Daily News reported.The lawsuits, filed jointly by the organization and private attorneys on behalf of family members of the two men, seeks financial settlements and the outside investigation.“There must be greater accountability and transparency on behalf of the Department of Corrections to prevent these tragedies from occurring,” Ruth Botstein, the ACLU of Alaska’s legal director, said at a news conference.Neither the the Alaska Department of Corrections nor the attorney general’s office had been served with the lawsuits by...

Gabon opposition leader alleges the ousted president’s family arranged the coup to retain power

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:52 GMT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Gabon’s opposition leader accused the family of the recently ousted president of engineering his removal from power in order to retain their control in the oil-rich Central African nation, and said Friday that he should have won last week’s presidential election.Albert Ondo Ossa told The Associated Press on Friday that the junta who ousted Gabon’s president on Wednesday, just after he had been declared the winner in the election, did not engage in a coup but rather a “palace revolution” in order to continue his family’s reign.Soldiers toppled President Ali Bongo Ondimba and put him under house arrest, accusing him of irresponsible governance that risked leading the country into chaos. They then put Bongo’s cousin, Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, head of the elite republican guard, in charge. Oligui is expected to be sworn into office on Monday before the constitutional court. Ossa lost the Aug. 26 presidential election to Bongo by more than 30 percenta...

Billionaires want to build a new city in rural California. They must convince voters first

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:52 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Silicon Valley billionaires behind a secretive $800 million land-buying spree in Northern California have finally released some details about their plans for a new green city, but they still must win over skeptical voters and local leaders.After years of ducking scrutiny, Jan Sramek, the former Goldman Sachs trader spearheading the effort, launched a website Thursday about “California Forever.” The site billed the project as “a chance for a new community, good paying local jobs, solar farms, and open space” in Solano, a rural county between San Francisco and Sacramento that is now home to 450,000 people. He also began meeting with key politicians representing the area who have been trying unsuccessfully for years to find out who was behind the mysterious Flannery Associates LLC as it bought up huge swaths of land, making it the largest single landholder in the county.An all-star roster of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are backing the...

Nearly 1.6M flyers expected at O'Hare, Midway over busy Labor Day weekend

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:52 GMT

CHICAGO — Nearly 1.6 million travelers are expected to fly out of Chicago O'Hare and Midway International airports this Labor Day weekend as airline travel continues to rebound from the pandemic. According to the Chicago Department of Aviation, the number is based on travelers projected to take flight from Thursday, Aug. 31 through Tuesday, Sept. 5. The CDA adds that O'Hare is expected to see a 7% increase in airline passenger travel. The Labor Day holiday, Sept. 4, is projected to be the busiest day of travel. Midway travel numbers are projected to be on par with 2022, seeing only about a 1% increase in passengers. Labor Day is also expected to be the busiest, traveling-wise, for Midway. RELATED: The busiest days to fly around Labor Day 2023According to the Federal Aviation Administration, Labor Day weekend will be the third most active holiday weekend of the year, behind only the Juneteenth-Father's Day weekend and President's Day weekend.“Travelers this Labor Day weekend can rest...

FBI updates photo of University of Wisconsin bomber wanted for 53 years

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:52 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than 50 years after a Vietnam War-era bombing on the University of Wisconsin campus that killed a researcher, the FBI on Thursday released age-processed photographs of a suspect who has thus far evaded law enforcement and been referred to as “Wisconsin's state ghost.”Leo Burt was placed on the FBI's most wanted list immediately after the 1970 bombing of Sterling Hall and remains the last fugitive sought by the FBI in connection with radical anti-Vietnam War activities.The bombers parked a stolen van packed with fertilizer and fuel outside the university’s Army Math Research Center in Sterling Hall and lit the fuse in the early morning hours of Aug. 24, 1970. The bomb attack, which was the nation’s most powerful until the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, killed 33-year-old graduate student Robert Fassnacht, who was doing research in the middle of the night. It also injured other people and caused millions of dollars in damage. The bombers fled to Canada. Does t...

'A special place in my heart': Chicago's Skye Blue returns home with AEW this week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:52 GMT

CHICAGO — One of the rising stars in All Elite Wrestling is making a homecoming to Chicago this weekend.There are a number of reasons why it's special for Skye Blue.For one, it gives the Chicago native a chance to continue her rise in the company as she takes part in AEW Rampage - one of three events the company is holding in the Chicagoland area during this week. The 23-year-old took part in a tag team match with Willow Nightingale against Taya Valkyrie and Anna Jay at the event that was taped on Wednesday evening at NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates. It will air on Friday at 9 p.m. central time on TNT.It's a home match for Skye, who attended Fenton High School and still resides in Chicago where she also trains. It's here that she first found her love of professional wrestling through the influence of family."I grew up watching wrestling, my parents have been fans their whole lives," said Skye to WGN News Now this week. "So it was always on in my house. When I was younger, I d...

Friday Forecast: Temps in mid 80s with sunny conditions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:52 GMT

CHICAGO — Temperatures in mid 80s with mostly sunny conditions. Cooler lakeside, winds: SSE 5-10. High: 85/80. Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here Mostly clear tonight with calm conditions. Winds: S 0-5. Low: 63.Saturday Forecast: Mostly sunny with hot conditions. Winds: SW 5-15 G20. High: 90.Full forecast details and more at the WGN Weather Center blog