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Top Chinese diplomat to visit Washington ahead of possible meeting between Biden and Xi

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:33:55 GMT

Washington (AP) — China’s top diplomat will come to Washington Thursday for a three-day visit, the latest move by Washington and Beijing to keep high-level talks open amid tense bilateral relations.Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan over a range of issues, including the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Ukraine war and a recent vessel collision in the South China Sea, according to senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the trip.Wang’s trip will come just about two weeks ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, where it’s possible that President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet. The officials did not confirm the leaders’ meeting, nor did they say if Wang’s visit would prepare for such a meeting. Instead, Wang’s trip was described as reciprocal to Blinken’s vis...

New deadly bird flu cases reported in Iowa, joining 3 other states as disease resurfaces

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:33:55 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two commercial turkey farms in Iowa have been hit by the reemerging highly pathogenic bird flu, causing about 100,000 birds to be killed to prevent the disease from spreading.The Iowa Department of Agriculture reported the infected commercial poultry flocks within weeks of a turkey farm in South Dakota and one in Utah reporting the first outbreaks in the U.S. since April, raising concerns that more would follow. The U.S. Department of Agriculture shows 12 commercial flocks in South Dakota, Utah and Minnesota have been affected in October, totaling more than 500,000 birds.Bird flu last year cost U.S. poultry producers nearly 59 million birds across 47 states, including egg-laying chickens and turkeys and chickens raised for meat, making it the country’s deadliest outbreak ever, according to USDA figures. The outbreak caused spikes in egg and turkey prices for consumers and cost the government over $660 million.Iowa was the hardest-hit state last year, with nea...

California man gets year in prison for sending vile messages to father of gun massacre victim

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:33:55 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A California property manager was sentenced to a year in federal prison for sending more than 200 vile online messages to a father of a teenage girl who died in the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. James Catalano, 62 of Fresno, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Robert Scola in Miami after pleading guilty in March to cyberstalking. Prosecutors called the messages he sent Fred Guttenberg “callous and cruel.”Guttenberg’s 14-year-old daughter Jaime Guttenberg was murdered in the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting in Parkland that left 14 students and three staff members dead. Catalano also received three years probation and must undergo mental health treatment. Catalano sent Guttenberg messages for eight months starting in December 2021 that celebrated Jaime Guttenberg’s death and reveled in the wounds she suffered. He also mocked the sadness and loss Guttenberg feels and directed obscenities, slurs and distur...

Autopsies confirm 5 died of chemical exposure in tanker crash

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:33:55 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Autopsies have confirmed that five people who died when a chemical tanker overturned in central Illinois last month died from exposure to caustic anhydrous ammonia fumes, an official said Monday.The official results confirmed preliminary findings from the Sept. 29 crash, Effingham County Coroner Kim Rhodes said. The victims, including two children, suffered severe chemical burns to their entire bodies, as well as their eyes and respiratory systems, she said.The crash involving a tanker truck carrying the agricultural fertilizer occurred about 8:40 p.m. on U.S. 40 just east of Teutopolis, 110 miles (177 kilometers) northeast of St. Louis.Killed in the crash were Danny J. Smith, 67, of New Haven, Missouri; Vasile Cricovan, 31, of Twinsburg, Ohio; 34-year-old Kenneth Bryan of Teutopolis and his children Walker, 10, and Rosie, 7, of Beecher City.Traffic had been diverted onto U.S. 40 from Interstates 57 and 70, about five miles (eight kilometers) west of Teutopo...

It’s Israeli boy’s 9th birthday as he is held in Hamas captivity — and his family waits

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:33:55 GMT

KFAR SABA, Israel (AP) — Ohad Munder-Zichri’s ninth birthday is on Monday. But instead of celebrating at home with his family and friends, he is believed to be somewhere in Gaza, one of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas since the militants’ devastating Oct. 7 incursion.The fourth-grader from the central Israeli city of Kfar Saba was nabbed along with his mother and grandparents during a holiday visit to his grandparents’ kibbutz of Nir Oz along the border with Gaza.Ohad’s beloved uncle was killed in the attack. The boy, his mom and grandparents disappeared with the only thread of information about them coming from a cellphone signal traced to Gaza.It’s that uncertainty that has been most agonizing for Ohad’s grief-stricken father, Avi Zichri.“I keep imagining what he is going through. He’s a sensitive boy. Did he see dead bodies? He wears glasses. Did they take them from him? Can he see anything?” Zichri said as he nervously chain-smoked cigarettes on his front porch....

5th suspect arrested in 2022 ambush shooting outside high school after football scrimmage

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:33:55 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Federal authorities have announced the arrest of the fifth and final suspect wanted in an ambush shooting that killed a 14-year-old and wounded several other teenagers outside a Philadelphia high school after a football scrimmage last year.U.S. marshals in Philadelphia said 17-year-old Dayron Burney-Thorn was taken into custody Monday in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood after more than a year on the run. Authorities said he jumped from a fourth-story window in an unsuccessful effort to elude capture and was taken to a hospital for treatment.Burney-Thorn, also wanted in a separate homicide a day before the September 2022 shooting near Roxborough High School, had been sought in the Atlanta area but deputy marshals later learned he might have returned to the city and tracked him to a Germantown apartment early Monday, officials said.The reward for information leading to Burney-Thorn’s capture had been increased to $50,000, the U.S. Marshals Eastern...

Warrant says Minnesota investigators found meth in house after gunbattle that wounded 5 officers

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:33:55 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Investigators found methamphetamine and traces of the stimulant while searching the home of a Minnesota man who’s now charged with attempted murder in the shootings of five drug task force officers, a search warrant released Monday says.Investigators suspected Karl Thomas Holmberg, 64, and his wife of selling methamphetamine when they raided their house Oct. 12, according to a separate search warrant released last Wednesday. Five officers suffered nonfatal injuries when the gunfire broke out, while a sixth officer who was present in the home was unhurt. Holmberg was injured in his foot. He was charged the next day with six counts of attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer and six counts of first-degree assault of a peace officer. His wife has not been charged.Several agencies, led by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, are investigating, and many details remain sketchy about the incident at Holmberg’s home in Glendorado Township nea...

Montana man gets 18 months in federal prison for repeated racist phone calls made to a church

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:33:55 GMT

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for making repeated threatening and racist phone calls to a Billings church for two years after he went there seeking help and received a gift card from a Black employee, prosecutors said.Joshua Leon Hiestand, 41, was sentenced Friday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montana. Hiestand pleaded guilty in June to making harassing telephone calls. A stalking charge was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.“When Hiestand, a white man, went to a Billings church looking for help, an elderly African American woman who worked there responded with kindness and assistance,” U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said in a statement. “In return and for nearly two years, Hiestand launched a barrage of harassing, hateful and racist calls and voicemails at her and the church. His racist conduct isn’t just abhorrent, it is illegal.”Prosecutors alleged Hiestand went to the Presbyterian churc...

TFI International Inc. reports US$133.3 million net income amid weaker demand

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:33:55 GMT

MONTREAL — TFI International Inc. says its net income for the third quarter was US$133.3 million, down from US$245.2 million a year earlier.The Montreal-based transportation company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was US$1.9 billion, down from US$2.2 billion last year. TFI says the decline in revenues was due in part to a reduction in volumes driven by weaker demand. Earnings per diluted share were US$1.54, down from US$2.72. Chairman, president and CEO Alain Bédard says the company executed well during a stretch of weaker demand.He says the company is well-positioned to capitalize on an eventual pick-up in demand. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:TFII)The Canadian Press

Liberals moving ahead on assault-style gun ban with legislation, regulation: LeBlanc

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 21:33:55 GMT

OTTAWA — The Liberal government is moving ahead with efforts to keep assault-style firearms out of the hands of Canadians, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Monday.LeBlanc, who assumed the portfolio over the summer, told a Senate committee the government will enact regulations to complement gun-control legislation being studied by members of the upper chamber.The government bill includes a ban on assault-style firearms that would apply once the legislation comes into force.LeBlanc said planned regulatory changes will ensure a mandatory physical inspection by the RCMP of all new firearm models before they enter the Canadian market. However, people can still buy many such guns currently for sale in Canada.LeBlanc reaffirmed federal plans to re-establish the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee to independently review the classification of existing models that fall under the prospective new definition of a prohibited firearm in the bill.He said the exercise would identify gun...