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Crews cleaning up after large tree falls across roadway in Brookline

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

A large tree toppled across a roadway in Brookline overnight, knocking out power to customers in the area.Crews on Avon Street said they would have to cut power to more homes in the area in order to remove the tree limbs that are blocking the road.They said they do not expect to have the area clear in time for the Tuesday morning commute.No additional information was immediately available.

Vincenzo Mario Santoro: Kyle Hendricks is the most underrated pitcher in Chicago Cubs history

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

Back when the Chicago Cubs traded starting pitcher Ryan Dempster to the Texas Rangers for Kyle Hendricks in 2012, little did fans know the great pitcher he would become.Some of Hendricks’ impressive career stats among active MLB pitchers includes a 3.47 ERA, which ranks 12th; an adjusted ERA+, which ranks 12th; a 1.153 WHIP, which ranks 11th; a 2.0 bases on balls per nine innings pitched, which ranks first; six complete games, which ranks 15th; and four shutouts, which rank 11th.What’s shocking is that among the top 15 qualified active pitchers in ERA, Hendricks is the only one that has yet to be named to an All-Star game. The reason for this is probably Hendricks’ low average fastball velocity and his lack of strikeouts. Since his MLB debut in 2014, Hendricks has been one of the most consistent and most reliable pitchers in the game. Today, he’s back and better than ever, somehow still pitching at the highest level.The 2016 season was when the world saw what...

2 explosions rip through dwellings in Sweden. At least one is reportedly connected to a gang feud

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two powerful explosions have ripped through dwellings in central Sweden, injuring at least three people and damaging buildings, with bricks and window sections left spread outside. Late Monday, an explosion occurred in Hasselby, a suburb of the capital, Stockholm. In the early hours of Tuesday, a blast in Linkoping, some 175 kilometers (110 miles) to the southwest, ripped the facade off a three-story building, leaving debris strewn across a parking area. It was not known whether the blasts were related to each other. Swedish radio said Tuesday that the explosion in Linkoping was connected to a feud between criminal gangs, a growing problem in Sweden with drive-by shootings and bombings. Two gangs — one led by a Swedish-Turkish dual national who lives in Turkey, the other by his former lieutenant — are reportedly fighting over drugs and weapons. So far this year, there have been 261 shootings, 36 people have died and 73 were wounded. The count doesn’t include t...

South Korea’s Constitutional Court strikes down law banning anti-Pyongyang leafleting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday struck down a 2020 law that criminalized the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets to North Korea, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech.The ruling came in response to a complaint filed by North Korean defector-activists in the South. They included Park Sang-hak, who has been a frequent target of North Korean government anger for his yearslong campaign of flying leaflets across the border with balloons.The law was crafted by the previous liberal government in Seoul that desperately pushed for inter-Korean engagement. It made leafleting a crime punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine of 30 million won ($22,000). The law passed in December 2020, six months after the North expressed its displeasure over the leaflets by blowing up an inter-Korean liaison office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. Park did not immediately comment on the court’s decision, which immediately inva...

Spain charges pop singer Shakira with tax evasion for a second time and demands more than $7 million

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spanish prosecutors have charged pop star Shakira with failing to pay 6.7 million euros ($7.1 million) in tax on her 2018 income, authorities said Tuesday, in Spain’s latest fiscal allegations against the Colombian singer.Shakira is alleged to have used an offshore company based in a tax haven to avoid paying the tax, Barcelona prosecutors said in a statement.She has been notified of the charges in Miami, where she lives, according to the statement.Shakira is already due to be tried in Barcelona on Nov. 20 in a separate case that hinges on where she lived between 2012-14. In that case, prosecutors allege she failed to pay 14.5 million euros ($15.4 million) in tax. Prosecutors in Barcelona have alleged the Grammy winner spent more than half of the 2012-14 period in Spain and therefore should have paid taxes in the country, even though her official residence was in the Bahamas.Spanish tax officials opened the latest case against Shakira last July. After reviewi...

Flood-hit central Greece braces for new storm as military crews help bolster flood defenses

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Emergency services in central Greece were on alert Tuesday as storms headed toward areas hit by massive floods this month.Municipal and military crews using excavators reinforced flood defenses along rivers near the central cities of Larissa and Trikala. Flooding from Storm Daniel killed 16 people in the region and caused widespread damage to property, farms and infrastructure.As it headed eastward, the latest storm — named “Elias” — caused landslides early Tuesday and prompted authorities to close sections of a highway between Athens and the western port city of Patras.The bad weather is expected to worsen through Thursday, affecting central Greece, the island of Evia, east of Athens, and islands in the central Aegean Sea.Storm Daniel swept across the eastern Mediterranean in early September. It flooded 720 square kilometers (280 square miles) across Greece’s farming heartland and caused damage in neighboring Bulgaria and Turkey before reaching Libya, where tw...

Leader of Spain’s conservatives faces slim chances of winning Parliament approval for his government

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

MADRID (AP) — The leader of Spain’s conservatives will try to convince lawmakers on Tuesday to let him form the country’s new government, ahead of two rounds of voting later this week in Parliament that he is expected to lose.Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s Popular Party won the most seats after the inconclusive July 23 national elections that left all parties well shy of an absolute majority in the 350-seat lower chamber, setting the stage for a difficult path to power.Under the Spanish constitution, he faces two investiture votes that will determine whether he can form a government — likely a coalition with the far-right Vox party. He needs a simple majority of 176 votes in the first vote on Wednesday, after hours of debate. If he misses that mark, the bar would be lowered on Friday in the second round, where he will need only more “yes” than “no” votes, opening the possibility for abstentions to sway the result. The Popular Party’s 137 seats are the most held by any party. But even ...

Unifor contract talks with General Motors begin after workers ratify Ford deal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

TORONTO — Contract talks between Unifor and General Motors Canada begin today.The negotiations cover about 4,300 workers at the automaker’s St. Catharines Powertrain Plant, the Oshawa Assembly Complex and the Woodstock Parts Distribution Centre. Unifor announced GM as the next target company in its negotiations with the U.S. automakers on Monday.The talks come after workers represented by the union at Ford Motor Co. of Canada voted on the weekend to approve a new contract that Unifor plans to use as a pattern agreement in its talks with GM and Stellantis.The Ford deal included wage hikes, pension and benefit improvements, and special EV transition measures for workers at Ford’s assembly plant in Oakville, Ont.It also added two new paid holidays.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2023.The Canadian Press

Myanmar’s ruling military drops 2 generals suspected of corruption in a government reshuffle

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military has reshuffled the country’s ruling council and Cabinet, state media reported Tuesday, with an apparent purge of two high-ranking generals who independent media have said are under investigation for alleged corruption.The military’s top ruling body, formally known as State Administration Council, has directed four reshuffles since the army seized power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government more than 2 1/2 years ago. The country has been in turmoil since then, with widespread armed resistance to army rule.The latest changes, carried out Monday, came a few weeks after army Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moe Myint Tun and Lt.-Gen. Soe Htut, both council members, were reportedly being investigated in the capital Naypyitaw for corruption. Soe Htut had served in the important job of home affairs minister from 2020 until last month, when he assumed a less influential post. The report on the reshuffle in Tuesday’s state-run Global New Light of Myanmar s...

Queen’s Park blocked off to traffic ahead of potential protest, police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:51 GMT

The roads in and around Queen’s Park in downtown Toronto are closed off to traffic early Tuesday morning due to what police are calling a “potential demonstration.”Garbage trucks, TTC buses and police cars were blocking motorist access to the provincial legislature ahead of the morning rush. All side streets leading to the area were similarly blocked.There were no signs of any protesters in the area as of 6 a.m., but Toronto police posted to social media advising of a number of closures “due to a potential demonstration involving a number of vehicles.”The following roads are closed to vehicle traffic:NB/SB Queen’s Park Crescent from Bloor Street West to College StreetNB/SB University Avenue from College Street to Elm StreetEB/WB Wellesley Street West at Queen’s Park Police say there is no impact to pedestrians.ROAD CLOSURES (CON’T):TPS will provide updates as they become available, including when roads are expected to re-open.There is n...