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Homicides dropped by over 10% in America’s biggest cities in 2023

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:08 GMT

(CNN) — After three years of distressingly high levels, homicides in the US declined significantly across the board in 2023 – even as the public’s concerns about crime remained at its highest in over two decades.In particular, the five biggest cities in the US – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Phoenix – each saw homicides fall by over 10%, according to the latest data from those police departments.Further, national data from the FBI covering January to September 2023 showed an 8.2% drop in all violent crime, including a 15.6% drop in murders, compared to the same period in 2022. These declines were seen in cities over 1 million people and those under 10,000, and across all four regional quadrants of the US. The full year of data won’t be released until this fall, but the trend is clear.Taken together, the broad decline in crimes in 2023 suggests societal disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 police murder of George Floyd h...

Girls cross-country All-Scholastics and league All-Stars

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:08 GMT

Lauren Augustyn (Bishop Feehan)Madeline Courtemanche (Central Catholic)Kaylie Dalgar (Pentucket)Ella Dunbury (West Bridgewater)Ciara Evans (Newton North)Abigail Hennessy (Westford Academy)Maggie Kuchman (Holliston)Carmen Luisi (Holliston)Paige McInerney (Acton-Boxboro)Marrietta O’Connell (Marblehead)Lauren Raffetto (Canton)Gracie Richard (Weymouth)Aoife Shovlin (Cambridge)Emilia Smith (Attleboro)Katie Sobieraj (Oliver Ames)Emma Tuxbury (Wellesley)Lucia Werner (Brookline)Susan Wisniewski (Pentucket) LAUREN AUGUSTYNBISHOP FEEHANThis senior ran to a stellar eighth-place finish at the Meet of Champions after a top-three showing in the Div. 1C race. The Catholic Conference champion for the third time, Augustyn was also the conference MVP. She is a member of the National Honor Society and the Science and English National Honor Society. Augustyn will attend Syracuse University.MADELINE COURTEMANCHECENTRAL CATHOLICThe Merrimack Valley Conference champion, this junior took fourth in the...

Sunderland apologizes to its fans for rebranding stadium bar in Newcastle colors for FA Cup game

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:08 GMT

SUNDERLAND, England (AP) — Sunderland scored a spectacular own-goal off the field well before its FA Cup showdown with archrival Newcastle.The second-tier English soccer club apologized to fans after a bar at its Stadium of Light was rebranded in Newcastle colors and banners ahead of Saturday’s derby.The Black Cats Bar will serve as a corporate hospitality suite for visiting fans, but Sunderland pledged to return the space to its original state after a fan backlash.Sunderland apologized for “a serious error in judgment” and said it had “requested an immediate review is undertaken to determine how this process unfolded.”Club owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus also apologized and said he was “disgusted and hurt” by the news.“I take full responsibility for every decision that is taken by the employees of our club and you have my word that I will personally make sure that we make the necessary changes required to improve because it is clear that there are many areas where we need to ...

PepsiCo products are being pulled from some Carrefour grocery stores in Europe over price hikes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:08 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Global supermarket chain Carrefour will stop selling PepsiCo products in it stores in France, Belgium, Spain and Italy over price increases for popular items like Lay’s potato chips, Quaker Oats, Lipton tea and its namesake soda.The French grocery chain said it pulled PepsiCo products from shelves in France on Thursday and added small signs in stores that say, “We no longer sell this brand due to unacceptable price increases.” The ban also will extend to Belgium, Spain and Italy, but Carrefour, which has 12,225 stores in more than 30 countries, didn’t say when it would take effect in those three countries.PepsiCo said in a statement that it has “been in discussion with Carrefour for many months and we will continue to engage in good faith in order to try to ensure that our products are available.”The company behind Cheetos, Mountain Dew and Rice-A-Roni has raised prices by double-digit percentages for seven straight quarters, most recently hiking by 11% in t...

Sentencing hearing continues for man found guilty in London attack on Muslim family

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:08 GMT

A sentencing hearing is set to continue today for a man who killed four members of a Muslim family in London, Ont.Nathaniel Veltman, 23, was found guilty in November of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for hitting the Afzaal family with his truck while they were out for a walk on June 6, 2021.His trial was heard in Windsor, Ont., but the sentencing proceedings, including victim impact statements, are taking place in London, where the attack took place.A relative of the family killed in the truck attack recalled picking up clothes from her grand-niece’s bedroom floor a day after the murders and “desperately seeking solace” in her scent for the final time.Hina Islam’s comments were among the emotional victim impact statements delivered at Veltman’s sentencing hearing yesterday after a jury learned he targeted the Afzaal family because they were wearing traditional Muslim clothing.Forty-six-year-old Salman Afzaal; his 44...

Armed ethnic alliance in northern Myanmar is said to have seized a city that was a key goal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:08 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — An alliance of ethnic armed groups in northeastern Myanmar has reportedly achieved one of the main goals it set when it launched an offensive last October by taking control of Laukkaing, a key city on the border with China, according to local residents and independent media accounts on Friday.The Three Brotherhood Alliance — comprising the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army — took control of Laukkaing late Thursday after forces of the country’s military government reportedly laid down their arms and were allowed to withdraw, according to reports that have not yet been officially confirmed by either side.Laukkaing is the capital of Kokang Self-Administered Zone, geographically part of northern Shan state. The MNDAA is a military force of the Kokang minority, who are ethnic Chinese.The city’s fall to the alliance is the biggest in a series of defeats suffered by Myanmar’s military government since...

Senegal’s opposition leader faces setback in presidential race after defamation conviction is upheld

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:08 GMT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Senegal’s top opposition leader suffered a major setback in his quest to contest the presidency on Friday when a top court upheld the defamation conviction in a case brought against him by a government minister.The Supreme Court’s ruling against Ousmane Sonko’s appeal is the latest twist in a prolonged legal battle that the opposition leader has alleged is to stop his presidential bid in the February elections.“The trial was the very last chance,” Sonko’s lawyer Khoureychi Ba said of the ruling delivered after a session that started on Thursday. “I realize that Mr. Sonko’s opponents have succeeded in eliminating him from the Feb. 25 presidential election,” Ba said.Sonko, who finished third in the country’s 2019 presidential election, is widely seen as the main challenger to President Macky Sall’s ruling party. Sall himself ultimately decided not to seek a third term in office after Sonko’s supporters launched months of protests that at times turned ...

A competition Chinese chess player says he’s going to court after losing his title over a defecation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:08 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — A competitor in Chinese chess says he has sued the national association in China for mental distress after he was stripped of a title for drinking alcohol and defecating in the bathtub of his hotel room at a recent competition.Yan Chenglong doesn’t deny what happened but wrote in a civil complaint this week that he drank a moderate amount of beer to celebrate his win with other players and that some food had caused stomach problems and he couldn’t make it to the toilet in time.The complaint came one week after a social media post by the Chinese Xiangqi Association that described the drinking and defecation. It said an investigation had found that Yan damaged hotel property, violated public order and good behavior, and had a negative impact on the tournament.Chinese chess, called xiangqi in Chinese, is a traditional board game that remains popular, particularly among older people. Neighborhood residents play in parks and along sidewalks, often with small cr...

Wisconsin governor who called for marijuana legalization says he’ll back limited GOP proposal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:08 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who has pushed for full legalization of recreational marijuana, said Wednesday that he is open to a more limited medical marijuana legalization being promoted by Republicans.“I would think that getting it all done in one fell swoop would be more thoughtful as far as meeting the needs of Wisconsinites that have asked for it,” Evers said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But if that’s what we can accomplish right now, I’ll be supportive of that.”Republicans have been working behind closed doors for years on a medical marijuana bill and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said in December that they would unveil it this month. Republicans have repeatedly rejected calls from Evers and other Democrats to legalize all uses of marijuana, including medical and recreational.Vos said the proposal would be limited and modeled after the medical marijuana law that had been in place in neighboring Minnesota before it moved to full legalization.Evers...

Wisconsin’s Democratic governor says Biden must visit battleground state often to win it

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:08 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — President Joe Biden must make frequent visits to battleground Wisconsin if he hopes to win it in November, focusing his message on his successes and issues that matter to the middle class, not just the argument that the fate of democracy is at stake, the state’s Democratic governor said.And while the 81-year-old Biden’s age is “of course” a concern, Gov. Tony Evers said he can win by showing younger voters why they should care. “I think democracy is on the line, but we also have to recognize what a great job he has done on infrastructure issues and other things,” Evers told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday, mentioning work to replace lead pipes. “He needs to be here, simple as that.”Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a percentage point, making the state one of a small number that could go either way in November. Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in 2020 by fewer than 21,000...