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German court convicts Syrian IS member of war crimes for torturing captives

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:32 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A German court convicted a Syrian man Tuesday of torturing captives while he was a member of the Islamic State group in Syria.The Berlin regional court found Raed E. guilty of war crimes, membership of a foreign terrorist organization and other offences. It sentenced the defendent, whose surname wasn’t released in line with German privacy rules, to 11 years imprisonment.Prosecutors said the 32-year-old joined IS in 2014 and participated in targeted attacks on the Shueitat tribe in the Deir el-Zour region of eastern Syria. A man who was detained and brutally tortured by the defendant testified at the trial.The defendant left Syria in 2015 and traveled to Germany, where he was arrested last year.The ruling can be appealed.Source

Crane at fire-ravaged Notre Dame in Paris hoists giant wood trusses to the cathedral’s roof

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:32 GMT

PARIS (AP) — A crane hoisted massive oak trusses from a barge and onto Notre Dame Cathedral on Tuesday in a spectacular operation to rebuild the fire-ravaged monument and bring it back to life by December 2024.With trusses weighing 7 to 7.5 tons, the delicate operation drew crowds along a bridge over the Seine River and on its banks.“I think it’s a magical moment for a lot of Parisians this morning,” said Transport Minister Clement Beaune, noting that the Seine will be at the center of the Paris Olympic Games in 2024.Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, appointed by French President Emmanuel Macron to oversee Notre Dame’s reconstruction, said that even the heavy traffic expected during the summer Games won’t stop work on the world-renowned cathedral.“We will work for the cathedral during the Olympics in order to be ready in December 2024,” he said. “This is our goal.” Notre Dame, which oversees old Paris from an island on the Seine, was consumed by flames in 2019, and it was decided to ...

Todd Haynes’ ‘May December’ to open 61st New York Film Festival

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:32 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The 61st New York Film Festival will kick off with Todd Haynes’ “May December,” a juicy drama starring Natalie Portman as an actor preparing for a film about a years-ago tabloid scandal.Film at Lincoln Center, which puts on the New York Film Festival, announced Tuesday that “May December” — one of the standouts at this year’s Cannes Film Festival — will be the opening night film at this year’s edition. The gala will take place Sept. 29 at Alice Tully Hall. In it, Portman plays a well-known TV star who, to research a role, spends time with Gracie (Julianne Moore) and her much-younger husband, Joe (Charles Melton). They’re a seemingly happy suburban family whose initial affair 20 years earlier, when Joe was 13, was a national story. Their backstory is loosely based on the case of Mary Kay Letourneau, a Washington State schoolteacher convicted of raping her sixth-grade student, Vili Fualaau. They later married. “’May December’ is a to...

Bear forces closures on CU Boulder campus

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:32 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- A bear was roaming at the University of Colorado Boulder Tuesday, prompting area closures on campus.CU Boulder Police said they first noticed the bear around noon and called Colorado Parks and Wildlife. How CU students challenged a popular astrophysics theory It was near the south side of the University Memorial Center, CUPD asked people to avoid the area on the south side of the University Memorial Center and closed the sidewalk near where the bear is.CPW arrived on the scene around noon and about a half hour later the closed area was expanded.The closure now includes the UMC south terrace doors and the vendor service area in addition to the south side of UMC and the sidewalk at the southeast corner from the Euclid to Broadway underpass.

Report: Taylor Swift legions about to drop $200M on Eras spending in Denver

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:32 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Not only will Taylor Swift pump up Denver's struggling public transit ridership but the state's entire bottom line.Taylor Swift's Eras tour is set to go down as one of the biggest tours in U.S. history, according to an economic analysis from free market economics nonprofit Common Sense Institute. Separate reports estimate her entire 22-show tour to gross about $300 million total, or $13.6 million per show. That's twice as much per show as U2's 360° Tour, another of the five highest-grossing music tours of all time. Taylor Swift in Denver: 5 things you need to know before the Eras Tour For Colorado, the event may mean at least an extra nine figures for Colorado's economy. "The economic modeling shows that the Colorado economy could expect, as a direct resultof Taylor Swift’s two shows, a $140 million-dollar boost to the state’s GDP," reads the report, "although some of this will be in the form of displaced spending; essentially, if it had not been spent at the Era...

Leslie Van Houten, follower of cult leader Charles Manson, released from California prison

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:32 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten walked out of a California prison Tuesday after serving 53 years of a life sentence for her participation in two infamous murders.The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Van Houten “was released to parole supervision.”Her release comes days after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would not fight a state appeals court ruling that Van Houten should be granted parole.Van Houten, now in her 70s, received a life sentence for helping Manson’s followers carry out the 1969 killings of Leno LaBianca, a grocer in Los Angeles, and his wife, Rosemary.She was released from prison in the early morning hours and driven to transitional housing, her attorney Nancy Tetreault said.

Broward Sheriff’s deputy arrested for DUI after off-duty incident

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:32 GMT

Kimberly Ann Walker, a 55-year-old Broward Sheriff’s Deputy, was arrested last Friday night for driving under the influence while off duty.According to the responding deputy, Walker was involved in a minor car crash after allegedly reversing her vehicle into another car at a red light in Tamarac. Following the incident, Walker reportedly failed a sobriety test and was subsequently charged with DUI.While the investigation is ongoing, Walker has been placed on administrative assignment until the outcome is determined.

Pennsylvania inmate escaped through prison roof and shimmied down a rope of sheets, court documents say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:32 GMT

(CNN) — Pennsylvania inmate Michael Burham allegedly climbed workout equipment to leave through a roof and shimmied down a rope of sheets, court documents with new details on the day he escaped prison reveal.Surveillance footage shows Burham and other prisoners walking in and out of his jail cell, says the criminal complaint filed by the City of Warren on Friday.The search continued Tuesday for Burham, whom authorities described as “dangerous” and with survivalist skills and military experience. They said he escaped Warren County Prison last Thursday while held on arson and burglary charges and was a suspect in a homicide.Warren police said Burham “was also associated with the prior carjacking and kidnapping of a local couple while trying to escape capture.”Burham was thought to have supplies for “a prolonged stay in the area,” Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said Monday.More than 150 officers have been involved in the search, Bivens said.‘Observed standing on a pul...

Father and son from Miami indicted for drug and firearms conspiracy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:32 GMT

Ahmed Subni Wadi, 49, and his son Ramzi Ahmed Wadi, 21, both residents of Miami, have been formally charged in federal court with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and dealing firearms without a license.The indictment, along with the underlying criminal complaint affidavit, reveals that in November 2022, Ahmed Wadi allegedly sold a firearm with an obliterated serial number and multiple grams of oxycodone to an individual in the parking lot of a mall. During the transaction, Ahmed Wadi’s bodyguard, acting as his protector, informed the purchaser of his armed presence.According to the charging documents, on April 7, Ahmed Wadi sold two semi-automatic firearms and multiple grams of oxycodone laced with fentanyl to an individual at the business where both defendants were employed. During this encounter, Ahmed Wadi offered to sell the buyer a machine gun and a silencer. Later that month, Ramzi Wadi allegedly completed the sale on behalf of his father, providing the buy...

No Champagne for Swedes at NATO yet, PM says 

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:32 GMT

VILNIUS — The Champagne will have to wait. Sweden won a major breakthrough on its path to NATO membership this week when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan agreed to send Stockholm’s application for parliamentary ratification in Ankara. But in the Lithuanian capital, where NATO leaders are gathered for a two-day summit, the Swedish delegation is holding off on full-scale celebrations.  “We thought the Champagne will have to wait until the ratifications are there,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told POLITICO in an interview on Tuesday of his team’s commemoration of the milestone. “So yesterday we gathered in a conference room and had a beer together.” If the ratification happens, the Swedish leader said, “perhaps we’ll have Champagne.” Sweden applied for NATO membership in 2022 together with Finland in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But despite introducing legal changes to address Turkish concerns about Kurdish groups, Stockholm’s...