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On the campaign trail, New Zealand leader Chris Hipkins faces an uphill battle wooing voters

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:53:35 GMT

NEW PLYMOUTH, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was on the campaign trail Monday visiting an art gallery when his guide asked him what he pictured when he looked up at a towering wooden sculpture.“I was actually just contemplating that,” Hipkins replied. “And I don’t really have a readout of it.”His response seemed to reinforce a criticism of Hipkins — that it’s hard to know what he’s passionate about, what his vision is in politics. But it perhaps also spoke to the unpretentious, Everyman image that Hipkins likes to project. He appeared more at ease earlier in the day when he’d been talking about home insulation with tradespeople and handing out sausages at a barbecue event to promote renewable energy. With less than three weeks until New Zealand’s Oct. 14 general election, the campaign stop in New Plymouth was another chance for Hipkins to woo voters. Opinion polls put his Labour Party significantly behind the more conservati...

Toymaker Lego to stick to its quest to find sustainable materials despite failed recycle attempt

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:53:35 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s Lego said on Monday that it remains committed to its quest to find sustainable materials to reduce carbon emissions, even after an experiment by the world’s largest toymaker to use recycled bottles did not work.Lego said it has “decided not to progress” with making its trademark colorful bricks from recycled plastic bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate, known as PET, and after more than two years of testing “found the material didn’t reduce carbon emissions.”Still, the toymaker remains “fully committed to making Lego bricks from sustainable materials by 2032,” it addedTwo years ago, the privately-held group which makes its bricks out of oil-based plastic, started researching a potential transition to recycled plastic bottles made of PET plastic, which doesn’t degrade in quality when recycled.It had invested “more than $1.2 billion in sustainability initiatives” as part of efforts to transition to more sustainab...

The chairman of Hong Kong’s leading journalist group found guilty of obstructing a police officer

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:53:35 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — The chairman of Hong Kong’s leading journalist group was found guilty of obstructing a police officer on Monday in a court case that sparked concerns about the city’s declining press freedom. Ronson Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association and a journalist of online news outlet Channel C, was arrested last September while he was on his way to a reporting assignment. He was accused of refusing to show the plainclothes officer his identity card upon request. Chan’s arrest fuelled concerns about the erosion of media freedom in Hong Kong after Beijing imposed a national security law to crush dissent following the city’s massive pro-democracy protests in 2019. The former British colony was promised to keep its Western-style civil liberties for 50 years when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Magistrate Leung Ka-kie on Monday ruled that Chan had deliberately obstructed the officer from carrying out her duty and failed to take out his ide...

A Taiwan golf ball maker fined after a fatal fire for storing 30 times limit for hazardous material

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:53:35 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan authorities fined a golf ball manufacturer 2.4 million New Taiwan dollars ($75,000) on Monday and warned of criminal charges for storing 30 times the legal limit of hazardous material and other violations after a major factory fire killed nine people and left one other missing.The mayor of Pingtung county said at a news conference that Launch Technologies Co. had 3,000 tons of organic peroxides on site, far more than the 100 tons of hazardous material that is permitted, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.Those responsible would be held accountable for public endangerment and negligent manslaughter, Mayor Chou Chun-mi said.Company officials could not be reached for comment.It’s unclear what caused the fire on Friday, but two explosions in the already burning building trapped firefighters and workers under rubble. Four firefighters were among the nine who died. More than 100 other people were injured.Organic peroxides, which are highly flamm...

Thousands of Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh as Turkish president is set to visit Azerbaijan

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:53:35 GMT

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Thousands of Armenians streamed out of Nagorno-Karabakh after the Azerbaijani military reclaimed full control of the breakaway region while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was set to visit Azerbaijan Monday in a show of support to its ally. The Azerbaijani military routed Armenian forces in a 24-hour blitz last week, forcing the separatist authorities to agree to lay down weapons and start talks on Nagorno-Karabakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan after three decades of separatist rule. While Azerbaijan pledged to respect the rights of ethnic Armenians in the region and restore supplies after a 10-month blockade, many local residents feared reprisals and said they were planning to leave for Armenia.The Armenian government said that 4,850 Nagorno-Karabakh residents had fled to Armenia as of midday Monday.“It was a nightmare. There are no words to describe. The village was heavily shelled. Almost no one is left in the village,” said one of the eva...

A trial opens in France over the killing of a police couple in the name of the Islamic State group

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:53:35 GMT

LYON, France (AP) — It wasn’t the deadliest attack in Europe linked to the Islamic State group, but it was among the most disturbing: One evening in 2016, an assailant killed two police officers in their family home, in front of their 3-year-old son.On Monday, a trial opens in a French counterterrorism court over the attack in the Paris suburb of Magnanville.The attacker, Larossi Abballa, was shot to death by police. According to court documents, he told police negotiators that he was responding to an IS leader’s call to “kill miscreants at home with their families.”A childhood friend of Abballa’s, Mohamed Aberouz, is going on trial for complicity to terrorism-related murder, complicity to kidnapping and terrorist conspiracy. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.The killings came amid a wave of attacks in France linked to the Islamic State group and had a lasting effect on police officers around France. Some moved, changed services or resigned to protect their love...

EU Commission blocks Booking’s planned acquisition of flight booking provider Etraveli

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:53:35 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive arm said Monday it is blocking leading U.S. online travel agency Booking from acquiring Sweden’s flight booking provider Etraveli Group because it would have allowed it to increase its dominant position on the market on the continent.The European Commission said it had warned Booking Holdings about its concerns but that the remedies offered by the company were not sufficient. Booking’s brands include Booking.com, Rentalcars, Priceline and Agoda.Following its investigation, the Commission said it found out the proposed 1.63-billion-euro ($1.8 billion) deal would have led to higher costs for hotels, and possibly, a negative impact on the price paid by consumers.“Bans are rare, and today’s decision is in fact the first merger to be blocked this year,” EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said.According to the European Commission, online travel agencies handle transactions worth more than 100 billion euros ($106 billion...

RYDER CUP ’23: A look inside the walls of the 11th-century Marco Simone castle

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:53:35 GMT

GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy (AP) — First came the castle. Then the golf course.The nearly 300,000 fans descending on the Marco Simone club for the Ryder Cup this week will be able to see the 11th-century castle with the same name from various points of the course — it’s wedged between the sixth and eighth holes and has a big Italian flag waving from its tower — but they won’t be able to visit it.That’s because it’s the private residence of fashion designer Lavinia Biagiotti Cigna, who owns and runs the golf club.Biagiotti Cigna’s parents bought the castle in 1978 — the year she was born — and then decided to build the surrounding golf course.While the golf course recently underwent an 11 million euro ($12 million) complete restyling in order to host the sport’s biggest team event, keeping up a 1,000-year-old castle is a job that never ends.“I don’t really feel like I own this place. I really feel I’m taking care of this place,” Biagiotti Cigna said in a recent interview with The Asso...

Biden administration announces $1.4 billion to improve rail safety and boost capacity in 35 states

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:53:35 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Monday that it has awarded more than $1.4 billion to projects that improve railway safety and boost capacity, with much of the money coming from the 2021 infrastructure law.“These projects will make American rail safer, more reliable, and more resilient, delivering tangible benefits to dozens of communities where railroads are located, and strengthening supply chains for the entire country,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.The money is funding 70 projects in 35 states and Washington, D.C. Railroad safety has become a key concern nationwide ever since a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and caught fire in East Palestine, Ohio, in February. President Joe Biden has ordered federal agencies to hold the train’s operator Norfolk Southern accountable for the crash, but a package of proposed rail safety reforms has stalled in the Senate where the bill is still awaiting a vote. The White Ho...

West Philadephia standout commits to UAlbany men

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:53:35 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Over the weekend the UAlbany men's basketball team made a splash on the recruiting trail. Get the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment delivered right to your inbox! They landed a commitment from Ihmotep Institute Charter High School standout Ma'Kye Taylor. His length and versatile skillset caught the eye of Great Danes head coach Dwayne Killings, and Taylor believes that UAlbany just felt like the right fit. "When I was picking a college I was looking for where I was going to be more comfortable at," Taylor said. "I was looking for I would say the type of people I would be around for my next four years. I paid close attention to how players interacted with players, players interacted with coaches, coaches interacted with coaches and Albany seemed to give me that genuine aura that I was looking for," Taylor added. "They play through the fours a lot, so that's a plus for me being a forward that can dribble, pass, and create off the bounce, so jus...