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Biden signs debt ceiling bill that pulls US back from brink of unprecedented default

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:20 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — With just two days to spare, President Joe Biden signed legislation on Saturday that lifts the nation’s debt ceiling, averting an unprecedented default on the federal government’s debt.The White House announced the signing, done in private at the White House, in an emailed statement in which Biden thanked congressional leaders for their partnership.The Treasury Department had warned that the country would start running short of cash to pay all of its bills on Monday, which would have sent shockwaves through the U.S. and global economies.Republicans refused to raise the country’s borrowing limit unless Democrats agreed to cut spending, leading to a standoff that was not resolved until weeks of intense negotiations between the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.The final agreement, passed by the House on Wednesday and the Senate on Thursday, suspends the debt limit until 2025 — after the n...

Pat Leonard’s NFL Notes: Cincinnati Bengals’ AFC North prominence suddenly has rivals chasing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:20 GMT

For football fans of a certain age, it may seem unthinkable that the entire AFC North division is now playing catch-up with the Cincinnati Bengals.This is a franchise that did not appear in a single playoff game from 1991 through 2004. They lost in the AFC’s Wild Card round five straight years from 2011 through 2015.They watched the Pittsburgh Steelers (2005, 2008) and Baltimore Ravens (2000, 2012) each win two Super Bowls in a span of 13 seasons, including the Ravens’ first out of the old AFC Central.The Steelers and New England Patriots are tied for the most Super Bowl championships with six apiece. Pittsburgh also won the AFC North four times in eight seasons from 2013 through 2020 and didn’t finish lower than second once.Suddenly, however, head coach Zac Taylor and quarterback Joe Burrow have led the Bengals to two AFC North titles, a 22-11 regular season, an 8-5 division record, a 5-2 playoff record, two AFC Championship berths and one Super Bowl appearance in...

Ticker: Maker of opioid-effect blocker drug Suboxone reaches $102.5M antitrust settlement

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:20 GMT

The company that makes the opioid addiction treatment drug Suboxone, a branded combo of buprenorphine and naloxone, has agreed to pay $102.5 million to 41 states and the District of Columbia to settle claims that the company engaged in anticompetitive practices, it announced Friday.The agreement with Indivior, based in North Chesterfield, Virginia, averts a trial that was scheduled to start later this year.States, including Massachusetts, claimed that the company, previously a subsidiary of Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals, made modest changes to Suboxone to extend patent protection and keep generic versions of the drug off the market.The case is distinct from claims brought by governments against other opioid makers, claiming they helped cause or deepen a nationwide overdose crisis. Those have resulted in settlements totaling more than $50 billion so far.Chase says online banking issue now resolved after bug causes double transactions and feesCustomers of Chase’s online banking se...

Massachusetts winner of Daniel Pearl scholarship wants to change society through music

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:20 GMT

PITTSFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A student who said he got goosebumps the first time he played the violin in an orchestra is this year’s recipient of a college scholarship given in honor of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan in January 2002 while investigating a story on terrorism.Geivens Dextra, who is scheduled to graduate from Pittsfield High School on Sunday, will use the $2,000 Daniel Pearl Berkshire Scholarship to study music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.The scholarship has been awarded annually since 2003 to a high school student from the Berkshire Hills region of western Massachusetts who plans to major in journalism or music, Pearl’s passions. Pearl’s journalism career began in the region.“It’s really an honor to receive this scholarship for music, a subject that meant so much to Daniel Pearl,” Dextra said Wednesday.Dextra’s first formal introduction to music came in the second grade when his mother put him in the after...

9 new food vendors making their San Diego County Fair debut

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:20 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- From deep fried ravioli and funnel cakes to classic lemon shake-ups, the San Diego County Fair has more than 100 food vendors serving up an array of tasty options.Scattered across this year's fortress of flavors will be nine new peddlers of bites and drinks. That's according to the Del Mar Fairgrounds, which recently announced the event's newest stands. Enjoy the great outdoors, snap a photo and win San Diego County Fair tickets Some fare fairgoers can expect includes "ooey, gooey" cinnamon rolls, deep-fried chicken pot stickers rolled in Cheetos and deep-fried s'mores, just to name a few. Here are nine new food vendors making their debut at the San Diego County Fair this season. Boba King will be serving up Boba Drinks and RedBull Infusions.  In Your Face Pies will be featuring sweet and savory Hand Pies and Pie Cones. Cheesy Chef will be serving gourmet Grilled Cheese and a 1 pound block of mozzarella. Hawaiian Honey Cone will...

Ukraine says inspections found nearly a quarter of its air-raid shelters locked or unusable

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:20 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Concerns around civilian safety spiked in Ukraine on Saturday, as officials announced that an inspection had found nearly a quarter of the country’s air-raid shelters locked or unusable, just days after a woman in Kyiv allegedly died waiting outside a shuttered shelter during a Russian missile barrage. The Ukrainian interior ministry said through its press service Saturday that of the “over 4,800” shelters it had inspected, 252 were locked and a further 893 “unfit for use.”That same day, the Kyiv regional prosecutor’s office reported that four people were detained in a criminal probe into the 33-year-old’s death on Thursday outside the locked shelter. The prosecutor’s office said that one person, a security guard who had failed to unlock the doors, remained under arrest, while three others, including a local official, had been put under house arrest.According to the prosecutor’s office, the suspects face up to eight years in prison for official negligence that l...

Hong Kong detains 8 people on eve of Tiananmen Square anniversary

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:20 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong police detained eight people, including activists and artists, on the eve of the 34th anniversary of China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown, a move that signals the city’s shrinking freedom of expression.Police said in a statement late Saturday that four people have been arrested for allegedly disrupting order in public spaces or carrying out acts with seditious intent. Four others were taken away for investigation on suspicion of breaching public peace. Authorities did not immediately responded to an email seeking comment late Saturday.For decades, tens of thousands of Hong Kongers held a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park on June 4 to commemorate the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, in which tanks rolled into the heart of Beijing and hundreds, possibly thousands, of people were killed.During the pandemic, protests in Hong Kong were rare due to COVID-19 restrictions. In addition, many activists there have been silenced or jailed after Beijing impos...

Key suspect in Natalee Holloway’s case moved to new prison ahead of extradition tot US

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:20 GMT

LIMA, Peru (AP) — The chief suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American student Natalee Holloway is being transferred to a prison near Peru’s capital ahead of his pending extradition to the United States to face charges linked to her vanishing, officials said Saturday. The government of Peru, where Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot was serving a 28-year sentence for the murder of a Peruvian woman, authorized his extradition to the U.S. in May. Máximo Altez, van del Sloot’s lawyer, said his client was being taken by land from the Challapalca prison in Peru’s southern Andes to the Piedras Gordas prison on the outskirts of Lima.“In the coming days, the INPE (National Penitentiary Institute) will hand over the condemned man to Interpol Peru with the goal of handing him over to U.S. authorities from the FBI,” said a statement from the INPE released Saturday. Altez said that once the bureaucratic procedures are completed and van der Sloot is given a medical exam, hi...

Cardinal performs rite to restore Vatican altar desecrated by man’s naked protest

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:20 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The head of St. Peter’s Basilica performed a special rite Saturday after a man stripped naked and hopped on the main altar with the words “Save children of Ukraina” written on his back.Cardinal Mauro Gambetti performed the penitential rite following the desecration of the altar with other priests and members of the faithful.According to Vatican News, a Polish man approached the basilica’s high altar on Thursday at closing time, undressed and jumped up on the marble altar. Photos of the incident showed the bald man in just black socks and sneakers with his back to the pews.The man didn’t resist when gendarmes approached and took him to the Vatican police station. He was handed over to Italian police, who issued an expulsion order requiring him to leave Italy, Vatican News reported.It was the latest incident of disturbances at the Vatican in recent months. Last summer, climate activists glued their hands to a statue in the Vatican Museums to draw attention to...

Official: 1 dead, 14 rescued after overloaded boat capsizes near southern Haiti

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:23:20 GMT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — One person died and 14 others were rescued after an overloaded boat traveling without authorization capsized near Haiti’s southern coast, authorities said Saturday.Among the survivors is a person who was hospitalized in critical condition, according to Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency. It said authorities are still looking for an undetermined number of people.The boat departed late Friday from the town of Anse-a-Pitres near the border that Haiti and the Dominican Republic share. It capsized as it traveled west to the southern coastal town of Marigot, said Auguste Sony, an inspector with Haiti’s Maritime and Navigation Service.He told The Associated Press that the boat was laden with 600 sacks of flour and more than 15 people, so he did not authorize it to leave the port given its heavy load and reported the situation to his superiors.Sony said the captain ignored his orders and set off, insisting that he ferry people to Marigot.“It’s very sad that t...