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NFL Notes: Breaking down the Patriots, AFC East

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

The AFC East proved to be one of the best and most competitive divisions in the conference last season.That distinction is not likely to change given how the teams have already managed to reload and fortify less than a week into free agency.What could change, however, is the pecking order from top to bottom.The Bills, while still the favorite, aren’t a lock to win their fourth straight division title as all of the teams below have their sights on making a move and unseating the champs.For starters, the second-place Dolphins have strengthened their defense, most notably with the acquisition of cornerback Jalen Ramsey and linebacker David Long, while the Jets are in the process of seriously upgrading the one position that held them back last season – quarterback.Aaron Rodgers is headed to the Big Apple if and when the Packers and Jets can work out the details on trade compensation.The Patriots?They’ve made some moves, and added some nice players on the offensive side of the ball, alth...

Qatar charges ex-finance minister with bribery, embezzlement

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar announced Sunday the nation’s former finance minister faces charges including bribery and embezzlement from his time in the post.Ali Sharif al-Emadi was arrested in May 2021, with little about his case being made public. In a short statement on the state-run Qatar News Agency, prosecutors accused al-Emadi of the crimes and said he would face trial in a criminal court. It wasn’t immediately clear if al-Emadi had a lawyer. The state news report also did not elaborate on how much money the former minister is accused of stealing. Al-Emadi rose to prominence in the Gulf Arab emirate as the current emir ascended the throne and after overseeing the transformation of Qatar National Bank into the largest lender in the Middle East. Once one of Qatar’s most powerful officials, al-Emadi also served as chairman of the bank, on the board of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and as president of the executive board of long-haul carrier Qatar Airways....

19 die, over 20 injured in bus crash in central Bangladesh

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A speeding bus fell into a roadside ditch in central Bangladesh on Sunday apparently after the driver lost control, leaving at least 19 dead and more than 20 others injured, police said. The bus was travelling to the capital, Dhaka, from the southwestern city of Khulna. The accident took place when the bus reached Shibchar area in Madaripur district, highway police official Abu Nayeem Mofazzal Huq said.He said 14 people including the driver of the bus died at the scene. Another three people died later, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported.It was not immediately clear what caused the crash. Road accidents are common in Bangladesh because of lax enforcement of traffic law, rough driving and overspeeding. Some 8,000 people die each year from road accidents in Bangladesh.The Associated Press

Palestinian militant group: commander assassinated in Syria

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

DAMASCUS (AP) — A commander in the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad was killed in Syria on Sunday in what it described as an assassination by Israeli agents.The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad group, said in a statement that Ali Ramzi al-Aswad, 31, was killed Sunday morning in the Damascus countryside in a “cowardly assassination with bullets bearing the fingerprints of the Zionist enemy,” referring to Israel.There was no immediate statement from Israel on Sunday’s alleged assassination. The Islamic Jihad said in a statement Aswad’s family had been displaced from the city of Haifa in 1948 and settled in the refugee camps in Syria, where he joined the organization as a young man.In 2019, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at the home of Akram al-Ajouri, a member of Islamic Jihad’s leadership living in exile. Ajouri was not harmed, but his son was reportedly killed in the attack.Last month, airstrikes on residential areas in Damascus that Syrian official...

Better late than never: Trudeau finally gets a home-turf visit from U.S. president

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

WASHINGTON — Joe Biden’s last official visit to Canada came with a palpable sense of foreboding. Change was in the air. Authoritarian leaders in Syria and Turkey were consolidating power. Britain had voted to leave the European Union. And Donald Trump was waiting in the wings to take over the White House. “Genuine leaders” were in short supply, and Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be called upon to step up, said the U.S. vice-president, who was on a farewell tour of sorts in the waning days of the Obama administration.Six years later, Biden is coming back — this time as president — and the world is very different. His message likely won’t be. “There’s a seriousness to this moment in America,” said Goldy Hyder, the president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, who spent much of last week meeting with U.S. officials in D.C. Chinese spy balloons are drifting through North American airspace. Russian MiG fighter jets are down...

Norad, Haiti, critical minerals expected to top Trudeau-Biden talking points

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden will spend two days in Canada beginning Thursday to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and speak to a joint session of Parliament, his first visit north of the border since taking the oath of office in 2021. Visits to Canada have historically been a popular first foreign trip for new presidents — Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump being the rare exceptions — but COVID-19 intervened twice in the years since Biden’s inauguration to prevent one from happening. Here are some of the issues the two leaders are likely to discuss.Modernizing Norad: Until last month, the binational early-warning system known as the North American Aerospace Defence Command might have been best known for tracking Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. But a February flurry of unidentified flying objects drifting through North American airspace, most notably what U.S. officials insist was a Chinese surveillance balloon, exposed what Norad commander Gen. Glen VanHerck described...

Readers and writers: Three novels that are out of the ordinary

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

Three novels, including the big PEN prize winner, are our good reads today.“Sometimes Creek”: by Steve Fox (Cornerstone Press, $24.95 paperback).And it occurs to you that somehow this man can move the dark. Like pushing a coin across the table with only your thoughts, he can grasp darkness between his fingertips … you’re convinced he got there by opening a crack in the blackness and stepping out to join you in your mutual exile. Greet you and share a drink and set you straight. And that soon he’ll disappear back inside. You know it. — From “Sometimes Creek”Steve Fox, award-winning Wisconsin writer, offers 17 stories in his debut collection. Reading some of these Midwestern pieces is like looking in a cracked mirror — everything seems slightly off-center.A 10-year-old who just threw a hockey game because he hates the kid who would have scored is visited by a homeless man with a dark face who offers the boy some wisdom. In another ...

Skywatch: Double punch of spring

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

After another long winter, we could all use some spring. Yes, winter sports are great, but many of us are ready to turn the page. It’s time for spring 2023 to begin, at least astronomically, and it will arrive tomorrow afternoon, March 20, at 4:24 CDT, the exact moment of the vernal equinox.In 2007, Congress changed the start of daylight saving time to the second Sunday in March. Before 2007, it began in April. The earlier start gives us a preview of spring, in a way. Admittedly, the beginning of daylight saving time is more noticeable than the vernal equinox because of the dramatic increase in daylight in the early evening, even if the weather outside may be less than spring-like.Nonetheless, the vernal equinox is a big deal astronomically as the sun crosses the celestial equator heading farther north and higher in our sky. Earth revolves around the sun with its axis tilted by 23.5 degrees to its orbit around our home star. Because of that, the sun’s path among the backdrop of star...

Other voices: Record defense spending? Yes, but …

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

The White House is touting President Biden’s U.S. military budget for fiscal 2024 as a record, and Mr. Biden is betting busy Americans won’t look past the headlines. The truth is that he’s asking for a real defense cut, even as the U.S. is waking up late to a world of new threats.The Pentagon’s budget request may seem large at $842 billion. But the figure is only a 3.2% increase over last year, and with inflation at 6% it means a decline in buying power. Compare the 3.2% growth with the double-digit increases for domestic accounts: 19% for the Environmental Protection Agency; 13.6% for both the Education and Energy Departments; 11.5% for Health and Human Services.For all the talk about a bloated Pentagon, defense in 2022 was only about 13% of the federal budget. It’s about 3% of GDP, down from 5% to 6% during the Cold War, even though America’s challenges today are arguably more numerous and acute.China is building a world-class military to drive America out of the Pacific. Russia i...

‘Very lucky to be here’: Oakdale foundation helps Ukrainian soldiers walk again

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:25 GMT

Ukrainian soldier Dmytro Batychko was running for cover from a Russian drone attack last summer when another soldier stepped on a landmine. It exploded. Batychko’s comrade fell.Batychko ran to help. He stepped on another landmine. His comrade died; Batychko lost the lower half of his left leg.Batychko was one of five Ukrainian soldiers who arrived in Minnesota on March 10. The men share a heartbreaking similarity: They have all lost a limb in the war with Russia.Brought to the U.S. by the Protez Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps Ukrainian children, soldiers and civilians get free, high-quality prosthetics in the U.S., the soldiers were greeted with fanfare when they arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Within a few hours of landing, they were being fitted for prosthetics by Protez Foundation volunteers at a clinic in Oakdale. Two days later, four of the five men were walking.“We were like little kids who were given a toy to play with,” said Batychko, ...