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Thai Parliament blocks leader of party that won election from being renominated for prime minister

Published Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:41:37 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — The bitter battle to name Thailand’s next prime minister took a major turn Wednesday as Parliament voted to deny Pita Limjaroenrat, whose progressive Move Forward Party won a surprise victory in May’s election, a second chance to be confirmed for the post.Pita had assembled a coalition of parties holding a majority in the House of Representatives. But his nomination for prime minister was defeated in a joint vote of the House and Senate last week, with conservative military-appointed senators mostly refusing their support.A joint session debated Wednesday whether Pita could be nominated for a second time, and House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha then put the question to a vote. A motion to deny him a second chance was passed by a vote of 395 to 312 with eight abstentions. The meeting of Parliament was then adjourned with no immediate indication of when it would vote again on a new prime minister.It was the second blow suffered by Pita on Wednesday, after the Constitut...

Tourist who saw US soldier sprint to North Korea initially thought it was a stunt

Published Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:41:37 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Sarah Leslie thought she was witnessing a stunt when she saw an American soldier start sprinting toward North Korea.Leslie and her father, tourists from New Zealand, were part of a group that left Tuesday morning from Seoul to visit the Demilitarized Zone that divides South and North Korea.Private 2nd Class Travis King was among the group of 43 tourists, Leslie told The Associated Press, although he was casually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and she had no idea at the time that he was a soldier, or in legal trouble.King, 23, was a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division who had served nearly two months in a South Korean prison for assault. He was released on July 10 and was supposed to travel home Monday to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he could have faced additional military discipline and discharge from the service.Leslie said her tour group went a step further than many by visiting the Joint Security Area in the village of Panmunjom, allowing touris...

Afghan players watch Morocco’s team practice for Women’s World Cup, hoping to get their chance

Published Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:41:37 GMT

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Over the next month, 32 national soccer teams will compete across Australia and New Zealand in the Women’s World Cup. A 33rd team — unofficial, by FIFA’s standards — will also be in Australia, but in the stands.Members of the Afghanistan national women’s soccer team, which was evacuated to Australia when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, paid a visit to Morocco’s public training session Wednesday. The eight players attended with a small crowd of enthusiastic Morocco supporters who were bearing red and green flags and scarves.Morocco, making its Women’s World Cup debut, is the first Arab nation to qualify for the tournament. Like Afghanistan, the North African nation has a large Muslim population. The exiled Afghan players, now based in Melbourne, hope that the Atlas Lionesses’ participation in the tournament will help further build the case that Muslim women belong in the sport.“This is a huge chance for the Moroccan team to show the world that M...

South Africa says Putin will skip a summit next month because of his ICC arrest warrant

Published Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:41:37 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the BRICS economic summit in Johannesburg next month, the office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement Wednesday.The decision means South Africa will not face the dilemma of whether it should carry out an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against the Russian leader.South Africa is a signatory to the treaty that created the ICC and would have been obliged under that to arrest Putin, although the country had given strong hints that it would have likely not executed the arrest warrant.But Wednesday’s announcement allows South Africa to avoid the problem and comes after Ramaphosa spoke with Putin by telephone in recent days.The decision for Putin not to attend was by “mutual agreement,” Ramaphosa’s office said. Russia will instead be represented at the Aug 22-24 summit by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.The BRICS economic bloc is made up of Brazil, Russia, ...

Israeli president says his speech to Congress highlights an ‘unbreakable bond’ despite US unease

Published Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:41:37 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israel’s president speaks to Congress on Wednesday in an appearance aimed at demonstrating what he calls the “unbreakable bond” between Israel and the United States, despite U.S. concerns over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul and settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.Isaac Herzog becomes the second Israeli president, after his father, Chaim Herzog, to address Congress. His speech will mark modern Israel’s celebration of its 75th year. But the visit by Israel’s figurehead president also is exposing the difficulties that Democrats face in balancing longstanding U.S. support for ally Israel with disapproval of some actions by Netanyahu’s government, a coalition of ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties.The House on Tuesday passed a Republican-led resolution reaffirming its support for Israel with strong bipartisan approval — an implicit rebuke of a leading Democrat who over the weekend called the country a “racist stat...

Demolition of a historic minaret in southern Iraq’s Basra for ‘a better-designed one’ sparks outcry

Published Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:41:37 GMT

BASRA, Iraq (AP) — For three centuries, the al-Siraji Mosque, with its minaret fashioned from weathered bricks and its pinnacle inlaid with blue ceramic tiles, was a distinctive feature of the city of Basra in southern Iraq. In recent years, it was one of the few tourist attractions in the oil-rich but neglected city, although locals complained that the minaret jutted out into the street, snarling traffic.In the early hours Friday morning, the 11-meter-high (33-foot-high) minaret was razed to the ground, with the governor of Basra attending the demolition, igniting a wave of social media backlash among advocates for the preservation of Iraq’s cultural heritage.Heritage sites in Iraq, home to multiple civilizations going back more than six millennia, have been hard hit by looting and damage over the decades of conflict before and after the U.S. invasion of 2003. Most notoriously, the militant Islamic State group demolished numerous ancient sites in northern Iraq, including Islamic sh...

Wednesday Forecast: Temps in mid 80 with chance of isolated storms tonight

Published Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:41:37 GMT

CHICAGO — Wednesday will be seasonable with mostly sunny skies and highs in the mid-80s inland and upper 70s at the lakefront.  Interactive Radar: Track showers and storm here A chance for isolated showers and thunderstorms arrives tonight as temperatures fall into the upper 60s under partly cloudy skies.  Thursday will be partly cloudy as well with the chance for spotty showers and storms and highs in the low to mid-80s.Full forecast details and more at the WGN Weather Center blog

Pop-up Post Malone concert in Times Square draws massive crowd

Published Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:41:37 GMT

TIMES SQUARE, Manhattan (WPIX) -- Grammy-nominated rapper Post Malone held a free pop-up concert in Times Square on Tuesday, drawing thousands of fans to the Crossroads of the World.Grammy-nominated rapper Post Malone held a free concert in Times Square. (PIX11)A stage was erected in Times Square with a large image of Post Malone and branding for the company TSX Entertainment. Event organizers estimated as many as 10,000 people were in the massive crowd.The show started around 5:30 p.m. and ended around 6:30 p.m. Malone debuted some of his latest songs from his upcoming album.Malone tweeted about the show but has since deleted the tweet. The rapper's agent also shared a post teasing the show on her Instagram story. "The secret came out today; we were like, 'Oh, God!'" one fan told PIX11 News.Malone's fifth studio album, called "Austin," is set to release on Friday.

Majority of college students do not support legacy admissions: survey

Published Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:41:37 GMT

(The Hill) - A vast majority of college students say they believe legacy admissions into universities are unfair, according to a new survey from Generation Lab. The poll found 39 percent of young people say it is “definitely not” fair for colleges to consider if a person’s family attended the same school in the admissions process, while 36 percent it is “probably not” fair. Only 6 percent believe it is “definitely” fair while 19 percent say it “probably” is.The results come after the Supreme Court ruled last month to restrict the use of affirmative action in college admissions. Universities are no longer allowed to consider someone’s race when contemplating their acceptance to the school, although students are still allowed to mention their race, how it has affected them and the struggles they have overcome in their essays. Fifty-two percent of students said in the poll that race and ethnicity should not be part of the admissions process, while 48 percent said it should.&n...

Austin's weather extremes: Record rain and snow

Published Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:41:37 GMT

Editor's Note: The video above shows the latest from the KXAN First Warning Weather team.AUSTIN (KXAN) — At KXAN, we're keeping track of Austin's weather extremes.Have you ever wondered what Austin's longest period without rain is? What about the heaviest snow in recorded history? The answers are all below!Click here to see Austin's heat and cold records.We have created several interactive charts to help break down Austin’s weather records. Scroll down to explore all the data, or jump to a specific question using these links:What is the wettest day on record in Austin?What is the wettest hour on record in Austin?What is the wettest month on record in Austin?What is the wettest year on record in Austin?What is the driest year on record in Austin?What is the longest Austin has gone without measurable rain?What is the heaviest snowfall total on record in Austin?.anchor_me{ position:relative;}.anchor_me span {position:absolute; top:-120px;}ul.kxan_bullets {list-style-position: outside;}...