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San Diego Red Cross CEO heading to Maui to aid in relief effort

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:32 GMT

SAN DIEGO – The Red Cross Southern California Region is sending its CEO to Maui to aid in massive relief efforts underway following devastating wildfires.“It is going to take weeks and months to respond to something this large," Sean Mahoney said.Mahoney is not only CEO of the Red Cross Southern California region, but he is also a San Diego resident. Mahoney has been with the Red Cross for almost six years and dedicated his time and skills to several major relief efforts around the country like the Paradise Fire in 2018.He joins a total of 20 Red Cross volunteers from across California and countless more from around the country, all heading to Maui after wildfires swept through the western community of Lahaina.“The Red Cross responders respond by themselves. They might have a skillset, they might be a shelter manager, or a feeding manager, or a government ops supervisor. They will get a one-way ticket. They’ll bring a sleeping bag and some clothes and they go,” Mahoney said. Local...

Ex-tech CEO pleads guilty in $150 million fraud on Qualcomm

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:32 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A former technology executive pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday for his participation in a $150 million fraud on the San Diego-based semi-conductor company Qualcomm, prosecutors said.Sanjiv Taneja, the ex-CEO of tech firm Abreezio, which was sold to Qualcomm, admitted to one count of money laundering related to a $1.5 million transaction involving proceeds of the fraud on Qualcomm, Kelly Thornton with the Office of the United States Attorney Southern District of California said in a news release.Taneja confessed that he, co-defendants Karim Arabi and Ali Akbar Shokouhi of San Diego and others schemed to hide Arabi’s involvement in Abreezio, according to his plea agreement."Arabi was a Qualcomm employee throughout the entire marketing period, and hiding his involvement in the firm and the development of its patented technology allowed Abreezio’s principals to claim that the company was an 'angel-funded' outside firm while disguising its true connections to Qualcom...

Maui residents had little warning before flames overtook town. At least 53 people died.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:32 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Maui residents who made desperate escapes from flames, some on foot, asked why Hawaii’s famous emergency warning system didn’t alert them as fires raced toward their homes, in interviews at evacuation centers Thursday.Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that the warning sirens were triggered before a devastating wildfire killed at least 53 people and wiped out a historic town, officials confirmed Thursday.Hawaii boasts what the state describes as the largest integrated outdoor all-hazard public safety warning system in the world, with about 400 sirens positioned across the island chain. But many of Lahaina’s survivors said they didn’t hear any sirens and only realized they were in danger when they saw flames or heard explosions nearby.Thomas Leonard, a 70-year-old retired mailman from Lahaina, didn’t know about the fire until he smelled smoke. Power and cell phone service had both gone out earlier that day, leaving the town with no real-time...

Illinois Supreme Court plans to rule on semiautomatic weapons ban

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:32 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois Supreme Court plans to issue an opinion Friday on a lawsuit challenging the state’s ban of the type of semiautomatic weapons used in hundreds of mass killings nationally.The lawsuit, filed by Republican Rep. Dan Caulkins, of Decatur, and like-minded gun-owners, alleges the law violates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. But it also claims the law is applied unequally.The law bans dozens of specific brands or types of rifles and handguns, .50-caliber guns, attachments and rapid-firing devices. No rifle is allowed to accommodate more than 10 rounds, with a 15-round limit for handguns. The most popular gun targeted is the AR-15 rifle.Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Protect Our Communities Act hours after lawmakers sent it to him in a lame-duck session in January, months after a shooter using a high-powered rifle killed seven and injured dozens on Independence Day 2022 in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. The new law...

Bodies pile up without burials in Sudan’s capital, marooned by a relentless conflict

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:32 GMT

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — It was a funeral no one had envisaged: Sadig Abbas’ lifeless body was lowered hastily into a shallow unmarked grave in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, not long after dawn.Even the few family members and neighbors who could attend were distracted, scouring the cemetery’s surroundings for warnings of incoming fire, recounted Awad el-Zubeer, a neighbor of the deceased.Thankfully, none came.Nearly four months of violent street battles between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have made funerals a near impossibility in Khartoum. Amid the chaos, residents and local medical groups say corpses lie rotting in the capital’s streets, marooned by a conflict that shows few signs of easing.“Given these circumstances, if you asked me exactly where his body was buried I couldn’t tell you,” said el-Zubeer.There is limited data on the casualties in Sudan. The country’s health minister, Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim, said in June that the...

‘Nothing left’: Future unclear for Hawaii residents who lost it all in fire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:32 GMT

WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — Retired mailman and Vietnam veteran Thomas Leonard lived in the historic former capital of Hawaii for 44 years until this week, when a rapidly moving wildfire burned down his apartment, melted his Jeep and forced him to spend four terrifying hours hiding from the flames behind a seawall.“I’ve got nothing left,” Leonard said Thursday as he sat on an inflatable mattress outside a shelter for those who fled the blaze that decimated the town of Lahaina. “I’m a disabled vet, so now I’m a homeless vet,” he added with a small laugh.The fire that tore across the coastal Maui town and caught many by surprise has already claimed dozens of lives — a toll expected to climb — and burned more than 1,000 buildings. It has turned a centuries-old hamlet beloved by travelers and locals alike into a charred, desolate landscape.The devastation has resonated worldwide in part because tourists from around the globe flock to Maui to enjoy its white sand beaches, including many who s...

LGBTQ+ people in Ethiopia blame attacks on their community on inciteful and lingering TikTok videos

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:32 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Members of Ethiopia’s LGBTQ+ community say they face a wave of online harassment and physical attacks and blame much of it on the social media platform TikTok, which they say is failing to take down posts calling for homosexual and transgender people to be whipped, stabbed and killed.A local LGBTQ+ support group, House of Guramayle, said that some TikTok users are also outing Ethiopians by sharing their names, photographs and online profiles on one of the country’s most popular social media platforms.In Ethiopia, homosexual acts are punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The East African country whose population of close to 120 million is split between Christianity and Islam is largely conservative, and while LGBTQ+ people have long suffered abuse, activists say the hostility has reached a new level.“TikTok is being used to incite violence,” said Bahiru Shewaye, co-founder of House of Guramayle. Bahiru said several videos have been reported to TikTok but “we a...

Two years after fall of Kabul, tens of thousands of Afghans languish in limbo, waiting for US visas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:32 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, Shukria Sediqi knew her days in safety were numbered. As a journalist who advocated for women’s rights, she’d visited shelters and safe houses to talk to women who had fled abusive husbands. She went with them to court when they asked for a divorce.According to the Taliban, who bar women from most public places, jobs and education, her work was immoral.So when the Taliban swept into her hometown of Herat in western Afghanistan in August 2021 as the U.S. was pulling out of the country, she and her family fled, eventually making their way to Pakistan.The goal? Resettling in the U.S. via an American government program set up to help Afghans at risk under the Taliban because of their work with the U.S. government, media and aid agencies.But two years after the U.S. left Afghanistan, Sediqi and tens of thousands of others are still waiting. While there has been some recent progress, processing U.S. visas for Afghans has moved...

Two years after fall of Kabul, tens of thousands of Afghans languish in limbo waiting for US visas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:32 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, Shukria Sediqi knew her days in safety were numbered. As a journalist who advocated for women’s rights, she’d visited shelters and safe houses to talk to women who had fled abusive husbands. She went with them to court when they asked for a divorce.According to the Taliban, who bar women from most public places, jobs and education, her work was immoral.So when the Taliban swept into her hometown of Herat in western Afghanistan in August 2021 as the U.S. was pulling out of the country, she and her family fled. First they tried to get on one of the last American flights out of Kabul. Then they tried to go to Tajikistan but had no visas. Finally in October 2021, after sleeping outside for two nights at the checkpoint into Pakistan among crowds of Afghans fleeing the Taliban, she and her family made it into the neighboring country. The goal? Resettling in the U.S. via an American government program set up to help...

Teachable moments galore for Vikings in preseason loss to Seahawks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:55:32 GMT

It wasn’t pretty. The preseason opener rarely is and this was no exception.That said, the Vikings got better on Thursday night at Lumen Field, even if they struggled down the stretch in a 24-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.As expected, head coach Kevin O’Connell rested most of his starters, including but not limited to quarterback Kirk Cousins, running back Alexander Mattison, receivers Justin Jefferson and K.J. Osborn, tight end T.J. Hockenson, nearly every starter in the trenches, edge rushers Danielle Hunter and Marcus Davenport, linebackers Jordan Hicks and Brian Asamoah, cornerback Byron Murphy, and safety Harrison Smith.That left a ton of of reps for young players trying to make a name for themselves. The results were a mixed bag with a lot of ups and downs over the course of 60 minutes.The biggest standout for the Vikings was running back Ty Chandler. He looked explosive throughout the game, finishing with 11 carries for 41 yards despite the fact that there wasn&#...