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41 migrants die in shipwreck off Italy’s Lampedusa island

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:19:20 GMT

Forty-one migrants, including three children, have died in a shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa, after a small boat which had set off from Sfax in Tunisia capsized and sank in the Strait of Sicily. Four people survived the shipwreck, three men and one woman originally from Ivory Coast and Guinea. They were rescued by a Maltese cargo ship and taken to Lampedusa by the Italian Coast Guard, according to Italian newswire ANSA.The four survivors told the Coast Guard that 45 people had left Sfax. After about six hours of navigation, the 7-meter metal boat capsized due to a large wave and all 45 migrants ended up in the sea. Authorities have not yet recovered the bodies.According to the International Organization for Migration, since the beginning of the year, 2,387 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean while trying to reach European shores. In Brussels, Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Italian government has been pushing to review rules on how the EU w...

Northern Ireland’s police publish data of entire force by mistake

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:19:20 GMT

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has opened an investigation after it published a spreadsheet containing the professional data of its officers and civilian workforce by mistake, a senior officer said Tuesday.“The data concerned contained the surnames and initials of current employees alongside the location and department within which they work,” Assistant Chief Constable Chris Todd said in a statement, adding that the breach “resulted from information included in error in response to a Freedom of Information Request.”“Although it was made available as a result of our own error, anyone who did access the information before it was taken down is responsible for what they do with it next. It is important that data anyone has accessed is deleted immediately,” the officer said.The data breach is particularly sensitive given members of the PSNI have been targeted by republican paramilitaries in Northern Ireland in recent months. In February,...

Man facing attempted murder, kidnapping charges following fire in Peabody

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:19:20 GMT

A Peabody man will be arraigned Wednesday on arson, attempted murder, domestic assault and battery, and kidnapping charges after his arrest following a fire response, officials said.Police and fire responding to a fire alarm at 85 Lowell St. around 11 p.m. found a woman yelling that her boyfriend was trying to kill her, according to Peabody police.After extinguishing a fire in the woman’s apartment, Edi Diazabakana, 39, was placed under arrest.He is expected to be arraigned at Peabody District Court.The cause of the fire remains under investigation.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Clean-up underway after storms spin up EF-1 tornado in Mattapoisett, EF-0 in Barnstable

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:19:20 GMT

Crews are out in force restoring power and clearing downed tress after officials with the National Weather Service confirmed two tornadoes touched down in Massachusetts during a series of strong storms on Monday – an EF-1 in Mattapoisett and an EF-0 in Barnstable.The National Weather Service – Boston/Norton office said that a survey team was in the process of investigating damage after the tornado appeared around 11:30 a.m., while a Tornado Warning for the area was active.“A small EF-1 tornado touched down in the town of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts at 11:20 AM EDT. The storm was on the ground for approximately 3 minutes,” the National Weather Service National Headquarters stated in a report. “The storm moved to the northeast at approximately 20 MPH and lifted off the ground on North Street just north of Eldorado Drive. SKY7-HD later flew over the area and spotted hundreds of downed trees – a number of which landed on various homes, sheds and...

Fire in French holiday home for disabled kills at least 9 people with 2 more feared dead

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:19:20 GMT

PARIS (AP) — A fire ripped through a vacation home for adult people with disabilities in eastern France on Wednesday, killing nine people while two others are believed to have died, the head of rescue operations said.Lieutenant-Colonel Philippe Hauwiller, who is leading the firefighters’ rescue operation, said, “We are currently searching for the bodies… two remain to be found.”Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she was heading to the site of the fire.The local administration of the Haut-Rhin region said the fire broke out at 6:30 a.m. in private accommodation in the town of Wintzenheim. Seventeen people were evacuated, including one person with serious injuries who was sent to a hospital.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.———Christophe Marot, the secretary general of the local administration, said on news broadcaster France Info the group includes adults with “slight intellectual disabilities.” He said that ...

Biden is pitching his economic policies as a key to a manufacturing jobs revival

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:19:20 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Bringing back factory jobs is one of the most popular of White House promises — regardless of who happens to be the president.Donald Trump said he’d do it with tariffs. Barack Obama said companies would start “insourcing.” George W. Bush said tax cuts would do the trick. But factory jobs seemed to struggle to fully return after each recession.On Wednesday, President Joe Biden will make the case in a New Mexico speech that his policies of financial and tax incentives have revived U.S. manufacturing. His claim is supported by a rise in construction spending on new factories. But factory hiring has begun to slow in recent months, a sign that the promised boom has yet to fully materialize.That hasn’t stopped the White House from telling voters ahead of the 2024 election that the Democratic president’s agenda has triggered a “renaissance” in factory work.“Hundreds of actions coordinated through his entire government are sparking a m...

Ohio’s Issue 1 would have made protecting abortion rights harder. Data shows why it failed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:19:20 GMT

By JULIE CARR SMYTH and SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON (Associated Press)COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected a Republican-backed measure that would have made it more difficult to change the state’s constitution, setting up a fall campaign that will become the nation’s latest referendum on abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nationwide protections last year.The defeat of Issue 1 keeps in place a simple majority threshold for passing future constitutional amendments, rather than the 60% supermajority that was proposed. Its supporters said the higher bar would protect the state’s foundational document from outside interest groups.Voter opposition to the proposal was widespread, even spreading into traditionally Republican territory. In fact, in early returns, support for the measure fell far short of former President Donald Trump’s performance during the 2020 election in nearly every county.Dennis Willard, a spokesp...

Howie Carr: Rehire the ‘Baker’s Dozen’ troopers! Today!

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:19:20 GMT

Call them the Baker’s Dozen – the 13 Massachusetts state troopers who remain fired in the wake of the Wuhan Panic back in 2020-22.Last week an arbitrator ordered the reinstatement of seven other honest troopers who were fired during the hysterical overreaction by Gov. Charlie Baker.But 13 more troopers remain to be reinstated. And the rest of us must never forget what the Deep State did to all of us during the Red Chinese-created virus, in their insane obsession to destroy the presidency of Donald J. Trump.The reinstatement hearings for the last 13 troopers will take place this fall. It appears likely they too will be awarded their jobs back, along with back pay, time in service and all the rest of what they were stripped of so arbitrarily, for absolutely no good reason.The 20 troopers claimed that they had religious objections to the vaccines on a variety of grounds – use of fetal cells, etc. The seven just offered their jobs back were found to have had sincere beliefs. But the sta...

Patriots extra points: Rookie WR Demario Douglas explains his impressive weight gains

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:19:20 GMT

FOXBORO — When Demario Douglas arrived at Liberty as a freshman receiver, he checked in at a measly 149 pounds.The Patriots rookie identified his weight as an area of improvement. Now, years later, he can thank that focus for why he’s been a standout in his first NFL training camp.“I always had that mentality of, I need to get better, I need to do something, so I’d say my weight was a problem,” Douglas said. “I’d say my height (5-foot-8) but I can’t change that, you know? I gained, as I was going through my years, I kept gaining and gaining, and I say my coaches at Liberty showed me how to eat right, showed me how to eat to gain weight and maintain my speed and things like that.”Now, Douglas says he weighs 183 pounds. He credits an enhanced focus on nutrition dating back to his days at Liberty that has continued with the Patriots for not only gaining weight, but still performing well with such a weight increase.“Ted (Harper, Patriots head dietician) and his staff do a great job,” Do...

India’s opposition leader Rahul Gandhi condemns the Modi government over violence in Manipur

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:19:20 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s top opposition leader unleashed a strong condemnation Wednesday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for its failure to control bloodshed in a remote northeastern state that he said has been split in two.Rahul Gandhi told Parliament that the army should have been able to stop the bloodshed already. But despite the presence of troops in Manipur, the violence has festered for over three months. More than 150 people have died in Manipur and over 50,000 people have fled in fear since clashes erupted in early May.“The army can restore peace in a day. You are not using the army,” Gandhi said, and called for the firing of the state government run by Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Gandhi, who was reinstated as a lawmaker three days after the country’s top court halted his criminal defamation conviction for mocking the prime minister’s surname, was participating in a debate on a no-confidence motion moved by the opposition against the ...