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Army grounds non-critical aviators after fatal crashes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:41:51 GMT

By BECKY BOHRER (Associated Press)JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Army on Friday said that it has grounded non-critical aviation flight units for training after deadly helicopter crashes in Alaska and Kentucky killed 12 in the past month. The suspension of air operations was effective immediately, with units grounded until they complete the training, said Lt. Col. Terence Kelley, an Army spokesperson. For active-duty units, the training is to take place between May 1 and 5. Army National Guard and Reserve units will have until May 31 to complete the training.On Thursday, two Army helicopters collided near Healy, Alaska, killing three soldiers and injuring a fourth. The helicopters were from the 1st Attack Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment at Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, and were returning from training at the time of the crash, the Army said.A U.S. Army team from Alabama has been making its way to the Alaska Interior to the investigate the collision between two AH-64 Apache...

Gators’ Anthony Richardson goes from QB-rich UF to Peyton, Johnny U’s Colts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:41:51 GMT

Anthony Richardson respects tradition, embraces expectations and aspires to history.At Florida, he followed a long line of quarterback greats but left too soon to join their ranks. The No. 4 overall pick in the NFL draft, Richardson now heads to the Indianapolis Colts, whose tradition of signal callers is as storied as that of any franchise, up there with Green Bay, San Francisco and Dallas.The most intriguing and athletic prospect in the draft is not intimidated. During the NFL Scouting Combine in his new city, Richardson told reporters, “I want to be a legend,” a phrase he also had stitched on the inside of his suit jacket Thursday night in Kansas City.The Colts’ brass and fans hope Richardson is up to the challenge and can follow in the footsteps of legends Johnny Unitas and Peyton Manning, not to mention former No. 1 pick Andrew Luck, who suddenly retired in 2019 after seven seasons. If Richardson can perform even like a young Bert Jones, the 1976 NFL most valu...

Yankees Notebook: Aaron Judge awaiting MRI results on hip

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:41:51 GMT

ARLINGTON — Aaron Judge underwent an MRI on Friday, a day after leaving the Yankees’ win over the Texas Rangers with right hip discomfort, manager Aaron Boone confirmed.Boone didn’t have the results of Judge’s testing before Friday’s game in Arlington but said he hoped to get an update soon.“He’s going to see the doctor and we’ll have a better idea of what he’s dealing with,” Boone said.“[Judge] said he woke up, felt better today,” the manager added. “Hopefully that’s an encouraging sign.”Judge got banged up on an awkward head-first slide into third base during Wednesday’s series finale against the Minnesota Twins but managed to remain in that game. He also rolled up on his hand during the slide.The testing Friday was only for Judge’s hip, Boone said.Judge was out of the lineup Friday after leaving during the fourth inning the night before. Following Thursday’s early exit...

DUI suspect to stand trial in hit-and-run that killed toddler

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:41:51 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A San Diego man will stand trial for a collision that killed a toddler last summer.Forty-six-year-old Margarito Angeles Vargas is charged with murder, DUI and hit-and-run, accused of killing one-year-old Annalee Rodarte in a collision that happened in the evening of September 24 in City Heights.Family members told FOX 5 Annalee followed siblings as they ran from their grandmother’s home through an alley into the street.Prosecutors say Vargas was speeding in an SUV down Redwood Street when he hit the little girl, then drove off, leaving her dying on the ground. She had a traumatic brain injury and later died at the hospital.Home surveillance video captured the SUV as it went down the street. Timeline: Unfolding of the Nathan Fletcher scandal One of the most compelling pieces of evidence is from a neighbor who said he was working on his car in his driveway and saw the collision. He then jumped in his car and chased after the driver and started recording video on his cel...

Man walking on SR-15 hit, killed by car

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:41:51 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A man was fatally struck by a vehicle Thursday evening on State Route 15 in the Kensington area, authorities said.The incident occurred around 9 p.m. on SR-15 northbound, located south of Adams Avenue, Officer Samuel Mendoza with the California Highway Patrol said in a release Friday.According to law enforcement, the pedestrian was within the freeway's traffic lanes when a 57-year-old man driving a Chevrolet Silverado hit the man. Rules of the Road: Are tinted windows legal in California? The pedestrian died at the scene due to his injuries while the driver of the Chevrolet was not injured, Mendoza said.The crash prompted multiple lanes to be closed for about two hours.It is unknown at this time if the pedestrian or the driver of the Chevrolet were under the influence.

Syria: Israeli strikes hit province of Homs, causing fires

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:41:51 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Suspected Israeli airstrikes targeted the Syrian province of Homs early Saturday, state media reported.Syria’s state news agency, SANA, citing military officials, said that three civilians were wounded in the strike and that a civilian fuel station caught fire and a number of fuel tankers and trucks were burned. It reported that Syrian air defenses responded to Israeli missiles in the sky over Homs and shot down some of them. The pro-government Sham FM radio said fires broke out south of the city of Homs as a result of the strikes and “successive explosions sounded from the area. The Britain-based opposition war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israeli missiles had destroyed an ammunition depot belonging to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah at a military airport in the countryside of Homs. The observatory said it was the second time Israel targeted the site in a month. On April 2, state media reported Israeli airstrikes hit several sites in Ho...

B.C. crown prosecutor says Ibrahim Ali killed girl, 13, during sexual assault

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:41:51 GMT

VANCOUVER — A B.C. Supreme Court trial can expect to hear evidence that shows a 13-year-old girl from Burnaby, B.C., was passing through a neighbourhood park when she was dragged off a pathway into the forest by Ibrahim Ali, sexually assaulted and strangled, the Crown prosecutor told the jury Friday.In an opening statement, Crown attorney Isobel Keeley said the court will hear evidence showing the murder was random, but DNA results will prove Ali sexually assaulted her. Ali is charged with first-degree murder and entered a not guilty plea before the jury earlier this month.The body of the girl, whose name is protected under a publication ban, was found in Burnaby’s Central Park in July 2017, just hours after her mother had reported her missing.“There are no eyewitnesses to the murder,” Keeley said, but told jury members that cellphone and bank records prove Ali was in Burnaby that day.They “were strangers to one another,” she said, adding that phone rec...

Report: FAA overruled engineers, let Boeing Max keep flying

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:41:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some engineers for the Federal Aviation Administration wanted to ground the Boeing 737 Max soon after a second deadly crash, but top officials in the agency overruled them, according to a government watchdog.The inspector general of the Transportation Department said in a new report that FAA officials wanted to sort out raw data about the two crashes, and held off grounding the plane despite growing international pressure.The inspector general’s office said that it reviewed emails and interviewed FAA officials. The investigation “revealed that individual engineers at the Seattle (office) recommended grounding the airplane while the accident was being investigated based on what they perceived as similarities between the accidents.”One engineer made a preliminary estimate that the chance of another Max crash was more than 13 times greater than FAA risk guidelines allow. An FAA official said the analysis “suggested that there was a 25% chance of an accident in 6...

N. Korea insults Biden, slams defense agreement with Seoul

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:41:51 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korea’s leader says her country would stage more provocative displays of its military might in response to a new U.S.-South Korean agreement to intensify nuclear deterrence to counter the North’s nuclear threat, which she insists shows their “extreme” hostility toward Pyongyang.Kim Yo Jong also lobbed personal insults toward U.S. President Joe Biden, who after a summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday stated that any North Korean nuclear attack on the U.S. or its allies would “result in the end of whatever regime” took such action.Biden’s meeting with Yoon in Washington came amid heightened tensions in the Korean Peninsula as the pace of both the North Korean weapons demonstrations and the combined U.S.-South Korean military exercises have increased in a cycle of tit-for-tat. Since the start of 2022, North Korea has test-fired around 100 missiles, including multiple demonstrations of intercontinental ballis...

Arizona man charged with smuggling diamonds through Florida

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:41:51 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — An Arizona man was charged in South Florida with illegally smuggling diamonds into the United States.Guilherme Cipriani, 41, of Scottsdale, Arizona, was arrested Wednesday in his home state, according to court records. He made his first court appearance in Arizona, but his next court date is scheduled for May 24 in Miami. That’s where a federal grand jury indicted him in March on charges of smuggling diamonds into the U.S. and providing a false statement to a federal agency. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.Cipriani tried to smuggle 14 loose-cut diamonds and 53 rough-uncut diamonds into the U.S. through Miami International Airport on Nov. 10, according to the indictment. Officials didn’t provide an estimate for the value of the diamonds.Cipriani also lied when he told a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent at the airport that he was not transporting commercial merchandise into the country and had spent zero dollars on commercial merchandis...