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Firefighters battle five blazes at once across San Diego County

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:37 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- CALFIRE crews were activated across San Diego County tackling multiple fires at once.Firefighters say their resources have been tested just a day before the start of summer.If Tuesday is any indication of what’s to come, the fire season ahead is going to be tough for local firefighters who have been responding to five fires across the county in the last 24 hours.Aggressive drops of retardant and water from the air helped fire crews quickly get a handle on flames near Ramona.“We had been on too many fires,” Barona Tribe Member Anita Darby said. “The Witch and Cedar, and it was really scary.” Brush fire burns 37 acres in rural East County; evacuations lifted Firefighters were able to stop the forward spread of the blaze that prompted evacuation warnings for neighbors of the paintball and BMX park on the Barona Reservation.“It was really scary,” Darby said. “My brother, her father lost his house. Thirty-four houses we lost up here this time.”This isn’t the only fire that...

Local scuba rescuer explains ocean dangers amid missing Titanic sub

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:37 GMT

ENCINITAS, Calif. -- Local rescue divers are following the efforts to save the five-man submersible lost while searching for the Titanic wreckage. Gregory Napier is a North County Scuba Center rescuer who has worked with manned and unmanned submersibles. He says the crew are at the "mercy of the elements."“They are pounding the pavements, so to speak, with a lot of ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) out there that are unmanned...” Napier said. “With their sonar, they are going to have to cover a huge vast area near the wreck.”The U.S. Coast Guard, Canadian Coast Guard and a group of French rescuers are all working against the precious hours left to find the crew, who was lost about 13,000 feet under water. Man killed in Liberty Station shooting identified When the Titanic submersible went radio silence, experts say the crew had been underwater for only 1:45 minutes. According to search and rescuers, this type of exploration is about as dangerous as it gets. “I think the ocean is mo...

Gang behind slaughter of 41 women at Honduran prison, officials say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:37 GMT

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Inmates had complained for weeks they were being threatened by gang members at a women’s prison in Honduras. The gang fulfilled those threats, slaughtering 41 women, many of them burned, shot or stabbed to death.President Xiomara Castro said Tuesday’s riot at the prison in the town of Tamara, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Honduras’ capital, was “planned by maras (street gangs) with the knowledge and acquiescence of security authorities.” Castro pledged to take “drastic measures,” but did not explain how inmates identified as members of the Barrio 18 gang were able to get guns and machetes into the prison, or move freely into an adjoining cell block and slaughter all the prisoners there.Video clips presented by the government from inside the prison showed several pistols and a heap of machetes and other bladed weapons that were found after the riot. Sandra Rodríguez Vargas, the assistant commissioner for Honduras’ prison sy...

Underwater noises heard in frantic search for submersible missing with 5 aboard near Titanic

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:37 GMT

A Canadian military surveillance aircraft detected underwater noises as a massive search continued early Wednesday in a remote part of the North Atlantic for a submersible that vanished while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic.A statement from the U.S. Coast Guard did not elaborate on what rescuers believed the noises could be, though it offered a glimmer of hope for those lost abroad the Titan as estimates suggest as little as a day’s worth of oxygen could be left if the vessel is still functioning.Meanwhile, questions remain about how teams could reach the lost submersible, which could be as deep as about 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) below the surface near the watery tomb of the historic ocean liner. Lost aboard the vessel are pilot Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company leading the expedition. His passengers are a British adventurer, two members of a Pakistani business family and a Titanic expert.The Coast Guard wrote on Twitter that a Canadian P-3 Orion had “...

Canadian plane detects underwater noise in sub search at Titanic wreck site

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:37 GMT

A Canadian aircraft has detected underwater noise during its search for a lost sub near the wreck of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean.The U.S. Coast Guard says the Canadian military plane’s detection of noise while looking for the missing submersible has caused search efforts to be relocated in an effort to find the source of the sound.There is no word on exactly what the sounds detected could indicate, but rescuers are racing to find the vessel, carrying five people, before the air supply runs out, as early as Thursday morning.The news has offered up a glimmer of hope that the sub and its crew can be rescued after losing contact days ago during its descent to the wreck of the ill-fated luxury liner, which sank in 1912.The U.S. Coast Guard wrote on Twitter that the noises led searchers to move an underwater robot to the area to investigate. Those searches “have yielded negative results but continue,” the Coast Guard said.“The data from the P-3 aircraft has been shared with ou...

Lawsuit: Company’s insufficient testing of Titanic sub put passengers in ‘potential extreme danger’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:37 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — The company whose submersible vanished in the North Atlantic on a tourist dive to the wreck of the Titanic was repeatedly warned that there might be “catastrophic” safety problems with the venture, documents show.With five people aboard a vessel that if still functioning would have a dwindling amount of oxygen remaining, an expanding international fleet of ships and airplanes is searching for the Titan, operated by OceanGate Expeditions. The undersea exploration company based in Everett, Washington, has been making yearly voyages to the Titanic since 2021. In the first piece of good news since the search began, a Canadian aircraft detected underwater noises, though the vessel has not been found, the U.S. Coast Guard reported early Wednesday.David Lochridge, OceanGate’s director of marine operations, wrote an engineering report in 2018 that said the craft under development needed more testing and that passengers might be endangered when it reached “extreme depths,” acc...

A Titanic expert, an adventurer, a CEO, and a father and son are on the missing submersible

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:37 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — A renowned Titanic expert, a world-record holding adventurer, two members of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families and the CEO of the company leading an expedition to the world’s most famous shipwreck are facing critical danger aboard a small submersible that went missing in the Atlantic Ocean.The submersible Titan was reported overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center, spurring a desperate international rescue effort. Rescuers were racing against the clock because the oxygen supply could run out by approximately 6 a.m. Thursday.A Canadian aircraft detected underwater noises during the hunt for the Titan. The U.S. Coast Guard said via Twitter early Wednesday that as a result of the noises detected by the Canadian P-3 patrol aircraft, search efforts have been relocated and the data is being used to help guide the ongoing effort. The expedition featuring the ...

Wisconsin lawmakers poised to approve liquor law overhaul

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:37 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin lawmakers are poised to approve a massive overhaul of the laws governing the state’s multibillion-dollar liquor industry, a proposal supported by the smallest craft brewers to the largest national brewers, bar owners and alcohol distributors.The sweeping update to the laws affecting the production, distribution and sale of alcohol has bipartisan support, and has been years in the making. The state Assembly is scheduled to pass it on Wednesday, which would then send it to the Senate for final approval. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who was involved with discussions of the measure, is expected to sign it into law.The bill would create a new division within the state Department of Revenue, which would be in charge of overseeing and enforcing the state’s alcohol laws. The absence of such a unit now has led to inconsistent enforcement of the law — and questions over how they affect new businesses that weren’t envisioned when the laws were en...

Planned Israeli settlement threatens West Bank UNESCO site ecosystem

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:37 GMT

BATTIR, West Bank (AP) — Generations of Palestinians have worked the terraced hillsides of this West Bank farming village southwest of Jerusalem, growing olives, fruits, beans and exquisite eggplants renowned across the region in a valley linked to the biblical King David.But residents fear their ancient way of life could soon be in danger as Israel’s far-right government moves ahead with a settlement project on a nearby hilltop. Environmental groups say the construction could devastate already strained water sources supplying the agricultural terraces and cause extensive damage to an already precarious ecosystem.Battir’s plight shines a light on how the trappings of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — settlements, land disputes and military activity — can take a toll on the region’s environment, natural resources and cultural heritage.The proposed construction “will grab a great amount of land, and you don’t know where it will end,” said Rashid Owinah, 58, whose family has farmed in...

Allies seek big-business investment to rebuild Ukraine at London conference

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:37 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Diplomats from dozens of countries are meeting Wednesday in London to drum up funds to rebuild Ukraine, a mammoth task whose cost is estimated by the World Bank at more than $400 billion – a figure rising daily alongside the human toll of the 16-month war.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to announce a new package of U.S. assistance at the Ukraine Recovery Conference, which is both a fundraising forum and a message to Russia that Ukraine’s allies are in it for the long haul.Blinken, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are among international representatives at the gathering, which hopes to get big businesses to back Ukraine.“(It’s) very much about encouraging the private sector to invest in Ukraine’s rebuilding and recovery,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Tuesday. To do that, he said, “we need to demonstrate that those investments will be effective and that they will be safe” by underwriting...