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Taliban slam ‘baseless and biased’ UN report suggesting rifts and conflict within their ranks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:59 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Taliban condemned on Sunday a “baseless and biased” report from the U.N. Security Council highlighting rifts within the group’s ranks.The last seven months have seen a greater shift of power from the capital Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar, a Taliban heartland and the base of the group’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.A report — issued earlier in June — by the U.N. Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said that the Taliban governance structures remain “highly exclusionary, Pashtun-centred and repressive” toward all forms of opposition. It also said Kandahar’s return as the seat of power — like it was during the Taliban’s rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s — circumvents senior Taliban ministers in Kabul, the center of the current government, because of the way decisions are made.Key figures, such as the Taliban’s main spokesman, have set up offices in the south of Kandahar. Monumental decrees such as tho...

Boston police investigating Roxbury car crash

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:59 GMT

Police are investigating a two-car crash on Columbus Avenue near Egleston Square Sunday morning. A pedestrian was hit, and both cars were towed, officials said.The victim was conscious and moving before being transported to the hospital. Police also said a building was also damaged in the 6:30 a.m. crash. This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.

Police investigating ‘domestic’ stabbing that sent two to hospital

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:59 GMT

Two people were injured in an incident on Arion Street in Dorchester early Sunday morning. Boston police said they transported both people to the hospital, including a young man who was stabbed in the chest just before 4 a.m.. He is expected to survive, and there is no update on the second patient.Officials said this was a domestic incident.This is a developing story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest updates.

Extremely rare orange lobster caught in Maine’s Casco Bay has new home

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:59 GMT

(CNN) — An extremely rare, bright orange American lobster caught earlier this month in Maine’s Casco Bay by a lobstering crew has found a home at the University of New England’s marine science center.The chances of catching an orange lobster are one-in-30 million, according to Charles Tilburg, a UNE professor of marine science who said he bases that estimate on the total annual lobster landings and anecdotal reports of orange lobsters.The lobster was the first catch of the day on June 2 for the crew of the Deborah & Megan, a fishing vessel captained by Gregg Turner, Tilburg told CNN.The bright orange lobster came up alone in the trap of crew member Mandy Cyr, Tilburg said.“I knew right away I was going to contact UNE,” Cyr told CNN. “They took our last lobster ‘Sprinkles,’ a calico lobster, another one-in-30 million lobster that we caught this past winter.”Turner has been lobstering since he was a young boy and has only seen two orange lobsters in his life, a...

‘I would truly would love to stay a Cub,’ says Marcus Stroman. But pitcher says team hasn’t engaged in extension talks.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:59 GMT

Marcus Stroman has made clear he wants to engage in contract extension talks with the Chicago Cubs.The feeling is not mutual, according to Stroman.President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer has repeatedly stated over the years he does not talk about players’ contract situations publicly. In this case, there does not appear to be engagement behind the scenes, either.“I want nothing more than to be a Cub,” Stroman told reporters Saturday. “I kill myself 24/7 on and off the field to perform, to keep my body is position, to keep my mind in position.“I truly believe I prepare like nobody else so I know my worth.”Coming off another stellar start in Friday’s 3-2 win against the San Francisco Giants, allowing two runs in 6⅔ innings, the love from Cubs fans on Twitter calling for the team to extend him didn’t go unnoticed by the 32-year-old right-hander.It prompted Stroman to share his feelings about his future Saturday morning through a ...

Chicago White Sox give up 5 runs in the 9th to the Miami Marlins in 5-1 loss: ‘It wasn’t a good day for us’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:59 GMT

The Chicago White Sox had escaped trouble several times throughout Saturday afternoon.Until the ninth, when the Miami Marlins scored five in the inning to beat the Sox 5-1 in front of 25,793 at Guaranteed Rate Field.The Sox were three outs from their seventh victory in eight games.But then came a ninth to forget, featuring two singles, a double, a pair of walks and a fielding error as a one-run lead became a four-run deficit.“It wasn’t a good day for us in the ninth inning today as a team,” manager Pedro Grifol said.With the loss and the Minnesota Twins’ 9-4 win at Toronto, the Sox (29-37) are 4½ games out of first in the American League Central.They had a chance at keeping pace, entered the ninth leading 1-0 thanks to a homer by Andrew Vaughn in the fourth.Reliever Joe Kelly surrendered back-to-back singles to begin the ninth. He walked Jorge Soler, loading the bases. Bryan De La Cruz hit a grounder to shortstop Tim Anderson, who charged but couldn̵...

MLB notes: Phillips Andover’s Thomas White a once-in-a-generation talent

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:59 GMT

Thomas White had barely moved into his new dorm at Phillips Academy when his phone started blowing up.Then 14 years old, the tall left-handed pitcher from Rowley had always been regarded as one of the region’s most promising young talents. But now he was about to go national, as news had just broken that White was now the No. 1 ranked player in the incoming high school class of 2023.Nothing was the same after that, and it’s been a whirlwind journey for White ever since.Four years later White has developed into one of the top baseball prospects to ever come out of Massachusetts and is considered a likely first-round pick in next month’s MLB Draft. At 6-foot-5, 215 pounds, White boasts mid-to-high 90s velocity and a combination of physical gifts and off-field intangibles that have scouts across the game salivating.“He’s the most talented pitcher at that age I’ve seen anywhere,” said Kevin Graber, who coached White his first three years at Phil...

Elvis Presley’s cousin lifts Democrats’ hopes in Mississippi governor’s race

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:59 GMT

GRENADA, Miss. (AP) — Conservative Mississippi is tough territory for Democrats, but the party sees an unusual opportunity this year to unseat first-term Republican Gov. Tate Reeves. They’re pinning hopes in November on a candidate with a legendary last name who has used his own compelling story to highlight the economic plight of working families in a state that has long been one of the poorest in America.Democrat Brandon Presley is a second cousin of Elvis Presley, born a few days before the rock ’n’ roll legend died. While campaigning, Brandon Presley talks frequently about government corruption, focusing on a multimillion-dollar welfare scandal that developed when Reeves was lieutenant governor. Presley, an elected member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission, is unopposed for the Democratic nomination for governor. He is pushing for Medicaid expansion to help financially strapped hospitals while telling voters about his own difficult childhood. “I understand ...

French town gathers at playground where young children were stabbed to support victims

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:59 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Children, parents and grandparents joined a few thousand well-wishers Sunday in a park in the French Alps town of Annecy to show solidarity and support for the victims of a playground stabbing attack that left four young children and two adults hospitalized with serious wounds, The children represent ‘’the poetry of life,” Annecy Mayor Francois Astorg told the crowd, calling on Annecy residents to “come together to build, instead of to hate.”Astorg had called for a “citizens’ gathering’’ in the lakeside park where a man with a knife raced around stabbing people Thursday. City officials reopened the playground hours after the attack in an attempt to show the area was again safe.People have heaped flowers, stuffed toys and messages of support on the playground’s padded surface in the days since. A pink heart-shaped balloon tied to a bench read, “For the children – LOVE.”The children targeted were a 22-month-old Dutch girl, a 3-year-old British girl, and two 2-year-o...

Hospitalized Pope Francis follows Mass on TV, lunches with medical personnel and aides

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:51:59 GMT

ROME (AP) — Sticking to doctors’ advice, Pope Francis on Sunday skipped his customary Sunday noon public blessing as he convalesces from abdominal surgery, but he followed Mass on TV from a Rome hospital and prayed in private, the Vatican said.Francis also ate lunch in his 10-floor hospital apartment with doctors, nurses, other medical staff and members of his Vatican security detail, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a written statement.The surgeon who performed the three-hour surgery Wednesday to repair an abdominal hernia and to remove painful internal scarring that had resulted from previous operations said the 86-year-old pontiff had begun a semi-liquid diet. Dr. Sergio Alfieri also told reporters that medical staff had made clear to Francis their concerns that even if the pontiff delivered the noon public blessing and greeting from a balcony down the corridor from his hospital room, he might over-exert himself and tear a prosthetic mesh that was inserted as part of ...