Father’s Day

(Nairobi) – The Ethiopian military summarily executed several dozen civilians and committed other war crimes on January 29, 2024, in the town of Merawi in Ethiopia’s northwestern Amhara region, Human Rights Watch said today. The incident was among the deadliest for civilians during the fighting between Ethiopian federal forces and Fano militia since the outbreak of fighting in Amhara in August 2023. The United Nations and African Union should consider suspending new deployments of Ethiopian federal forces into international peacekeeping operations until commanders responsible for grave abuses are held accountable. “The Ethiopian armed forces’ brutal killings of civilians in Amhara undercut government claims that it’s trying to bring law and order to the region,” said Laetitia Bader, deputy Africa director…

SPARTANBURG — Three seconds before the fatal crash, Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Deputy Lt. Robert Taylor was headed east, going full throttle at 117 mph, more than double the posted speed on U.S. 176 with two other deputies behind him. Two seconds before impact, Taylor hit the brakes. He was too late. His sheriff’s office Tahoe smashed into Ricky Graham’s white Ford F-150 as Graham was turning onto the highway from Brown Road. Graham had stopped at the intersection before continuing. He never saw it coming. Nor could he have, according to a South Carolina Highway Patrol investigation of the crash. Graham died at the hospital. He was 63 years old and left behind a wife, a father, three children, three…

AGRA: Mau MLA Abbas Ansari, elder son of Mukhtar Ansari, may not be able to attend his father’s funeral as parole proceedings in Allahabad high court could not be completed Friday, reported. With Supreme Court on holiday due to Good Friday, the 32-year-old’s lawyers reached out to the top court’s vacation officer for ‘urgent hearing’. The last rites are to be conducted Saturday.Abbas is in Kasganj jail in connection with a money laundering case; his brother Umar had earlier claimed a threat to Abbas’s life in jail. Ansari’s elder son may miss funeral due to parole delay Abbas Ansari, elder son of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari and MLA from Mau constituency, may not be able to attend his father’s funeral as…

MILAN — Justin Yarger of Milan has been recognized as an outstanding 4-H member in the Michigan State 4-H State Awards Program. The 18-year-old is a member of Monroe County 4-H and has been a junior superintendent with the Monroe County Fair for five years. He has been with the Michigan State 4-H program for nine years. He is also treasurer for the Shooting Sports Association and serves on the Caprine Council as Sergeant at Arms. While involved in 4-H, Yarger has participated in shooting sports, the goat sponsorship program and communications. In 2023, he won the senior Michigan 4-H State Award for Shooting Sports. According to an article written by Amanda McNerney, Michigan State University Extension, a Michigan 4-H…

Suwannee Spring Reunion: All day Friday-Sunday, Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, 3076 95th Drive, Live Oak. Tickets: Prices vary. See website for information. (suwanneespringreunion.com) This year’s celebrated artists include Sam Bush, Peter Rowan, Jim Lauderdale, Donna the Buffalo, Verlon Thompson, Shawn Camp, Hatti and Joe Craven Trio, The Grass is Dead, Habanero Honeys and more. Live and Local Concert Series: 7-9 p.m. Friday, Bo Diddley Plaza, 111 E. University Ave. Free. (tinyurl.com/livelocal24) Live performances by Half Gone, Earworms and Boat Stuff. Playlist at the Pointe: 7-9 p.m. Friday, Celebration Pointe, Celebration Pointe Avenue. Free. (celebrationpointe.com) Jamie Davis will perform. Food will be available from area restaurants. Saxsquatch with DJ Em of Future Joy, and Knob Ross: 7:30-11 p.m. Friday,…

NAVI MUMBAI: A 67-year-old man was found dead in the Ganpati immersion pond in Dhakta Khanda, a neighbourhood in Khanda colony, Panvel taluka on Sunday early morning. The body was found floating in the pond by a local resident, who alerted the Kamothe police. The Kamothe police informed that the deceased has been identified as Vikas Verma, who was staying on pavements in Khanda colony and used to sell helmets on the streets as his source of livelihood.He hails from Fatehpur, UP and had been staying in Khanda colony for past 20 years, after he came from his native place where he resided with his son, who is a doctor working in Saudi Arabia. As he was staying on the…

NORFOLK, Va. — Like the other Founding Fathers, George Washington was uneasy about the idea of publicly celebrating his life. He was the first leader of a new republic — not a tyrant. And yet the nation will once again commemorate the first U.S. president on Monday, 292 years after he was born. The meaning of Presidents Day has changed dramatically, from being mostly unremarkable and filled with work for Washington in the 1700s to the consumerism bonanza it has become today. For some historians, the holiday has lost all discernible meaning. Alexis Coe, author of “You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George of Washington,” said she thinks about Presidents Day in much the same way as the…

FULSHEAR, Texas — Joe Espada started writing in high school and hasn’t stopped since, documenting four decades of his dreams, defeats and deliberations. He chronicled love and loss, sacrifice and success, the pain of rejection paired with the thrill of prosperity. Espada has navigated a career with more almosts than absolutes, authoring a case study in persistence before reaching his pinnacle. “He doesn’t express that much, especially when he’s sad. He never speaks back to anybody, never speaks back to me, but he writes his feelings down,” Joe’s mother, Miriam, said. “I do the same thing. I have a lot of journals and I write down my feelings when I don’t have anybody to talk to or I don’t want…

ATLANTA (AP) — Communities across the nation celebrated the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday with events ranging from prayer services to parades, but a dangerously cold winter storm was limiting some planned activities. In Atlanta, the King Center’s annual commemorative service was being held at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King served as pastor. King’s daughter Bernice King told the crowd gathered for the 56th commemorative service that her father’s legacy of nonviolence taught the world that “we can defeat injustice, ignorance and hold people accountable at the same time without seeking to destroy, diminish, demean or cancel them.” Kingian nonviolence is “a blueprint to make of this old world a new world,” she said. “It is…

ATLANTA (AP) — Communities across the nation celebrated the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday with acts of service, prayer services and parades. But with the November presidential election as a backdrop, some events took on an overtly political turn. Watch Harris’ remarks in the player above. Speaking at the MLK Day at the Dome rally at the South Carolina Statehouse, Vice President Kamala Harris said young people two or three generations removed from King have seen their freedoms shrink — from laws restricting voting to bans on abortions and the ever-present threat of gun violence, especially in schools. “They even try to erase, overlook and rewrite the ugly parts of our past. For example, the Civil War —…

MEAUX, France (AP) — Four children between nine months and 10 years old and their mother were killed in their apartment east of Paris, in what local authorities called an exceptionally violent crime. The children’s father was arrested Tuesday and is the primary suspect. Neighbors spotted a pool of blood outside the family’s door on Christmas Day and alerted police, who discovered the five bodies, Prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier told reporters in the city of Meaux. The mother and two daughters, ages 7 and 10, were stabbed several times overnight from Sunday to Monday, he said. The couple’s two sons, ages 9 months and 4-years-old, were suffocated or drowned. The prosecutor described a small, blood-stained apartment in extreme disarray. Flowers, a…

Jose Juarez wanted to get a dog for his children. He had cleaned his gray Oldsmobile 442 Cutlass to go to a New Year’s Day car show. He hoped to spend more time with his mother who had been diagnosed with cancer a few days before Christmas. Shortly after midnight Jan. 1, the Oxnard man died from a single gunshot wound to the head. The Oxnard Police Department responded to a report of shots fired and discovered a man, later identified as Juarez, on Sierra Way at 12:10 a.m. The 34-year-old was transported to Ventura County Medical Center where he received emergency care. The doctors found that he had suffered severe brain damage and told his wife, Cassandra Juarez, that…

“Staff of Laurel, Staff of Ash: Sacred Landscapes in Ancient Nature Myth” by Wooster mythologist and classicist Dianna Rhyan is a rich collection of reflections about the natural world. Rhyan’s lyrical writing brings together her observations of nature, particularly in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, with fascinating concepts of folklore. In addition to Greek and Roman mythology, Rhyan reaches back some 4,000 years to her prime resource, the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, which she summarizes in the chapter “Expedition to the Cedar Forest.” In a lament to deforestation, an ancient text calls it “profanity against the sanctuary.” Rhyan cites Homer and Heraclitus in a chapter called “The Mother of God,” which examines the sacred places that are hidden from or prohibited…

A Moncton, N.B. woman is raising concerns about the health-care system, as her elderly stepfather deals with a lengthy wait for a hip replacement. Karen Cook says her 80-year-old stepfather’s quality of life has been declining recently. “His mobility is quite drastically reduced, he’s with a cane all of the time now, and when he has bad days he needs a walker,” she said. “So things like taking the dog for a walk or going upstairs to stoke the stove he can’t do anymore.” Global News has agreed to protect the man’s identity because he’s afraid of losing his family doctor for speaking out against the health-care system. Cook’s stepfather has been on the wait list for a hip replacement…

Syracuse, N.Y. — In September, it seemed like Christmas might not come to St. Lucy’s. Thieves broke into the warehouse where the church was storing piles of gifts parishioners bought throughout the year to prepare for their annual Christmas giveaway. Hundreds of families in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods have depended on the church to help them put presents under their trees for 18 years. In one night, it was all gone. The thieves took everything but the hangers the clothes were on and the bins they were stored in, said Kay Scharoun, who helps run the event. “We were left with nothing,” she said. The haul was about $18,000 worth of presents. Scharoun could not fathom how they…

Washington, Jan 13 (AP) As communities nationwide prepare this weekend to celebrate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with events ranging from parades to prayer services, some will take a cue from the slain civil rights icon’s history of protest to demonstrate against the war in Gaza and draw attention to a looming U.S. presidential election. The Monday holiday also marks 100 days since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched an attack in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and resulted in about 240 taken hostage. Since then, more than 100 Israelis remain kidnapped and more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, as global health organizations have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis there.…

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un turned 40 on Monday with no announced public celebrations at home, after he entered the new year with artillery barrages into the sea and vows to expand his nuclear arsenal. Since taking power in late 2011, Kim, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea, is believed to have established an absolute leadership similar to his predecessors. But his birthday has yet to be officially celebrated, unlike his late father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung. Their birthdays are two of the North’s biggest holidays and are marked with great fanfare, loyalty campaigns and sometimes massive military parades. On Monday, North Korea’s state news agency…

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un turned 40 on Monday with no announced public celebrations at home, after he entered the new year with artillery barrages into the sea and vows to expand his nuclear arsenal. Since taking power in late 2011, Kim, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea, is believed to have established an absolute leadership similar to his predecessors. But his birthday has yet to be officially celebrated, unlike his late father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung. Their birthdays are two of the North’s biggest holidays and are marked with great fanfare, loyalty campaigns and sometimes massive military parades. On Monday, North Korea´s state news agency…

Seoul, January 8: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un turned 40 on Monday with no announced public celebrations at home, after he entered the new year with artillery barrages into the sea and vows to expand his nuclear arsenal. Since taking power in late 2011, Kim, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea, is believed to have established an absolute leadership similar to his predecessors. But his birthday has yet to be officially celebrated, unlike his late father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung. Their birthdays are two of the North’s biggest holidays and are marked with great fanfare, loyalty campaigns and sometimes massive military parades. On Monday, North Korea’s state news agency published a…

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un turned 40 on Monday with no announced public celebrations at home after he entered the new year with artillery barrages into the sea and vows to expand his nuclear arsenal. Since taking power in late 2011, Kim, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea, is believed to have established an absolute leadership similar to his predecessors. But his birthday has yet to be officially celebrated, unlike his late father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung. Their birthdays are two of the North’s biggest holidays and are marked with great fanfare, loyalty campaigns and sometimes massive military parades. On Monday, North Korea’s state news agency published…