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Kosovo complains of biased western envoys in talks with its former foe Serbia

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:45:23 GMT

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s prime minister on Thursday complained of bias against his country from the United States and the European Union and tolerance of what he called Serbia’s authoritarian regime.Prime Minister Albin Kurti said his Cabinet took a different stance. “We insist that behaving well with an autocrat doesn’t make him behave better. On the contrary,” he said. The U.S. and EU envoys for the Kosovo-Serbia talks — Gabriel Escobar and Miroslav Lajcak respectively — “come to us with demands, with requests of the other side,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.Ethnic Serbs recently clashed with Kosovo police and then the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force, leaving 30 soldiers and over 50 Serbs injured and provoking fears of a renewal of the region’s bloody conflicts.After the soldiers were injured last week, NATO said it would send an additional 700 troops to northern Kosovo.The clashes grew out of an earlier confrontation after ethnic Albanian candidates ...

Karolina Muchova beats Aryna Sabalenka at the French Open to reach her first Grand Slam final

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:45:23 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Unseeded Karolina Muchova reached her first Grand Slam final at the last place she expected, saving a match point and using a stirring comeback to grab the last five games despite dealing with leg problems for a 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5 victory over No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka at the French Open on Thursday.Sabalenka, who won the Australian Open in January, was a point from finishing off the topsy-turvy, three-hour-plus semifinal at 5-2 in the third set but then collapsed, dropping 20 of 24 points down the stretch.It was tough to decide which was more stunning: that Sabalenka lost — or the way she lost. In Saturday’s title match, Muchova will meet either No. 1 Iga Swiatek, the defending champion, or No. 14 Beatriz Haddad Maia. Their semifinal was scheduled for later Thursday.At No. 43, Muchova is the fourth-lowest-ranked women’s finalist in French Open history.And the way she managed to get there was rather remarkable. “I just tried to keep fighting and it worked,” Muchova said....

Boulder County sheriff lost home in Marshall Fire

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:45:23 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Boulder County Sheriff Curtis Johnson tried to hold back tears as he talked about the cause of the Marshall Fire and the impact it had on the community in a press conference on Thursday. Johnson's home was one of the more than 1,000 structures that were destroyed in Colorado's most destructive wildfire."With every home that burned that day, people lost everything. All their possessions, family heirlooms were turned to ash," a visibly emotional Johnson said. "I share in that loss, as I lost my home to the Marshall Fire."Johnson said he gets a little emotional talking about the fire and the impact it's had on his family. "We are rebuilding our home, we are focused on the future, and knowing and having been exposed to all the elements and all the things that were happening that day, and watching that fire progress across our county, I know that ultimately sometimes really bad things happen," Johnson said. "And I was caught up in that and my home was lost, but I'm movin...

Why won't criminal charges be filed for likely Marshall Fire causes?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:45:23 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- A little over 17 months after the Marshall Fire devastated communities across Boulder County, investigators released that there were two likely causes.Those combined causes were: Embers from a residential burn that was started on Dec. 24, 2021, as well as hot particles that were likely discharged from an Xcel Energy power line 2,000 feet away. Marshall Fire caused by residential burn and Xcel power line, sheriff says However, it was also announced that no criminal charges will be filed for either of the causes. Insufficient or no evidence of crimes in either likely causeDistrict Attorney Michael Dougherty stressed that lack of evidence was the main reason charges were not filed."The law and ethical rules for prosecutors require us to only file charges when there's evidence of a crime," he said, "and when that evidence can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law." Local leaders discuss Marshall Fire response and next steps Dougherty also went into t...

This Colorado community is among the nation's safest suburbs

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:45:23 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Despite widespread public safety concerns, a few Denver metro suburbs are ranked some of the nation's safest - if you can afford to live there. Financial adviser site SmartAsset analyzed federal and county-level data of 370 suburbs within a 15- to 45-minute drive of the nation's 100 largest cities. These included violent crime rates, property crime rates, vehicular mortality rates, drug poisoning mortality rates and share of the population engaged in excessive drinking. Marshall Fire caused by residential burn and Xcel power line, sheriff says Castle Rock is the tenth-safest suburb in the nation, despite its property crime levels.Castle Rock has some of the best safety stats in the nation. It has the 29th lowest violent crime rate, the 17th lowest vehicular mortality rate and the 23rd lowest drug overdose rate. However, it has the 173rd lowest property crime rate - slightly better than the national average but not by much. At the tenth safest, Castle Rock is cons...

Off-duty officer testifies he didn’t know just where shots fired from during Parkland massacre

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:45:23 GMT

PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — An off-duty police officer who was at Florida’s Parkland high school during the 2018 massacre testified Thursday at the trial of the deputy accused of not stopping the shooter, describing how he mistook gunshots for fireworks before realizing what was happening and approached unarmed.Coral Springs Sgt. Jeffrey Heinrich, testifying for a second day for the prosecution, said he initially thought the shots were coming from in or near the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High classroom building where the 17 murders occurred. But it wasn’t until he interviewed a wounded student several minutes after the shooting started that he knew for certain.He conceded that he never got within 200 yards (182 meters) of where former Broward Deputy Scot Peterson had taken cover on the opposite side of the building and never saw the deputy.What Peterson, 60, heard and saw on Feb. 14, 2018, is the key issue in the trial. He is charged with failing to confront shooter Nikolas Cru...

Trump braces for possible federal charges after being warned he’s a target of documents probe

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:45:23 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and his aides are bracing for a potential indictment in the classified documents investigation as prosecutors handling the probe were spotted Thursday at a Miami courthouse where a grand jury has been hearing from witnesses.The former president’s lawyers have been told he is a target of the investigation, the clearest indication yet that criminal charges could be coming soon, according to one person familiar with the matter. In an effort to get ahead of a potential indictment, aides over the last two days have been reaching out to Trump allies in Congress to be prepared to go on television and offer defenses of the former president, according to another person familiar with the matter.Both people requested anonymity to discuss matters related to the secretive grand jury process.Meanwhile, a grand jury in Miami heard from at least one additional witness this week — a former top aide to Trump — as signs continued mounting that prosecuto...

Oh, Mr President … Biden gets his titles mixed up during Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s first White House visit

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:45:23 GMT

WASHINGTON, D.C. — First he renamed the British prime minister “Rashee Sanook.” Now Joe Biden has bestowed Rishi Sunak with a whole new job title which doesn’t actually exist in the U.K.Welcoming the British premier to the White House for the first time Thursday, Biden immediately mixed up his honorifics, wrongly addressing Sunak as “Mr president.” The British PM smiled politely as Biden was swiftly forced to correct himself. “Mr president?” Biden went on. “I’m just promoting you! Mr prime minister, it’s great to have you back.”British constitutional experts are likely to take umbrage at the correction as much as the gaffe itself, given prime ministers are not considered to be the junior of presidents. Britain’s leader is, historically, the “prime,” or first and most important of the king’s ministers, also known as the first among equals. Despite Biden’s misstep, the two men seemed relaxed in one an...

5 ways EU’s ethics body just might work — or not

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:45:23 GMT

BRUSSELS — The European Commission says it has a plan to create a serious ethics watchdog.Critics say it’s nothing but a “toothless bulldog.”  A plan to create an independent ethics body that would align ethical standards and approaches to enforcement among EU institutions long predates Qatargate. Yet the six-month-old European Parliament bribery scandal created fresh urgency — and highlighted the limits of current self-enforcement.Transparency advocates inside and outside of the Parliament wanted to see the Commission create an external ethics cop that would investigate accusations of corrupt conduct and dole out punishment.Věra Jourová, who is Commission vice president for values and transparency and responsible for creating the ethics body, has consistently ruled out using this type of power for an ethics body. At an unveiling event on Thursday, she described “a very strong legal reason” for leaving decisions on individual cases to each institution. “The institutions ha...

Sunak and Biden reach for critical minerals deal in show of unity

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:45:23 GMT

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden have committed to a cooperation deal on defense and critical minerals as the U.K. prime minister moves away from a post-Brexit vision of unfettered free trade in favor of mutual protection.The Atlantic Declaration, announced as the two men met in the White House, includes pledges to ease certain trade barriers, strengthen defense industry ties and strike a data protection deal in the face of China’s growing influence.The two nations have vowed to immediately start negotiating an agreement to mitigate the impact of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which prevents nations without a U.S. trade deal from accessing the law’s tax credits and subsidies.Sunak hailed “a new standard for economic cooperation” after abandoning the full-fat free trade agreement promised in the wake of Brexit, with U.K. officials lauding the new approach as a better response to the challenges posed by Beijing and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Biden has pledged to ...