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PHOTOS: 'Sea of Sunflowers' bloom in North County

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:26 GMT

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- As the saying goes, April showers bring May flowers and that appears to be especially true at The Flower Fields in Carlsbad.The 50-acre ranch has rows and rows of ranunculus that are still in peak bloom. Plus, the Carlsbad Ranch announced Tuesday that their 5-acre "Sea of Sunflowers" has now blossomed and is open for viewing. Peer into the San Diego Zoo at home with these live cams Visitors of the ranch can stroll along paths across the field, taking time to snap those picture perfect moments amongst the flowers. For those who prefer to catch a ride, you can pay to hop on a tractor for a wagon ride that will take you right to the base of the sunflower sanctuary.According to a spokesperson from The Flower Fields, "some sunflowers are as big as small moons and others over 12 feet high." Here's a sneak peak of what to expect.(Photo released by The Flower Fields)(Photo released by The Flower Fields)Guests to the ranch can also explore a 1,500-square foot greenhouse...

Israeli airstrikes on Gaza kill Palestinian as violence ebbs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:26 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed a 58-year-old man and wounded five others on Wednesday, Palestinian health officials said, even as the latest spasm of violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the enclave appeared to ebb.Israeli fighter jets struck targets in Gaza in response to salvos of rockets launched by Palestinian militants at Israeli territory on Tuesday. But after sunrise, the violence seemed to subside as both sides signaled they wanted to avoid a wider conflict.The exchange erupted when a prominent Palestinian detainee died in Israeli custody after an 87-day hunger strike. The death of Khader Adnan, 45, a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group credited with popularizing hunger strikes as an effective form of activism, reverberated across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where he is revered as a national hero. Protests erupted at Israeli military checkpoints and a general strike shuttered stores across the territ...

Stock market today: Stocks drift, banks steady ahead of Fed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:26 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are drifting Wednesday ahead of what Wall Street hopes will be the last hike to interest rates for a long time.The S&P 500 was up 0.1% in morning trading after slumping the prior day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 3 points, or less than 0.1%, at 33,687, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher. Eli Lilly rose 4.3% after reporting encouraging results from a study of a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, and bank stocks were recovering some of their steep slide from a day before, while oil prices continued to fall. But the market’s spotlight is squarely on the Federal Reserve, which later in the afternoon will announce its latest move to combat high inflation. The wide assumption is that the Fed will lift its key overnight interest rate again to its highest level since 2007. More important is what clues the Fed gives about upcoming moves. The hope across Wall Street is that this will mark the end of the Fed’s fastest...

CSIS must inform MPs about all threats against them, no matter how credible: Trudeau

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:26 GMT

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada’s intelligence agencies are being directed to immediately inform MPs if there are any threats against them, regardless of whether the threats are considered credible.Trudeau says the Canadian Security Intelligence Service never told anyone about information it received concerning China threatening family members of Conservative MP Michael Chong who live in Hong Kong.The prime minister says he only learned on Monday, after it was reported in the media, that CSIS had intelligence about such threats two years ago.Trudeau says CSIS was asked to brief Chong at the time after China publicly said it would sanction him for criticizing Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province.But he says CSIS did not consider intelligence that Chong or his family in China were being threatened credible enough to elevate it outside their own organization.He says that when it comes to the safety and security of membe...

Ex-FBI supervisory agent arrested on Capitol riot charges

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:26 GMT

A former FBI supervisory agent has been arrested on charges that he joined a mob in storming the U.S. Capitol, where he cheered on rioters attacking police officers during the riot, federal authorities said.The former agent, Jared Wise, repeatedly shouted, “Kill ’em!” as he watched rioters assaulting officers outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.Wise was arrested Monday in Oregon on misdemeanor charges including entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, court records show.Wise, 50, worked as a special agent or supervisory special agent for the FBI from 2004 through 2017, according to the affidavit. The FBI says security camera video captured Wise inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, when a mob of Donald Trump supporters disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. Wise clapped his hands and raised his arms ”in triumph” after he entered the building through ...

Ancient Knights of Malta gets its first nonaristocratic head

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:26 GMT

ROME (AP) — A Canadian lawyer who found his vocation caring for AIDS patients in Harlem has been elected the grand master of the Knights of Malta, the first non-European and first nonaristocratic head of the ancient lay Catholic order that provides humanitarian aid around the world.John Dunlap, 66, was elected by an absolute majority of 99 voting members of a Knights body known as “the council complete of state.” He immediately informed Pope Francis of his election and was being sworn in later Wednesday at the Knights’ magnificent villa on Rome’s Aventine hill.The election brings a hoped-for end to a tumultuous few years during which Francis intervened to remove a previous grand master during a governance crisis. Francis then imposed a new set of constitutional reforms on the order in ways that critics said threatened its sovereignty.The Knights of Malta is an ancient chivalric order that runs hospitals and clinics around the world. It counts 13,500 knights, dames and chaplains, 80,...

Syria and Iran sign long-term oil and trade agreements

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:26 GMT

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The presidents of Iran and Syria signed Wednesday a series of long-term cooperation agreements on oil and other sectors to bolster economic ties between the two allies.Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi, leading a large economic and political delegation, met with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, after landing in the war-torn country for a two-day visit — an Iranian president’s first visit to Damascus since 2010.Tehran has been a main backer of Assad’s government since a 2011 uprising turned into full-blown civil war and has played an instrumental role in turning the tide of the conflict in his favor.Iran has sent scores of military advisers and thousands of Iran-backed fighters from around the Middle East to Syria to fight on Assad’s side. Tehran has also been an economic lifeline for Assad, sending fuel and credit lines worth billions of dollars.Syrian government forces have regained control of large parts of the country in recent years, with t...

GTA housing market showing signs of tightening: Toronto real estate board

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:26 GMT

Toronto’s housing market continued to tighten last month as prices edged up four per cent from March and sales moved closer to the level they were at last April, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board revealed Wednesday.April’s average price tumbled 7.8 per cent to $1,153,269, but was roughly four per cent higher than the $1,108,499 the average buyer paid in March.Sales for the month hit 7,531, down 5.2 per cent from a year ago but up about nine per cent from March.Those sales outpaced new listings, which were down by over a third from a year before, fuelling more competition between buyers who were too hesitant to buy homes earlier this year.Pushing these buyers to the sidelines were eight consecutive interest rate hikes, which took a bite out of their borrowing power, even as prices started to tumble.Their hesitance and those lower prices weighed on sellers too as many held off listing their homes because they won’t fetch the big sums or bidding wars their neighb...

Bolsonaro home searched as Brazil probes fake vaccine cards

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:26 GMT

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s Federal Police searched former President Jair Bolsonaro’s home and seized his phone Wednesday in what they said was an investigation into alleged falsification of COVID-19 vaccine cards. Several other locations also were searched and a half-dozen people faced arrest, police said.The president confirmed the search on his residence while speaking with reporters, as did his wife Michelle on her Instagram account. She said her phone wasn’t seized, contrary to media reports.A federal police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said that Bolsonaro will be deposed at Federal Police headquarters and confirmed that one of his closest allies, Mauro Cid, was arrested.Asked about the search of Bolsonaro’s home, the Federal Police’s press office provided a statement saying officers were carrying out 16 searches and six arrests in Rio de Janeiro related to the introduction of fraudulent data re...

Judge: Synagogue massacre suspect can face death penalty

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:34:26 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The man charged in the deadliest attack on Jewish people in U.S. history has lost another bid to get the death penalty removed as a possible punishment.With jury selection underway at the federal trial of Robert Bowers, a judge ruled Tuesday against a defense motion that challenged the government’s pursuit of the death penalty. U.S. District Judge Robert Colville said in his decision that Bowers’ defense team “fails entirely to establish a basis upon which the court could conclude that the government has arbitrarily sought the death penalty in this case.”Bowers, of the Pittsburgh suburb of Baldwin, is charged with 63 criminal counts in the killings of 11 worshippers on Oct. 27, 2018, at the Tree of Life synagogue building where three congregations had gathered. The charges include 11 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religion resulting in death and 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death.Prosecutors say Bowers made antisemitic comments at th...