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Pope, big crowd mark Easter in flower-adorned Vatican square

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:55 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis opened a celebration of Mass on Easter Sunday joined by dozens of prelates and tens of thousands of pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter’s Square, where spring flowers made the vast space bright. made bright by spring flowers.Orange-red tulips, yellow sprays of forsythia and daffodils, and other colorful seasonal blooms were transported in trucks from the Netherlands on Saturday and set up in planters to decorate the Vatican square, which quickly filled up Sunday with Rome residents and Holy Week visitors to the city.Some 45,000 people had gathered by the start of the mid-morning Mass, according to Vatican security services. At the beginning of the Easter ceremony inspired by the core Christian belief that Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion, Francis sprinkled holy water and sounded somewhat tired as he recited ritual words in Latin. A canopy on the edge of steps on the square sheltered the pontiff, who was back in the public eye 12 hours af...

Roadside bomb kills two soldiers in NW Pakistan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:55 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A roadside bomb exploded in northwest Pakistan, killing two soldiers who were traveling in their vehicle, the military said. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan gave a higher death toll in Saturday’s attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, saying eight soldiers died. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy.The TTP also claimed responsibility for a hand grenade attack on a police van in the Swabi area of the province that killed a police officer and injured two others on Saturday.Pakistan is witnessing increased attacks on security forces after the militant TTP ended a cease-fire with the government last November. To counter the wave of violence, the government said Friday it will carry out a massive anti-terrorist operation across the country within the coming weeks.The National Security Committee, comprising the prime minister and the military’s top brass, agreed to re-launch the oper...

I-94 paving project from Oakdale to Wisconsin border restarts soon. Public meeting set for Tuesday.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:55 GMT

MnDOT will host a public meeting 4-6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 11, 2023, at Woodbury City Hall to provide an overview of the Interstate 94 repaving project between Oakdale and the St. Croix River. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Transportation)The pavement project on Interstate 94 between Oakdale and the St. Croix River, one of the biggest road-construction projects in the east metro, is expected to start up again in mid-April, weather permitting.The $120 million construction project started last summer and will continue through the fall of 2024. Construction is being done in three main stages, with the majority of the work being done this year and in 2024.I-94 will be reduced to two lanes in both directions between Woodbury Drive and the St. Croix River through this fall, according to Minnesota Department of Transportation officials, and motorists can expect delays and impacts throughout the project area. Lanes also will be reduced in May and June east of Century Avenue to in...

Here’s the real reason to turn on airplane mode when you fly

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:55 GMT

By Doug Drury | CNNWe all know the routine by heart: “Please ensure your seats are in the upright position, tray tables stowed, window shades are up, laptops are stored in the overhead bins and electronic devices are set to flight mode.”Now, the first four are reasonable, right? Window shades need to be up so we can see if there’s an emergency, such as fire. Tray tables need to be stowed and seats upright so we can get out of the row quickly. Laptops can become projectiles in an emergency, as the seat back pockets are not strong enough to contain them.And mobile phones need to be set to flight mode so they can’t cause an emergency for the airplane, right? Well, it depends whom you ask.Technology has advanced a great dealAviation navigation and communication relies on radio services, which has been coordinated to minimize interference since the 1920s.The digital technology currently in use is much more advanced than some of the older analog technologies we use...

Ask Amy: Why do people say these things at funerals?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:55 GMT

Dear Amy: I lost my husband almost a year ago.After the funeral a lot of promises were made by my friends and fellow church congregants that would always be there for me in whatever way I needed.Those promises were sincere, I’m sure, but the majority just went on with their lives. I understand this.My question is: Why make these promises if you can’t follow through?Honestly, I would have appreciated a phone call to see how I’m doing, someone dropping in to visit, or inviting me out for coffee. I’m all alone all week until my son visits on the weekend.It’s been a lonely year.Lonely WidowDear Lonely: I’m so sorry for this loss, and certainly for the loneliness that has followed.Oftentimes people make these promises after a loss, but don’t follow through in part because after the structured memorial events are over, we don’t seem to have any cultural roadmap for what to do next.People are wary and uncomfortable navigating another person’s loss, but as you point out, it’s actually easy!...

3 injured in Montgomery Co. house fire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:55 GMT

Three people were taken to the hospital, one with serious injuries, after a home in Montgomery Village, Maryland, caught fire Easter Sunday, Montgomery County Fire and EMS officials said.It happened just before 1 a.m. in the 9600 block of Whetstone Drive.A Montgomery County firefighter who sustained non-life-threatening injuries was also taken to the hospital following the house fire, according to Fire and EMS spokesperson Pete Piringer.Piringer said that three people were rescued in the hours that followed. One person has been hospitalized with critical injuries; all others are expected to survive the fire.Three family dogs also died following the fire, Piringer said.Roughly 75 firefighters responded to the blaze. It isn’t clear what caused the fire, but Piringer said it likely started in a screened-in porch area at the back of the house.It appears the home had functioning smoke alarms, Piringer said, and at least two of the people inside heard the alarms.Firefighters are exp...

Macron incite les Européens à ne pas se penser en “suiveurs” des Etats-Unis

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:55 GMT

To read this story in English, click here.Pour Emmanuel Macron, l’Europe doit réduire sa dépendance à l’égard des États-Unis et éviter d’être entraînée dans une éventuelle confrontation avec la Chine au sujet de Taïwan.Le président français s’est exprimé sur le sujet lors d’un entretien accordé à POLITICO et à deux autres médias français dans l’avion qui le ramenait d’une visite d’État de trois jours en Chine, quelques heures avant que Pékin ne lance des exercices militaires de grande ampleur autour de Taïwan.Prenant la parole après avoir passé environ six heures avec le président chinois Xi Jinping au cours de son voyage, Emmanuel Macron est revenu sur son concept fétiche d'”autonomie stratégique” pour l’Europe — dans laquelle la France jouerait, cela va sans dire, un rôle de premier plan. L’objectif : faire de l’Union européenne une “troisième superpuissance”.Pour le président, “le gran...

Europe must resist pressure to become ‘America’s followers,’ says Macron

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:55 GMT

Cet article est aussi disponible en français.ABOARD COTAM UNITÉ (FRANCE’S AIR FORCE ONE) — Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview on his plane back from a three-day state visit to China.Speaking with POLITICO and two French journalists after spending around six hours with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip, Macron emphasized his pet theory of “strategic autonomy” for Europe, presumably led by France, to become a “third superpower.”He said “the great risk” Europe faces is that it “gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy,” while flying from Beijing to Guangzhou, in southern China, aboard COTAM Unité, France’s Air Force One.Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party have enthusiastically endorsed Macron’s concept of strategic autonomy and Chinese o...

Six community colleges to offer tuition-free education for all Boston residents

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:55 GMT

 All Boston residents are now eligible for tuition-free schooling at six community colleges — regardless of their age, income or immigration status — under a new plan announced by the city government.City officials announced the expansion of its “Tuition-Free Community College Plan” in a Wednesday news release.The program provides funding for up to three years of tuition and fees at six partner institutions, according to the news release. The funding also covers up to $250 per semester in related costs, like textbooks and transportation, and debt up to $2,500 for “students with an outstanding balance at a partner college that is preventing a student from re-enrolling at that college.”Bostonians will be eligible for free tuition at Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology, Bunker Hill Community College, Massasoit Community College, MassBay Community College, Roxbury Community College and Urban College of Boston, according ...

Howie Carr: Meet John Pigsley, AKA the Pigman, the perfect poster boy for the MBTA

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:55 GMT

Behold, John P. Pigsley, the 300-pound poster boy for the modern MBTA.Seldom has a name fitted a defendant more perfectly than “John P. Pigsley.”Gaze upon Pigsley’s perp-walk photographs, taken as he waddled out of the federal courthouse Wednesday in his triple-XL tee shirt.If you were a Hollywood director filming a movie about the MBTA, and you asked Central Casting to send over a bloated, corrupt hack who symbolized the endemic corruption of the T, John P. Pigsley would show up on the set.And, if you believe the federal indictment against him, millions of dollars worth of stuff would soon start disappearing from your movie set.How MBTA is John P. Pigsley?They say that if you have a lemon, you should make lemonade. And so my modest proposal for the MBTA is to use this latest embarrassment as a recruiting tool for their wretchedly catastrophic hackerama.In a few months, I could imagine driving the Expressway or the Pike and seeing Pigsley’s dissipated mug staring down at me from ele...