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Flying is still cheaper than taking the train in Europe, study finds

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:44:12 GMT

Flying may be bad for the environment, but taking the train in Europe is bad for your bank account, a new study found.Rail travel within the Continent remains 71 percent more expensive than flying, according to research by Greenpeace. The report compared the prices of flights and trains on 112 European travel routes and found that taking the train was cheaper than a flight in only 23 cases. As a result, despite the fact that flying produces more greenhouse gases than train journeys, people will often opt for the former.In Poland, train travel costs half as much as flying, but the most expensive country for rail travel is the U.K., where travelers pay four times more for train journeys than flights. For example, traveling from Barcelona to London by train costs around €384, while a flight can be as cheap as €12.99, the report says. Barcelona-London is the third most-traveled short-haul route in Europe, and “shifting these flights to rail would save 461,000 tons of harmful green...

Russian state media spins Putin pulling out of South Africa summit

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:44:12 GMT

“Putin will not go to Africa. Africa will come to Russia.”That’s the title of an op-ed published Thursday by Russian state-owned newswire Ria Novosti.A day after South Africa announced that Vladimir Putin would not attend in person a planned summit of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in Johannesburg next month, where the Russian president risked being arrested, the Kremlin’s propaganda machine has kicked into high gear.Putin is facing an international arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia during Moscow’s invasion — which, as a signatory to the court, South Africa would have been bound to enforce if Putin visited the country.Yet, Ria’s columnist Petr Akopov, who penned Thursday’s op-ed, claims that Putin’s dodging of the summit is merely a reflection of a “new world order [that] is shaping up.”Acknowledgin...

Police hunt for lioness on the loose near Berlin

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:44:12 GMT

German police are on the hunt for a wild animal, believed to be a lioness, that has escaped near Berlin.Police in the state of Brandenburg warned people to be cautious of an “escaped wild animal” in the early hours of Thursday, asking people to avoid leaving their houses and to bring their pets indoors.The warning was initially limited to the areas of Kleinmachnow, Teltow and Stahnsdorf, but was later extended to include the south of Berlin, with local police warning the animal was believed to be a lioness.“The escaped wild animal has NOT been found yet!” warned Brandenburg police in a tweet around 7:30 a.m., hours after the initial warning. “We still ask you not to leave the house. If you see the animal, please call the emergency number 110!”Police said they were first notified about the animal when two witnesses spotted what they described as a “big cat” running with a wild boar, according to the RBB public broadcaster. The witnesses also took videos of the animal, which wer...

SIU investigating after suspect struck by OPP officer driving unmarked vehicle in Innisfil

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:44:12 GMT

The province’s police watchdog is investigating after a 30-year-old man fleeing officers was seriously injured when he was struck by an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer driving an unmarked pickup truck in Innisfil.The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) says the incident happened on Wednesday as police attempted to arrest a man as part of a drug investigation.Officers in their vehicles tried to box in and arrest the suspect driving an SUV in the area of Mapleview Drive East and Bayview Drive in Barrie, when the man took off and struck a hydro pole in a grassy area at Commerce Gate and Innisfil Heights Crescent in Innisfil.The man then fled on foot and was hit by the officer in the unmarked vehicle.Paramedics were called to the scene and transported the man to a hospital in Toronto.

Major fire near Athens contained but heat wave keeps authorities on alert

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:44:12 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s Fire Service intensified water drops west of Athens where a huge blaze was contained overnight, as authorities braced Thursday for a new round of extreme weather.Seven firefighting planes and nine helicopters were operating in the area, including four planes sent from Italy and France as part of a European Union support mechanism.Searing heat across Europe’s Mediterranean south has maintained a high or very high risk of fires in Spain, Italy and Greece. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the Fire Service and civil protection authority will remain on alert as a new heatwave moved eastward across Greece that is expected to push temperatures to 45 degrees Celsius (113F) Sunday.“The hard times are clearly not over yet,” Mitsotakis said. “We are facing another heatwave and a possible strengthening of the winds. So, absolute vigilance and absolute readiness are required over the next few days.”A state of emergency was declared Thursday on the isla...

Prominent Egyptian rights activist with ties to Italy is pardoned and released from jail

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:44:12 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — A prominent Egyptian rights activist with ties to Italy was released from jail Thursday, days after he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, according to his family and a rights defender. Patrick George Zaki, a postgraduate student in Italy, was pardoned by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi along with five other people on Wednesday, according to the country’s Official Gazette.Zaki’s release was announced by Hossam Bahgat, founder of Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, who posted a picture of him on Facebook on Thursday afternoon.His sister, Marise Zaki, also confirmed his release, posting a photo on Facebook of him speaking to journalists after his release.“Patrick is on the Asfalt,” she wrote on Facebook, using a phrase that activists often use when detainees walk free.Zaki, who is Christian, was arrested in February 2020, shortly after landing in Cairo on a trip home from Italy where he was studying at the University of Bologna, over an o...

Suspected impaired driver arrested with pet duck riding shotgun: OPP

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:44:12 GMT

A suspected impaired driver was arrested in southern Ontario on Wednesday night with an odd passenger in the car.Ontario Provincial Police says they made the discovery while responding to a 911 call in Essa Township.Police say officers located and arrest a driver who had a pet duck as a co-pilot. OPP tweeted photos that show a white duck sitting in a white basket on the passenger seat of the Hyundai sedan.A 47-year-old woman from Collingwood has been charged with driving while impaired with over-80 blood alcohol content.OPP tell CityNews the pet duck was picked up by family members.Police quacked this case!Thanks to a 911 caller #NottyOPP located & arrested an impaired driver on Wednesday evening in @essatownship with her pet duck????. 47yr old female from Collingwood was charged with #ImpairedDriving,over 80 blood alcohol^bb#licencesuspended#7dayimpound pic.twitter.com/UWQDz8UrwF— OPP Central Region (@OPP_CR) July 20, 2023This is the second impaired driving incident invol...

Activists condemn violence against LGBTQ community in St. Vincent, where gay sex is illegal

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:44:12 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Advocacy group Human Rights Watch released an in-depth report Thursday that details the abuse and discrimination the LGBTQ community says it faces in the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where gay sex is still criminalized.From homelessness to ongoing physical and verbal abuse, the gay community in the small nation of some 100,000 people says it is under constant threat.“Every LGBT person interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they wished to leave the country immediately or had envisioned their future abroad,” the report stated.In St. Vincent, anal sex is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, while “gross indecency” with another person of the same sex is punishable by up to five years, according to colonial-era laws that are common in the socially conservative Caribbean region.While rarely invoked, the rights group and a local activist said the laws help legitimize hostility and abuse against gay people.“These laws still have...

10 children in Rwanda drowned after their boat sank in a river, an official says

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:44:12 GMT

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Ten students in Rwanda drowned after their boat sank in a river, a provincial governor says. Alice Kayitesi, the governor of Southern province, told The Associated Press the students drowned on Monday while the boat was trying to cross the Nyabarongo River. The students had just returned from school for the summer holidays.The bodies of the children, ages 11 to 15, were recovered on Tuesday and Wednesday. Three students and one man survived.A man who hired the boat has been detained for questioning.Kayitesi said authorities were investigating reports that the students were being taken across the river to offload building materials.Ignatius Ssuuna, The Associated Press

The US and North Korea have no diplomatic ties – but they still have ways to talk about US soldier

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:44:12 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A pink phone. A New York mission. Swedish diplomats. A North-South Korean hotline.The United States and reclusive North Korea have no diplomatic ties — but they still have ways to contact each other. An American official said Wednesday that the U.S. government had reached out to the North as it tries to discuss a U.S. soldier who dashed into North Korea during a tour of a border area this week. The North has not yet responded, according to the U.S. Here’s a look at possible channels the rivals could use to discuss Pvt. Travis King, the first American held in North Korea in nearly five years.___PINK PHONEOne of the most reliable ways for the U.S. to reach North Korea is via a light pink-colored, touch-tone phone at the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the Korean border village of Panmunjom, the place where King bolted into the North on Tuesday. The telephone line connects the liaison officers from each side — whose offices are reportedly only 40 meters (130 fe...