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Spain allows lawmakers to speak Catalan, Basque and Galician languages in Parliament

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:44:42 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Parliament allowed its national legislators to use the country’s minority languages of Catalan, Basque and Galician for the first time on Tuesday.The reform of the linguistic policy of Spain’s lower chamber was a demand of Catalan separatist parties to support the appointment of a Socialist as the new Parliamentary Speaker last month following inconclusive national elections in July.The right to speak languages other than Spanish in the national Parliament is a long-held objective of smaller parties from the regions in Spain’s north that have bilingual populations.“(This change is) … to normalize something that is already common for citizens who speak a language other than Spanish,” said Socialist Party member José Ramón Besteiro, who alternated between Galician and Spanish to become the first lawmaker to take advantage of the modification.The Parliament provided simultaneous translation with earpieces for the 350 members of the chamber as wel...

Azerbaijan announces an ‘anti-terrorist operation’ targeting Armenian military positions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:44:42 GMT

Azerbaijan announced Tuesday an “anti-terrorist operation” targeting Armenian military positions.A statement from the Azerbaijan defense ministry said the operation began hours after four soldiers and two civilians died in landmine explosions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The ministry did not immediately give details, but said “positions on the front line and in-depth, long-term firing points of the formations of Armenia’s armed forces, as well as combat assets and military facilities are incapacitated using high-precision weapons.”THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.Azerbaijan authorities say four soldiers and two civilian road workers were killed Tuesday in landmine explosions that it blamed on Armenian saboteurs.The blasts took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that is partly under the control of ethnic Armenian forces. A statement from Azerbaijan’s interior ministry, state security service and prosecutor-general said two emplo...

Así luce el futuro del grupo Wagner sobre el terreno de la República Centroafricana post Prigozhin

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:44:42 GMT

Bangui, República Centroafricana (CNN) — En su último viaje a la República Centroafricana (RCA) el mes pasado, el exjefe del grupo Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin visitó la Maison Russe, o la Casa Rusa, un centro cultural cerca de la embajada rusa en la capital, donde posó para selfies con sus lugartenientes y lugareños.El instituto, y sus diversas actividades, son un claro ejemplo de cómo el grupo mercenario se convirtió en un sustituto del Estado ruso en el país, y un símbolo de los retos a los que se enfrenta el presidente Vladimir Putin en su intento de recuperar el control.Desde el intento de golpe de Estado de Prigozhin en junio de 2023 y su posterior muerte en un accidente aéreo en las afueras de Moscú apenas dos meses después, Rusia ha estado inmersa en una lucha de alto riesgo para centralizar su imperio en el continente africano, que incluye miles de combatientes, una amplia gama de participaciones empresariales y múltiples iniciativas de poder blando como esta.Una bandera ...

Azerbaijan announces an “anti-terrorist operation” targeting Armenian military positions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:44:42 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Azerbaijan announces an “anti-terrorist operation” targeting Armenian military positions.Source

Azerbaijan announces an ‘anti-terrorist operation’ targeting Armenian military positions.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:44:42 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Azerbaijan announces an ‘anti-terrorist operation’ targeting Armenian military positions.Source

Denver weather: More 80s with afternoon showers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:44:42 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Partly cloudy skies linger across the Front Range Tuesday with some late-day showers in the Denver weather forecast. Weather today: Scattered showerHigh temperatures on Tuesday will be mild and above average in the lower 80s. How are some Denver metro bars open past 2 a.m.? Extra clouds linger over most of the state with many seeing scattered showers in the afternoon and evening hours.Pinpoint Weather: Daily forecast on Sept. 19.Weather tonight: Clearing skiesAs the rain ends, clouds will slowly clear across the Front Range Tuesday night. Winds will be slower as overnight temperatures dip into the lower 50s.Pinpoint Weather: Overnight forecast on Sept. 19. Looking ahead: Mild week, cooler weekendMore sunshine is expected through the middle of the week as high temperatures stay in the low 80s. Thursday also looks great with mostly sunny skies and comfy highs in the lower 80s. Denver local moves on to MasterChef finals More clouds arrive on Friday with a small ch...

Crayola, beloved for its crayons, is now selling flowers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:44:42 GMT

New York (CNN) — Crayola, a name synonymous with vibrantly colored crayons for more than a century, is going into the flower business.The crayon maker, a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards, on Tuesday announced the launch of Crayola Flowers, an online flower shop selling bright bouquets and boxed flowers.But there’s a dual purpose to the new venture, the company said: It will also double as a fundraising platform, with 10%-50% of every direct sale donated to a participating charity or entity chosen by the customer. Nonprofit organizations can use the floral storefront, too, as part of their own fundraising campaigns.Crayola partnered with Mrs. Bloom’s, an importer and distributor of fresh-cut flowers — daisies, mums, hydrangeas and many different colors of roses — to jointly develop the online flower shop, the company said. Bouquets are priced from $49 to $150 and are shipped directly from farms to consumers nationwide.A colorful corporate historySince the birth of the Crayola brand in 19...

Americans detained for years in Iran arrive in US after release and tearfully embrace loved ones

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:44:42 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans detained for years in Iran arrived home Tuesday after being freed as part of a politically risky deal that saw President Joe Biden agree to the release of nearly $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets.The prisoners landed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, with clapping and cheers heard in the predawn hours. Siamak Namazi, the first off the jet, paused for a moment, closed his eyes and took a deep breath before leaving the plane. Loved ones, some holding small American flags, enveloped them in hugs as they tearfully embraced and exchanged greetings in English and Farsi, the main language of Iran.The successful negotiations for the Americans’ freedom brought Biden profuse thanks from their families but heat from Republican presidential rivals and other opponents for the monetary arrangement with one of America’s top adversaries.“Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home,” the Democratic president said in a statemen...

Erdoğan: I trust Russia and the West equally 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:44:42 GMT

Russia and the West? No difference in my eyes, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Monday. “To the extent the West is reliable, Russia is equally reliable. For the last 50 years, we have been waiting at the doorstep of the EU, and, at this moment in time, I trust Russia just as much as I trust the West,” Erdoğan — whose country is a member of the NATO transatlantic military alliance — said in an interview.Erdoğan’s comments on the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) followed a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Black Sea grain deal, which Putin exited in July amid his long-running lethal onslaught against Ukraine. “Russia happens to be one of my closest neighbors. And we have a common history,” the Turkish president added.Good political relations — with the EU, the U.S. or Russia — are based on “win-win” calculations for Ankara and therefore, Erdoğan added, he will continue to foster them all.Last week, E...

Azerbaijan launches attack in Nagorno-Karabakh, announces ‘evacuation’ of Armenian population

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:44:42 GMT

Azerbaijan has announced a major new military offensive in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, declaring it will “evacuate” some of the Armenian population there in a crisis that risks spiralling into all-out war.The escalation comes after months of fruitless negotiations and amid growing speculation that Turkey-backed Azerbaijan has been gearing up to use force to bring a decades-long frozen conflict to an end. A war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020 killed thousands on each side. Over the past months, Azerbaijan has been tightening a supply blockade of food and medicines into the ethnic Armenian enclave that lies entirely within its territory. Baku’s defense ministry said on Tuesday it was launching “local anti-terrorist activities” to “suppress large-scale provocations” in the territory. Reports and film footage from Nagorno-Karabakh showed heavy shelling and gunfire in the enclave. Air raid sirens wailed in Stepanakert, the de facto capital of the unrecognized st...