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Election in Kazakhstan: Self-nominated candidates seek seats in parliament and local assemblies

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

On 19 March, Kazakhstan will elect members of the Mazhilis, the lower house of Parliament, and maslikhats, local representative bodies. New names will surely appear in the legislative branch, while up to 50% of the country’s local representative offices are expected to have new members, writes Diana Baidauletova.Thirty-nine percent of the self-nominated candidates are women and young people.The vote will be held according to the new rules adopted following last year’s constitutional amendments. The Mazhilis will consist of 98 members instead of 107 as was the case previously. Sixty-nine will be elected from party lists and 29 from single-mandate districts represented by a single officeholder. At the regional level, 50 percent of the maslikhats will be formed by party lists and 50 percent through single-mandate districts. At the smaller district level, the maslikhats will be fully formed from self-nominated candidates. Prior to this, voters could only vote by party lists. T...

Cameras capture thieves on crime spree in Orange County

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

Thieves in Orange County hit seven different businesses early Saturday morning with surveillance footage capturing two suspects in one of the locations.  Hooded burglars can be seen on camera breaking into Mountain Mike’s Pizza in Rancho Santa Margarita. After smashing the glass door with a crowbar, the thieves ran straight to the back office where they tried to use power tools to get into the owner’s safe.  “People came in, broke our windows, you know, ran into the store, tried to steal our safe from the back, find whatever money they could and really just rampaged my office,” Daniel Gorman, the owner of the pizza shop, told KTLA.  Fortunately, the safe was bolted to the ground and the thieves did not get any money, but that did not stop their crime spree. The burglars moved next door, shattering the windows at New Lake Asian House and La Fiesta Mexican Grill.  “I just know that someone broke the windows,” Angelica Cruz, with La Fiesta Mexican Grill, said. “The ...

Storm prompts evacuation orders for parts of Santa Barbara County

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

Another powerful storm is taking aim at Southern California with residents in Santa Barbara County being warned that they should be ready to evacuate due to concerns about dangerous flash flooding and mudslides.  An evacuation warning is already in effect for areas of Santa Barbara County associated with the Alisal, Cave and Thomas Fire burn scars. Evacuation orders go into effect at 8 a.m. Tuesday for all three areas, officials announced.   California Weather Homepage In parts of Ventura County, evacuation warnings due to the potential for floods and debris flow went into effect at 6 p.m. and are set to last until Tuesday at 10 p.m.  In Los Angeles, rain is expected to begin early Tuesday morning and will increase in intensity throughout the day. The National Weather Service is forecasting rainfall totals of two to four inches for coastal areas and valleys, and three to six inches in the foothills. The mountains of southeastern Santa Barbara County and western...

Residents Petition Against Removal Of Echo Park Fence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

Residents have started an online petition to stop the removal of the chain-link fence surrounding Echo Park.Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez has planned the fence’s removal after being up nearly two years after the city began repairs on the park.“During the occupation of Echo Park by the unhoused who were allowed to languish there, the park was rendered unsafe and inaccessible to the general population, and the surrounding community had to put up with perpetual crime, fires, open air drug use, and other dangerous activity right at their doorstep,” The petition on Change.org said. “After the park was cleaned out and the fencing was erected, these conditions largely disappeared from the area, and the park was restored to its former beauty.”At the time when the fence was put up in 2021, homeless advocates accused then-councilmember Mitchell O’Farrell of using the park renovations as an excuse to remove the homeless population. Alterc...

Harriet Beecher Stowe and Harriet Jacobs collide in new play ‘The Storehouse’ at Perisphere Theatre

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

toggle audio on and off change volume download audio WTOP's Jason Fraley previews 'The Storehouse' at Perisphere Theater (Part 1) $(function () { $('.wtop-audio-container .fa-play').on('click', function(){ var audio_filename = $('div.wtop-audio-file').data("mp3-url"); ga('send', 'event', 'Audio', 'play', audio_filename); }); }); Harriet Beecher Stowe coined the phrase “Uncle Tom” in her fictional novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852), while Harriet Jacobs chronicled her own escape from slavery in “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” (1861).Now, the two Harriets collide in the world premier...

Corea del Norte lanza dos misiles balísticos de corto alcance al mar de Japón

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

SEÚL – Corea del Norte lanzó este martes dos misiles balístico de corto alcance al mar de Japón (llamado mar del Este en Corea), según informó el ejército surcoreano al día siguiente de que Seúl y Washington iniciaran unas grandes maniobras militares.“Nuestro ejército detectó dos misiles balísticos de corto alcance lanzados al mar del Este desde Jangyeon, en la provincia de Hwanghae del Sur, alrededor de las 7.41 y 7.51 de hoy”, indicó el Estado Mayor Conjunto (JCS) en un comunicado.Los proyectiles impactaron en aguas del mar de Japón tras volar unos 620 kilómetros (385 millas), añadió en un escrito posterior el JCS, que afirmó que responsables de inteligencia militar surcoreana y estadounidense “están analizando exhaustivamente” los lanzamientos para dar con especificaciones detalladas.El máximo órgano militar surcoreano también condenó “enérgicamente los sucesivos lanzamientos de misiles balísticos de Corea del Norte, ya que suponen graves provo...

7 de los muertos tras naufragio de embarcación en el condado de San Diego procedían de México

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

(CNN) — El Consulado de México en San Diego dijo que al menos 7 de los 8 migrantes muertos este sábado cuando su bote volcó cerca de Black’s Beach en La Jolla, en el condado de San Diego, California, procedían de México.Robert Butler recoge salvavidas en Blacks Beach, el domingo 12 de marzo de 2023, en San Diego.“Con base en las identificaciones que portaban algunos, se presume que siete de estas personas son nacionales de México, provenientes de estados del interior de la República”, dijo el Consulado en un comunicado de prensa. Se desconoce la nacionalidad de la octava víctima.Los equipos de rescate acudieron al lugar este sábado alrededor de las 11:30 p.m. hora local después de que alguien en otro bote panga, un tipo de pequeño bote de pesca propulsado por un motor fuera de borda, llamó al 911 para reportar víctimas en el agua, según el Departamento de Bomberos y Rescate de San Diego.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner ...

Chinese SARS whistleblower Jiang Yanyong dies at 91

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Jiang Yanyong, a Chinese military doctor who revealed the full extent of the 2003 SARS outbreak and was later placed under house arrest for his political outspokenness, has died, a long-time acquaintance and a Hong Kong newspaper said Tuesday. Jiang was 91 and died of pneumonia Saturday in Beijing, according to human rights activist Hu Jia and the South China Morning Post. News of Jiang’s death and even his name were censored within China, underscoring how he remained a politically sensitive figure even late in life. Jiang had been chief surgeon at the People’s Liberation Army’s main 301 hospital in Beijing when the army fought its way through the city to end weeks of student-led pro-democracy protests centered on Tiananmen Square, causing the deaths of hundreds — possibly thousands — of civilians. In April 2003, as the ruling Communist Party was suppressing news about the outbreak of the highly contagious Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Jiang wrote an 800-wo...

Netanyahu allies push on with bill to weaken Supreme Court

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s parliament on Tuesday advanced a bill that would let lawmakers pass laws that the Supreme Court cannot overturn — a key piece of legislation in Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies’ proposed judicial overhaul that has divided the country. Netanyahu’s governing coalition of ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties has pressed ahead with its legislative blitz despite calls for compromise and demonstrations that have drawn tens of thousands of Israelis to the streets over the past two months. In an overnight session that stretched into early morning, the Knesset gave initial approval to several pieces of legislation, including a bill protecting the prime minister from being declared unfit for office, or incapacitated, and another to allow settlements in the northern West Bank. A third piece of legislation that was approved would let parliament pass laws impervious to judicial review, with a simple majority of 61 members in Israel’s 120-...

Japan, S. Korea summit must overcome history to renew ties

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:05:32 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — South Korean and Japanese leaders will meet in Tokyo this week, hoping to resume regular visits after a gap of over a decade and overcome resentments that date back more than 100 years. The two major Asian economies and U.S. allies have long hoped to cooperate on shared security concerns about China and North Korea, but previous rounds of diplomacy have foundered on unresolved issues from Japan’s 35-year occupation of the Korean Peninsula. Seoul has offered Tokyo concessions on South Korean demands for compensation over wartime forced labor, but it remains to be seen whether the South Korean public will accept reconciliation.The AP explains what’s kept the two neighbors apart, what they’re expected to talk about, and why it matters for the region.WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?Japan effectively colonized the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945, in a regime that imposed Japanese names and language on Koreans and conscripted many into forced labor or forced prostituti...