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Dear Abby: Is it a good idea to seek out secret half-sister?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:46 GMT

Dear Abby: I’m 36 years old and married with three children. I have two siblings I have a good relationship with. The problem is we have a half-sister two years younger than I am who doesn’t know we exist. When my parents were married, my father had an affair with a married woman, and they conceived my half-sister.My parents ultimately divorced. My father’s mistress went back to her husband, and they remain married to this day. My half-sister was never told who her biological father is or that she has three half-siblings.I have struggled my entire life with sharing this information with my half-sister because I don’t want to ruin her life. My father passed away 20 years ago, so she will never have a relationship with him. My siblings also haven’t been able to bring themselves to share this information with her, and I remain torn because we are close in age, look alike and have gone into similar fields of work.I’d love to have a relationship with h...

Two arrested after crime spree in four parts of San Diego County

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:46 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A string of crimes believed to be connected that spanned across several areas of San Diego County Wednesday ended in two suspects being arrested by police, authorities said.The San Diego Police Department told FOX 5 a shooting first occurred around 6:11 p.m. at 1100 Louden Lane in Imperial Beach. One of the suspects shot at a person they knew and then drove away from the scene in a white BMW, according to law enforcement.Shortly after, the shooter and another person then robbed a business in the 3000 block of El Cajon Boulevard in North Park, police said. Vista shooting leaves 1 dead Around 6:47 p.m., the gunman hit a car and caused it to roll over on Interstate 805 and Clairemont Mesa Boulevard in the Kearny Mesa area, per SDPD. The crash resulted in minor injuries to the person in the vehicle that was struck.The suspects didn't stop there as they carjacked someone at gunpoint on Convoy Court, stealing and driving away in a burgundy Nissan Versa, police said.Around 8...

Russian missile attack on Lviv, Ukraine, kills 4 people and wounds more

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:46 GMT

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — The death toll from a Russian missile attack in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv climbed to four, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko reported Thursday. Another nine were injured.Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said around 60 apartments and 50 cars in the area of strike were damaged. Emergency service workers were searching in the debris for more people trapped.Sadovyi addressed residents in a video message, saying the attack was the largest on Lviv’s civilian infrastructure since the beginning of the full-scale invasion last year. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian war refugees have sought safety in Lviv from other areas to the east.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a reaction on Telegram, saying, “Unfortunately, there are wounded and dead. My condolences to the relatives! There will definitely be a response to the enemy. A tangible one.” Zelenskyy also posted drone footage that shows wrecked buildings from above. Third and fourth floors of the stru...

Stock market today: Asian markets extend losses after Wall Street drifts lower

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:46 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares slipped in Asia on Thursday after Wall Street drifted downward following a rally that sent it roaring 16% higher for the year so far. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 3% on heavy selling of Chinese banks shares after Goldman Sachs downgraded them citing concerns about the slowing economy and lenders’ exposures to debt. Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.7%. U.S. futures declined and oil prices were mixed. Share prices had soared recently amid signs the U.S. economy is stronger than had been feared, fending off recession so far despite high interest rates. Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting released Wednesday showed that some central bank officials wanted to raise rates in mid-June, though in the end they voted unanimously to keep rates steady.The threat of further rate hikes has been weighing on investor sentiment. The next focus for the U.S. will be jobs data due out on Friday.Markets are also watching for updates on tensions between the ...

Body parts strewn around state capital outside Mexico City, apparently left by violent cartel

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:46 GMT

TOLUCA, Mexico (AP) — A violent drug cartel is suspected of leaving a severed human leg found hanging from a pedestrian bridge Wednesday in the city of Toluca, just west of Mexico City. The trunk of the body was left on the street below the bridge near the city’s center, along with handwritten signs signed by the Familia Michoacana cartel. Other parts of the body were found later in another neighborhood, also with handwritten drug cartels signs nearby. The victim was apparently a man aged between 35 and 40.Then parts of at least one other body were found elsewhere in the city. Police discovered a dismembered body in a neighborhood on the city’s east side, along with a sign similar to those in the first case.Later, in an industrial neighborhood on the north side, parts of a body were found in a burning car. Authorities were investigating whether they were parts of the second dismembered body.The mayor of Toluca, which is the capital of the State of Mexico, appealed for calm. Th...

FIA not interested in early renegotiations of bedrock Formula One agreement, president tells AP

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:46 GMT

The head of the FIA says the motorsports governing body has no interest in signing an early renewal of its contract with Liberty Media and the 10 Formula One teams, who have stated their wish to sweeten the deal while the series is basking in global popularity. The eighth and current Concorde Agreement — which sets the rules and regulations for F1 as well as how television revenue and prize money is distributed — began in 2021 and runs through the 2025 season. In a May conference call with Wall Street analysts, the CEO of Liberty Media, which holds the commercial rights to F1, indicated a desire for a new agreement much sooner than that.“There’s a consensus among the teams and the FIA and ourselves that now might be a good time to try and strike while the iron is hot and renew and extend the Concorde Agreement,” the CEO, Greg Maffei, said on the call. “I hope we have a more positive relationship, and everybody sees the benefit of going early and providing certainty for all involved....

Trump valet charged in classified documents case set again for arraignment after earlier delays

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:46 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — A valet for Donald Trump accused of helping the former president hide classified documents from federal authorities is due back in a Florida court on Thursday after an earlier appearance was postponed because of a canceled flight.Walt Nauta, who was charged alongside Trump in June in a 38-count indictment alleging the mishandling of classified documents, is set to be arraigned before a federal magistrate in Miami. That was to have happened twice before already, but he has struggled to retain a lawyer licensed in Florida to represent him.Trump pleaded not guilty during his June 13 arraignment to charges including willful retention of national defense information. But Nauta’s arraignment was postponed that day because he did not have with him a defense attorney authorized to practice in Florida. It was pushed back again last week when a flight from New Jersey he was to have taken was canceled after being delayed on the tarmac for hours.The indictment filed by specia...

Kingmaker California? US House control could hinge on district battles in famously liberal state

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:46 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In 2024, control of the U.S. House could hinge on congressional districts in one famously liberal state: California. Command of the narrowly divided chamber will again be in play next year, and leaders in both parties agree on this much: The outcome in a string of contested California districts will be critical in determining the balance of power, after the state played a pivotal role in securing the gavel for Republicans in 2022 and installing Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield as speaker.The decisive fight for the House “will run through California,” predicts Rep. Pete Aguilar, the third-ranking Democrat in the chamber, who lives in Redlands, east of Los Angeles. North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, who heads the House Republican campaign arm, is bullish about gaining ground, even in a state known as a Democratic monolith.“I think we can actually pick up seats in California,” said Hudson, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.The 10 competitive...

Guantanamo detainees tell first independent visitor about scars from torture and hopes to leave

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:46 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — At the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, the aging men known by their serial numbers arrived at the meeting shackled. Every single one told the visitor — for many the first independent person they had talked to in 20 years — “You came too late.” But they still talked, about the scant contacts with their families, their many health problems, the psychological and physical scars of the torture and abuse they experienced, and their hopes of leaving and reuniting with loved ones.For the first time since the facility in Cuba opened in 2002, a U.S. president had allowed a United Nations independent investigator, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, to visit. She said in an interview with The Associated Press that it’s true she came too late, because a total of 780 Muslim men were detained there following the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, and today there are just 30 remaining.The United Nations had tried for many years to send an independent investiga...

Biden is heading to South Carolina to show his economic agenda is keeping even red states humming

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:46 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is heading to South Carolina on Thursday to make the case that economic measures he pushed through Congress despite stiff Republican opposition are helping to keep the deep red state — and others that voted for Donald Trump in 2020 — humming. Ahead of Biden’s visit to a state that he lost by nearly 12 percentage points in 2020, White House officials argued that if Republicans had their way, South Carolina, like many other Republican-controlled states, would have lost out on billions of dollars in investments and thousands of jobs. Biden will use his visit to showcase a new clean energy manufacturing partnership between solar firm Enphase Energy and manufacturer Flex Ltd. that is projected to create 600 jobs in the state and 1,200 more throughout the country.Enphase, which is making a $60 million investment to open up six new manufacturing lines, including two in South Carolina, is benefitting from tax incentives included in Biden’s $...