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Orthodox Easter mixes spiritual and pagan in equal measure

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:46 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Millions of Orthodox Christians across Eastern and Southern Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere in the world, have celebrated Easter, capping weeklong religious celebrations.The most important holiday on the Orthodox religious calendar is essentially an outdoor celebration, with equally intense spiritual and pagan parts and religious services followed by feasts, familial and communal.Customs such as eating spit-roasted lambs, knocking red-colored hard-boiled eggs together as a sort of contest and launching fireworks in celebration as soon as the priest intones “Christ has risen from the dead,” at midnight on Saturday, likely predate Christianity itself. But new customs, or variations of old ones, appear constantly. In the neighborhood of Neos Kosmos, in Greece’s capital, Athens, younger parishioners have recently taken to throwing Molotov cocktails — the rioters’ weapon of choice — into open spaces. On the Greek island of Chios, two neighborhoods in the villa...

MGM National Harbor welcomes Bill Maher, who predicts outcome of 2024 presidential election

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:46 GMT

Hear our full conversation on my podcast “Beyond the Fame.” toggle audio on and off change volume download audio WTOP's Jason Fraley previews Bill Maher at MGM National Harbor (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); }); }); New rule: When Bill Maher performs in your town, you have to buy a ticket.OK, you clearly don’t have to, but who literally follows Maher’s new rules anyway?The prolific political comedian performs live at MGM National Harbor in Maryl...

Los intensos combates continúan por tercer día en Sudán mientras el número de muertos se acerca a 100

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:46 GMT

(CNN) — Los residentes de la capital de Sudán, Jartum, se despertaron este lunes con los sonidos de la artillería y los bombardeos de aviones de combate, mientras los intensos combates continuaban por tercer día y el número de muertos se acercaba a 100, con cientos más heridos.Los combates entre el grupo paramilitar sudanés Rapid Support Forces (RSF) y el Ejército de Sudán continuaron durante la noche de este domingo y se intensificaron después de las oraciones del alba, al igual que el domingo. Testigos presenciales dijeron a CNN que escucharon intensos combates con morteros y artillería en las primeras horas de la mañana de este lunes.Los enfrentamientos estallaron por primera vez el sábado entre el ejército del país y RSF, liderado por Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, también conocido como Hemedti, quien le dijo a CNN el domingo que el ejército había roto un alto el fuego humanitario temporal negociado por la ONU.Testigos presenciales declararon a CNN que se habían incrementado los a...

Now Frans Timmermans postpones China trip after positive COVID test

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:46 GMT

The EU’s climate policy chief Frans Timmermans has postponed a planned trip to China after testing positive for COVID-19, a member of his Cabinet said today.“We are looking to get [the trip] back on as soon as possible,” Timmermans’ communication adviser Jori Keijsper said.Timmermans was supposed to travel to China this week to meet with Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua after attending a G7 meeting on environmental issues in Sapporo, Japan over the weekend. But he had to cancel both visits after he tested positive before traveling to Japan.He is the second commissioner to test positive for COVID in less than a week. Last Wednesday, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, also had to postpone a trip to China after testing positive for the virus.The fact that both commissioners caught coronavirus within days of each other is “a complete coincidence,” Keijsper said. “They didn’t see each other, there was no College [of Commissioner...

Fighting between Sudan military rivals enters a second day, with dozens dead

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:46 GMT

(CNN) — Fierce fighting across Sudan entered a second day as months of tensions between a paramilitary group and the country’s army erupted into violence.Clashes around the army headquarters and presidential palace in capital Khartoum involved heavy weapons. There have also been reports of battles hundreds of miles away in the eastern city of Port Sudan and in the western Darfur region.At least 56 people have been killed and nearly 600 injured in the clashes, according to the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors.“Since yesterday we have not been able to leave the hospital for our homes because the clashes are taking place near the hospital and armed men from the army are roaming inside the hospital with their weapons,” a female doctor in Khartoum told CNN.“We are in a real state of terror with the sound of explosions and bullets, we escaped death many times,” she added.Sudan’s paramilitary chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo claimed to have seized mos...

The matchups: Loaded Bruins clear favorite over Panthers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:46 GMT

The long-held belief here is that the Bruins’ most admirable quality is what makes them so hard to predict when it comes to the Stanley Cup playoffs.Over the past 50 years, local hockey fans have been treated to some great hockey in the regular season that has been spurred by a nightly work ethic that is usually second-to-none. And the Bruins have raised exactly one Cup in those years. Teams that maybe didn’t show up for that Tuesday night tilt in January were able to marshal their skill and get that one extra goal in a playoff series that the B’s, try as they might, just couldn’t muster.This year feels different.This year, the Bruins are as talented as anyone, and more so than most. They have a goalie who should be a slam-dunk Vezina Trophy winner. They have the ability to throw out a No. 1 defenseman on all three pairs or load up the top four. They have the Rocket Richard Trophy runner-up and nine players who’ve produced 45 points or more.Now they thr...

Orioles reset: With star Adley Rutschman, ‘homer hose’ and expectations, Baltimore is gaining national attention

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:46 GMT

During the rebuild, the light at the end of the tunnel was, at times, difficult to see.Now, that light is more visible than it’s been to begin a season in more than five years, and the beams aren’t just in Baltimore.The Orioles this past week received a significant amount of national attention — from Adley Rutschman’s growing stardom to Ryan Mountcastle’s nine-RBI game to the club’s home run celebration.“It’s pretty cool for people to start noticing what we’re doing and all the good stuff that’s happening around here,” Mountcastle said. “It’s exciting, and I think all of our guys are excited to show everybody what we got.”An April series against the lowly Oakland Athletics wouldn’t normally garner national recognition. But then the Orioles broke out the “homer hose” to mostly fanfare, as the celebration went viral on social media and made the rounds on sports television.The next day...

As improving Orioles court new fans, there’s a delicate dance in shared territory with Nationals

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:46 GMT

Like uneasy roommates, the Orioles and Washington Nationals share a single, population-rich marketing territory extending from Pennsylvania into North Carolina.Unlike the NFL — which strictly assigns portions of the Baltimore-Washington region to either the Ravens or Washington Commanders to protect each team’s marketing efforts — Major League Baseball does not delineate in which areas the Orioles or Nationals can promote themselves.That means the clubs must make delicate calculations about how and where to market themselves in their vast territory — it’s larger than some European countries — without antagonizing each other. The clubs, who meet in a two-game series beginning Tuesday in Washington, already are entangled in a decadelong dispute over how much the Nationals should receive in rights fees from the Orioles-controlled Mid-Atlantic Sports Network that shows both teams’ games.The franchises are outwardly cordial — it helps that ...

Clinton, Blair marking Northern Ireland peace milestone

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:46 GMT

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and past leaders of the U.K. and Ireland gathered in Belfast on Monday, 25 years after their charm, clout and determination helped Northern Ireland strike a historic peace accord.They met to remember a moment, said former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, “when history opened itself to hope,” in a Northern Ireland that has changed dramatically since 1998 — and where some wonder if the accord that created peace is still capable of sustaining it.“Twenty-five years ago the people of Northern Ireland and their leaders changed the course of history,” said Mitchell, 89, who chaired two arduous years of peace negotiations that led to the accord.A quarter-century on, “the people of Northern Ireland continue to wrestle with their doubts, their differences, their disagreements,” he said. But, he added: “The people of Northern Ireland don’t want to return to violence — not now and not ever.”A young peacetime gene...

Putin hails Russian navy’s performance in Pacific drills

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:46 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday hailed the military’s performance during massive naval drills that have involved the entire Russian Pacific Fleet — a show of force amid the tensions with the West over the fighting in Ukraine.Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that the exercise that began Friday involves 167 warships, including 12 submarines, 89 aircraft and 25,000 troops.As part of the drills, Russia’s nuclear-capable long-range strategic bombers will “fly over the central part of the Pacific Ocean to imitate strikes against groups of enemy ships,” Shoigu said. Speaking during Monday’s meeting with Shoigu, Putin praised the navy’s “high level” performance and said that similar drills should be held in other areas.The Defense Ministry has declared that sectors in the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, the Peter the Great Bay of the Sea of Japan and the Avacha Bay on the southeastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula woul...