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2023 Boston Fan Expo opens Friday 

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:17:18 GMT

Fan fever is set to come to Boston this weekend with the opening of this year’s Boston Fan Expo at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The event celebrates all things comics, horror, science fiction and more. It is set to kick off at 4 p.m. Friday and continue through Sunday. Despite the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, actors are still able to attend the event for planned autographs, photo-ops and panels. While current rules from SAG-AFTRA, the union which represents many actors, require members to not discuss shows or characters by name and to not comment on upcoming projects, actors are allowed to talk about general topics such as their personal lives and other work.Some of those expected to appear at the Fan Expo this weekend include Star Wars actor Hayden Christensen, Star Trek’s William Shatner and Henry Winkler, known for his character — The Fonz. See more information on this year’s Boston Fan Expo here.

Mega Millions $1.25 billion drawing tonight; sixth-largest ever

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:17:18 GMT

Lottery players will have a shot tonight at an estimated $1.25 billion Mega Millions jackpot that has been growing ever larger after months without a grand prize winner.There have been 30 straight drawings since the last time someone won the game’s jackpot on April 18. That has enabled the prize to steadily grow until it is now the sixth-largest ever in the U.S.The jackpot is so hard to win because of the 1-in-302.6 million odds of matching the numbers on five white balls and a separate mega ball. The odds are better to win smaller prizes, which start at $2.The $1.25 billion prize is for a sole winner who is paid over 30 years through an annuity. Those who opt for a lump sum payout would get an estimated $625.3 million.A big slice of those winnings would go toward federal taxes, and many states also tax lottery payouts.Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.Related ArticlesNation | Mega Millions winner could net $1.25 bil...

Kremlin critic Navalny expects a lengthy prison term as court readies extremism trial verdict

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:17:18 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is preparing to hear the verdict Friday in his latest trial on extremism charges. The prosecution has demanded a 20-year prison sentence, and the politician himself said he expects to receive a lengthy term. If the court finds Navalny guilty, it would be his fifth criminal conviction, all of which his supporters see as a deliberate Kremlin strategy to silence its most ardent opponent. Navalny is already serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court. He also was sentenced in 2021 to 2 1/2 years in prison for a parole violation. The extremism trial has taken place behind closed doors in the penal colony east of Moscow where he is imprisoned. The 47-year-old Navalny is President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe and has exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests. He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he ...

New Jersey to hold three-day state funeral for late Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:17:18 GMT

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey will send off Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, who died after being hospitalized this week, with a three-day state funeral. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement that Oliver’s remains would lie in state in the Capitol rotunda Thursday, followed by a similar honor in her home county’s historic courthouse on Aug. 11. A funeral is set for Aug. 12 in Newark’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Beginning Friday flags on state buildings will fly half-staff in honor of Oliver for the next month. Oliver died Tuesday, just a day after the governor’s office said she was admitted to a hospital with an undisclosed medical issue. No cause was given for her death in a statement from the governor’s office on behalf of Oliver’s family, which asked for privacy.Her death coincided with Murphy’s vacation in Italy and while she was serving as acting governor. Murphy cut his trip short by 10 days, returning to New Jersey on Thursday. He’s s...

UN closes its human rights office in Uganda as government ends an agreement allowing it to operate

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:17:18 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The United Nations’ human rights office in Uganda will close this weekend after the East African country decided not to renew an agreement allowing it to operate, the U.N.’s top human rights official said Friday.The closure comes amid concern over human rights violations including extrajudicial killings in Uganda and a new law that prescribes the death penalty for some homosexual acts. The office in Kampala will formally cease operations on Saturday, while sub-offices in Gulu and Moroto closed at the end of June and on Monday respectively.“I regret that our office in Uganda had to close after 18 years, during which we were able to work closely with civil society, people from various walks of life in Uganda, as well as engaging with state institutions for the promotion and protection of the human rights of all Ugandans,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement from Geneva.The closure was prompted by the government’s deci...

Ukrainian official says drones hit naval ship in Russian port. It’s the latest attack inside Russia

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:17:18 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian sea drones attacked a major Russian port on the Black Sea on Friday, damaging a naval ship, according to a Ukrainian official, the latest in a series of strikes inside Russia as Kyiv vowed to bring the fight home to them. Moscow claimed it repelled the attack. The strike on Novorossiysk marks the first time a commercial Russian port has been targeted in the 18-month war. The port — which hosts a naval base, shipbuilding yards and an oil terminal and is key for exports — lies just across the Black Sea from Crimea, where Russia’s Defense Ministry said it thwarted another attack overnight, taking down 13 drones.The Security Service of Ukraine and the country’s navy carried out the attack on Novorossiysk, according to an official with the security service, and the landing ship, Olenegorsky Gornyak, suffered a serious breach. As a result, the ship is unable to carry out its combat missions, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity becaus...

Play it again, Joe. Biden bets that repeating himself is smart politics

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:17:18 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has his zingers (“This is not your father’s Republican Party”). He’s got patriotism (“This is the United States of America, dammit”). He’s got a geometry-based explanation on how to grow the economy (“from the middle out and the bottom up”). Move over, Beyonce and Taylor Swift. Biden has his own greatest hits and he’s keeping them on repeat.If you’ve heard one of the president’s recent speeches, you’ve basically heard them all — and you’re sure to keep hearing the same refrains in the year-plus leading up to Election Day 2024. People in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah will get to sample the playlist starting Tuesday, when Biden makes a three-day swing through the Southwest.Biden knows where the country is in the arc of history (“at an inflection point”). He knows what the middle class needs (“a little bit of breathing room”). Did you know his wife, Jill, is from Philadelphia? Yep, he “married a Philly girl” and will be “sleeping alone” ...

In Niger, the US seeks to hang on to its last, best counterterrorist outpost in West Africa

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:17:18 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ten days into a coup in Niger, life has become more challenging for U.S. forces at a counterterrorism base in a region of West Africa known as the world’s epicenter of terrorism.Flights in and out of the country have been curtailed as coup leaders require Americans to seek permission for each flight. Fuel shortages mean the U.S. commander must sign off whenever an aircraft is refueled.And yet, as several European countries evacuate Niger, the Biden administration is showing itself intent on staying. It sees Niger as the United States’ last, best counterterrorism outpost — and until the coup, a promising democracy — in an unstable region south of the Sahara Desert.Abandoning it risks not only a surge in jihadist groups, but even greater influence by Russia’s Wagner mercenary group. In an opinion piece published late Thursday in The Washington Post, democratically elected President Mohammed Bazoum urged the U.S. and others to help Niger restore its constitutional ord...

Damage from clashes could delay start of school year in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian camp, UN says

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:17:18 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Damage to the school complex in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp from recent clashes between factions could delay the start of the school year for some 6,000 children, a United Nations official said Friday.The concern arose after heavy street battles broke out Sunday in Ein el-Hilweh between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party and Islamist groups Jund al Sham and Shabab al Muslim. The clashes erupted after Fatah accused the Islamists of gunning down a Fatah military general, Abu Ashraf al Armoushi, in the camp.The fighting has killed at least 13 people, injured dozens more and displaced thousands from the camp, which is home to more than 50,000 people.Although an uneasy calm has prevailed over the past two days, staff from the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have been unable to access the camp to make a full damage assessment or to provide services. Dorothee Klaus, Director of UNRWA in Lebanon, told The Associated Press that...

Montreal home sales on pace with last July, above historical average: QPAREB

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:17:18 GMT

MONTREAL — The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says July’s Montreal home sales were little changed from a year ago but remained above the historical average for this time of year.The association says sales for the month totalled 3,098, up one per cent from a year prior.The association sees July as a sign that activity is picking up again after a “disappointing” June.It says July was the first time since the summer of 2021 that the Island of Montreal drove activity in the market as sales of small-income and single-family properties picked up.The average price of a single-family home was up one per cent from a year earlier to $555,000 in July, while condos were almost unchanged at $395,000. Plexes dropped six per cent to $735,000.New listing across the market fell nine per cent from last July to 4,354.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4, 2023.The Canadian Press