February 13, 2023 4:17 am
ANTAKYA, Turkey (AP) – Rescue crews on Monday pulled a 40-year-old woman from the wreckage of a building a week after two powerful earthquakes struck, but reports of rescues are coming less often as the time since the quake reaches the limits of the human body’s ability to survive without water, especially in sub-freezing temperatures. The magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 quakes that struck nine hours apart in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, killed at least 33,185, with the toll expected to rise. On Monday rescuers pulled a 40-year-old woman from the wreckage of a 5-story building in the town of Islahiye, in Gaziantep province. Experts said the likelihood of finding people alive is “very, very small now.”
February 13, 2023 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – A U.S. fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” over Lake Huron on Sunday on orders from President Joe Biden. It was the fourth such downing in eight days. Pentagon officials believe the latest military strike in an extraordinary chain of events over U.S. airspace has no peacetime precedent. The head of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, Gen. Glen VanHerck, says part of the reason for the repeated shootdowns is a “heightened alert” following a spy balloon from China that emerged over U.S. airspace in late January.
February 13, 2023 4:10 am
BRENTWOOD, Pa. — (WPXI) – Visitation for fallen McKeesport police officer Sean Sluganski continues Monday afternoon. Dozens of mourners came to pay their respects on Sunday afternoon. At points, some people were waiting in lines that were reaching out of the front door. Sluganski was killed in the line of duty on Monday. Allegheny County police were at the visitation to help manage large crowds. They are asking the public to park at Benson Lincoln Mercury on Route 51. Shuttles were bringing people from that location to the Jojm F. Slater Funeral Home. The visitations will continue on Monday from 2-8 p.m. The Fraternal Order of Police will hold its service for Officer Sluganski at 7 p.m. on Monday. The funeral for Sluganski is on Tuesday and is not available to the general public. No one is allowed to enter the cemetery other than family and the McKeesport Police Departmet.
February 13, 2023 4:06 am
ELIZABETH TOWNSHIP, Pa. — (WPXI) – Crews battled a fire that broke out at Elizabeth Forward High School in Elizabeth Township early Sunday morning. According to Allegheny County 911, the fire broke out at around 5:30 a.m. Smoke could be seen billowing from a section of the school’s roof. Elizabeth Township Police Chief Ken Honick told Channel 11 the structural integrity of the building was possibly compromised. Two walls of the auditorium are at risk of crumbling. Chief Honick said that per the Elizabeth Forward School District, high school students won’t be having class on Monday. The middle school and elementary school will remain on a normal schedule. The school is having a staff meeting to discuss their options, Chief Honick said. Students participating in the school’s musical have lost the chance to perform after the destruction of the auditorium. A GoFundMe has been set up to help restore the lost theater, music wing, set, microphones, lights, and costumes. The police chief told Channel 11 it doesn’t appear to be suspicious at this point.
February 13, 2023 4:01 am
ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Federal workplace safety authorities have fined a central Pennsylvania confectionary factory more than $14,500 following an accident last year in which two workers fell into a vat of chocolate. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Mars Wrigley in the June accident at the Elizabethtown M&M/Mars factory, saying the workers were not authorized to work in the tanks and weren’t trained on the proper safety procedures for the equipment. Emergency responders cut a hole in the bottom of the tank to free the workers and both were taken to hospitals. A company representative said the safety of workers and outside contractors “is a top priority for our business.”
February 12, 2023 8:13 am
VIENNA (AP) — Neutral Austria has come under heavy criticism for granting visas that will allow sanctioned Russian lawmakers to attend a Vienna meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The issue highlights the delicate balancing act the European country has engaged in while trying to maintain its longstanding position of military neutrality during the war in Ukraine. The Austrian government has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while stressing the need to maintain diplomatic relations with Moscow. In a letter to Austria’s chancellor and other officials, 81 delegates from 20 countries called upon the Austrian government to prohibit the participation of the sanctioned Russian individuals at the upcoming OSCE meeting.
February 12, 2023 8:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army is trying to recover from its worst recruiting year in decades, and officials say those recruiting woes are the result on traditional hurdles. Young people don’t want to die or get injured, they don’t want to deal with the stress of Army life and they don’t want to put their lives on hold. But the recruiting obstacles don’t seem to be rooted in concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine or about “wokeness,” as some Republicans claim. The Army’s head of marketing says young people don’t see the Army as relevant in their lives. The Army is offering new programs, advertising and enticements to try to change those views and reverse the decline.
February 12, 2023 8:11 am
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that on his order a U.S. fighter jet has shot down an “unidentified object” flying high over northern Canada. The shootdown came a day after U.S. planes took similar action over Alaska. Shortly before Trudeau’s announcement Saturday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said it had detected an object flying at high altitude over Canada. It did not say when the object was first spotted or what it is. Hours later in the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration and NORAD temporarily closed airspace in Montana while fighter aircraft investigated “a radar anomaly” and then reopened the airspace when the fighters did not identify any object.
February 12, 2023 8:10 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time in his administration, President Joe Biden hosted the dinner for members of the National Governors Association at the White House. The dinner was held last year at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s Virginia estate, and virtually in 2021 because of COVID-19. There was a palpable sense of, well, togetherness and not just because the room was tightly packed with governors, spouses and Cabinet members. Biden and both associations’ leaders, Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, spoke about the need to put aside the increasingly rancorous political differences to work together to better the nation.
February 12, 2023 8:09 am
ANTAKYA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish officials have detained or issued arrest warrants for some 130 people allegedly involved in shoddy and illegal construction methods after a pair of earthquakes collapsed thousands of buildings in southeast Turkey and northern Syria six days ago. Turkish authorities have vowed to punish anyone responsible and prosecutors have begun gathering samples of buildings for evidence on materials used in construction. The death toll from Monday’s quakes stands at 28,191 as of Sunday morning. Rescuers are recovering scores of bodies but also rejoicing when they discover the living. One 6-year-old boy was removed from the debris of his home in Adiyaman city 151 hours after the quake.
