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California terrorist attacker’s relatives let government seize $275,000 life insurance payout

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:47:14 GMT

The mother and sister of San Bernardino terrorist attacker Syed Rizwan Farook have given up their legal fight with the federal government for the proceeds of two life insurance policies that Farook purchased shortly before he and his wife killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at the Inland Regional Center in 2015.Farook received a $25,000 policy in 2012 as a benefit from his job as an inspector for the San Bernardino County Division of Environmental Health, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office court filing that sought to seize the proceeds because the government considered the money a fruit of a crime. Then in 2013, Farook purchased a $250,000 policy from the Minnesota Life Insurance Co.A poster placed outside U.S. District Court in Riverside during a U.S. Attorney’s Office news conference in 2021 shows the 14 people slain in the attack on a San Bernardino County Division of Environmental Health event at the Inland Regional Center on Dec. 2, 2015. (The Press-Enterprise) By ...

Review: Anthony Hopkins shines in ‘Freud’s Last Session’

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:47:14 GMT

By Jake Coyle | Associated Press“Freud’s Last Session,” starring Anthony Hopkins as Sigmund Freud, adds to a string of sterling late-chapter performances by the 86-year-old actor. He was the soul of “Armageddon Time,” the reason to see “The Father” and the papal foil to Jonathan Pryce’s Pope Francis in “The Two Popes.” With the exception of James Gray’s more cinematically composed “Armageddon Time,” the movies have offered simple, stagy showcases for Hopkins, a lion in winter.“Freud’s Last Session,” which expands in theaters this weekend, also comes from the stage and, like “The Two Popes,” centers on the tete-a-tete of intellectual opposites. Mark St. Germain’s 2009 two-character play brought together Freud and C.S. Lewis (played by Matthew Goode in the film) for a speculative meeting between the two in 1939 London.An aged Freud, suffering from oral cancer, prepares to ...

Germany faces Australia in United Cup semifinals after beating Greece 2-1

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:47:14 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — Alexander Zverev won both his singles and mixed doubles matches against Greece on Friday to lead Germany into the United Cup semifinals against Australia.Zverev and Laura Siegemund beat Maria Sakkari and Petros Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-3 in the deciding mixed doubles to clinch Germany’s 2-1 victory after Zverev beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 in singles. Sakkari beat former Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber 6-0, 6-3 to give Greece the early lead.France will play Poland in the other semifinal match on Saturday. The final is set for Sunday, also at Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena.Sakkari had lost three of her four previous career meetings with Kerber. But those defeats came before her rise to the world’s top 10 and 35-year-old Kerber’s break to start a family.“I was just very solid from the baseline, doing what I have to do,” Sakkari said. “But of course I knew that Angie, because she’s very experienced, an amazing player, that she was going to find a way to come back...

Constellation Brands: Fiscal Q3 Earnings Snapshot

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:47:14 GMT

VICTOR, N.Y. (AP) — VICTOR, N.Y. (AP) — Constellation Brands Inc. (STZ) on Friday reported fiscal third-quarter earnings of $509.1 million.The Victor, New York-based company said it had profit of $2.76 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to $3.19 per share.The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $3.03 per share.The wine, liquor and beer company posted revenue of $2.66 billion in the period. Its adjusted revenue was $2.47 billion, which did not meet Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.55 billion.Constellation Brands expects full-year earnings to be $9.15 to $9.35 per share._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on STZ at https://www.zacks.com/ap/STZSource

Europe’s inflation is up after months of decline. Could it delay interest rate cuts?

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:47:14 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Inflation plaguing Europe rose to 2.9% in December, rebounding after seven straight monthly declines as food prices rose and support for high energy bills ended in some countries. The rise in price levels fueled debate over how soon interest rate cuts could be expected from the European Central Bank.The figure released Friday was up from the 2.4% annual inflation recorded in November — but is well down from the peak of 10.6% in October 2022.ECB President Christine Lagarde warned that inflation could tick up in coming months, taking a detour from its recent downward path. The central bank for the 20 European Union countries that use the euro currency has raised its benchmark interest rate to a record-high 4% and says it will keep it there as long as necessary to push inflation down to its goal of 2% considered best for the economy.The faster-than-expected fall in inflation over the last months of 2023 had led some analysts to predict the central bank would s...

Hundreds of convictions, but a major mystery is still unsolved 3 years after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:47:14 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of far-right extremist groups. Former police officers. An Olympic gold medalist swimmer. And active duty U.S. Marines.They are among the hundreds of people who have been convicted in the massive prosecution of the Jan 6, 2021, riot in the three years since the stunned nation watched the U.S. Capitol attack unfold on live TV.Washington’s federal courthouse remains flooded with trials, guilty plea hearings and sentencings stemming from what has become the largest criminal investigation in American history. And the hunt for suspects is far from over.“We cannot replace votes and deliberation with violence and intimidation,” Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters on Thursday.Authorities are still working to identify more than 80 people wanted for acts of violence at the Capitol and to find out who placed pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic national committees’ offices the day before the Capitol attack. A...

AngioDynamics: Fiscal Q2 Earnings Snapshot

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:47:14 GMT

LATHAM, N.Y. (AP) — LATHAM, N.Y. (AP) — AngioDynamics Inc. (ANGO) on Friday reported a loss of $29 million in its fiscal second quarter.The Latham, New York-based company said it had a loss of 72 cents per share. Losses, adjusted for pretax expenses and costs related to mergers and acquisitions, came to 5 cents per share.The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 9 cents per share.The medical device maker posted revenue of $79.1 million in the period, which missed Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $81.6 million.AngioDynamics expects full-year results to range from a loss of 42 cents per share to a loss of 35 cents per share, with revenue in the range of $320 million to $325 million.AngioDynamics shares have decreased 1% since the beginning of the year. The stock has fallen 43% in the last 12 months._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://au...

Rose-hued Stanley cups for Valentine’s Day spark a frenzy at Target

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:47:14 GMT

New York (CNN) — The world is going wild for Stanley cups. And no, not the hockey kind.Just ask Target.It appears that for some Valentine’s Day revelers this year, nothing will spell L-O-V-E more profoundly than the gift of an oversized rose-hued stainless steel insulated tumbler that’s downright clunky, way too heavy to carry around when filled up for “all-day hydration,” but is still a solid viral sensation in the New Year.Target in December dropped a limited-edition Valentine’s collection of Stanley tumblers in bright pink and cherry red tones that included an enormous 40-ounce mug, smaller two-pack tumblers in cute packaging with the message “It was Love at First Sip,” and a Stacking Beer Pint tumbler.Shoppers jumped on the items, in some cases quite literally. The proof was documented in TikTok videos that showed people lining up outside of Target stores waiting to rush in to grab these limited-edition Stanleys when doors opened.Other videos captured the mad dash to the Valenti...

Rival Koreas conduct provocative drills along their tense sea boundary, escalating animosities

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:47:14 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The rival Koreas fired artillery rounds into the sea as part of provocative drills along their disputed sea boundary on Friday, in violation of the fragile 2018 inter-Korean military agreement.The firing exercises are expected to escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Experts say North Korea will likely intensify a run of weapons tests and its warlike rhetoric ahead of South Korea’s parliamentary elections in April and the U.S. presidential election in November.South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired 200 rounds in the waters north of their western sea boundary on Friday morning. It was North Korea’s first front-line maritime firing exercise in about a year.Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung Joon told a televised briefing that the North’s artillery firing was “an act of provocation that threatens peace and heightens tensions on the Korean Peninsula.” Lee said South Korea suffered no damage.In a tit-for-tat step, South Ko...

Russia ‘will not stop’ at Ukraine, Latvia warns

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:47:14 GMT

Latvian Foreign Minister Krišjānis Kariņš said Russia “will not stop” after the war in Ukraine and that NATO needs a “long-term strategy” to contain Moscow.“Russia will not stop, Russia can only be stopped,” Kariņš told the Financial Times in an interview published Friday. “Stopping Russia in Ukraine does not mean that it is over. It simply means we will have to continue. That is what is important for NATO: that we will have to work on a long-term strategy of Russia containment.”Kariņš, a former prime minister, has expressed his interest in succeeding Jens Stoltenberg as NATO’s leader, arguing that the alliance’s next secretary-general should come from a country which has met the 2-percent-of-GDP defense spending target — such as Latvia.Because of Russia’s “imperialistic-fueled ideology,” Kariņš warned that the Kremlin’s threat is bound to continue after the Ukraine war. But NATO has to make sure that “the likelihood of any incidents is simply ruled ...