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William Friedkin, director of ‘The Exorcist’, dead at 87

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:18 GMT

Joseph Wilkinson | New York Daily News (TNS)William Friedkin, the Oscar-winning director who shocked and terrified audiences with “The Exorcist,” died Monday. He was 87.Friedkin died in Los Angeles, his wife, Sherry Lansing, told The Hollywood Reporter.A well-known perfectionist behind the camera, Friedkin dazzled his way onto the scene with 1971′s “The French Connection.” His biggest commercial success followed two years later, as “The Exorcist” enthralled and horrified audiences nationwide, smashing box office records for the time.Audiences knew Friedkin best for the horror picture, but “The French Connection” was the film that earned him the Academy Award for best director.A lifelong cinephile, Friedkin continued producing and directing movies for decades to follow. His final picture, “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” is scheduled to debut next month at the Venice Film Festival.©2023 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Quick Fix: Shrimp rolls are a summer treat

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:18 GMT

Linda Gassenheimer | Tribune News Service (TNS)I love biting into a buttery, toasted roll filled with a fresh shrimp salad. It’s a summer treat. Instead of buying cooked shrimp, this recipe has a two-minute foolproof way to cook your own. It keeps the shrimp juicy and flavorful. You can make the shrimp filling a day ahead and simply toast the rolls when you’re ready to serve the shrimp rolls.I like to buy frozen shrimp to have on hand. It’s easy to remove what you need. They take only a few minutes to defrost in a bowl of cold water.Helpful Hints:— Buy shelled shrimp.— You can use any type of pickles.Countdown:— Prepare ingredients.— Cook shrimp and make salad.— Toast rolls.Shopping List:To buy: 3/4 pound large shrimp, 1 bunch celery, 1 bunch scallions, 1 bunch fresh chives, 1 lemon, 1 small head lettuce, 1 bottle reduced fat mayonnaise, 4 whole wheat hot dog buns, 1 bottle bread and butter pickles.Staples: butter, salt and black peppercorns.———SHRIMP ROLLRecipe by Linda Gassenheime...

How to throw a portable pizza party in your backyard

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:18 GMT

Who doesn’t love pizza?The Ooni Fyra 12, waiting to be put into action. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)Crust, sauce, cheese, toppings: It’s the perfect recipe for a dinner everyone will love.My husband and I recently bought a portable outdoor pizza oven (ours is an Ooni), and we have been churning out pizzas for friends and family with abandon.It took a few tries for us to get the dough right, and I’m still experimenting there — sourdough and fermented dough are next on my agenda — but what we’ve accomplished so far is so fun and easy that I wanted to share.There are lots of options for portable pizza ovens, but we wanted an oven that was small enough to transport to the cabin or friends’ houses, and we were also hoping for some wood-fired flavor. We landed on the Ooni Fyra 12, which is fired solely through wood pellets — the same kind we use in our Traeger smoker/grill. It weighs about 20 pounds and has a carrying case (purchased separately) so is easy to transport, too.We have the ...

$1.55 billion Mega Millions prize balloons as 31 drawings pass without a winner

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:18 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — There is no mystery why the Mega Millions jackpot has grown to $1.55 billion, making it the third-largest ever ahead of Tuesday night’s drawing.The prize has ballooned because no one has matched the game’s six winning numbers since April 18, amounting to 31 straight drawings without a big winner. The nearly four-month-long unlucky streak could be all the sweeter for the person who finally lands the top prize, which is inching toward the record lottery jackpot of $2.04 billion won in 2022 by a player in California.“It’s a fun thing,” said Merlin Smith, a retired real estate appraiser who stopped Monday at a gasoline station in Minneapolis to buy five tickets. “But if you’re depending on winning, you’d be disappointed a lot.”WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG FOR SOMEONE TO WIN?It has been a long stretch of jackpot futility, but Tuesday night’s 32nd straight drawing since the last winner still isn’t a record. The longest run for a Mega Millions ja...

UN appeal judges toss out plan to set up procedure to hear evidence against Rwandan genocide suspect

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:18 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Appeals judges on Monday threw out a decision by a United Nations court to set up a procedure to hear evidence against an elderly Rwandan genocide suspect who was declared unfit to face trial.The decision likely means that Félicien Kabuga’s trial, which started last year in The Hague, will never be completed. The judges acknowledged this would be a blow to victims and survivors of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.Judges at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals halted Kabuga’s trial in June because he has dementia and could not properly participate in the proceedings.Kabuga, who is in his late 80s, is accused of encouraging and bankrolling the mass killing of Rwanda’s Tutsi minority. His trial came nearly three decades after the 100-day massacre left 800,000 dead. He is in custody at a U.N. detention unit in The Hague.After declaring him unfit to stand trial, judges said they would set up “an alternative finding procedure th...

NATO and the EU send aid to Slovenia after floods that killed at least 6 and left many homeless

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:18 GMT

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — The European Union and NATO began sending urgent aid Monday to Slovenia after severe flooding over the weekend affecting two-thirds of the small European country killed at least six people and left hundreds homeless.NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg spoke by phone with Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob on Monday, expressing his sympathy and the trans-Atlantic alliance’s strong solidarity with Slovenia, a NATO statement said.“I express my deepest condolences to the people of Slovenia for the loss of life and widespread devastation caused by this weekend’s floods,” Stoltenberg said.On Sunday, Slovenia and Cyprus activated a European Union Civil Protection Mechanism because of the floods in Slovenia and wildfires in Cyprus that have affected those EU states.The EU is sending to Cyprus two Canadair firefighting airplanes from the EU’s Civil Protection Pool stationed in Greece. Greece is also sending 20 tons of liquid retardant via the EU Civil ...

Belarus begins military drills near its border with Poland and Lithuania as tensions heighten

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:18 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus began military exercises Monday near its border with Poland and Lithuania, a move coming with tensions already heightened with the two NATO members over Russia-linked Wagner mercenaries moving to Belarus after their short-lived mutiny in Russia.Both Poland and Lithuania have increased border security since thousands of Wagner fighters arrived in Russian-allied Belarus under a deal that ended their armed rebellion in late June and allowed them and their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to avoid criminal charges. Leaders of the two NATO nations have said they are braced for provocations from Moscow and Minsk in a sensitive area where both countries border Belarus as well as the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. They commented early in August after two Belarusian helicopters flew briefly at low altitude into Polish air space. Belarusian authorities denied their helicopters entered Poland. The Belarusian Defense Ministry said the drills that began Monday are base...

William Friedkin, Oscar winning director of ‘The Exorcist’ and The French Connection,’ dead at 87

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:18 GMT

William Friedkin, the Oscar winning director who became a top filmmaker in his 30s with the gripping “The French Connection” and the horrifying “The Exorcist” and struggled in the following decades to match his early success has died. He was 87.Friedkin, who won the best director Oscar for “The French Connection,” died Monday in Los Angeles, Marcia Franklin, his executive assistant for 24 years, told The Associated Press on behalf of his family and wife, former studio head Sherry Lansing.“The French Connection,” based on a true story, deals with the efforts of maverick New York City police Detective James “Popeye” Doyle to track down Frenchman Fernando Rey, mastermind of a large drug pipeline funneling heroin into the United States. It contains one of the most thrilling chase scenes ever filmed.Doyle, played by Gene Hackman in an Oscar-winning performance, barely misses making the arrest on a subway train, then hurries to his police car to follow the train as it emerges on an elevat...

Russia criticizes the talks in Saudi Arabia on ending the war in Ukraine after Moscow not invited

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:18 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday chided efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine, saying the talks don’t have “the slightest added value” because Moscow — unlike Kyiv — wasn’t invited.Senior officials from around 40 countries gathered Sunday in Jeddah for a two-day meeting that aims to agree on key principles about how to end the conflict that has raged for more than 17 months.But without Russia’s participation and without taking into account Moscow’s interests, the meeting was pointless, a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said. It repeated previous assurances that Russia is open to a diplomatic solution on its terms that ends the war and that it is ready to respond to serious proposals.But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, ruled out Moscow’s previous demands that would give Russia time to dig in deeper in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.He said on X, formerly known ...

Liberty freshman football player Tajh Boyd, 19, dies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:11:18 GMT

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — Liberty University says freshman football player Tajh Boyd, 19, has died.The school identified Boyd as an offensive lineman from Chesapeake, Virginia. It did not indicate when Boyd died or the cause, and calls and a text message were not returned.In the announcement, athletic director Ian McCaw and first-year football coach Jamey Caldwell said Boyd joined the football program “as recently as January” and added “Our thoughts and prayers are with Tajh’s family, his teammates and friends, our football coaching staff, as well as our entire athletics department and the greater Liberty University community. We grieve together as a family and will seek guidance, comfort and understanding from the Lord during these difficult times.”Conference USA, which Liberty is joining this season, also issued a release, saying “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of @LibertyFootball student-athlete Tajh Boyd. Our thoughts are with the Boyd family and Flames nation during...