Revelers cheer amid police at Macy’s parade ADVERTISING Revelers cheer amid police at Macy’s parade NEW YORK (AP) — Santa Claus, giant cartoon balloons and whimsical floats were protected by sand-filled dump trucks and bomb-sniffing dogs as the Macy’s Thanksgiving
Revelers cheer amid police at Macy’s parade
NEW YORK (AP) — Santa Claus, giant cartoon balloons and whimsical floats were protected by sand-filled dump trucks and bomb-sniffing dogs as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade wound its way through the streets of Manhattan under heavy security.
The annual spectacle went off without a hitch Thursday, with thousands of spectators and more than 3,000 police officers lining the streets amid an air of uncertainty about the possibility of an extremist attack.
“There are so many police officers out here you can’t help but feel safe,” said Sarah Bender, who brought her two young sons to watch the parade. “It’s a day to have fun, watch the balloons and celebrate with your family. You can’t spend your life worrying about what could happen.”
While authorities had said there was no confirmation of any credible threat, they stepped up safety measures in the wake of the July cargo truck attack on a holiday crowd in Nice, France, and a recent posting in an English-language Islamic State group magazine that called the Thanksgiving parade “an excellent target.”
Revelers cheered and yelled, “Thank you!” to officers along the route Thursday, giving special attention to the New York Police Department marching band.
Colombia government, rebels sign revised peace agreement
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a revised peace agreement with the country’s largest rebel movement on Thursday, making a second attempt within months to end a half century of hostilities.
Santos and Rodrigo Londono, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, signed the 310-page accord at Bogota’s historic Colon Theater — nearly two months after the original deal was surprisingly rejected in a referendum.
After signing with a pen crafted from the shell of an assault rifle bullet, they clasped hands to shouts of “Yes we could!”
Thursday’s hastily organized ceremony was a far more modest and somber event than the one in September, in the colonial city of Cartagena, where the two men signed an accord in front of an audience of foreign leaders and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, all of whom were dressed in white to symbolize peace.
Santos looked and sounded tired after a two-month political roller coaster that saw him rise from the humiliating defeat to win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. This time the deal will be sent directly to Congress without a public referendum.
IS car bomb kills 56, including 20 Iranians, in Iraq
HILLA, Iraq (AP) — A car bomb tore through a gas station south of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 56 people, including 20 Iranians, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
Police and hospital officials confirmed the toll and said another 45 people were wounded in the attack, which almost completely destroyed the gas station, several nearby stores and set several cars on fire. The station is located on a major highway.
The blast knocked out power at the station, forcing relatives looking for the remains of loved ones to use the glare of their mobile phones to guide them. Body parts that remained unclaimed were gathered in a blue bag and placed on the sidewalk outside the station. Large sections of the station were covered in blood.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying that 80 people were killed, including 40 Iranians. Conflicting death tolls are common in the aftermath of large attacks.
The Islamic State group claimed the attack in a brief statement carried by its Aamaq news agency, saying it was a suicide truck bomb.
On Virginia’s vulnerable coast, fear of flooding on the rise
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — When floodwaters poured into Holly Furlong’s Virginia Beach home in October, she ripped out electrical cords and rushed her four children upstairs. They spent the next two days without power, building blanket forts while anxiously waiting for sewage-tainted waters to recede.
Nearly two months later, Furlong, 34, said she’s being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It changes your sense of security,” she said of the flooding that inundated 1,400 homes and business in Virginia Beach after weeks of rain. “It kind of bursts your optimistic bubble for life. Things that didn’t seem possible, because they were so bad, seem possible.”
In a region under siege from rising sea levels, the heavy rains brought flood worries to a new level. Instead of the storm surge many fear, the rain overwhelmed drainage systems in neighborhoods miles from the Atlantic Ocean and the nearby Chesapeake Bay. Homes that never flooded before were overrun with two or three feet of water.
Experts warn that flooding will likely increase in Virginia’s Hampton Roads region, where Virginia Beach and six other cities are clustered on or near the state’s low-lying coast. The land is sinking and the sea is rising at the highest rate on the East Coast, they say. Global warming threatens to draw more intense rain storms up the Eastern Seaboard.
