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Russia, China foreign ministers set for BRICS meet in South Africa with war in Ukraine on agenda

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The Russian and Chinese foreign ministers were set to meet with their counterparts from the BRICS economic bloc of developing nations in South Africa on Thursday for discussions that will start with “an exchange of views” on major geopolitical issues, including the war in Ukraine, South Africa’s ambassador to the bloc said.Most of the BRICS countries differ sharply from the position of the U.S. and its Western allies on the war. Speaking ahead of the meeting, the South African ambassador referred to the West’s military aid to Ukraine as one of the things that “fuels the conflict.”“Any endeavor that fuels the conflict does not solve the problem,” Anil Sooklal said when asked for his reaction to Western “attempts” to transfer weapons to Ukraine.“We do not know of any global conflict that has been solved though war,” Sooklal said. “All it does is cause more pain and suffering and, as BRICS countries, this is what we are saying: Let’s foc...

Teen girl critically injured after being struck by truck in Rexdale

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

A teenage girl has suffered life-threatening injuries after being struck by a truck in Rexdale. Police say they were called to the area of Queens Plate Drive and Rexdale Boulevard, just east of Highway 27 around 7:45 a.m. Thursday.Paramedics say a teen girl to a trauma centre via emergency run. More to come

CP NewsAlert: Firefighters from U.S., South Africa to battle ‘unprecedented’ fires

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

OTTAWA — More than 300 firefighters from the United States and South Africa are heading to Canada in the coming days as the country battles an unprecedented wildfire season.Federal officials say at least 100 U.S. firefighters will be arriving in Nova Scotia over the weekend to help knock down out-of-control wildfires that have forced about 21,000 people from their homes since Sunday.Another 200 firefighters arriving from South Africa will likely end up in Alberta, though officials say the wildfire situation in the country is fluid.More coming.The Canadian Press

After 22 years in a coma, Israeli woman critically wounded in 2001 Jerusalem suicide bombing dies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli woman critically wounded in a 2001 suicide bombing at a Jerusalem restaurant has died, an Israeli hospital said Thursday. Her death marks the sixteenth fatality from that attack.Hana Nachenberg was 31 at the time and was dining with her 3-year-old daughter when the blast occurred, Israeli media reported. She was in a coma for nearly 22 years until she died on Wednesday, reports said. Her daughter was not hurt in the attack.On Aug. 9, 2001, a Palestinian bomber walked into a Jerusalem pizzeria and blew himself up. The attack remains one of the most infamous in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and it came at a time of surging violence between the sides during the second Palestinian intifada or uprising.Aftershocks of the attack, which wounded dozens, still make news today. The family of an Israeli-American girl killed in the attack is waging a campaign to press Jordan, a close American ally, to send a woman convicted of aiding the attacker to the United Sta...

After sailing through House on bipartisan vote, Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal now goes to Senate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Veering away from a default crisis, the House overwhelmingly approved a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, sending the deal that President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated to the Senate for swift passage in a matter of days, before a fast-approaching deadline.The hard-fought compromise pleased few, but lawmakers assessed it was better than the alternative — a devastating economic upheaval if Congress failed to act. Tensions ran high as hard-right Republicans refused the deal, but Biden and McCarthy assembled a bipartisan coalition to push to passage on a robust 314-117 vote late Wednesday.“We did pretty dang good,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said afterward.Amid deep discontent from Republicans who said the spending restrictions did not go far enough, McCarthy said it is only a “first step.”Biden, watching the tally from Colorado Springs where Thursday he is scheduled to deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy, phoned McCarthy...

Court rules Austria can’t be held liable for early COVID infection at ski resort

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — An Austrian federal court said Thursday that the state can’t be held liable for a COVID-19 infection from an outbreak at an Alpine ski resort as the pandemic hit Europe in early 2020.The Supreme Court of Justice announced its verdict in a long-running legal battle involving a German resident who traveled to Ischgl on March 7, 2020 and visited several apres-ski venues before returning home six days later. He experienced the first coronavirus symptoms shortly afterward. The plaintiff sought damages and a ruling that the Austrian federal government was liable for harm to him resulting directly or indirectly from authorities’ errors or failings connected to the “mismanagement” of COVID-19 in Tyrol province in late February and early March 2020.The outbreak in Ischgl, a popular resort in western Austria, was considered one of Europe’s earliest “super-spreader” events of the pandemic.An independent commission concluded in late 2020 that authorities in Tyrol acted too s...

In the Amazon region where pair was killed, neglect and allegations of harsh justice

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

LADARIO, Brazil (AP) — One year ago on a Friday afternoon, Bruno Pereira, an expert on Indigenous affairs, and Dom Phillips, a British journalist, motored along the Itaquai river in far western Brazil, to the settlement of Ladario. The line of wooden houses here marks a boundary — between the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon, and the non-Indigenous world.They were greeted by the man everyone knows as Caboclo. Pereira’s relationship with these river communities had often been tense. He had been the lead official with the nation’s Indigenous agency, and these non-Indigenous communities were frequent trespassers onto Indigenous land to hunt and fish. He had fought this, confiscating fishing gear.But Pereira now sought a different approach. He was on leave from the government, helping build alternative livelihoods in these remote and desperately poor communities, which receive virtually no support from the government, although they are entitled to it.“I told Br...

Mississauga man charged in violent home invasion robbery in Regent Park

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

A 22-year-old man is in custody following a home invasion robbery in Regent Park last month.Police say on May 12 a man went to a home in the Shuter and Parliament streets area after contacting a sex worker and arranging a meet.When the woman opened the door, the man produced a gun and demanded cash. A second woman who came to the door was also threatened and asked to hand over money. The women told the man they had no cash, and the suspect fled the scene empty-handed.The next day, Peel Regional Police arrested a man in connection with a similar incident involving a sex-trade worker. He was subsequently released on bail that same day.Peel police contacted their counterparts in Toronto and informed them that the suspect they had arrested was likely the same person wanted in the home invasion robbery in Regent Park.Yousef Babiker of Mississauga was arrested again on May 19 and he is facing eight charges including two counts of robbery with a firearm and uttering threats.“Investig...

EU data authority launches probe into Frontex migrant interview breaches

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s border and coast guard agency is collecting information from migrants that could end up identifying vulnerable people seeking sanctuary from persecution in their homelands, according to a report by the EU’s data protection watchdog.The European Data Protection Supervisor, or EDPS, also announced that it is launching an investigation into whether Frontex gathered information that it is not entitled to collect and illegally provided those details about migrants to the EU’s police agency Europol.Frontex said Thursday that it conducts “debriefing interviews” with migrants entering Europe without authorization “on a voluntary and anonymous basis.” It said the interviews aim to collect information about migratory routes and cross-border crime and help to plan its operations.But in a report submitted to Frontex last week, the EDPS said that some debriefings reveal “a combination of distinguishing features about that individual and their journey that wou...

Senegal opposition leader Sonko convicted of corrupting youth, acquitted of rape

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:14:33 GMT

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Senegal opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was convicted Thursday of corrupting youth but acquitted on charges of raping a woman who worked at a massage parlor and making death threats against her.The court sentenced Sonko to two years in prison. He did not attend his trial in the capital, Dakar, and was judged in absentia. His lawyer said a warrant had not been issued yet for the politician’s arrest. “With this verdict, the authorities want to prevent him from standing in the next presidential election,” lawyer Cire Cledor Ly said. Sonko placed third in Senegal’s 2019 presidential election, and he and his supporters maintain his legal troubles are part of a government effort to derail his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election. Sonko is considered President Macky Sall’s main competition. Under Senegalese law, the conviction would bar Sonko from running in next year’s election, said Bamba Cisse, another defense lawyer.“The conviction for corruptio...