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Russia arrests a hard-line nationalist who accused Putin of weakness in Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:50 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — A prominent hard-line nationalist who accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of weakness and indecision in Ukraine was arrested Friday on charges of extremism, a signal the Kremlin has toughened its approach with hawkish critics after last month’s abortive rebellion by the Wagner mercenary company.Igor Strelkov, a retired security officer who led Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and also was implicated by the Netherlands in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that year, has argued that a total mobilization is needed for Russia to achieve victory. He recently criticized Putin as a “nonentity” and a “cowardly mediocrity.”Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court ordered the 52-year-old Strelkov, whose real name is Igor Girkin, to be held in custody for two months pending a probe on charges of making calls for extremist activities. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.Strelkov rejected the charges, but asked the judge to plac...

Brother of ex-NFL star Aqib Talib’s pleads guilty to murder, prosecutors say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:50 GMT

DALLAS (AP) — The brother of retired NFL cornerback Aqib Talib has pleaded guilty to murder in the 2022 shooting death of a coach at a youth football game in Texas, prosecutors said.Yaqub Salik Talib, 40, pleaded guilty Thursday to the charge in the shooting of 43-year-old Michael Hickmon, according to Claire Crouch, a spokesperson for the Dallas County District Attorney’s office. She said Talib agreed to a sentence of 37 years in prison and that he will be sentenced in August.A lawyer for Talib did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment Friday. Last August, police said witnesses saw Talib pull out a gun and repeatedly shoot Hickmon during a brawl among adults at a youth football game in the Dallas suburb of Lancaster. Police said the fight was prompted by a disagreement between the opposing coaching staffs over calls made by the officiating crew, but an official with one of the teams later said it began when Hickmon went to pick up a football and someone kicked ...

Liberals looking for input on planned law to improve safety in long-term care

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:50 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal government seeks public input on planned legislation to improve safety in long-term care following the devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Liberals promised during the 2021 election campaign to table a Safe Long-Term Care Act, after widespread COVID-19 outbreaks drew attention to the struggle of many homes to provide basic care to residents.The proposed law is also a condition of the supply-and-confidence deal with the NDP, in which New Democrats agreed to support the Liberals on key House of Commons votes until 2025 in exchange for movement on shared priorities.The office of Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos would not say when the government plans to table the legislation, but it could be as early as this fall. Earlier this year, two panels of experts in the field of long-term care released new standards for improving health, safety and infection prevention in care homes.The Health Standards Organization and CSA Group developed the standards, which...

Vatican is moving ahead with plan to reunite Ukrainian children taken to Russia with their families

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:50 GMT

ROME (AP) — The Vatican is pressing ahead with a plan to try to reunite Ukrainian children taken to Russia during the war with their families, a senior Vatican official said. The effort follows an explicit request by Ukraine and Russia has expressed an apparent willingness to engage in the process. The Vatican official spoke to reporters about the plan late Thursday, after Pope Francis’ peace envoy, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, returned to the Vatican from Washington. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, according to Vatican protocol.Zuppi, a veteran of the Catholic Church’s peace initiatives, had met with President Joe Biden on Tuesday, following earlier missions to Kyiv and Moscow. In the Russian capital, Zuppi met with one of President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy advisers, Yuri Ushakov, as well as Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights. Zuppi is next headed to Beijing, the Vatican official said.A White House official, speaking on condition of anony...

Myanmar’s generals unveil giant Buddha statue as they seek to win hearts and minds during civil war

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:50 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — The military-controlled government of strife-torn Myanmar on Friday showed off a new giant statue of a sitting Buddha that is scheduled to be consecrated on Aug. 1, a powerful symbol of nationalism in a very devout nation. Journalists were given a preview of the 228-acre (92-hectare) site in the capital, Naypyitaw, which includes small pagodas, ordination halls, rest houses, water fountains, lakes and a park. The military government’s head, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who is also the project’s patron, supervised installation of various parts of the project, even as a civil war has raged, killing thousands, uprooting millions and causing vast destruction, including to Buddhist monasteries, Christian churches and Islamic mosques.Min Aung Hlaing has been repeatedly quoted in state media as saying it will be tallest sitting marble Buddha statue in the world, a claim that is difficult to verify. He also said the building of the Buddha image aimed “to show the flourishing ...

Low levels of radioactive tritium may be near the Mississippi River after an energy company’s leak

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:50 GMT

MONTICELLO, Minn. (AP) — Groundwater containing low levels of radioactive material may have reached the edge of the Mississippi River, the energy company responsible for the leak from its nuclear power plant in Monticello, Minnesota, announced on Thursday.Tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, has not been detected in the river water itself, Xcel Energy said in a statement. “The closest sample to detect tritium is about 30 feet from the river, and detected about 1,000 picocuries per liter, far below Safe Drinking Water Act standards, or below 20,000 picocuries per liter,” the statement said. “Any presence of tritium in the river would be well below the Safe Drinking Water standard and likely at levels indistinguishable from what occurs naturally in the environment.” The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the state Department of Health released a joint statement saying the latest development does not present a threat to public health, and there are no immediate impacts...

Rapper Quando Rondo crashes car while awaiting trial. Prosecutors want him back in jail.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:50 GMT

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Prosecutors want the rapper Quando Rondo sent back to jail after he crashed a car while free on bond pending trial on gang and drug charges. The 24-year-old rapper, whose given name Tyquian Terrel Bowman, was indicted last month in his hometown of Savannah. He was released from jail June 26 on a $100,000 bond. Now prosecutors are asking a Chatham County Superior Court judge to revoke his bond.Their court filing says Bowman crashed a car while driving at high speed Wednesday, and that emergency responders “administered Narcan as he was exhibiting signs of an overdose.”Narcan is a drug used to treat opioid overdoses. Bowman was ordered to refrain from using illegal drugs as a condition of his bond, according to court records.Bowman’s attorney, Jonah Pine, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Friday.Bowman and 18 others were indicted last month by a Chatham County grand jury. Bowman was charged with four counts, including being a manager...

Man who shot Fargo officers searched internet for ‘kill fast’ and for crowded area events, AG says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:50 GMT

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — The man who shot three Fargo, North Dakota, police officers and a civilian, killing one of the officers before an officer killed him, searched internet for terms including “explosive ammo” and “kill fast,” as well as for what crowded area events might be happening, authorities said Friday.Mohamad Barakat also used a “binary trigger” that allowed him to fire rapidly during the July 14 attack, state Attorney General Drew Wrigley said at a news conference. Wrigley said the .223-caliber rifle that Barakat used during the ambush sounded like an automatic weapon because of how quickly it fired.Barakat killed one officer and wounded two others and a civilian before the fourth officer at the scene shot and killed him. Wrigley says the wounded officers fell in quick succession. Police were investigating a routine collision on a busy Fargo street when the heavily armed Barakat opened fire on them before they could react.Wrigley said he believes the violence could have been ...

Texas A&M University president resigns after Black journalist’s hiring at campus unravels

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:50 GMT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas A&M University announced Friday that its president has resigned after a Black journalist’s celebrated hiring at one of the nation’s largest campuses unraveled following pushback over her diversity and inclusion work.President Katherine Banks said in a resignation letter that she would retire immediately, because “negative press has become a distraction” at the nearly 70,000-student campus in College Station.Her exit comes as Republican lawmakers across the U.S. are targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs on college campus. That includes Texas, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill in June that dismantles program offices at public colleges. The A&M System said in a statement that Banks told faculty leaders this week that she took responsibility for the “flawed hiring process” of Kathleen McElroy, a former New York Times editor who had been selected to revive the school’s journalism department. The statement sai...

RCMP officer charged with foreign interference

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:26:50 GMT

A retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer was charged on Friday with obtaining information for China and other foreign-interference related charges.Sixty-year-old William Majcher of Hong Kong, appeared by videoconference at the Longueuil courthouse on Friday. He faces two charges: preparatory acts on behalf of a foreign entity and conspiracy.“According to the investigation, Mr. Majcher used his knowledge and vast network of contacts in Canada to obtain information or services that would have benefited the People’s Republic of China,” reads a press release issued by the RCMP.The man “would have contributed to the Chinese government’s efforts to identify and intimidate an individual outside the framework of Canadian law”, according to the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) investigation, which had begun in 2021.