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In Belarus, 3 protest musicians are sentenced to long prison terms

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:17 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Members of a pop music group that became a symbol of protest in Belarus were sentenced Tuesday to prison terms of up to nine years in the country’s relentless crackdown on dissent.The Tor Band became widely known in Belarus during a wave of protests that arose in August 2020 following a disputed presidential election in which which Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner, giving him a sixth term in office. The protests lasted for months, the largest and most prolonged show of dissent since Lukashenko came to power in 1994 and began repressing independent news media and opposition.Lukashenko unleashed harsh measures against the protesters, with police detaining some 35,000 people and beating thousands. Many major opposition figures fled the country, including Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who ran against him in the election. Others have been jailed, such as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, founder of the human rights group Viasna.The three me...

Investigation finds a threat assessment should have been done before the Oxford High School shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:17 GMT

OXFORD, Mich. (AP) — Officials with Michigan’s Oxford High School should have conducted a threat assessment into Ethan Crumbley’s behavior prior to a shooting that left four students dead and others wounded, an independent investigation concluded.Crumbley’s conduct included viewing bullets, watching violent video on his cellphone during class, and writing statements like “blood everywhere,” a more than 500-page report said. That suggested “not suicide, but homicide,” according to the report released Monday, , a month shy of the two-year anniversary of the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting.Crumbley, 17, pleaded guilty a year ago to first-degree murder and terrorism charges. He is expected to be sentenced Dec. 8 in Oakland County Circuit Court in Pontiac. The teen and his parents met with school staff the day of the shooting after a teacher noticed violent drawings. But no one checked his backpack and he was allowed to stay. The gun used in the shooting was in the backpack.The shoot...

Police seek suspect in hate-motivated mischief investigation

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:17 GMT

Toronto police have released grainy images of a suspect in a hate-motivated mischief investigation.Police say the suspect vandalized a number of items on public and private property between Saturday, Oct. 21, and Sunday, Oct. 29, in the Broadview Avenue and Gerrard Street East area.“After consultation with the Service’s specialized Hate Crime Unit, the investigation is being treated as a suspected hate-motivated offence,” police said in a release.No further information about the nature of the vandalism was provided.The suspect is described as male with a medium build wearing a black jacket, dark pants and black running shoes with soles.He was carrying a multi-coloured backpack.

Budget update: Newfoundland and Labrador projects $154-million deficit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:17 GMT

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Newfoundland and Labrador is projecting a deficit of $154 million for the current fiscal year.The figure is a slight improvement from the $160-million deficit forecast when the province tabled its budget in March.Finance Minister Siobhan Coady said in a budget update today the province is aiming to balance its books by the next fiscal year, which begins in April 2024.Coady says revenues are up by about $204 million, mostly due to Australian oil company Woodside Energy forfeiting deposits on exploration bids in the province’s offshore.However, she says the government will have to borrow up to $700 million more than anticipated in March, bringing its total net debt to $17.1 billion.In the province of about 535,000 people, that works out to nearly $32,000 per person.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2023.The Canadian Press

Sofia Coppola turns her lens on an American icon: Priscilla Presley

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:17 GMT

In her 25 years of making films, Sofia Coppola has always found the poetry behind the headlines, the banality in the glamour, the soul in the superficial. Her dreamy, lyrical portraits of girl culture and gilded cages have brought her to 18th century Versailles, 1970s suburban Michigan, the 1860s South, noughties Calabasas and modern-day Tokyo, West Hollywood and Manhattan.In Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir “Elvis and Me,” Coppola saw something that was glamourous and wild, something that would provide an opportunity for beautiful filmmaking in a setting she had yet to explore — the world of 1960s American rock royalty. But even she was a little surprised to find in this wholly unrelatable tale something, well, relatable: A young woman, isolated, figuring out who she is, in the shadow of a powerful man.“Priscilla,” now playing in New York and Los Angeles and expanding nationwide Friday, emerged from a disappointment: Coppola’s ambitious adaptation of Edith Wharton’s “Custom of the C...

Police seek suspect in Southern California restaurant shooting that injured 4

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:17 GMT

CHULA VISTA, Calif. (AP) — Four people sustained non-life threatening injuries when a shooter opened fire inside a Brazilian restaurant south of San Diego, police said.The gunfire prompted chaos inside NOVO Brazil in Chula Vista and fears of an active shooter loose in the Otay Ranch Town Center, causing police to lock down the mall Saturday night. The suspect remained at-large on Monday. Authorities believe the shooting resulted from a dispute between two groups of people and the suspect fled before officers arrived. Chula Vista police did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.The victims include a 16-year-old boy shot in the legs who investigators say was involved in the initial dispute. Two bystanders, a 58-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman, were also struck. A third bystander, a 21-year-old woman, suffered a graze wound.Police said video captured much of the shooting and were reviewing it Monday. Investigators do not believe the shooter had any other intende...

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim attacks on Israel, drawing their main sponsor Iran closer to Hamas war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:17 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the first time Tuesday claimed missile and drone attacks targeting Israel, drawing their main sponsor Iran closer into the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and further raising the risks of a regional conflict erupting. The Houthis had been suspected of an attack earlier this month targeting Israel by sending missiles and drones over the crucial shipping lane of the Red Sea, an assault that saw the U.S. Navy shoot down the projectiles. This time on Tuesday, however, Israel said its own fighter jets and its new Arrow missile defense system shot down two salvos of incoming fire hours apart as it approached the country’s key Red Sea shipping port of Eilat. The Houthis, who have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014 as part of that country’s ruinous war, claimed three attacks on Israel in a later military statement, without elaborating on the timeframe of the operations and whether Tuesday...

Whistleblower says utility should repay $382 million in federal aid given to failed clean coal plant

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:17 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A former employee is suing to force a Mississippi utility to repay $382 million that the federal government gave to build a failed coal-fueled power plant.Kelli Williams, a former construction manager for Atlanta-based Southern Co., filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the company and its subsidiary Mississippi Power Co. in 2018. That lawsuit, unsealed Monday, alleges that the two firms defrauded the U.S. Department of Energy and state regulators in a failed quest to build a $7.5 billion power plant. Williams says the company lied repeatedly about the plant’s cost overruns and spiraling delays, enticing the U.S. Department of Energy to keep delivering subsidy payments and persuading the Mississippi Public Service Commission to not revoke its permission for construction.“If DOE had known that defendants were intentionally deceiving the agency about the state of the Kemper project and were intentionally withholding accurate data about the project’s progress...

Anti-racism group says two Black Montreal firefighters faced years of racial abuse

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:17 GMT

MONTREAL — Two Black Montreal firefighters say they have for years been subject to racist abuse from their colleagues and that their managers didn’t do anything about it.A Montreal anti-racism group told reporters today it filed a complaint with Quebec’s human rights commission on behalf of the two firefighters.The Red Coalition says one of the firefighters, on his first day at work, was called the N-word by a colleague and that he faced more insults after he told his team he didn’t eat pork because he was Muslim.Alain Babineau with the Red Coalition says that in the most recent alleged racist incident, a supervisor told one of the firefighters that a colleague’s use of the N-word was an example of freedom of speech. The coalition is asking the human rights commission to investigate the allegations and to order the Montreal Fire Department to pay each of the men $40,000 in damages.The City of Montreal didn’t immediately return a request for comment. Thi...

APD looking for leads in May Manor Road homicide

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:32:17 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Austin Police Department is asking for the public's help finding new leads in a homicide that happened nearly six months ago in east Austin. The victim in the homicide was identified as Davante Reece, 19. PREVIOUS: Man who died in east Austin homicide identified Davante Reece, 19, was identified as the victim of a May 9, 2023 homicide in east Austin. (Austin Police Department photo)Davante Reece, 19, was identified as the victim of a May 9, 2023 homicide in east Austin. (Austin Police Department photo)On Tuesday, May 9, around 11:29 p.m., APD officers responded to several calls reporting gunshots in the area of Manor Road and Rogge Lane. Officers at the scene checked that location but could not locate any victims. APD said a short time later, a woman called 911 and said her boyfriend had been shot. Officers responded to the call location, which was a few blocks away, in the 6200 block of Breeze Way.Officers found Reece in the area with “apparent gunshot w...