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Putin in first pictured handshake with EU leader since start of Ukraine invasion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:32 GMT

Russian President Vladimir Putin shook hands with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in China on Tuesday — the first photographed handshake between the Russian president and an EU leader since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.According to Russian state-run news outlet TASS, Orbán told Putin that, “Hungary has never sought to confront Russia. Rather, the opposite is true: Hungary has always pursued the goal of building and expanding the best communication.”Putin said, “it is very important to have a chance to exchange views not only on bilateral relations, but also on the situation in the world and in Europe with one of the EU countries — with Hungary in this case,” adding, “we know that our positions do not always coincide, but an opportunity to exchange views, in my opinion, is always extremely important.”The meeting took place at a two-day forum on Tuesday marking the 10th anniversary of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s br...

Supreme Court allows Biden administration to continue fully enforcing ghost gun regulations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:32 GMT

Washington (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Biden administration to continue regulating so-called ghost guns – untraceable homemade weapons – as firearms under federal law.The court’s brief order grants the Justice Department’s request to wipe away a lower court order and allow the regulations to remain in effect while a legal challenge brought by firearm manufacturers continues to play out in the lower courts.There were no noted dissents to the order.Ghost guns are kits that a user can buy online to assemble a fully functional firearm. They have no serial numbers, do not require background checks and provide no transfer records for easy traceability. Critics say they are attractive to people who are legally prohibited from buying firearms.In the Justice Department’s emergency application to the justices, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar pointed out that a district court judge had essentially ignored an order the Supreme Court issued ...

Grand Canyon issues warning about ‘love locks’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:32 GMT

(CNN) — “Love is strong, but our bolt cutters are stronger,” reads a new Facebook post from Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.In the post shared on social media earlier this week, the park management expresses concern about ‘love locks.’ These popular objects are padlocks that are hung from a metal fence, often bearing a couple’s name or initials, with the key then thrown into a nearby body of water.Many people believe that the locks are good luck for a relationship, and that throwing away the key symbolizes an unbroken love.However, while the locks themselves are considered “littering” and “graffiti” in the park, it’s the keys that can cause even more serious problems.The critically endangered California condor is attracted to shiny things, and as a result some of the birds have eaten keys out of the water and required surgery to remove them.“Condors are curious animals and much like a small child will investigate strange things they come across with th...

Two Holyoke suspects charged with accessory murder in fatal shooting involving a baby

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:32 GMT

Two suspects have been charged with accessory murder in the Holyoke fatal shooting that involved a baby, according to police.Both 31-year-old Jose Galarza and 29-year-old Jay Marie Rosado-Rosario were charged with accessory after the fact — murder. The charges for the Holyoke residents are connected to the fatal bus shooting two weeks ago.Both suspects have been charged in relation to the police’s ongoing effort to find the third suspect in the shooting, Kermith Alvarez. The pair of suspects are accused of helping Alvarez after the shooting.Last week, the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Hampden District Attorney’s Office, Holyoke Police Department, and Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section reported that they were looking for Alvarez, 28, of Holyoke.Alvarez is reportedly trying to avoid police, the firearm used in this incident has not been found, and he should be considered armed and dangerous, according to police.Holy...

San Marcos couple returns from harrowing trip to Israel

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:32 GMT

SAN MARCOS, Calif. -- A local couple who were on vacation in Israel and got stuck there after Hamas unleashed its attacks has made it home.Patty Kolb and her husband are back in San Marcos, arriving in San Diego Sunday night after a harrowing trip to Israel.“We have to use the experiences of the last eight days for a greater good and we believe that that's the purpose of why we were there,” Kolb said.They were there for about a week visiting friends and touring sites when everything changed with Hamas’ terror attacks.“Potentially at anytime, we could have been I guess bombed, at no time was I fearful,” Kolb said.But getting out was not easy.The couple’s flight home was canceled, rescheduled, then canceled again. Eventually, they found a Saturday flight from Tel Aviv to Athens. Man arrested after machete attack, SWAT standoff in Oceanside “We spent a lot of time in bomb shelters including about 15 minutes before we left our Airbnb to go to the airport and a half hour before we boar...

Ukraine has used US-provided long-range ATACMS missiles against Russian forces for the first time

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:32 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The long-range ballistic missiles sought by Ukraine have been delivered quietly by the U.S. and were being used on the battlefield against Russia on Tuesday, an official familiar with the move said, nearly a month after President Joe Biden promised them to his Ukrainian counterpart.The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter before an official announcement and spoke Tuesday on the condition of anonymity. The missiles’ delivery to the warfront was shrouded in secrecy, with the expectation that the first public acknowledgement would come when the missiles were used on the battlefield.Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian leaders have been urgently pressing the U.S. to provide the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS. But the U.S. balked for months, worried that Kyiv could use the weapons to hit deep into Russian territory, enraging Moscow and escalating the conflict.Biden finally greenlighted the delivery last month a...

Canada sanctions ‘Russian collaborators’ in Moldova including oligarchs, TV stations

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:32 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada is sanctioning more citizens of Moldova affiliated with Russian influence in the eastern European country.Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says the nine people and six television stations listed are “Russian collaborators in Moldova.”The people sanctioned include influential oligarchs who are part of the Shor Party, which Ottawa sanctioned in June over efforts to destabilize Moldovan democracy.The six targeted television stations were taken off the air by Moldovan authorities, who say they were disseminating Russian disinformation to justify Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.The sanctions come as Moldova, a fledgling democracy with a pro-western government, aims to co-ordinate international support.Its government claimed in February that Russia-backed elements tried to orchestrate a coup d’état in the country, which borders Ukraine.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2023.The Canadian Press

Toronto police identify victim, name suspect in fatal west-end stabbing

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:32 GMT

Toronto police have identified a woman found stabbed to death at a west-end home and named the man accused of killing her.Police were called to the area of Davenport Road and Uxbridge Avenue, south of St. Clair Avenue West, just before 10:30 p.m. on Sunday night for reports of a man seen with a knife.When officers arrived they took a man into custody.Information following his arrest led police to a home on Chambers Avenue, near Rogers and Old Weston roads, approximately two kilometres from where the man was arrested.Ana Paula Kitterhing De Sousa, 57, was discovered at the home suffering from stab wounds.She was later pronounced dead at the scene.Police have now charged Michael Calvo, 46, of Toronto, with second-degree murder in De Sousa’s death.Investigators have not revealed if Calvo and De Sousa were known to each other prior to her fatal stabbing.

A new memoir serves up life lessons from a childhood in a Chinese restaurant

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:32 GMT

Many parents tell their children never talk to strangers. But Curtis Chin’s parents urged their six kids to ask customers at their Chinese restaurant about their background. It was their way of showing the children a world outside the Detroit restaurant’s four walls.“That is something my parents taught me — not to be afraid of people, not to be afraid to ask questions, not to be afraid of asking for help even,” Chin said in a phone interview from his Los Angeles home. “I would have to say that the Chinese restaurant and my parents are probably my greatest teachers in life.”From co-founding the Asian American Writers’ Workshop to producing documentaries like “Vincent Who?” about the 1982 killing of Vincent Chin, Curtis Chin has been championing other Asian Americans for over 30 years. Now, it’s his turn in the spotlight. His memoir, “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant,” comes out Tuesday. The book, his first, has made several fall “must-re...

Final complainant in Nygard trial testifies about aftermath of alleged Toronto rape

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:43:32 GMT

TORONTO — A woman who has accused Peter Nygard of sexual assault is set to continue her testimony at his Toronto trial today.She testified yesterday that she called the former fashion mogul after her alleged rape because she felt she had made an enemy of a powerful figure in the industry she was trying to break into.She says she doesn’t remember much about the conversation but recalls Nygard being angry on the phone. Nygard, the founder of a now-defunct international women’s clothing company, is accused of using his position in the fashion industry to lure women and girls.The 82-year-old has pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement in alleged incidents ranging from the ’80s to mid-2000s.The fifth and final complainant, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, alleged Nygard flew her to his Toronto office under the guise of helping with her designer aspirations, but what she thought would be a business meetin...