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Council of Europe summit in Iceland seeks to hold Russia to account for waging war in Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:53 GMT

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Leaders from across the continent are laser-focused on holding Russia to account for its invasion of Ukraine and were poised to approve a system during their Council of Europe summit that would precisely establish the damages Moscow would have to pay to rebuild the nation. The 46-nation Council of Europe is opening its first summit in 18 years late Tuesday, fully backing its member state Ukraine and condemning Russia, which was expelled from the organization, for inflicting war on its neighbor.While almost all European nations have provided military support or taken in refugees from Ukraine, the Council of Europe, the continent’s preeminent human rights organization, is uniquely placed to coordinate legal and judicial support.“When we think in terms of reconstruction it’s an enormously important judicial element to have this register of damages to give justice to the victims,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. And after Ukrainia...

US announces criminal cases involving flow of technology, information to Russia, China and Iran

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:53 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department announced a series of criminal cases Tuesday tracing the illegal flow of sensitive technology, including Apple’s software code for self-driving cars and materials used for missiles, to foreign adversaries like Russia, China and Iran.Some of the alleged theft highlighted by the department dates back several years, but U.S. officials are drawing attention to the collection of cases now to highlight the work of a task force created this year to disrupt the transfer of goods to foreign countries.“We are committed to doing all we can to prevent these advanced tools from falling into the hands of adversaries who wield them in a way that threatens not only our national security but democratic values everywhere,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, who heads the Justice Department’s national security division.One of the cases, unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Los Angeles, accuses a former software engineer from Apple of tak...

Cyprus Finance Ministry: More than 1.2 billion euros in Russian assets frozen

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:53 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Some 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in Russian-owned assets managed by Cyprus-registered companies were frozen in compliance with sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, Cyprus’ Finance Ministry said Tuesday.The ministry told The Associated Press “the vast majority” of those assets were held in European Union credit institutions and the entire amount came on top of 105 million euros frozen by banks in Cyprus.The ministry provided the information in response to European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders saying last week that Cyprus appeared to be falling behind on freezing Russian-owned assets.Reynders said that while other EU member nations each froze 2-4 billion euros worth of Russian assets, Cyprus’ reported sum of around 100 million euros “seems to be a little low.”The Finance Ministry said this was an error owed to the European Commission receiving incomplete information – an error since rectified by updating a relevan...

How the American Dream convinces people loneliness is normal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:53 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — At the end of “The Searchers,” one of John Wayne’s most renowned Westerns, a kidnapped girl has been rescued and a family reunited. As the closing music swells, Wayne’s character looks around at his kin — people who have other people to lean on — and then walks off toward the dusty West Texas horizon, lonesome and alone.It’s a classic example of a fundamental American tall tale — that of a nation built on notions of individualism, a male-dominated story filled with loners and “rugged individualists” who suck it up, do what needs to be done, ride off into the sunset and like it that way.In reality, loneliness in America can be deadly. This month, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared it an American epidemic, saying that it takes as deadly a toll as smoking upon the population of the United States. “Millions of people in America are struggling in the shadows,” he said, “and that’s not right.”He cited some potent forces: the gradual withering of l...

Hot and dry conditions persist as wildfires rage through Western Canada

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:53 GMT

Hot and dry conditions are expected to continue as wildfires throughout Western Canada have forced thousands of evacuations and air quality warnings due to smoke as far east as northern Ontario.  Roughly 2,500 people are fighting the fires throughout Alberta and 25 of 88 active wildfires are considered out of control.Wildfires have also been a concern for Alberta’s neighbours, including the Northwest Territories, where the K’atl’odeeche First Nation and town of Hay River, about 120 kilometres from the Alberta boundary, are under evacuation orders. A convoy of vehicles was allowed to leave a northern Saskatchewan village early this morning after Buffalo Narrows issued a mandatory evacuation order.In British Columbia, the City of Fort St. John, about 200 kilometres northwest of Grand Prairie, Alta., also issued an evacuation alert for its roughly 21,000 residents in response to a wildfire that’s more than 130 square kilometres in size.The British Columbia Wildf...

12-year-old Texas boy arrested after fatal shooting at Sonic restaurant

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:53 GMT

KEENE, Texas (AP) — A 12-year-old boy has been arrested on a murder warrant in the fatal shooting of a Sonic Drive-In employee in Texas, police said.Matthew Davis, 32, was shot and killed Saturday night as he fought with Angel Gomez, 20, in the parking lot of the restaurant in Keene, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Dallas, police said.The boy was at the restaurant with Gomez, who was causing an unspecified disturbance in the parking lot, and shot Davis several times after taking a gun from Gomez’s vehicle, according to a police statement.Davis was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said. The boy used an AR-style rifle in the shooting, Police Chief James Kidd told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday.Both Gomez and the boy fled the scene, but Gomez later returned and was arrested on a murder warrant and the boy, whose name has not been released, was found and arrested in the nearby town of Rio Vista, police said.Court records do not show that formal ch...

Pact gives 3 Minnesota tribes stronger voice on land ceded in 1854

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:53 GMT

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — The Superior National Forest and three Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota have signed an agreement that gives the bands a stronger voice in managing natural resources on land that they ceded to the federal government nearly 170 years ago.The agreement protects the treaty rights of the Fond du Lac, Grand Portage and Bois Forte bands within the territory they gave up in 1854 in exchange for hunting, fishing and gathering rights. More than 3 million acres of the ceded territory — about half of it — fall inside the national forest, which covers a huge swath of northeastern Minnesota. The tribes have about 9,000 enrolled members combined.“These bands have been on this landscape from time immemorial, connected to the work of how we sustain these lands,” Tom Hall, supervisor of the Superior National Forest, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. “This is really us standing shoulder to shoulder with the bands, knowing we’re going to face issues and making sure we’re having the r...

Ottawa taps former MTA executive as new president and CEO of Via Rail

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:53 GMT

Ottawa has appointed Mario Péloquin as the new president and CEO of Via Rail Canada Inc., effective June 12.Transport Minister Omar Alghabra says Péloquin will serve a five-year term at the helm of the Crown corporation.Péloquin replaces Martin R. Landry, who stepped into the role last May when previous president and CEO Cynthia Garneau resigned after three years.In a press release, the federal government says Péloquin brings nearly 40 years of experience in the transportation and rail industry to his new job.Péloquin has previously served as the chief operating officer for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and as senior vice-president at SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.Alghabra says the federal government held an open, transparent, and merit-based selection process.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 16, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:SNC)The Canadian Press

South Elgin girl abducted at 9 found safe 6-years later in North Carolina; mom charged

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:53 GMT

SOUTH ELGIN, Ill. — A girl who was abducted from South Elgin when she was 9-years-old was found safe in North Carolina — six years later, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.Kayla Unbehaun at 9 years old, shortly before she went missing in 2017. Kayla Unbehaun was abducted by her mother — Heather Unbehaun — on July 5, 2017 while on a camping trip in South Elgin. After going on the trip with her daughter, the two dropped out of sight.Ryan Iserka, Kayla's father, was supposed to pick up his daughter from her mother's Wheaton home, but neither turned up. Unbehaun did not have custody rights of Kayla. 2018 PREVIOUS COVERAGE: South Elgin dad asks for public’s help on anniversary of 10-year-old’s abduction Unbehaun, 40, was arrested after Kayla was found Saturday in Buncombe County, North Carolina and reunited with her father. Unbehaun faces child abduction charges out of Kane County and is set to be extradited to Illinois.Heather Unbehaun, 40Iserka issue...

Second man charged in robbery, shooting that critically injured Dakotah Earley last year

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:36:53 GMT

CHICAGO — A second person has been charged in the shooting and robbery of Dakotah Earley in May 2022.An 18-year-old man faces one felony county of attempted first-degree murder, one felony count of armed robbery, one felony count of receive/possess/sell a stolen vehicle and one misdemeanor count of criminal trespass to a vehicle, according to police.Police said the 18-year-old was arrested Monday after being identified as one of the offenders who robbed 23-year-old Earley at gunpoint before seriously injuring him on the 1300 block of West Webster in Lincoln Park on May 6, 2022. Dakotah Earley, Lincoln Park robbery victim, now walking, mother says Earley underwent numerous surgeries, including having his leg amputated, before being discharged from the ICU at Illinois Masonic Medical Center in June. By September, Earley was back home, four months after the shooting.A GoFundMe account raised nearly $130,000 for Earley’s medical expenses.The offender was 17-years-old wh...