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Nobel Peace Prize guesswork focuses on the Ukrainian war, protests in Iran and climate change

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:04 GMT

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, who will join the ranks of Elie Wiesel, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, will be revealed on Friday and the annual guessing game has reached its climax.As usual, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has dropped no hints about who’s in the running this year, leaving those speculating with very little to go on.Bookmakers who take bets on prospective winners are giving the lowest odds to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. However, guessing a winner is notoriously hard and the bookies rarely get it right. Zelenskyy would seem like an unlikely choice, as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to spread death and destruction. When the committee has picked world leaders embroiled in conflicts in the past, it has usually been after they reached a peace agreement.“I don’t think the panel can give it to a national leader in the midst...

Ex-treasurer for Rep. George Santos pleads guilty to conspiracy, tells of bogus loan and fake donors

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:04 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The ex-treasurer for U.S. Rep. George Santos pleaded guilty Thursday to a fraud conspiracy charge and implicated the indicted New York Republican in a scheme to embellish his campaign finance reports with a fake loan and fake donors.Nancy Marks, who was a close aide to Santos during his two congressional bids, entered the plea at a federal courthouse on Long Island, where she was a longtime political operative and bookkeeper for multiple candidates.Speaking to the judge, Marks said that among other things, she and Santos had submitted bogus campaign finance reports falsely saying he had loaned his campaign $500,000 even though in reality he didn’t have that kind of money and the loan didn’t exist. She said the purpose of the fake loan was to make it look like he was richer than he really was, which might attract other donors including a Republican committee. Reading from a prepared statement, Marks also said she had provided the Federal Elections Commissi...

Accused in secrets case was expected to achieve ‘significant outcomes’ for RCMP

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:04 GMT

OTTAWA — Evidence at the trial of a former RCMP intelligence official charged with breaching Canada’s secrets law reveals he led a unit expected to work in a complex, high-pressure environment.A detailed job description for Cameron Jay Ortis says he became director of the national police force’s Operations Research group in 2013. The unit had the task of assembling and developing classified information on terror cells, transnational criminal networks, cybercrime actors and commercial espionage.“Given the perspective of imminent national security threats, the unit must evolve in a no fail operational environment that demands that its outputs lead to significant outcomes,” says the job description, filed in Ontario Superior Court as part of a statement of agreed facts in the case.The unit director is expected to manage a high-risk program that provides actionable packages of information to senior RCMP executives, the description says.It adds the director is key...

Quebec tables bill to sue drug companies for health-care costs linked to opioids

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:04 GMT

QUEBEC — The Quebec government has introduced a bill that would allow it to join a proposed class-action lawsuit against more than 40 pharmaceutical companies and retailers accused of downplaying the harmful effects of opioids. Quebec’s bill, introduced Thursday, would permit the province to sue opioid makers, wholesalers and consultants for health-care costs resulting from their alleged failure to warn the public of the risks associated with their drugs. The legislation also grants Quebec the ability to join lawsuits launched by other provinces.“The opioid crisis is hitting hard in Quebec,” Lionel Carmant, minister responsible for social services, told reporters in Quebec City after he tabled the bill. “Today, we’re seeing more and more people affected, particularly in Montreal. It’s very concerning.”The class-action lawsuit application, launched in 2018 by the British Columbia government on behalf of the federal government and the province...

Dominican authorities are searching for caretaker after bodies of 6 newborns are found near cemetery

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:04 GMT

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Police in the Dominican Republic said Thursday they are looking for a cemetery caretaker as part of an investigation into the bodies of six newborns found discarded near a cemetery in the capital of Santo Domingo.Earlier this week, the spokeswoman for a nearby hospital said the institution had turned over the bodies of six newborns to funeral home El Popular for proper burial.The country’s National Health Service confirmed to The Associated Press that the bodies turned over on Tuesday were the same ones found early Wednesday near the cemetery.The owner of the funeral home, identified as Julián Encarnación Montero, told Noticias SIN that the bodies were taken to the cemetery and given to the missing caretaker.He told the TV news station that he has a copy of the conversation in which the unidentified caretaker allegedly said he received the bodies and then forgot about them.Authorities have said the babies died on different dates of different ...

A homeless man is charged with capital murder and rape in the death of a 5-year-old Kansas girl

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:04 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 25-year-old homeless man was charged Thursday with murder and rape in the killing of a 5-year-old girl in Topeka, Kansas. Mickel Cherry faces one count each of capital murder, first-degree murder and rape in the death of Zoey Felix on Monday. He was jailed in Topeka on a $2 million bond and his next court appearance has not yet been determined.Mark Manna, of the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit, said his office would represent Cherry, but that he had no further comment. Cherry’s family didn’t respond to messages. A capital murder charge would allow prosecutors to seek the death penally, but Shawnee County prosecutor Michael Kagay didn’t respond to an email from The Associated Press asking about his plans. Kagay said in a news release that Topeka police rushed to a gas station where fire crews were attempting to save Zoey’s life. She was later pronounced dead. A medical examination at the hospital revealed injuries consistent with sexual assault. Au...

Criminal charges lodged against Hartford ex-officer accused of lying to get warrant and faking stats

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:04 GMT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A former Hartford police officer accused by his own department of lying to get an arrest warrant and inflating his traffic enforcement states has been criminally charged with perjury, forgery and computer crime.Michael R. Fallon, whose late father was the chief of Connecticut State Capitol Police, turned himself in Tuesday at the department, Lt. Aaron Boisvert, a police spokesperson, said Thursday. He was released on a promise to appear in court next Wednesday, according to court records.A message was left at a phone number for Fallon found in public records. Court records do not list a lawyer for him, a court clerk said.Police Chief Jason Thody has said Fallon, 28, admitted to falsifying records and an internal affairs investigation substantiated the allegations against him. Fallon resigned in March before the investigation was complete, avoiding potential discipline, records show. Thody said the department has notified the state agency that decertifies polic...

Fired Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald is suing school for $130M for wrongful termination

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:04 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Former Northwestern University football coach Pat Fitzgerald is suing the school for $130 million, saying his alma mater wrongfully fired him in the wake of a hazing and abuse scandal that has engulfed the athletic department.The announcement by Chicago-based attorney Dan K. Webb on Thursday comes nearly three months after Fitzgerald was suspended and then fired after 17 years as head coach of the Wildcats. Webb said that Fitzgerald would also be seeking additional money for “infliction of emotional distress,” future lost income and punitive damages. The $130 million includes $68 million remaining in owed salary plus $62 million in future lost income, Webb added. The suit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court against the university and its President Michael Schill, he said. A hearing is scheduled for Dec. 7.“If there was ever — if there was ever — an athletic coach at Northwestern University that should not have been terminated, it’s Coach Fitzgerald,” Webb sai...

3 Chicago women charged with stealing from 2 Ulta Beauty stores in Naperville

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:04 GMT

NAPERVILLE, Ill. — Three Chicago women are charged with shoplifting from two Ulta Beauty stores in the Naperville area, police announced Thursday.Around 2 p.m. Wednesday, area police officers conducted surveillance on two Ulta Beauty stores in Naperville after learning that a group in a black Mercedes had allegedly committed retail thefts at two nearby stores. According to police, Naperville detectives observed the three women exit the vehicle and enter the store in the 2700 block of Aurora Avenue. A short time later, police noticed the group leaving the store with two baskets of allegedly stolen merchandise.The three women — 20-year-old Jayla M. Alston, 19-year-old Skylar L. Escoe and 19-year-old Darielle Wrice — were arrested shortly thereafter and each charged with two counts of felony retail theft and one count of felony burglary.Jayla M. AlstonSkylar L. EscoeDarielle L. WriceWrice is also charged with attempted criminal damage to government property and driving without a valid ...

President Biden praises Dianne Feinstein as defender of American values at San Francisco memorial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:04 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Joe Biden praised the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday as a dear friend and a woman of deep integrity who fought to protect what was important to America: freedom, civil liberties, security and the U.S. Constitution. “She was always tough, prepared, rigorous, compassionate. She always served the people of California and our nation for the right reasons,” Biden said in recorded video remarks played at Feinstein's memorial outside San Francisco City Hall. Roughly 1,500 invited guests were at the private service, where two large screens showed photos of Feinstein over the years. Guests seated in white chairs sweltered on an unseasonably hot day as the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flight team soared overhead, occasionally interrupting speakers with the roar of their jets.The flight demonstration squadron is in the city as part of Fleet Week, an annual San Francisco celebration started by Feinstein in 1981 when she was mayor. Vice President Kamala Harris and...