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Hungary to delay vote on NATO membership for Sweden, Finland

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:40 GMT

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A long-delayed vote in Hungary’s parliament on ratifying the NATO accession bids of Sweden and Finland will likely be postponed again following a proposal from a senior government official. In a letter published Tuesday by Hungarian news website hvg.hu, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen requested that a parliamentary session scheduled to begin on March 20 — during which lawmakers were expected to vote on the two Nordic countries joining the military alliance — be postponed to a week later. Semjen cited Hungary’s ongoing negotiations with the European Union’s executive branch over Budapest’s alleged breaches of the bloc’s rule-of-law requirements as the reason for the delay. The speaker of Hungary’s parliament, himself a member of Semjen’s ruling coalition, must approve the request for a postponement.Hungary remains the only NATO member country — besides Turkey — that hasn’t yet approved the two Nordic countries’ bid...

Zendejas will represent US long-term instead of Mexico

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:40 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Alejandro Zendejas says he is committing to the U.S. national team over Mexico.The 25-year-old forward made his U.S. debut in a Jan. 25 exhibition against Serbia but remained eligible to ask FIFA for a one-time switch of affiliation to Mexico.Zendejas started three matches for the U.S. at the 2015 Under-17 World Cup, where he was a teammate of Christian Pulisic and Tyler Adams, then played for Mexico in friendlies against Ecuador in October 2021 and Guatemala last April plus three under-23 matches for El Tri.Mexico was ordered to forfeit all five matches and fined 10,000 Swiss francs ($10,900) by FIFA for using Zendejas while he was affiliated with the U.S.“I am very proud of being Mexican-American. Values from both cultures have made me the person I am today,” Zendejas said in a statement Tuesday. “Making a decision on your international career is very difficult, and I believe in following your heart. Mine tells me that my future lies representing the USA.”Zend...

Could scientist Claudia Sheinbaum be Mexico’s next leader?

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:40 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is a year away from electing its next head of state and the potential candidate getting the most attention is an environmental scientist who might become the first female leader of Latin America’s second-largest economy. One poll shows Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum nearly 20 points ahead of her closest rival in their ruling party. A globally recognized scientist, Sheinbaum, 60, shares the leftist ideals of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. In an interview with The Associated Press Sheinbaum, like López Obrador, blamed the neoliberal economic policies of past presidents for exacerbating inequities.But the leaders would diverge on their approach.López Obrador has sought to create jobs regardless of their environmental consequences, dedicating resources to propping up Mexico’s state-owned oil company before supporting a few projects by American renewable-energy companies. In contrast, Sheinbaum holds a PhD in engineering, served on the Intergovernme...

Suspect fires at officers attempting to serve warrant in Northwest Miami-Dade

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:40 GMT

There was danger on duty for some police officers as they were serving a warrant. Miami-Dade Police Department’s Special Response Team (SRT) came under fire when they were serving the warrant at a home on Fifth Avenue and 82nd Terrace, Tuesday morning. “There was an individual in the master bedroom that was barricaded inside, and as they were approaching that master bedroom, multiple gunshots were fired from within that bedroom out,” said MDPD Det. Alvaro Zabaleta. According to police, the shots were fired at around 6:30 a.m. by a man at the center of a violent felony investigation. “Not only did he open fire towards our officers, but had a total disregard that he had a 1-year-old inside of that bedroom as well,” Zabaleta said. No one was hurt during the standoff. This latest incident comes days after another MDPD officer came under fire and was grazed in the head as he tried to make an arrest. Five people were arrested during that incident, which inclu...

Shooting in Dania Beach leaves 1 injured; nearby school on lockdown

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:40 GMT

A shooting that occurred on Tuesday has left one man injured and a nearby elementary school on lockdown. The incident took place at around noon at a duplex located on Northwest Ninth Avenue. The authorities have cordoned off the area and are currently investigating the incident.The Dania Beach Police Department and the Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies were at the scene investigating the shooting. In an abundance of caution, the nearby Collins Elementary School was put on lockdown as police searched for the shooter. According to the authorities, an adult male was shot at least once and was immediately taken to Memorial Regional Hospital by rescue crews.Live video footage captured by 7SkyForce showed the wounded man arriving at the hospital’s trauma center seeking treatment. His condition is unknown at this time.School board police officers have set up a perimeter around the school to ensure that anyone who fled from the shooting could not enter the building.Authorities h...

Abducted, Raped, and Locked in Shed: Dallas Teen’s Horrific Encounter with Online Predator in North Carolina

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:40 GMT

(CNN) — A 13-year-old girl reported missing in Dallas was found locked in a shed more than 1,000 miles away in North Carolina after she was abducted and raped by a man she met on a social media platform, authorities said.The girl was found in Lexington, about an hour’s drive northeast of Charlotte, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.The sheriff’s office said it was contacted about the case Friday evening by a special agent with the FBI in Texas. The FBI, working with Dallas police, determined an adult man had been chatting with the girl online, the sheriff’s office said.“The content of the chat was consistent with grooming and enticement,” the release said.Cameras near the teen’s home captured a vehicle registered to a man living in Davidson County and the sheriff’s office, along with agents from the FBI field office in Greensboro, located the vehicle and conducted a traffic stop as it was leaving the reg...

News channel France 24 suspends four journalists over anti-Semitism allegations

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:40 GMT

PARIS – France’s state-funded news channel France 24 has suspended four journalists working for its Arabic service over allegations of anti-Semitism.In a press release published Monday, the international channel said that the journalists had been taken off-air pending an internal investigation into allegations made by media watchdog Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).“After the publication of an article on the CAMERA website […], implicating a journalist and three Arabic-language correspondents of France 24 regarding certain comments they allegedly posted on their personal pages on social networks, the channel’s management has immediately opened an audit on these alleged posts,” France 24 said.The media-monitoring group has accused the journalists of making references to the Holocaust and of bias in their reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on social media.France 24’s Society of Journalists, a body representing the interests of ...

Judge Claise to stay on in Qatargate corruption probe

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:40 GMT

Michel Claise, the Belgian judge leading the European Parliament corruption probe, will remain in his role after a request to remove him was dismissed by a Belgian appeals court Tuesday. A spokesperson for the federal prosecutor confirmed a Le Soir report that Claise could stay on. Claise has emerged as the face of the investigation into foreign countries allegedly influencing the European Parliament’s work by handing out cash to lawmakers, ever since the raids started on December 9. But his involvement in the case was in jeopardy after Maxim Töller, the lawyer of detained Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella, filed a request for Claise to recuse himself from the investigation. He claimed that Claise had shown bias against his client, as allegedly evidenced in the arrest warrant against him, which said that Tarabella’s public positions on Qatar changed after a suspicious transfer of funds.Claise refused to step away but, per Belgian law, such a request automatically must be assess...

Italy wants more evidence before transferring Qatargate-linked MEP to Belgium, lawyers say

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:40 GMT

It is happening again. Italian judges on Tuesday postponed — for the second time — a ruling on whether to hand over to Belgium the Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino, a key suspect in the alleged cash-for-influence network in the European Parliament, his lawyers confirmed to POLITICO.The reasons, according to Cozzolino’s lawyers, are that the transfer to a Belgian prison might endanger their client’s poor state of health and more specific evidence is needed from prosecutors in Brussels. Cozzolino is currently under house arrest in Naples and attended the court hearing on Tuesday, according to media reports.In February Belgian prosecutors issued a European arrest warrant for Cozzolino, accusing him of accepting bribes from Morocco in exchange for favoring the country’s interests in the European Parliament.  Cozzolino’s lawyer Vincenzo Domenico Ferraro told POLITICO that “we submitted a request for further evidence from Belgium on the issue of prisons and on the inves...

DA: 14-year-old boy dead, his mother in critical condition after Brockton shooting

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:40 GMT

A 14-year-old boy is dead and his 39-year-old mother is in critical condition after a shooting in Brockton early Tuesday morning, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office. Officers responding to a 911 call for a report of a shooting at 93 Tribou Street around 2 a.m. found the teen boy and woman suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. The teen was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His mother was taken to Boston Medical Center, where she remains for treatment.“I just cant imagine the heartbreak and everything else,” said neighbor Kimberly Couto. “She’s in the hospital and not knowing what’s going on.”Neither victim’s name has been released. However, school administrators have confirmed the teen was a ninth grader at Brockton Therapeutic Day School, where counselors are on hand Tuesday to deal with his classmates’ grief. Police say a 38-year-old man has been taken into custody. ...