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Top EU court rules that minorities in Bosnia are ‘akin to second-class citizens’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:54 GMT

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — A top European court ruled in an opinion published Tuesday that Bosnia’s political system, set up under a U.S.-brokered peace deal in the 90s amplifies ethnic divisions and undermines the Balkan country’s democratic elections. The European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, sided with Slaven Kovacevic, a Sarajevo-born political scientist, who sued Bosnia last year arguing that it prevents people who refuse to affiliate with one of Bosnia’s tree dominant ethnic groups from voting for candidates of their choosing.Tuesday’s verdict is the latest in a stream of the ECHR rulings ordering Bosnia to make its constitution less discriminatory. The country’s failure to comply with those verdicts by amending its constitution is a stumbling block on Bosnia’s path towards its stated goal of joining the European Union.In the summary of its verdict, the court ruled that Bosnia’s power-sharing arrangements have turned the country into an “ethnoc...

High Liner Foods chief executive Rod Hepponstall stepping down

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:54 GMT

LUNENBURG, N.S. — High Liner Foods Inc. says chief executive Rod Hepponstall is stepping down.The company says its board has accepted Hepponstall’s resignation, effective on or before Jan. 2, 2024.High Liner says it will begin a comprehensive internal and external search for a new CEO.Hepponstall has been chief executive at the seafood company since May 2018.He is expected to help the company on a transition plan.High Liner is a processor and marketer of frozen seafood.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:HLF)The Canadian Press

The U.N. says at least 183 people have been killed in Ethiopia over Amhara region unrest since July

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:54 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United Nations human rights office says at least 183 people have been killed in clashes in Ethiopia’s Amhara region since July as Amhara fighters resist efforts by the federal government to disband them.The U.N. office on Tuesday also said the human rights situation in Ethiopia is deteriorating, with more than 1,000 people reportedly arrested under a state of emergency declared early this month over the unrest.“Many of those detained were reported to be young people of Amhara ethnic origin suspected of being Fano supporters,” the U.N. office said, referring to the name of the Amhara militia. “Since early August, mass house-to-house searches have reportedly been taking place, and at least three Ethiopian journalists covering the situation in the Amhara region have been detained.”The U.N. statement said detainees have reportedly been held in improvised detention centres without basic amenities. It called for those arbitrarily detained to be released and for a...

127-year-old water main gives way under NYC’s Times Square, flooding streets, subways

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:54 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A 127-year-old water main under New York’s Times Square gave way early Tuesday, flooding midtown streets and the busy Times Square subway station.The 20-inch (half-meter) water main gave way under 40th Street and Seventh Avenue at 3 a.m., said Rohit Aggarwala, commissioner of New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection.It took DEP crews about an hour to find the source of the leak and shut the water off, Aggarwala said.The excavation left “a big hole at the intersection of 40th Street and Seventh Avenue,” he said.While that intersection remained closed to car traffic, surrounding streets were open by rush hour.Subway service, however, was suspended through much of Manhattan on the 1, 2 and 3 lines, which run directly under the broken pipe.Aggarwala said it appeared that only two local businesses were without left without water at the start of the work day.The Associated Press

Israelis on a flight that made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia return to Tel Aviv

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:54 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A plane carrying Israelis home from the Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles made an emergency stop in Saudi Arabia before flying back to Tel Aviv on Tuesday, in what Israel praised as a sign of goodwill as Washington works to establish formal relations between the two countries.Israeli media reported the Air Seychelles flight carrying 128 passengers was forced to land Monday because of an electrical malfunction. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the passengers spent the night at an airport hotel in Jeddah and were flown back by the airline on an alternate plane.Israel and Saudi Arabia do not have official ties, although they have developed strong but informal connections over recent years over their shared concerns about Iran’s growing influence in the region. After Israel and four Arab states signed normalization deals in 2020 under the former Trump administration, President Joe Biden has been working to strike a similar agreement with Saudi Arabia.I...

Los Angeles politician Mark Ridley-Thomas is sentenced to more than 3 years in prison for corruption

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:54 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A veteran Los Angeles politician was sentenced Monday to 3 1/2 years in prison for a scheme in which he sought benefits for his son in exchange for supporting lucrative government contracts with the University of Southern California School of Social Work.Mark Ridley-Thomas, most recently a city councilmember, was sentenced in U.S. District Court on seven felony convictions including conspiracy, bribery and fraud for actions while he was a member of the powerful Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.Judge Dale S. Fischer also ordered Ridley-Thomas, 68, to pay a $30,000 fine.A jury in March found that Ridley-Thomas schemed in 2017 and 2018 with Marilyn Louise Flynn, then dean of USC’s School of Social Work, to funnel $100,000 from a Ridley-Thomas campaign fund through the university to a nonprofit run by his son.Prosecutors said the son also received graduate school admission, a scholarship and a paid professorship in the course of the conspiracy and bribery...

Investigation finds late founder of Japanese talent agency for boy bands sexually assaulted teens

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:54 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — A team investigating sexual assault allegations by the late founder of a powerful talent agency for boy bands has found the charges credible, calling Tuesday for compensation for the victims and the resignation of the current chief executive. The three-month probe, which included speaking with 23 victims, concluded that Johnny Kitagawa sexually assaulted and abused boys as far back as the 1950s and targeted at least several hundred people. The investigative panel said Johnny & Associates must apologize, strengthen compliance measures and educate its ranks about human rights. Julie Keiko Fujishima, the chief executive, must resign for not taking action over the years, according to the special team. Kitagawa died in 2019 and was never charged. “The company’s coverup led to the sexual abuse continuing unchecked for so long,” investigative team leader Makoto Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “There were many opportunities to take action.” Critics say what happened at Joh...

3 arrested after armed robbery, crash on Northwest Side: police

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:54 GMT

CHICAGO — Three people were arrested after an armed robbery led to a crash on the city's Northwest Side.The suspects allegedly were in a white SUV, which is a similar description of a getaway vehicle used in robberies over the weekend.Chicago police have not released many details of the suspects who were arrested just before 9:30 p.m. Monday in the Bucktown neighborhood. The three suspects robbed a 51-year-old woman on the 2000 block of Mozart before crashing the white SUV. Police have not said if the suspects are connected to the carjacking that happened Sunday night on the 1200 block of North Milwaukee Avenue. In that incident, a woman's white SUV was stolen and possibly used in another robbery that left a woman in the hospital.Over the weekend, multiple robberies took place in the city's West Town and Bucktown neighborhoods. Several carjackings, armed robberies within 2-hour span on Chicago’s North and West sides: police One of the incidents happened at the Illinois Auto Repair...

Hurricane Idalia forecast to become 'extremely dangerous' major hurricane, NHC says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:54 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Idalia strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane early Tuesday and is expected to rapidly intensify in the Gulf of Mexico.The National Hurricane Center said Idalia is about 370 miles south-southwest of Tampa. The storm's winds increased to 80 mph.Idalia is forecast to make landfall along the northwest Gulf Coast of Florida some time on Wednesday as an "extremely dangerous" Category 3 major hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center. As of the 5 a.m. update, Idalia was over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, moving north at 14 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The NHC shifted Idalia's track slightly west. Do I need to evacuate? Orders issued for several counties ahead of Idalia Storm surge remains the biggest threat with Idalia, with some areas north of Tampa Bay expected to see 8 to 12 feet of storm surge, with 4 to 9 feet in the Tampa Bay area and 3 to 7 feet south of Tampa Bay. The storm surge threat is increased thanks to higher-than-...

Neurosurgeon probing patient's mystery symptoms plucks worm from woman's brain

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:38:54 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A neurosurgeon investigating a woman’s mystery symptoms in an Australian hospital says she plucked a wriggling worm from the patient’s brain.Surgeon Hari Priya Bandi was performing a biopsy through a hole in the 64-year-old patient’s skull at Canberra Hospital last year when she used forceps to pull out the parasite, which measured 8 centimeters, or 3 inches."I just thought: ‘What is that? It doesn’t make any sense. But it’s alive and moving,’” Bandi was quoted Tuesday in The Canberra Times newspaper.“It continued to move with vigor. We all felt a bit sick,” Bandi added of her operating team.The creature was the larva of an Australian native roundworm not previously known to be a human parasite, named Ophidascaris robertsi. The worms are commonly found in carpet pythons.This undated photo supplied by Canberra Health Services, shows a parasite in a specimen jar at a Canberra hospital in Australia. A neurosurgeon investigating a patient's mystery neurologica...