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Union leaves bargaining table as federal workers hit picket lines Wednesday morning

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:29 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s largest federal public-service union has left the bargaining table but says it is standing by to resume negotiations when the federal government comes back with a new offer. Federal workers were hitting the picket lines across the country on Wednesday after Canada’s largest federal public-service union and the government failed to reach a deal by a Tuesday evening deadline.On Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said negotiations had paused. “Obviously, Canadians have a right and deserve to get the services that they need from the federal government. That’s why we need the management and labour to get back to the bargaining table as soon as possible, and continue to make progress,” Trudeau said. In a statement, Public Service Alliance of Canada national president Chris Aylward said “bargaining teams are standing by and ready to bargain when the employer comes back to the table with a new mandate.” A late Tuesday...

Supreme Court rejects Turkish bank’s arguments in Iran case

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a Turkish bank’s main arguments for dismissing a lawsuit accusing it of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions, but the court sent the case back for additional review.Halkbank, a bank owned by Turkey, had argued that a federal law, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, gave foreign states absolute immunity from criminal prosecution in U.S. courts. It also said federal courts don’t have jurisdiction to oversee the case.“We disagree with Halkbank on both points,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for himself and six of his eight colleagues.Still, Kavanaugh said the case should go back to a lower court for further review. He said the lower court “did not fully consider the various arguments regarding common-law immunity that the parties press in this Court.”The federal government says the bank “participated in the largest-known conspiracy to evade the United States’ economic sanctions on Iran,” laundering billions of ...

Suspect sought in random TTC bus stabbing

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:29 GMT

Toronto police are trying to track down a man accused of randomly stabbing a bus rider, and threatening another person with a sharp object in a separate incident at a subway station.Police say the first incident took place on Friday, April 7, at around 10:15 p.m. at Eglinton Subway Station.The victim was at the station when he was approached by the suspect, who threatened him with a sharp object.The suspect then fled the scene, jumping onto a subway train.A few days later on April 11, police were called to the Black Creek Drive and Eglinton Avenue area for reports of a stabbing.Police say the suspect and victim were on the same TTC bus travelling westbound on Eglinton Avenue West.The suspect reportedly approached the victim unprovoked and stabbed him before jumping off the bus and fleeing on Black Creek drive.Toronto police are trying to identify a suspect in two separate incidents on TTC property, including a random stabbing on a bus. (Toronto Police)He’s described as five fe...

Radio-Canada should get back to core mandate, says Conservative Quebec senator

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:29 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal Conservatives’ top Quebec Tory says the party’s concerns about the CBC do not apply to the broadcaster’s French-language wing, but one of its senators suggests there is a need to look at it mandate. Quebec Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, speaking in French, told reporters on his way into the party’s weekly caucus meeting this morning that Radio-Canada’s mandate should be re-centred to its core mission. Boisvenu says the party’s position has always been that if the public money the broadcaster receives is put into programming such as variety shows that compete with the private market, that’s an unhealthy situation.The Conservatives’ position to cut the roughly $1 billion CBC receives in annual funding is in the spotlight after its leader, Pierre Poilievre, asked Twitter to add the label of “government-funded media” to its main account, which the social-media giant did late Sunday. Poilievre did not ask comp...

Mexico says U.S. police shooting ‘unreasonable’ use of force

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:29 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican government said Wednesday that the police shooting earlier this month of a Mexican man in California represented an “unreasonable” use of lethal force. Police in Oxnard, California shot to death Cristian Baltazar Torres, 18, on April 7. A video distributed by the police department showed Torres holding a knife and refusing to follow orders to drop it as he approached several officers. Despite being hit by a taser and a beanbag round, Torres kept advancing with the knife. He was then hit by at least one live round from the officers’ guns, and later died. Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department called for an investigation. “After an initial review of incident by recognized experts in the field of civil rights litigation, there has been an opinion that the use of lethal force against Cristian Baltazar was unreasonable,” the department said in a statement.The Oxnard police department said investigations are under way.The Associated Press

Otis Redding III, who followed father into music, dies at 59

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:29 GMT

MACON, Ga. (AP) — Singer and guitarist Otis Redding III, the son and namesake of the legendary 1960s soul singer, has died from cancer at age 59, his family said Wednesday.Redding was just 3 years old when his father, Otis Redding, perished along with several band members in a plane crash on Dec. 10, 1967. More than a decade later, the younger Redding and his brother, Dexter, formed the funk band The Reddings, which recorded six albums in the 1980s.“It is with heavy hearts that the family of Otis Redding III confirms that he lost his battle with cancer last evening,” said his sister, Karla Redding-Andrews, in a statement posted on the Facebook page of the Otis Redding Foundation, the family’s charity in Macon.Though singles “Remote Control” and “Call The Law” by The Reddings made appearances on the Billboard music charts, the Redding brothers never matched their father’s success. Redding continued playing and performing after the band recorded its final album in 19...

S&P/TSX composite down as energy and base metal sectors move lower

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:29 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index edged lower in late-morning trading, weighed down by losses in the energy and base metal stocks, while U.S. stock markets also moved lower. The S&P/TSX composite index was down 13.00 points at 20,671.68.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 97.40 points at 33,879.23. The S&P 500 index was down 11.50 points at 4,143.37, while the Nasdaq composite was down 40.40 points at 12,113.01.The Canadian dollar traded for 74.44 cents US compared with 74.70 cents US on Tuesday.The June crude contract was down US$1.37 at US$79.53 per barrel and the May natural gas contract was down 14 cents at US$2.23 per mmBTU.The June gold contract was down US$12.60 at US$2,007.10 an ounce and the May copper contract was down two cents at US$4.07 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)The Canadian Press

Sudanese flee their homes as truce fails, fighting rages

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:29 GMT

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Terrified Sudanese who have been trapped for days in their homes by fighting in the capital of Khartoum fled on Wednesday, hauling out whatever belongings they could carry and trying to get out of the city, after an internationally brokered truce failed. Explosions shook the city as the army and a rival paramilitary force battled for a fifth day in the streets.The swift failure of the 24-hour cease-fire, despite pressure from the United States and regional powers, suggested that Sudan’s two top generals were determined to crush each other in a potentially prolonged fight for control of the country. It also underscored the inability of the international community to force a stop to the violence, with millions of people caught in the crossfire.Residents of multiple neighborhoods in Khartoum told The Associated Press they could see hundreds of people, including women and children, leaving their homes, carrying luggage, some leaving by foot, others crowding ...

Aetna to provide free laundry to Chicago residents 

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:29 GMT

CHICAGO — Aetna Better Health of Illinois is trying to help Chicagoans with their laundry.The program is partnering with laundromats across the state to give back to underserved communities — and providing free laundry Wednesday."This collaboration with local laundromats is helping us achieve our mission to improve the overall health of our communities," said Rushil Desai, CEO, Aetna Better Health of Illinois. "By providing a critical lifeline to medical care, literacy programs, and healthy foods, Aetna looks to ensure care is attainable to all."Free laundry is available on a first come, first served basis at the following locations:1400 E. 47th St Unit A in the Kenwood neighborhood from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.7120 S Yates Blvd in the South Shore neighborhood from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.Limit of two laundry cycles per participating family.Not only can you get free laundry, AETNA is offering health screenings, food insecurity programs and story-time reading for kids.For more information, go to: ww...

Two teens charged in Alabama birthday shooting that killed 4, wounded 32

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:00:29 GMT

DADEVILLE, Ala. (WRBL) — Alabama authorities announced the arrest of two teenage suspects in connection to the Dadeville mass shooting.16-year-old Travis McCullough and 17-year-old Tyreik McCullough, both of Tuskegee, Alabama, were arrested and charged with four counts each of reckless murder.“Make no mistake: This is Alabama and when you pull out a gun and you start shooting people, we’re going to put you in jail, okay?” Sgt. Jeremy Burkett of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said. “We’re tired of going to the mothers and having to tell them that these kids are not coming home.” 4 killed, 32 injured in Alabama birthday party shooting District Attorney Mike Segrest said both suspects would be charged as adults. Prosecutors planned to ask a judge to hold them without bail. A bond hearing must be held by Friday under Alabama law.Around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, four people were killed and 32 were injured in the shooting at a Sweet 16 birthday party for Alexis Dowdell in downtown Dad...