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Quebec anti-corruption police note proliferation of small-scale schemes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:34 GMT

Quebec’s anti-corruption police force says although the scandals that defined the province’s construction industry in the last decade have subsided, corrupt activities have sprouted on a smaller scale in other sectors.Anti-corruption commissioner Frédérick Gaudreau presented the force’s five-year report in Quebec City today, noting criminal proceedings against 259 people and 57 convictions since 2018.Many of those legal proceedings are ongoing, and 17 of the 57 convictions stemmed from charges filed before 2018, when the anti-corruption unit known as UPAC became a full-fledged police force.Only 44 out of the 259 cases have gone through the entire judicial process in the last five years, and 40 of them resulted in convictions.Instead of large-scale conspiracies, Gaudreau said the force is now seeing smaller, covert corruption schemes.He noted cases at the municipal level, in school administrations and in the health-care sector.This report by The Canadian Press was f...

York U, students’ union, named in $15M lawsuit alleging decades of anti-Semitic campus incidents

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:34 GMT

York University and its students’ union, the York Federation of Students, have been named in a $15 million class-action lawsuit that alleges failure to address recurring anti-Semitic incidents at the school over a span of two decades.Diamond and Diamond Lawyers, which initiated the legal action, says the lawsuit represents current students, recent alumni, and attendees from 1998-2021.“The plaintiffs allege they have been made to feel unsafe on campus, silenced, forced to hide their Jewish identity, been harassed, and even threatened with physical violence,” a release from the law firm states. Related: York U threatens sanctions against student unions over controversial statements about Hamas attacks Diamond and Diamond Lawyers said the school and the student union were negligent “in failing to address anti-Semitic incidents, violating York’s non-discrimination policies, and providing insufficient staff training on handling harassment.&#...

The US is sharing hard lessons from urban combat in Iraq and Syria as Israel prepares to invade Gaza

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:34 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The prospect of Israeli forces launching an assault into Gaza’s dense urban neighborhoods, where militants use civilians as human shields, brings back searing memories of the deadly battles the U.S.-led coalition fought against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.For U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his military leaders, that intense combat and the thousands of civilians killed in airstrikes and neighborhood gunfights in Mosul and Raqqa are lessons to be shared as Israel prepares for a possible ground invasion against Hamas. “In our conversations with the Israelis, and as we’ve made very clear, we’re continuing to highlight, the importance of mitigating civilian casualties and ensuring that … things like safety corridors are thought through,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday. The U.S. can paint a vivid picture of civilian slaughter. During the eight-month siege to liberate Mosul from Islamic insurgents, as many as 10,000...

Venezuelan government escalates attacks on opposition’s primary election as turnout tops forecast

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:34 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s government escalated attacks Tuesday on the past weekend’s opposition primary to choose a challenger for President Nicolás Maduro next year, saying the voter turnout claimed by organizers was inflated and amounted to a crime.Maduro’s government and its allies have spent months hindering opposition efforts to hold their primary election and have banned the now-apparent winner from being a candidate — leaving the effectiveness of Sunday’s poll in doubt. The attacks on the legitimacy of the primary also could sow fear among voters already wary of government reprisals for participating in the polling.National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said the partial results showing participation of at least 1.6 million voters were mathematically impossible given the number of available voting centers and the time it takes a person to cast a ballot.“What happened this past Sunday was not an election, it was a farce, it was a scam,” Rodriguez said Tuesday. ...

Costa Rica investigating $6.1 million bank heist, the largest in national history

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:34 GMT

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Costa Rica is investigating the theft of 3.3 billion colons ($6.1 million) in cash from its national bank, the largest bank robbery in the country’s history, anti-corruption authorities confirmed Tuesday.The money was noticed missing from bank vaults three weeks ago, but the robbery itself must have taken place in August, or earlier, said Jaime Murillo, interim manager of Costa Rica’s Banco Nacional.Two area supervisors, a technician, a guard and an accountant — all of whom worked in the area of the bank that handles currency — are under investigation. All five were suspended with pay once the theft was noticed Oct. 3. No one has been arrested.Murillo said in a press conference that the bank had been investigating the theft privately, but that national prosecutors took up the case after details were leaked to the press and the bank brought an official complaint.Authorities have not provided details about how the theft was carried out.The state...

B.C. moves up zero-emission vehicle targets to meet transition goal by 2035

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:34 GMT

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s government is accelerating its transition to zero-emission vehicles to meet its sales target five years sooner than initially planned.The province says in a news release that, if passed, legislation to amend the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act would increase access and choice for electric vehicle buyers, as new provincial funding expands the charging network.The government would require 100 per cent of new light-duty vehicles, passenger cars and trucks, sold in the province to be emission-free by 2035, five years sooner than the initial goal of 2040.The accelerated timeline calls for automakers to meet the escalating annual percentage for light-duty zero-emission vehicle sales and leases, with targets of 26 per cent by 2026, 90 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2035.The province says it has consistently exceeded the sales target for zero-emission vehicles since the act was first passed in 2019.It says the province also has the highest percentage of ...

Nicaragua is weaponizing US-bound migrants as Haitians pour in on charter flights, observers say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:34 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — More than 260 charter flights believed to be carrying migrants from Haiti have touched down in Nicaragua in recent months, according to flight data and experts in the region, adding to a historic crush of migration by people hoping to reach the U.S.The flow of migrants has left the Biden administration and Latin American leaders scrambling for solutions, and experts say it’s also being used as leverage by governments like Nicaragua’s to get concessions from the U.S. amid tightening sanctions.“The Ortega government knows they have few important policy tools at hand to confront the United States, … so they have armed migration as a way to attack,” said Manuel Orozco, director of the migration, remittances and development program at the Inter-American Dialogue. “This is definitely a concrete example of weaponizing migration as a foreign policy.”Nicaragua has long been used as a migratory springboard for people fleeing struggling Caribbean nati...

'He was my best friend': Mother recuperates after 6-year-old boy killed in attack police call a hate crime

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:34 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A Palestinian American woman whose 6-year-old son was killed in what police are calling a hate crime in a Chicago suburb has asked the public to “pray for peace” as she recuperates from her injuries.Hanaan Shahin issued a statement Tuesday through the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations after meeting with the group's executive director a day earlier. The written statement marked her first public comments since the brutal Oct. 14 attack that left her with more than a dozen stab wounds and stitches on her face. Chicago Interfaith leaders condemn murder of 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoumi Authorities said the family's suburban Chicago landlord singled them out because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the escalating Israel-Hamas war.“Pray for peace,” Shahin said, thanking authorities, doctors and others. She was released from the hospital last week and has declined interviews with reporters.Shahin, who works as a caregiver t...

Teresa Weatherspoon 'beyond excited' to be the new Chicago Sky coach

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:34 GMT

CHICAGO — Stepping to the stage at Wintrust Arena on Tuesday morning, the next on-floor leader of Chicago's WNBA franchise made it clear the journey she'd been on to get to this point.During her introductory news conference, Teresa Weatherspoon made sure her passion for this latest step in basketball - and her faith in the Sky's ability to return to championship contention - was clear."I am one who has been told many times 'no.' I am one who has been told many times or doors have closed many times, like my mother said, when doors close, there's another one that's going to open, and you better to be ready to get in it," said Weatherspoon as she was introduced as the Sky's head coach on Tuesday. "If you don't get in door, come down the chimney, you better get in the window. So I'm coming through the window." "They don't call me 'spoon' for nothing. I'm coming here to stir things up. I am beyond excited to be here. The one thing that I will guarantee you - you can write it in your boo...

Group rams car into River North retail store, steals thousands of dollars worth of items

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:34 GMT

CHICAGO -- A group of thieves got away with thousands of dollars worth of items after crashing a stolen car into a River North retail store early Tuesday morning. According to the Chicago Police Department, a group of five to six individuals used two vehicles, a white Dodge Charger and a pickup truck, to break into the Endless Supply retail store on the 700 block of North Franklin Street just before 6 a.m. on Tuesday. Another Chicago suburb makes a stadium pitch to the Bears The group then made entry into the retail store where they stole merchandise and expensive collectors items, including a $6,000 pair of Jordan 1 sneakers.The group then fled scene in the pickup truck and an unknown third vehicle.The white Dodge Charger was left at the scene and CPD later determined the vehicle was stolen prior to the incident.No one has been taken into custody. The investigation is ongoing.