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On a US tour, Ukrainian faith leaders plead for continued support against the Russian invasion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Like other Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy in a delegation of Ukrainian interfaith leaders visiting the United States this week, Bishop Ivan Rusyn has a succinct message: “Please, hear our cry.”The deputy senior bishop of the Ukrainian Evangelical Church, a Protestant denomination, said that since the February 2022 Russian invasion, some of his church’s pastors have been killed, and its seminary has been attacked by missiles. In Russian-occupied areas, he said, the church has been forced underground.“To make it short, it has been hell” in occupied areas, Rusyn said during a visit Monday by a delegation of the All Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations at the U.S. Institute of Peace.“We are not speaking about social marginalization,” he said. “We are speaking about people being murdered because they have different faith.”He and the other clergy thanked the United States for its aid to Ukraine and ask for continued support. Group members said R...

‘Chronic underfunding’: 22 Quebec Indigenous police forces file rights complaint

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:29 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec’s 22 Indigenous police forces have filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission accusing the Public Safety Department of chronic underfunding.Shawn Dulude, president of the Quebec Association of First Nation and Inuit Police Directors, says federal funding for Indigenous police has set forces up to fail.Dulude, who is also chief of the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service, says funding levels prevent Indigenous police from providing basic services on par with other forces across the country. He says the alleged underfunding of Indigenous police extends beyond the communities they serve and affects national security.Benoît Amyot, a lawyer representing the First Nations police, says they hope the case will be accepted by the commission and referred to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, which hears discrimination cases and can dole out financial compensation.Public Safety Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment today.This report by...

Mexico says four more sunken boats found in Acapulco bay after Hurricane Otis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:29 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican navy said Tuesday that four more boats have been located on the bottom of Acapulco bay, bringing to 33 the number of vessels that apparently sank when Hurricane Otis slammed into the resort city last week.The boats are believed to have been one of the key sources of hurricane deaths, because many crews are missing and apparently stayed aboard their craft when the Category 5 storm hit. So far, 47 people have been confirmed killed, including three foreign residents.Navy Secretary José Rafael Ojeda said a ship with a crane has arrived. and that search teams hope to start lifting the boats to the surface soon to check for victims. “We have located 33 vessels, and we are going to start trying to lift them,” Ojeda said.However, with just one crane working, lifting the boats to the surface could take weeks, raising the prospect of a long, agonizing wait for relatives. On Monday, a handful of relatives demonstrated on Acapulco’s mud-clogged main boulevar...

Energy and telecom stocks help boost S&P/TSX composite, U.S. stock markets mixed

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:29 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s main stock index was up in late-morning trading, helped higher by strength in the energy and telecommunications stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.The S&P/TSX composite index was up 33.38 points at 18,890.14.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 16.56 points at 32,912.40. The S&P 500 index was up 3.63 points at 4,170.45, while the Nasdaq composite was down 26.69 points at 12,762.79.The Canadian dollar traded for 72.02 cents US compared with 72.29 cents US on Monday.The December crude contract was up 33 cents at US$82.64 per barrel and the December natural gas contract was up 18 cents at US$3.53 per mmBTU.The December gold contract was down 40 cents at US$2,005.20 an ounce and the December copper contract was down two cents at US$3.64 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) The Canadian Press

Toronto named Canada’s ‘rattiest’ city for second year in a row

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:29 GMT

Toronto has been named the ‘rattiest’ city in Canada, again.Orkin, the pest control company, released its annual list of Canadian cities with rodent issues (see rankings below) and Ontario’s capital topped the list for the second consecutive year. The company says the six has a higher population of the pests than any other place in the country.Mississauga and Scarborough were the only other GTA cities that cracked the top 10. The GTHA is well-represented in the top 25 with Brampton, Etobicoke, North York, Hamilton and Oshawa all making the list. Ottawa and Sudbury were the only other Ontario representatives.The company says the rankings are based on the number of commercial and residential rodent calls that Orkin received from the start of August 2022 through to the end of July 2023. It includes calls for both rats and mice.The top 10 rattiest cities in Canada in 2023:TorontoVancouverBurnabyKelownaMississaugaRichmondVictoriaOttawaScarboroughMonctonVancouver dropped to number two in ...

Kids return to school, plan to trick-or-treat as Maine communities start to heal from mass shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:29 GMT

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Children returned to school Tuesday and planned to go trick-or-treating in the evening after spending days locked in their homes following the deadliest mass shooting in Maine’s history.At Lewiston High School, hundreds of students returned to a facility which days earlier was transformed into a law enforcement command post with three helicopters utilizing the athletic fields and 300 vehicles filling the parking lot.Inside, students were petting three therapy dogs, and were signing a large banner that said “Lewiston Strong,” the community’s new motto.Calista Karas, a 16-year-old senior, said students have a lot to process. She said she was frightened sheltering at home and unable to immediately reach her mother, who was at work, when the shootings happened.“You know, I just couldn’t believe something like this would happen here, to us,” Karas said. “And I know that sounds like detached, kind of like, ‘Oh, we wouldn’t be affected.’ But you never think it’...

Former Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner and four others appointed to rep N.B., N.S. in Senate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:29 GMT

OTTAWA — Former Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner, who was most recently Canada’s consul general in Boston, has been named a senator for Nova Scotia.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office announced that Cuzner and four others have been appointed to represent Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in the Senate.Cuzner was first elected to the House of Commons in 2000 and retired as the member of Parliament for his Cape Breton riding in 2019.The selection process Trudeau brought in early in his tenure sees an independent advisory board provide candidate recommendations to the prime minister before new senators are formally appointed by the Governor General.Three new senators for New Brunswick include Joan Kingston, a nurse and former Liberal member of that province’s legislative assembly; John McNair, a lawyer and public servant; and Krista Ross, a business and non-profit leader.Réjean Aucoin, a lawyer and francophone leader, is joining Cuzner as a new senator for Nova Scotia. This re...

Crown expected to cross-examine Peter Nygard in his sexual assault trial

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:29 GMT

Former fashion mogul Peter Nygard is expected to be cross-examined by the Crown today at his sexual assault trial in Toronto.Nygard, the founder of a now-defunct international women’s clothing company, is accused of using his position in the fashion industry to lure women and girls.The 82-year-old has pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement in alleged incidents ranging from the 1980s to mid-2000s.Multiple complainants in the trial have alleged they were taken to Nygard’s Toronto headquarters under pretences ranging from tours to job interviews, with encounters ending in a top-floor bedroom suite where they allege they were sexually assaulted. Related: Nygard lured victims to bedroom suite at Toronto headquarters, Crown alleges Complainant at Nygard trial says shame, fear for career prevented her coming forward Ex-fashion mogul Peter Nygard testifying at his sexual assault trial ...

Gallaudet has a history of technological innovation with wide applications. The latest is a helmet

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Shelby Bean could not help but feel a bit jealous.As a deaf football player for four years at Gallaudet, he called defensive plays with American Sign Language and dealt with other obstacles hearing opponents never need to worry about. Now an assistant coach, he was on the sideline earlier this season for a milestone at a school accustomed to them: The debut of new technolody that allows plays to be displayed visually inside quarterback Brandon Washington’s helmet — a welcomed step that happened to coincide with the team’s first win of the season.“We go through a lot of challenges,” Bean said. “And we try our best to level the playing field in any way possible.”Gallaudet has been trying to level the playing field for the Deaf and hard of hearing community for more than a century. The helmet, developed with AT&T 129 years after quarterback Paul Hubbard invented the football huddle, is just the latest example of how the private school has been an incub...

Tunisia’s Islamist party leader is sentenced to 15 months in prison for supporting terrorism

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:23:29 GMT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — The leader of Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party was sentenced to 15 months in prison for supporting terrorism and inciting hatred in the North African country, once seen as a model for democracy in the Arab world but increasingly authoritarian in recent years. The Court of Appeal in the capital, Tunis, pronounced the sentence late Monday against the Ennahdha leader Rached Ghannouchi, a former speaker of parliament and a vocal opponent of President Kais Saied. Saied has cracked down on critics and political rivals while consolidating power and ruling largely by decree in the past two years. Ghannouchi, 82, is the founder and long-time leader of the Islamist party. He served as speaker of the Ennahdha-led parliament until Saied took all powers into his own hands in July 2021, suspending parliament. Ghannouchi, who has maintained that Saied’s actions amounted to a coup, was arrested in April amid growing social tensions and deepening economic troubles in Tunisia. ...