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Bomb threats prompt evacuations of government buildings in several states, but no explosives found

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:47 GMT

JACKSON, Miss (AP) — Government buildings in several states were evacuated Thursday following bomb threats, briefly disrupting government affairs for the second day in a row in some places.The Mississippi Capitol and courthouses in Arkansas and Montana were evacuated, but no explosives were immediately found, and the buildings were reopened to the public. The latest round of evacuations comes after an emailed threat to officials in several states prompted lockdowns at multiple state capitols Wednesday. The threats also follow a spate of false reports of shootings at the homes of public officials in recent days.In Jackson, Mississippi, officials said the state Supreme Court, which is across the street from the state Capitol building, received a bomb threat. Bomb-sniffing dogs circled the building before officials cleared the area. The FBI said it was aware of “numerous hoax incidents” Thursday. “The FBI takes hoax threats very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk,” Marsh...

Quebec Amber Alert: Father faces abduction charge after one-year-old found safe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:47 GMT

MONTREAL — Quebec authorities say the father of a one-year-old girl who was the subject of an Amber Alert earlier this week was charged today with abduction.The child’s mother appeared in court on Wednesday on charges of abduction and breaking and entering.Quebec’s Crown prosecutor’s office says the father will remain detained and his case has been adjourned to Friday.The child was reported missing Tuesday morning from the Montreal home of her grandparents, who had custody of her. The mother and the baby were found in an unspecified location in northwestern Montreal just after 2 a.m. Wednesday, the day after police triggered an Amber Alert.A publication ban prevents the release of any information identifying the child.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 4, 2024.The Canadian Press

Toronto man wanted by Peterborough police for violating probation arrested at Pearson

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:47 GMT

A Toronto man wanted in Peterborough for breaching his probation, among other charges, has been arrested at Pearson International Airport, police say.According to the Peterborough Police Service, officers with the Canadian Border Services Agency at Pearson arrested the 30-year-old man on Wednesday.He is charged with two counts of failing to comply with probation, fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime.Peterborough police brought the accused back to their jurisdiction, where he is being held in custody.

A judge in Oregon refuses to dismiss a 2015 climate lawsuit filed by youth

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:47 GMT

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A judge in Oregon has rejected a U.S. Department of Justice request to dismiss a 2015 lawsuit brought by young people that alleges the federal government knew the dangers posed by carbon pollution but that it has continued through policies and subsidies to support the fossil fuel industry.U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken said the parties “do not disagree that the climate crisis threatens our ability to survive on planet Earth. This catastrophe is the great emergency of our time and compels urgent action.”“While facts remain to be proved, lawsuits like this highlight young people’s despair with the drawn-out pace of the unhurried, inchmeal, bureaucratic response to our most dire emergency,” she wrote in her decision late last week.In a statement, Julia Olson, an attorney with the group Our Children’s Trust representing the plaintiffs, said she expects a trial in the case later this year.In a similar lawsuit in Montana, a judge last year ruled the Montana Enviro...

Unsealed documents show again how Jeffrey Epstein leveraged his powerful connections

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:47 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Newly released court documents describing Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls provide a reminder of how the financier leveraged connections to the rich, powerful and famous to recruit his victims and cover up his crimes.The more than 40 documents released late Wednesday — the latest of thousands that have been made public — were sprinkled with the names of celebrities and politicians who socialized with Epstein or worked with him in the years before he was publicly accused nearly two decades ago of paying underage girls for sex.Most of those names were familiar to anyone who has followed the scandal closely, including the criminal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was Epstein’s former girlfriend, household manager and chief recruiter of young, vulnerable females.It was during Maxwell’s criminal trial two years ago that Epstein’s victims, some of whom aspired to be models or artists, described how he dropped the names of his famous and infl...

Weekend need-to-know: Skate with Toronto’s mayor

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:47 GMT

Fight off those holiday blues with some skating adventures happening across Toronto and it’s your last chance to head to the Distillery Winter Village.There are no TTC or GO Train interruptions this weekend as well.Mayor’s Skating PartyIf you’ve been waiting for your chance to rub shoulders with Mayor Olivia Chow and other city council members, this weekend is your chance.Chow will be hosting the annual Mayor’s Skating Party at Nathan Phillips Square this Sunday. There will be free skates, treats and an opportunity to meet the people who run your city.It’s all ages and kicks off from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.Toronto Marlies gamesThe Toronto Marlies will be taking on the Syracuse Crunch in a double-header this weekend, so there are two chances to catch the AHL team in action at Coca-Cola Coliseum.The first game will be happening Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. and puck drops on Sunday at 4 p.m. as well. Tickets are still available online.Last weekend of the Distille...

This glass ceiling-breaking Liberal mom is looking to give the Tories a time out

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:47 GMT

OTTAWA — Karina Gould knows how to throw a hefty political punch, and she often does it with a smile. Just six months into her role as government House leader, Gould has redefined what it means to be a prime minister’s chief attack dog. During a fall parliamentary sitting that often looked out of control, political insiders say Gould was a steady thorn in her opponents’ sides: calm and cutting at the same time. They are crediting her with re-energizing the Liberal caucus after the party’s poll numbers plummeted last year, while Opposition Conservatives relished in their own gains.“For the last year, it felt like the Conservatives were the only party competing,” said Fred DeLorey, a former national campaign manager for the Conservative Party of Canada.“It wasn’t clear what the Liberals were doing, if they were in search of a narrative or if they didn’t understand they needed one. But it feels like in the last month, especially, there...

Oscar Pistorius is set to be released on parole. He will be strictly monitored until December 2029

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:47 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Oscar Pistorius is due to be released from prison Friday to live under strict conditions at a family home having served nearly nine years of a murder sentence for the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.The double-amputee Olympic runner from South Africa is set to leave the Atteridgeville Correctional Centre in Pretoria after being approved for parole in November, the second time he had applied. It will give the world a chance at its first glimpse in nearly a decade of the one-time sporting superstar who stunningly fell from grace after shooting Steenkamp multiple times through a closed toilet door at his home in the predawn hours of Valentine’s Day 2013.South Africa’s Department of Corrections declined to give any detail of when and how Pistorius would be released, saying “inmates and parolees are never paraded.” Pistorius’ public profile “does not make him different from other inmates nor warrant inconsistent treatmen...

The US Tennis Association is reviewing its safeguarding policies and procedures

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:47 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Tennis Association has enlisted two lawyers at a Washington-based firm to look into its safeguarding policies and procedures to protect players from sexual misconduct and other abuse.Lew Sherr, the CEO and executive director of the organization that runs the U.S. Open and oversees the sport in the United States, wrote about the review in an email sent Thursday to the USTA Board of Directors, various staff and volunteers and obtained by The Associated Press.As part of efforts “to prevent harm to athletes and respond to reports of inappropriate conduct … the USTA has retained David O’Neil and Mary Beth Hogan of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP to review our policies and procedures for preventing, reporting, and responding to reports of abuse, including sexual misconduct,” Sherr wrote.The subject line of the email is “Reviewing Policies to Ensure Safety.”The announcement of the review comes nearly two years after a tennis player sued the USTA in federal...

Putin speeds up a citizenship path for foreigners who enlist in the Russian military

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:47 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree that speeds up a path to Russian citizenship for foreigners who enlist in the country’s military amid the 22-month-old war in Ukraine.The move comes as Moscow is trying to replenish its troops in Ukraine by various methods, including the recruitment of migrants. Russia is a magnet for hundreds of thousands of people from poorer Central Asian countries, and many of them seek citizenship each year.Putin first allowed fast-track citizenship for foreigners who sign contracts with the Russian army in September 2022, shortly after announcing a partial mobilization to draft 300,000 reservists for Ukraine.Those immigrants who signed a contract for at least a year and take part in active hostilities for at least six months were allowed to apply for citizenship without demonstrating sufficient knowledge of Russian or the fact that they’d lived in the country for five straight years under a residency permi...