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Chinese defense minister to visit Russia and Belarus in show of support despite West’s objections

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:27:34 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu is visiting Russia and Belarus in a show of support for those nations which the West has sought to isolate over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Li departed Monday on the six-day trip, during which he will deliver an address at the Moscow Conference on International Security and meet with defense leaders from Russia and other nations, the Defense Ministry said on its social media account, citing spokesperson Col. Wu Qian. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due to speak at the conference on the topic of the “Majority World countries’ search for ways to development outside Western mechanisms, including strengthening multilateral associations of a new type,” Russia’s official TASS news agency reported. It said representatives from about 100 countries and eight international organizations had been invited to attend. The would “discuss various aspects of security in the conditions of the establishment of a mul...

UK government rejects claims it was slow to evacuate asylum seekers after bacteria detected on barge

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:27:34 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s government on Monday rejected claims that it had been slow to evacuate asylum-seekers from a barge moored off the south coast of England once traces of the bacteria that causes Legionnaire’s disease were found in the ship’s water system.In the latest critique of the government’s ballyhooed efforts to control migration and reduce the cost of housing a rising number of asylum-seekers, local health officials said over the weekend that the barge operator was told about the bacteria last Monday — the day before asylum-seekers were moved onto the Bibby Stockholm.But Health Secretary Steve Barclay said ministers weren’t informed about the bacteria until Thursday and they took “very quick action.” The Home Office, the central government department that oversees migration, moved all 39 men who were being housed on the ship into other accommodation on Friday.Questions about the government’s response to the bacteria issue came after immigration dominated the weekend new...

Head-on crash closes Hwy. 401 in Milton; suspected impaired driver in custody

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:27:34 GMT

A suspect impaired driver is in custody and another driver has serious injuries following a head-on crash that shut down a stretch of Highway 401 in Milton.The collision occurred in the westbound lanes west of Guelph Line around 5 a.m. on Monday.#listen-box {box-shadow: 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);animation: pulse 2s infinite;margin:20px;padding:15px;}@keyframes pulse { 0% { box-shadow: 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 157, 79, 0.7); } 70% { box-shadow: 0 0 0 10px rgba(0, 157, 79, 0); } 100% { box-shadow: 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 157, 79, 0); }}Listen to CityNews 680 for traffic updates LIVE now!Ontario Provincial Police say two vehicles were involved in a head-on crash and a wrong way driver is in custody for suspected impaired driving.The driver of the other vehicle has been taken to hospital with serious injuries. The driver in custody was not seriously hurt.Westbound traffic on the 401 is being forced off of the highway at Guelph Line. All eastbound lanes remain open.T...

Blast in eastern Afghanistan kills 3, wounds 7 at hotel frequented by Pakistani refugees

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:27:34 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — An explosion ripped through a hotel in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Khost on Monday, killing at least three people and wounding seven others, police said.The blast occurred at a city hotel frequented by Afghan people and refugees from Pakistan’s former militant stronghold of North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan, said Mustaghfir Gurbaz, a police spokesperson in Khost. He said officers were investigating to determine what caused the blast and who was behind it.There was no immediate claim of responsibility, though Afghanistan’s Taliban government has blamed the regional affiliate of the Islamic State group — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — for previous attacks. Gurbaz provided no information about the Pakistani refugees staying at the hotel. Authorities in Pakistan have said members of the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, are hiding in Khost and elsewhere in Afghanistan. TTP is a separate group b...

Hawaii mourns the dead in ferocious wildfires while officials warn the full toll is not yet known

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:27:34 GMT

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — As Hawaii residents mourned those killed in ferocious wildfires, officials warned that the full human and environmental toll was not yet known and the recovery only just beginning.Twenty dogs and dozens of people will make their way through neighborhoods reduced to ash, searching burnt out cars and homes for the dead. With the toll at 96, this is already the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. Two fires have not yet been completely contained, including the one that demolished the historic town of Lahaina, according to an update from Maui County late Sunday.Even where the fire has retreated, authorities have warned that toxic byproducts may remain, including in drinking water, after the flames spewed poisonous fumes. And many people simply have no home to return to — so authorities plan to house them in hotels and vacation rentals.The blaze that swept into centuries-old Lahaina on Tuesday destroyed nearly every building in the town of 13,000, leavin...

Sudan’s top army general accuses paramilitary of war crimes in televised speech

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:27:34 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — In a rare televised speech Monday, the head of Sudan’s military accused the rival paramilitary force of committing war crimes as all-out civil war threatens to engulf the northeast African country.Sudan was plunged into chaos in April when months of simmering tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in Khartoum and elsewhere.In a speech broadcast on Sudan TV, Burhan accused the RSF and Dagalo of committing violations under the falsehood of promising to restore democracy.“How can you bring about democracy by committing war crimes?” he said, in a speech celebrating Sudan’s annual armed forces day. The rights organization Amnesty International has accused both warring parties of committing extensive war crimes, including deliberate killings of civilians and mass sexual assault. In its 56-page report, the group said almost all rape cases were bla...

The investigation into the 2010 kidnapping and killing of a German banker’s wife is closed

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:27:34 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — An investigation into the 2010 kidnapping and slaying of a German banker’s wife has been closed after failing to find a perpetrator in more than a decade, authorities said Monday.Maria Boegerl, who was 54, was taken from her home in Heidenheim in southwestern Germany on May 12, 2010. The kidnapper then contacted the woman’s husband, an executive with a local bank, and demanded a ransom of 300,000 euros ($328,000). Boegerl was able to briefly speak with her husband by phone, telling him that her life was in danger, but wasn’t heard from again.The ransom money was left at the side of a highway as requested, but was never picked up. On June 3, 2010, Boegerl’s body was found in a wooded area near where the ransom money was left. An autopsy concluded she had been stabbed to death.Prosecutors said in a joint statement with police that the investigation has been closed “after 13 years of the most intensive cooperation” in which more than 10,000 leads were evaluate...

Amazon is rolling out a generative AI feature that summarizes product reviews

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:27:34 GMT

Amazon is rolling out a new generative AI feature that summarizes product reviews for customers. The feature, which the company began testing earlier this year, is designed to help shoppers determine at a glance what other customers said about a product before they spend time reading through individual reviews. It will pick out common themes and summarize them in a short paragraph on the product detail page.The company wrote in a blog post published Monday that the AI-generated reviews are now available to a subset of mobile shoppers in the U.S. across a “broad” selection of products. And it may be expanded to more shoppers and additional categories of products in the “coming months” based on customer feedback, said Vaughn Schermerhorn, Amazon’s director of community shopping. The Seattle-based company has been looking for ways to integrate more artificial intelligence into its product offerings as the generative AI race heats up among tech companies. Amazon hasn’t released its own ...

Coinbase CEO says Canadian crypto regulations encouraging

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:27:34 GMT

TORONTO — Coinbase is rolling out Interac e-transfer integration as part of its Canadian offerings as it says it’s encouraged by the regulatory approach in the country.The added feature, which will make it easier to move money in and out of Coinbase accounts, comes after the company hired Lucas Matheson as country director and ramped up its staff to over 200 engineers in its Toronto and Vancouver offices in the past year. The company says the moves signal its commitment to Canada, and come at a time when other trading platforms including Binance, the world’s largest crypto platform, have said they were pulling out of the country.Binance, along with Bybit and others, said in May their departure was related to tightening regulations around cryptocurrencies as the Canadian Securities Administrators looks to increase oversight in the sector.The CSA rolled out rules earlier this year requiring crypto-trading platforms to agree to numerous terms as their registration applicati...

Legal challenges to Biden's student loan plans have borrowers anxious ahead of payment restart

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:27:34 GMT

(The Hill) - The Biden administration has found more of its student loan policies entangled in legal battles, raising anxiety for borrowers as repayments are set to start in the fall.The most recent challenges threaten student loan forgiveness for 800,000 borrowers and changes to the borrower defense student debt relief program that would make it easier for those defrauded by their colleges to receive forgiveness.Borrowers are having to navigate what the legal developments mean for their loans while also losing faith in receiving more help from the administration before they have to begin repaying their debts in October. “I believe even though the specificities of the various lawsuits that are being challenged [...] I think the question that is on a lot of people's minds, specifically the 40 million borrowers, even if it doesn't directly affect them, is when does the line end? When do the challenges end?” said Dorien Rogers, president of the Maryland Youth & College Divisio...