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As migrants overwhelm a Texas border city, others wait in Mexico for appointments to enter the US

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:44 GMT

EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) — Waiting three weeks and counting to cross into Texas, Lila sat in a shelter on the Mexico border Friday feeling trapped: The cartels make it too dangerous to turn around and the U.S. government offers no guarantees if she keeps going. “They don’t ask for papers. They ask you for money,” said Lila, a 39-year-old from Honduras, describing officers who pulled her off buses as she made her journey north. She insisted only her first name be used because she fears retaliation from the cartels.Her lack of good options reflected feelings of wide frustration — among both migrants and officials in U.S. cities — as the arrival of large groups of migrants this week overwhelmed Border Patrol agents. More than 8,000 migrants turned up this week at the Texas border city of Eagle Pass, across from Piedras Negas, where Lila and her Cuban partner waited for an appointment to seek asylum in the U.S.Many others are not waiting and crossed through the Rio Grande, including a 3-y...

US pledges $100M to back proposed Kenyan-led multinational force to Haiti

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:44 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Biden administration pledged $100 million on Friday to support a proposed Kenyan-led multinational force to restore security to conflict-ravaged Haiti and urged other nations to make similar contributions.Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the U.S. would provide logistics, including intelligence, airlift, communications and medical support to the mission, which still needs to be approved by the U.N. Security Council. Other than Kenya, which would head the operation, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Antigua and Barbuda have pledged to deploy personnel.Blinken urged the international community to pledge additional personnel as well as equipment, logistics, training and funding for the effort to be successful.“The people of Haiti cannot wait much longer,” he told foreign minister colleagues from more than 20 countries that have expressed support for the mission.Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry echoed Blinken’s urgency, telling the U.N. General Assembl...

One RCMP officer shot dead, suspect and two officers hurt: B.C. police watchdog

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:44 GMT

COQUITLAM, B.C. — British Columbia’s police watchdog says an RCMP officer has died and a suspect and two other officers have been injured while police were serving an arrest warrant in the Metro Vancouver suburb of Coquitlam. The Independent Investigations Office says police had an altercation with a man, resulting in officers being hurt and the suspect being shot. It says one of the officers who was also shot died of their injuries. Carley Hodges, a witness in the busy area of city, described a chaotic scene, with an officer receiving CPR as he was put in an ambulance, another officer with a wound on his leg and a tourniquet above it, and a man in handcuffs. The City of Pitt Meadows says in a statement that Ridge Meadows RCMP lost an officer on Friday, saying its heartfelt condolences go out to the families of the victims as well as local officers. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has taken over conduct of the investigation into the death of the officer and the inju...

B.C. premier suspects Ottawa holding back information about foreign interference

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:44 GMT

VANCOUVER — British Columbia Premier David Eby said he “strongly” suspects that the federal government is holding back information that could help the province protect its residents who have connections to India from foreign interference.Public Safety MinisterDominic LeBlanc has reached out, saying Ottawa wants to make sure the provincial government has the details it needs to keep B.C. residents safe, “but there has not been good information sharing,” the premier said Friday.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealed in Parliament on  Monday that Canadian intelligence services were investigating “a potential link” between the Indian government and the fatal shooting of Sikh advocate Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., last June.In response to the killing, Eby said on Friday that the priority should be protecting the criminal prosecution process so people can be held accountable for the killing.But on the broader issue of ensuring community safety, ...

Alberta NDP promises to axe proposed plan to quit CPP if it wins next election

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:44 GMT

EDMONTON — Alberta’s long road to quitting the Canada Pension Plan would run smack into the scheduled 2027 provincial election, with Opposition New Democrats promising to kill the idea if they win.Opposition finance critic Samir Kayande says an NDP government would cancel the plan at that late date as a last resort, regardless of whether Albertans vote in favour of ditching the CPP in a referendum.Kayande says Albertans have already made their voices heard that they don’t want Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government touching Canada’s $575-billion retirement nest egg. “We’re not going to support the cancellation of the CPP,” Kayande told reporters Friday.“We don’t need a referendum. People have already spoken. They don’t like the idea.“If it is still alive in 2027 when we’re having the next election, I would absolutely love to fight an election on this issue.”Kayande’s comments come a day after Smith announced that her government will con...

Sabato De Sarno makes highly anticipated debut at Gucci under the gaze of Hollywood stars

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:44 GMT

MILAN (AP) — Sabato De Sarno wants people to fall in love anew with Gucci — his Gucci — calling his debut collection “Gucci Ancora,” Italian for “Gucci Again.”The title is a touching admission of the challenges facing Gucci’s new creative director, who joined the fashion powerhouse this summer from Valentino, where he worked for 14 years after stints at Prada and Dolce & Gabbana.The question is: can De Sarno do again what his predecessor Alessandro Michele was able to achieve by exciting the public to swarm to Gucci, pacing revenues at a sustained double-digit growth for French owner, Kering? Until the inevitable dip.De Sarno’s debut Friday, nine months after being hired in the wake of Michele’s surprise departure, was the most anticipated on the Milan Fashion Week calendar for next spring and summer womenswear.The fervor was enough to fill the front row with Hollywood A-listers including Julia Roberts and Ryan Gosling. Anti-fur protesters briefly infiltrated the runway, c...

Ibrahim Ali murder trial: Expert defends opinion dead girl was sexually assaulted

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:44 GMT

VANCOUVER — A lawyer for Ibrahim Ali at his B.C. murder trial has highlighted part of an expert witness’s report saying there’s “considerable overlap” between the type of injuries that can occur in consensual and non-consensual sex acts.Sexual assault expert Dr. Tracy Pickett previously testified that injuries suffered by a 13-year-old girl found dead in a Burnaby, B.C., park six years ago “strongly indicated” sexual assault.Pickett pushed back under cross-examination by Ben Lynskey in the B.C. Supreme Court, as the two had a lengthy exchange about what “considerable” actually means.Ali has pleaded not guilty to the girl’s first-degree murder.Lynskey has focused his cross-examination on the medicallimitations of assessing whether a sex act was consensual or non-consensual.Pickett, who specializes in emergency and clinical forensic medicine, says there are many topics in the medical field that cause controversy and overlap could b...

Colombia’s presidential office manipulates video of President Petro at UN to hype applause

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:44 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Colombian government manipulated a video to alter the applause received by President Gustavo Petro during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.The Associated Press reviewed the video and was able to verify that it was altered. The recording released by the presidential office incorporated applause for U.S. President Joe Biden, who spoke moments before Petro, making it appear the applause was directed at the Colombian leader.The manipulation was first reported by the Colombian website La Silla Vacía.The presidential office was asked for comment by AP but had not responded by late Friday afternoon.Although Petro did receive applause, the final clip of the video posted Thursday on the government’s YouTube channel does not correspond to what was broadcast in the U.N. video. It incorporates a different shot to the original broadcast and to what was broadcast in the media, making it seem that many more attendees applauded Petro at the end of...

‘Shell-shocked’: Mississauga man says 2 SUVs stolen from driveway in 2 weeks

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:44 GMT

As the auto theft crisis continues across the province, a Mississauga man is speaking out and demanding action from law enforcement after vehicles in his driveway were targeted and stolen twice in two weeks.Video obtained by CityNews shows the alleged criminals hard at work on the man’s brand-new SUV, a Cadillac Escalade. Homeowner Zain says it took the suspects roughly an hour to get the vehicle started before they drove away.“We just recently bought this car that we waited for about a year for, the Cadillac Escalade,” Zain said in an interview. “Within a week, we were in the process of getting a tag system or some sort of tracker installed on it, and it got stolen in the middle of the night.”Zain says he reported the incident to Peel Regional Police and received a rental car through his insurance. Two weeks later, criminals struck again, stealing the SUV rental; this time, it took them about 30 seconds.“They definitely look like professionals,&#...

Local Chicagoans on-hand to witness historic 'Office of Gun Violence Prevention' announcement

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:26:44 GMT

CHICAGO — President Joe Biden announced a first of it's kind initiative Friday. The announcement was centered around addressing gun violence in American cities, and Chicago political figures — along with some of the City's youngest leaders in the movement to combat it — were on-hand to see it unveiled."Created by executive order, I intend to send a clear message about how important this issue is to me and to the country," Biden said during a ceremony at the White House's Rose Garden Friday.Biden's executive order launched the first ever 'White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention,' which is set to be headed by Vice President Kamala Harris. The mission of the new office will be to coordinate efforts across the federal government and to offer help and guidance to states struggling with increasing gun violence.The office' establishment comes a little more than a year after Biden signed the bi-partisan 'Safer Communities Act' into law, representing the most sweeping gun violence legi...