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IOC confirms Russian athletes can compete at Paris Olympics with approved neutral status

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:32 GMT

By GRAHAM DUNBAR (AP Sports Writer)GENEVA (AP) — Some Russian athletes will be allowed to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the IOC said Friday, in a decision that removed the option of a blanket ban due to the invasion of Ukraine.The International Olympic Committee decision confirmed moves it started one year ago to reintegrate Russia and its military ally Belarus into global sports, and nine months after it urged sports governing bodies to look at ways to let individual athletes compete.Though the IOC’s official position was expected, the timing surprised some Olympic watchers after reports last week in Paris suggested the long-promised decision would come in March. It is still up to each sport’s governing body, which run their own Olympic competitions, to assess and enforce neutral status for individual athletes who have not actively supported the war and are not contracted to military or state security agencies. The IOC said on Friday eight Russians and three...

Man killed in Ramona shooting identified: SDSO

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:32 GMT

RAMONA, Calif. — The victim in a shooting on State Route 78 through Ramona earlier this week was identified by authorities on Friday.Angel Jauregui, a 35-year-old Ramona resident, was named by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department as the decedent in the incident.The shooting was reported just before 11:30 p.m. after multiple gunshots were heard in the area near the intersection of SR-78 and Haverford Road. According to SDSO, responding deputies located a red Ford F150 at the scene and Jauregui with multiple gunshot wounds.Paramedics transported Jauregui to a nearby hospital for treatment, but he later succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead by medical staff around 12:15 a.m. on Wednesday. 76-year-old woman pleads not guilty in deadly North Park hit-and-run The circumstances surrounding the shooting remain under investigation, according to SDSO. No suspect information has been provided at this time.Homicide investigators remained on the scene for hours Wednesday. Evid...

Vessel owner pleads guilty in plot to smuggle workers, drugs from Honduras to Louisiana

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:32 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Pennsylvania man described by authorities as the lead defendant in a drug distribution and human smuggling case has pleaded guilty to federal crimes in Louisiana.Court records show that Carl Allison, 47, of Pittsburgh pleaded guilty Thursday before U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon in New Orleans. Sentencing was scheduled for March 28. The U.S. Justice Department said in a statement that Allison, the fourth person to plead guilty in the case, faces a possible life sentence. Prosecutors said Allison was the president and owner of a company that supplied immigrant labor for factories in the U.S. But, according to an indictment, Allison was involved in illegally smuggling Honduran nationals into the country to work illegally as part of a seagoing operation that also involved transporting cocaine.Authorities found 23 Honduran nationals and about 24 kilograms (53 pounds) of cocaine aboard after a vessel owned by Allison became disabled last year in the Gulf of Mexico ...

Local New Hampshire newspaper publisher found guilty of political advertisement omissions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:32 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A judge has found the New Hampshire publisher of a weekly community newspaper guilty of five misdemeanor charges that she ran advertisements for local races without properly marking them as political advertising. The judge acquitted Debra Paul, publisher of the Londonderry Times, of a sixth misdemeanor charge on Thursday following a bench trial in November. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 20. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.The New Hampshire attorney general’s office charged Paul last year, saying she failed to identify the ads with “appropriate language” indicating that they were ads and saying who paid for them as required by state law. The office said it had warned her in 2019 and 2021. Last year, it received more complaints and reviewed the February and March issues of the paper. Two political ads leading up to a local election in March did not contain the “paid for” language and a third had no “...

Pregnant woman in Kentucky sues for the right to get an abortion

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:32 GMT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A pregnant woman in Kentucky filed a lawsuit Friday demanding the right to an abortion, the second legal challenge in days to sweeping abortion bans that have taken hold in more than a dozen U.S. states since Roe v. Wade was overturned last year.The suit, filed in state court in Louisville, says Kentucky’s near-total prohibition against abortion violates the plaintiff’s rights to privacy and self-determination under the state constitution.The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, is about eight weeks pregnant and she wants to have an abortion in Kentucky but cannot legally do so because of the state’s ban, the suit said. She is seeking class-action status to include other Kentuckians who are or will become pregnant and want to have an abortion.“This is my decision — not the government’s or any other person’s,” the plaintiff said in a news release Friday issued by the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups backing her challenge. “I am ...

Toronto Black Farmers in Downsview fighting food insecurity by teaching locals to grow food

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:32 GMT

In the north end of Toronto, the neighbourhood of Downsview is best known for its urban park. Nestled in this expansive green space is the Toronto Black Farmers and Food Growers Collective, which is fighting for food justice by teaching its members how to farm.For the past decade, co-founder Jacqueline Dwyer and other collective members have fed local residents by empowering racialized farmers.“It’s a platform created to empower black farmers, black growers, black gardeners, black food entrepreneurs in a space [as well as] other racialized people who want to join us, because not everybody is down with our cause to actually have a space that references culture in [a] food space by us and for us,” Dwyer said.The Toronto Black Farmers and Food Growers Collective’s welcome sign outside their greenhouse in Downsview Park. (Julia Lawrence/The Green Line)Sarah Ali is a member of The Collective Group, a resident-led organization representing over 30 neighbourhoods in ...

Canada dusts off sanctions law on corrupt officials, joins allies to target 7 abroad

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:32 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada is using a rarely invoked sanctions law that targets corrupt office holders to join peer countries in taking aim against officials in Russia, Iran and Myanmar.The sanctions target officials whom Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. accuse of having a role in long-standing human-rights violations.Those listed for sanctions include two senior Iranian officials accused of overseeing the torture of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in custody in 2003.Canada has also joined its allies in sanctioning four Russians accused of helping a violent anti-gay crackdown in Chechnya, such as by overseeing the kidnapping and torture of LGBTQ+ people.Those sanctioned also include Myanmar’s commander-in-chief, who oversaw a coup d’état against a democratically elected government in 2021.The new sanctions come under the Magnitsky Act, legislation aimed at punishing corrupt officials that has only been used twice since its passage 2018.Senators have argued that...

Council to again consider renaming stadium at Centennial Park after Rob Ford

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:32 GMT

Toronto city council will again consider the previously rejected idea of renaming the stadium at Centennial Park ‘Rob Ford Stadium’ in honour of the controversial late former mayor.The item, which will be considered by council at its upcoming meeting on Wednesday, was put forward by councillor Paul Ainslie and seconded by councillor Shelley Carroll.The motion outlines Ford’s considerable career in municipal politics, serving on Toronto City Council for nearly 15 years, with 10 as councillor for Etobicoke North, before serving as mayor for four unforgettable years.His tenure as mayor was marked by controversy as he dealt with addiction issues that seeped into the public eye. At the same time he was beloved by many who applauded his refreshing frugality and dedication to responding to his constituents’ issues, however minor.He also patrolled the sidelines for 10 years at Don Bosco as football coach. Related: Video: Rob Ford’s love of sports, especial...

Extremely rare white leucistic alligator is born at a Florida reptile park

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:32 GMT

KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — An extremely rare white leucistic alligator has been born at a Florida reptile park.The 19.2-inch (49 cm) female slithered out of its shell and into the history books as one of only seven known leucistic alligators, Gatorland Orlando said Thursday. Three of the seven are at the park, officials there said.“This is beyond rare. It is absolutely extraordinary,” Mark McHugh, president and CEO of Gatorland, said in a statement.The park is asking for the public’s help in the naming the alligator, which is descended from a nest of leucistic alligators discovered in the swamps of Louisiana in 1987. The blue-eyed newborn is the first solid white alligator ever recorded to have descended from those original alligators, McHugh said.Leucistic alligators are the rarest genetic variation in the American alligator. They differ from albino alligators, which have pink eyes and a complete loss of pigment, according to Gatorland.Park visitors will be able to see the leucis...

Scottish court upholds UK decision to block Scotland’s landmark gender-recognition bill

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:40:32 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Scotland’s highest civil court on Friday upheld the British government’s move to block a landmark gender-recognition law passed by the Scottish parliament, underscoring the growing divide over local control of legislation in the nations of the United Kingdom.The ruling by the Court of Session in Edinburgh is a setback for Scotland’s semi-autonomous government, which overwhelmingly approved a bill allowing anyone 16 or older to change the gender designation on their identity documents by self-declaration, removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.The legislation set Scotland apart from the rest of the U.K., where the minimum age is 18 and a medical diagnosis is required.Britain’s central government blocked the law, invoking for the first time a section of the 25-year-old act that gave the Scottish parliament control over most of its own affairs. Section 35 gives U.K. authorities the power to prevent the implementation of measures that interfere with ...