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‘Nobody is above the law:’ Kosovo ex-president’s trial opens

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:48:23 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Kosovo’s former president pleaded not guilty Monday to charges including murder, torture and persecution as he went on trial with three other former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, while a prosecutor insisted that “nobody is above the law.”Hashim Thaci resigned from office in 2020 to defend himself against the charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during his country’s 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia.“I am fully not guilty,” Thaci told judges at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers as the trial opened. The other three defendants also repeated not guilty pleas made at earlier pretrial hearings.The case has stirred an outpouring of support from across the political spectrum in Kosovo. On Sunday, thousands of people took to the streets to show their support for the defendants. Many Kosovars consider the Netherlands-based court an injustice and view it as an attempt to rewrite the history of their struggle for inde...

Ex-DeSantis staffer Parkinson runs for Kaine’s Virginia seat

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:48:23 GMT

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Scott Parkinson, a former congressional staffer and advisor to Ron DeSantis and other Republican officials, is set to announce plans Monday to seek the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia next year. Parkinson, who works for the conservative economic policy group Club for Growth, told The Associated Press ahead of a formal announcement that frustration over pandemic-related school and business closures “changed his worldview” and pushed him to seek public office for the first time. Kaine, a fixture in Virginia politics known for his down-to-earth approach, is vulnerable because of his votes for key pieces of President Joe Biden’s agenda that have contributed to inflation now crushing the middle class, Parkinson said. “I think that there’s this perception that he’s a nice guy,” Parkinson said. “He plays the banjo and the harmonica, and they don’t peel back the layers of the onion to see exactly how we got to where we ...

Suspect in Russian military blogger’s killing arrested

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:48:23 GMT

Russian police on Monday arrested a woman suspected of delivering a bomb that killed a well-known military blogger who fervently supported Moscow’s war in Ukraine.Russian officials said Vladlen Tatarsky, 40, was killed Sunday as he was leading a discussion at a cafe on the banks of the Neva River in the historic heart of St. Petersburg. Over 30 people were wounded by the blast, and 10 of them remain in grave condition, according to the authorities.Russian news reports said the bomb was hidden in a bust of the blogger that the suspect had given to him as a gift just before the explosion.Russia’s Investigative Committee, the top state criminal investigation agency said that Darya Tryopova was arrested on suspicion of involvement in Tatarsky’s killing. Tryopova, a 26-year-old St. Petersburg resident who had been previously detained for taking part in anti-war rallies. The Interfax news agency initially reported her arrest late Sunday, but later said that she was on th...

India’s opposition leader Gandhi to appeal defamation charge

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:48:23 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi is expected to appear in court Monday to appeal a criminal conviction for mocking the Prime Minister’s surname that saw Gandhi expelled from Parliament, dealing a huge blow to his Congress Party ahead of general elections next year. Gandhi, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his main challenger in the 2024 polls, was ousted after a court sentenced him to two years in prison for defamation for mocking the surname Modi in a 2019 election speech. The case against Gandhi, the great-grandson of India’s first prime minister and scion of the dynastic Congress party, were widely condemned by opponents of Modi as the latest assaults against democracy and free speech by a ruling government seeking to crush dissent. The speed of his removal from Parliament shocked political circles in India, with many criticizing the action as an assault against free speech. Gandhi is flying from the capital, New Delhi, to Sura...

In The News for April 3 : Who will be the first Canadian in deep space?

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:48:23 GMT

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of April 3 …What we are watching in Canada …It’s like a high-tech, high-stakes Canadian Idol finale — only instead of a recording contract, the prize is a perilous 10-day journey into deep space and a permanent place in history. Later today, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency will introduce the four astronauts who will steer the next stage of an ambitious plan to establish a long-term presence on the moon. One of them will be Canadian — the first ever to venture beyond Earth’s orbit and around the dark side of the lunar surface. Artemis II, as it’s known, is currently slated to launch as early as November 2024 and will be the first crewed mission to the moon since the final Apollo mission took flight in 1972. The crew will orbit Earth before rocketing hundreds of thousands of kilometres into deep sp...

4 hurt in German hospital fire, suspect arrested

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:48:23 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Four people were seriously hurt in an overnight fire at a hospital in Berlin, including a patient who sustained life-threatening injuries, authorities said Monday. A man was arrested on suspicion of starting the blaze.The fire on the third floor of the Klinikum am Urban in the German capital was extinguished early Monday morning, the fire service said. Three patients and a nurse were seriously injured, among them a patient who got stuck in an elevator and whose life was in danger after inhaling smoke. Forty people were evacuated as smoke spread through the building.Police said the blaze appears to have started when a 48-year-old man set fire to two hospital beds shortly after midnight. He also tried to set a garbage can alight in a foyer, but firefighters prevented him from doing so, they said in a statement. The suspect was arrested.The Associated Press

Who will be the first Canadian in deep space? Officials to unveil Artemis II crew

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:48:23 GMT

HOUSTON — It’s like a high-tech, high-stakes Canadian Idol finale — only instead of a recording contract, the prize is a perilous 10-day journey into deep space and a permanent place in history. Later today, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency will introduce the four astronauts who will steer the next stage of an ambitious plan to establish a long-term presence on the moon. One of them will be Canadian — the first ever to venture beyond Earth’s orbit and around the dark side of the lunar surface. Artemis II, as it’s known, is currently slated to launch as early as November 2024 and will be the first crewed mission to the moon since the final Apollo mission took flight in 1972. The crew will orbit Earth before rocketing hundreds of thousands of kilometres into deep space for a figure-8 manoeuvre around the moon before their momentum brings them home. The other three astronauts will all be American, making Canada and the U.S. the only two countries to ever venture tha...

Still no sign of missing man whose boat was found near bodies of eight migrants

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:48:23 GMT

There is still no sign of a missing Akwesasne man whose boat was found where the bodies of eight migrants were pulled from the St. Lawrence River last week.Akwesasne Mohawk Police have been looking for 30-year-old Casey Oakes since Thursday, whom officers were searching for when the first bodies were discovered.Oakes was last seen Wednesday night operating a boat that was found next to the migrants’ bodies, but police have made no direct connections between Oakes and the deaths. Police have said the eight victims consisted of two families, one of Romanian and another of Indian descent. Authorities said they were allegedly attempting to illegally cross into the United States from Canada through Akwesasne Mohawk Territory, which straddles provincial and international boundaries and includes regions of Quebec, Ontario and New York state.Police identified two of the migrants on Saturday as Cristina (Monalisa) Zenaida Iordache, 28, and 28-year-old Florin Iordache, who was carrying ...

Butterfly clips and mood rings: how to incorporate more-is-more Y2K trends

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:48:23 GMT

TORONTO — Take a look around and it’s hard to miss: the more-is-more esthetic of the turn of the millennium is having its comeback. What was until recently a bugaboo of the fashion world is popular once again, in line with the oft-cited 20-year trend cycle. Bootcut jeans, bucket hats and baby tees have seen a resurgence among the style cognoscenti over the last several years, and the fad has now made its way to the masses.“Y2K fashion is excess. It’s very embellished; it’s very bright and bold,” said Hina Low, a size-inclusive Toronto-area stylist who works under the name Heensie.For people in their 20s and 30s, Heensie said, so-called Y2K style serves as a reminder of childhood. Many of the celebrities seen sporting the trend, from model Bella Hadid to rapper Ice Spice, are in that age group.“It’s escapism through nostalgia,” she said.But those hoping to hop on the trend need not go all-out, she added. “There’s little nods...

‘Making things a little more accessible’: Paralyzed Bronco looks to improve buildings

Published Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:48:23 GMT

CALGARY — Spending the last five years using a wheelchair has given former Humboldt Broncos hockey player Ryan Straschnitzki a new path forward.The 23-year-old from Airdrie, Alta., says so many times friends and family have had to carry his chair up stairs, wheel him down sketchy ramps and find other ways to get him around narrow doorways.So he’s studying how to make buildings more accessible for the disabled. “Having lived this experience for five years now and going travelling all over the world and just realizing how inaccessible places are, especially Calgary, where I’m most of the time,” he said, “I realized that maybe working toward making things a little more accessible … these sorts of problems don’t have to be encountered by anyone else.”Straschnitzki was paralyzed from the chest down on April 6, 2018, when a semi-trailer ran a stop sign and barrelled into the path of the junior hockey team’s bus in rural Saskatchewan. S...