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Efforts to defuse Kosovo crisis intensify amid more protests

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:06 GMT

ZVECAN, Kosovo (AP) — International efforts to defuse a crisis in Kosovo intensified Wednesday as ethnic Serbs held more protests in a northern town where recent clashes with NATO-led peacekeepers sparked fears of renewed conflict in the troubled region.Hundreds of Serbs repeated at a rally their demand for the withdrawal from northern Kosovo of the special police and ethnic Albanian officials who were elected to mayor’s offices in votes overwhelmingly boycotted by Serbs. The crowd then spread a huge Serbian flag outside the city hall in the town of Zvecan.The rising tensions have fueled concern about another war like the 1998-99 fighting in Kosovo that claimed more than 10,000 lives, left more than 1 million people homeless and resulted in a NATO peacekeeping mission that has lasted nearly a quarter of a century.Working to avert any escalation, European Union officials met with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on the sidelines of a conference in Bratislava, Slovakia. The lea...

Former Connecticut lawmaker, a gambling addict, gets 27 months for stealing coronavirus aid

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:06 GMT

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A former Connecticut state representative was sentenced to 27 months in prison on Wednesday for stealing more than $1.2 million from the city of West Haven — most of it in federal coronavirus-related aid — and using a good chunk of it to fuel his gambling addiction.“I stole that money. That is on me,” Michael DiMassa said as he apologized during his sentencing before Judge Omar Williams.“It’s hard to find the word to express how I feel. I feel ashamed, embarrassed, mortified,” the West Haven Democrat said.DiMassa, 32, had asked for leniency. He could have gotten more than four years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.“Mr. DiMassa suffered from a debilitating gambling addiction at the time of the offense,” his lawyer, John Gulash, wrote in a court filing, “and his essentially unfettered access to a deep pool of federal funds and total lack of impulse control facilitated his precipitous downward spiral.”The lawyer compared DiMassa to Howard Ratn...

Ottawa sends minister to Nigeria inauguration after accusing party of terror link

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:06 GMT

OTTAWA — Months after arguing Nigeria’s ruling party is responsible for terrorist acts, the Trudeau government has sent a cabinet minister to celebrate the swearing-in of its new president.This week, Diversity and Inclusion Minister Ahmed Hussen visited Abuja to attend the inauguration of President Bola Tinubu, whose All-Progressive Congress party has ruled Nigeria since 2015.Yet in Immigration and Refugee Board filings, Canada called the party “an organization that engaged in subversion of democratic processes as they are understood in Canada” and said it was responsible for numerous acts of terrorism.That phrasing appears in a December 2022 immigration decision in which the adjudicator rejected Ottawa’s attempt to have an unnamed man deported to Nigeria. Canada argued that the president’s party has used “armed thugs/men to intimidate voters and eliminate political opponents” and incited violence between groups since the end of military rul...

No fowl: Quebec ethics czar clears cabinet minister in pheasant hunt complaint

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:06 GMT

Quebec’s ethics commissioner has cleared Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon, saying he did not breach the ethics code by participating in a pheasant hunt last year on a private island southeast of Montreal.Ariane Mignolet tabled her report at the national assembly today after conducting a lengthy investigation into the actions of Fitzgibbon over the hunting trip.Opposition parties had called for a probe after noting the island belongs to businessmen whose companies benefited from subsidies granted through Fitzgibbon’s department.Mignolet says the line between personal and professional spheres was not crossed in this case, and the invitation to the hunt was in the context of a purely private relationship.She says the invitation was acceptable as it was not made in exchange for an intervention or a stance taken by the minister, nor was it likely to influence him in the performance of his duties.Last December, Fitzgibbon said there was nothing improper about his involvement...

Here’s how to prepare to start paying back your student loans when the pandemic payment freeze ends

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:06 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A three-year pause on student loan payments will end this summer regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on the White House plan to forgive billions of dollars in student loan debt.If Congress approves a debt ceiling deal negotiated by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden, payments will resume in late August, ending any lingering hope of a further extension of the pause that started during the COVID pandemic. Even if the deal falls through, payments will resume 60 days after the Supreme Court decision.That ruling is expected sometime before the end of June. No matter what the justices decide, more than 40 million borrowers will have to start paying back their loans by the end of the summer at the latest.Here’s what to know to get ready to start paying back loans:HOW SHOULD I PREPARE FOR STUDENT LOANS PAYMENTS TO RESTART?Betsy Mayotte, President of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, encourages people not to make any payments until the paus...

1 person killed in boiler explosion at southeastern Texas power plant

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:06 GMT

FRANKLIN, Texas (AP) — One person was killed when a boiler exploded at a southeastern Texas power plant Wednesday morning, according to a spokesperson for Dallas-based Luminant.“A contractor was fatally injured” in the blast about 8 a.m. at the Oak Grove Power Plant, according to a statement from spokesperson Meranda Cohn for Luminant, which owns the plant.“All other employees and contractors have been accounted for and there are no other known injuries at this time,” Cohn said.Robertson County Emergency Management Director Bill Huggins says there was no fire and no danger to the public in the nearby town of Franklin, about 110 miles (177 kilometers) northwest of Houston.The cause of the explosion remained under investigation, according to Cohn’s statement, and the plant remained in operation and generating electricity.Luminant will continue to work closely with the contractor’s employer and state and federal regulators to investigate the cause of this event.The Associated Press

Chris Stewart, 6-term Utah Republican, resigning from Congress

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:06 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart on Wednesday announced plans to resign his Utah seat due to his wife’s illness, triggering a special election to replace him in a reliably Republican district.“I can say with pride that I have been an effective leader for my beloved home state, and I’m honored to have played an important role in guiding our nation through some troubled times,” Stewart said in a statement.The six-term Utah Republican did not indicate when he planned to vacate his seat but said in the statement that he planned to retire “after an orderly transition can be ensured.”Under Utah law, Gov. Spencer Cox has seven days to lay out a schedule to replace Stewart with a special election.Though Stewart’s departure will mean one less Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, it is not expected to affect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ability to steer a tight Republican majority. The district is reliably Republican and Stewart defeated a Democratic cha...

Former San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin takes new job, won’t run for office

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:06 GMT

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco’s polarizing former top prosecutor announced Wednesday he will not run for his old job, choosing instead to serve as executive director of a new criminal law research and advocacy center at University of California, Berkeley’s law school.Chesa Boudin was ousted as district attorney last year in a divisive recall election, driven by critics who said his progressive attitude toward crime was making the city less safe. He was replaced by Brooke Jenkins, who promised more consequences for criminal defendants.Boudin is the son of leftist radicals who spent decades in prison for their role in a botched 1981 heist of a Brink’s armored truck. Kathy Boudin died last year, soon after David Gilbert was granted parole. Boudin said in an op-ed published in the San Francisco Chronicle Wednesday that his new job “is still consistent with my lifelong commitment to fixing the criminal legal system, ending mass incarceration, and innovating data...

Some residents of collapsed Iowa building remain missing, while pets were rescued from safer area

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:06 GMT

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — As some residents of an Iowa apartment building that partially collapsed remained unaccounted for on Wednesday, officials in the city of Davenport say they were able to rescue several pets from a safer area of the six-story building.Officials said rescue teams entered a part of the building on Tuesday that was deemed a lower risk and they rescued several animals, which were brought to the local Humane Society. A statement from the city said: “Crews continued to search for human activity and none was detected.”The city statement also said: “The stability of the building continues to degrade. The recovery of any unaccounted for individuals remains the priority of the City as operational planning progresses.”Davenport authorities have not provided an update on the number of people missing since Tuesday, when they said five people were unaccounted for, including two who could still be in wreckage that was too dangerous to search. The three others are not believed ...

‘Felt like a year’: Worshipper describes fear during gunman’s deadly attack on Pittsburgh synagogue

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:10:06 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — It was her brother’s active faith that inspired Carol Black to recommit as an adult to being a practicing Jew several years ago, and their shared commitment brought them to the Tree of Life synagogue on the October 2018 day it was attacked.Testifying on the second day of the trial of the man who carried out the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, Black told jurors Wednesday about how she and others in her New Light congregation heard loud noises as they started Sabbath services. They soon realized it was gunfire, so some of them hid in a storage room.“I just remained calm. … I thought by remaining calm, I would not give my position away,” she testified in the Pittsburgh federal courtroom.Black, 71, recalled how she remained hidden even as she saw congregant Mel Wax, who had been hiding close to her, drop dead after the gunman shot him. Wax, 87, was hard of hearing and had opened the storage door, apparently believing the attack was over she sa...