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Foreign meddling inquiry turns to experienced hands as deadlines loom

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:26:42 GMT

OTTAWA — A federal commission of inquiry into foreign interference is turning to veterans of previous inquiries as it hires staff who will work on a tight timeline.Marie-Josée Hogue, who heads the commission, has chosen Shantona Chaudhury to be lead counsel of the inquiry.Chaudhury was recently co-lead counsel of the Public Order Emergency Commission, which examined the government’s response to protests that severely disrupted downtown Ottawa and key border crossings early last year.Several lawyers hired to be counsel for the interference inquiry also worked on the public order commission, or other inquiries.Paul Cavalluzzo, who was lead counsel for the inquiry into the case of Maher Arar, has been brought on as a senior policy adviser.The foreign interference inquiry has also issued a call for applications for standing from individuals and groups interested in taking part.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2023.The Canadian Press

Former Indiana legislator agrees to plead guilty to fraud in casino corruption scheme

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:26:42 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A former Indiana lawmaker has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge alleging that he accepted promises of lucrative employment from a gaming company during his time in public office, federal prosecutors said Friday. Sean Eberhart, 57, agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, according to court documents filed Thursday. The offense is punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in prison, three years of supervised release following any imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Eberhart’s attorney declined to comment when reached by phone Friday. A plea hearing had not been scheduled for Eberhart as of Friday afternoon, according to court records.The former Republican state representative represented central Indiana’s House District 57 for 16 years before leaving office in November 2022. He is accused of accepting compensation and the promise of future employment in exchange for favorable action in the General Assembly, pros...

A teenager taken from occupied Mariupol to Russia will return to Ukraine, officials say

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:26:42 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Ukrainian and Russian officials on Friday reported reaching an agreement to bring a Ukrainian teenager taken to Russia amid the war last year back to his home country, in accordance with his wishes. Bohdan Yermokhin, a 17-year-old whose parents passed away years ago, will be reunited with a cousin “in a third country” on his 18th birthday later this month, with a view to then return to Ukraine, Russian children’s rights ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova said in an online statement Friday. Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets also confirmed on Friday that Yermokhin “will soon be in Ukraine.” Yermokhin is one of thousands of Ukrainian children taken to Russia from Ukrainian regions occupied since the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion, an effort that has prompted the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin and Lvova-Belova. Judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, said they found ...

Mexico’s ruling party faces a major test: Can it avoid falling apart without charismatic president?

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:26:42 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s immensely powerful ruling party may face its biggest test yet Friday, as it announces its candidates for the 2024 gubernatorial elections.The challenge isn’t coming from flagging opposition parties. Rather, the party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has to prove it can really hold together and prevent the desertion of candidates who weren’t picked — or whether, with the end of term for its charismatic founder, the ideologically diverse party could start falling apart.Since López Obrador founded his Morena party in 2014, it has largely served to promote him, with little ideological consistency and a leading elite made up of disparate elements, in many cases recruited from other parties or resuscitated despite past scandals. But López Obrador, who can’t run for re-election, leaves office in 10 months. Morena has already announced its nominee for the presidential race, former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, who is seen as a faithful ...

Defence committee calls for open competition on military plane bid

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:26:42 GMT

MONTREAL — A parliamentary committee is demanding that Ottawa ensure an open bidding process for new military surveillance planes, rather than a sole-source contract.Echoing calls from the premiers of Ontario and Quebec, the House of Commons defence committee passed a motion Thursday that asks the federal government to put out a request for proposals before it chooses a replacement for the Royal Canadian Air Force’s CP-140 Aurora — maritime patrol planes set to retire in 2030 after a half-century of service.For months, Bombardier CEO Éric Martel has been pushing Ottawa to formally ask for tenders as he promotes the Montreal-based company’s reconnaissance aircraft over a Boeing Co. alternative, the P-8A Poseidon — the apparent front-runner.Bombardier joined forces earlier this year with U.S.-based General Dynamics on a patrol aircraft, a modified version of its Global 6500 business jet with submarine-hunting technology. The first plane is not expected to role off the asse...

Birchmount Hospital being redeveloped, adding community care facility in L’Amoreaux

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:26:42 GMT

As Scarborough and nearby communities continue to see a surge in residents, the need for more health care spaces like Birchmount Hospital are critical.Since being built in 1985, there haven’t been any major changes to the footprint at the hospital located on Birchmount Road near Finch Avenue East.For frontline medical professionals like Dr. Mayoorendra Ravichandiran, an emergency room physician and the associate medical director of Birchmount Hospital’s emergency department, the challenges are present every day.“I think, to put it simply, a lot of times it has to do with space,” Ravichandiran said during a tour CityNews received at Birchmount Hospital.“This is a challenge that many hospitals face, but I think in Scarborough and Birchmount, especially, there hasn’t been much change to the infrastructure in years.”During the tour of the intensive care, medicine and emergency units, each area had one or two room vacancies each. All the others w...

UK judge decries legal tactics used by sick child’s parents as he refuses to let her die at home

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:26:42 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A British judge on Friday expressed profound concerns about the tactics of the parents of a terminally ill infant as he refused to allow them to take her home from the hospital to die.The decision by Court of Appeal Justice Peter Jackson came after the parents of 8-month-old Indi Gregory and the Italian government had sought permission for her to be treated at Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospital in Rome. A lower court had previously ruled in favor of doctors who said it was in Indi’s best interests to remove life support and allow her to die in a hospital or hospice.Jackson said doctors caring for Indi and other critically-ill children had been put in an “extremely challenging” position by the legal tussle and decried what he described as “manipulative litigation tactics” designed to frustrate orders made by judges after careful consideration. Such actions will not be tolerated, Jackson said. Indi’s parents have fought to continue life support for their ...

Woman robbed at gunpoint in Woodfield Mall parking lot, suspect leads police chase

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:26:42 GMT

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — Charges are pending in a suburban crime spree that started with a woman who was robbed at gunpoint at Woodfield Mall.According to police, the armed robbery of the woman happened in the Schaumburg Mall parking lot Thursday afternoon — while the victim's infant was inside the vehicle.The suspect fled the scene, but License Plate Readers in Oak Brook alerted police to the vehicle at Oak Brook Center, located at 100 Oakbrook Center. Police responded to the scene and saw the suspect crash into another vehicle.A police chase ensued and the suspect was stopped on Interstate 294 after ramming into a police squad vehicle.The offender was taken into custody and a gun was recovered.No one was injured.

Bruce Willis' daughter opens up about her father's health

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:26:42 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Bruce Willis' daughter, Tallulah Willis, opened up about her father's health during Wednesday’s episode of “The Drew Barrymore Show.”Earlier this year, Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which Johns Hopkins Medicine says is a common cause of dementia that occurs when nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain are lost, causing the lobes to shrink. Doctors said FTD can affect behavior, personality, language and movement.Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia earlier this year. (Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images)Tallulah Willis, the youngest daughter of Willis and actress Demi Moore, told Barrymore that her father's health condition hasn't changed.“He has a really aggressive cognitive disease, a form of dementia that’s very rare,” she said. “He is the same, which I think, in this regard, I’ve learned is the best thing you can ask for.” Steve Martin ‘so proud’ his book was banned by Florida school district La...

Black widow spider bite sends Colorado man to ICU

Published Tue, 18 Feb 2025 23:26:42 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Ask Wendy Brewer-Thomas about her husband Ronnie Thomas, and she will tell you he's a reliable man, husband and father."He is the sole provider of this whole house," Brewer-Thomas said.Thomas only misses work when he needs to take care of her, she said. And she had a planned medical procedure coming up."We were mentally preparing for that," Brewer-Thomas said, "so I thought maybe he was just stressed out and getting sick because he was worrying about me, like he always does."'I thought he was just catching a cold'Thomas was feeling ill and he was getting worse."I woke up in the middle of the night because he was coughing," Brewer-Thomas said. "But again, I thought he was just catching a cold." Mystery objects falling from the sky may be spider ‘balloons’ Thomas had pain in his hand and applied some medical cream to feel better — the only hint something was wrong. Then she found a black widow spider in her Denver home."I panicked," Brewer-Thomas said, "and I threw i...