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DEA review gives short shrift to foreign corruption scandals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:20 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — After nearly two years and at least $1.4 million spent, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Friday released an external review of its overseas operations that gave short shrift to recent corruption scandals and offered a series of recommendations that critics dismissed as overly vague.Much of the 50-page report outlines the DEA’s sprawling, 69-country “foreign footprint,” while lauding its efforts to plug gaping holes in the oversight of undercover money laundering operations and special vetted units overseas.“The recommendations are so broad and lack the merit or value that would enhance the agency’s foreign operations,” said Mike Vigil, a former head of the DEA’s foreign operations. “What about doing away with the good ol’ boy system where they promote each other without being qualified?”The external probe was announced in 2021 following reporting by The Associated Press on the crimes of José Irizarry, a disgraced former DEA agent no...

Principal resigns after complaints on ‘David’ statue nudity

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:20 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida charter school principal has been forced to resign after a parent complained sixth graders were exposed to pornography during a lesson on Renaissance art that included Michelangelo’s “David” sculpture. The Tallahassee Democrat reported that the principal, Hope Carrasquilla, of Tallahassee Classical School resigned this week after an ultimatum from the school board’s chairman.One parent complained the material was pornographic and two other parents said they wanted to be notified of the lesson before it was given to their children, Carrasquilla said. The instruction also included Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” painting and Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus.” “It saddens me that my time here had to end this way,” Carrasquilla told the paper. The “David” statue’s nudity has been part of a centuries-old debate about art pushing boundaries and the rules of censorship. In the 1500s, metal fig leaves covered the genitals of statues like Da...

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau introduces FLOTUS to curling during first lady’s visit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:20 GMT

OTTAWA — The first lady of the United States got a sweeping introduction to Canadian sports culture in Ottawa Friday as Sophie Grégoire Trudeau took Jill Biden to the curling rink for her first trip to Ottawa.President Joe Biden and his wife arrived in the capital Thursday evening for their first official visit to Canada since the president took office two years ago.While the president spent most of the day close to Parliament Hill in meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, their wives visited the nearby 135 year-old Rideau Curling Club.The 20 or so curlers on the ice seemed oblivious at first as the two women greeted each other in the lounge with a warm embrace before stepping out to the chilly rink. The shouts of the tense curling matches quieted slightly as Grégoire Trudeau greeted the players.“You know, I love sports,” Grégoire Trudeau told the players from the side of the ice. “I love sports,” Biden agreed, which earned her a chuckle from the player...

S&P/TSX composite posts small gain Friday after morning losses, U.S. markets also up

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:20 GMT

TORONTO — Markets in the U.S. and Canada posted small gains Friday after recovering from losses to start the day, marking the end of the second week of volatile trading over concerns about the banking sector and high interest rates.The S&P/TSX composite index was up 41.57 points at 19,501.49.In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 132.28 points at 32,237.53.The S&P 500 index was up 22.27 points at 3,970.99,while the Nasdaq composite was up 36.56 points at 11,823.96.The Canadian dollar traded for 72.66 cents UScompared with 73.15 cents US on Thursday.The May crude contract was down 70 cents at US$69.26 per barrel and the May natural gas contract was up eight cents at US$2.36 per mmBTU.The April gold contract was down US$12.10 at US$1,983.80 an ounce and the May copper contract was down five cents at US$4.08 a pound.This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD=X)The Canadian Press

Wall Street ends higher, marking 2nd winning week in a row

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:20 GMT

NEW YORK — A late-afternoon turnaround on Wall Street left stocks higher Friday as the market shook off a weak start amid worries about banks on both sides of the Atlantic.The S&P 500 rose 0.6% after slipping for most of the morning. The benchmark index marked its second straight weekly gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%, while the Nasdaq composite ended 0.3% higher.The upbeat close to the week came as markets have been turbulent on worries that banks are weakening under the pressure of much higher interest rates. That’s led to rising concerns about a possible recession and heavy uncertainty about what the Federal Reserve and other central banks will do with interest rates going forward.“There are concerns out there about, obviously, a more severe bank crisis, both domestically and in Europe, and yet somehow markets are looking past that,” said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading & derivatives at Charles Schwab.On Friday, much of the focus was on Deut...

Man pleads guilty to role in Haiti president’s assassination

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:20 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — A convicted drug trafficker pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court Friday to participating in the assassination of Haiti’s president in 2021. Rodolphe Jaar, 50, pleaded guilty in Miami to conspiring to provide material support, providing material support and conspiring to kidnap and kill President Jovenel Moïse, according to court records. Jaar, who is Haitian and Chilean, is the first of 11 defendants charged in the United States to be convicted in the plot. His sentencing is scheduled for June 2. Dozens have been arrested in Haiti, but the cases are at a virtual standstill amid death threats that have spooked local judges. Moïse was shot 12 times at his private home near Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, on July 7, 2021. While the assassination occurred in Haiti, prosecutors believe most of the planning and funding occurred in South Florida. Authorities said the original plan was to detain Moïse weeks earlier and whisk him to an unidentified location by plane, but that f...

UN head says survival depends on how people manage water

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:20 GMT

United Nations (AP) — Humanity’s survival depends on how people manage water, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday at the end of a three-day conference on global water resources during which developing nations made urgent calls for help with cleaner drinking water and better sanitation. “All of humanity’s hopes for the future depend, in some way, on charting a new course to sustainably manage and conserve water,” Guterres said in his closing remarks.This includes rational use of water for agriculture and more aggressive action against climate change, he said, and water “needs to be at the center of the global political agenda.”The U.N. World Water Development Report, issued on the eve of the conference, says 26% of the world’s population — 2 billion people — don’t have access to safe drinking water and 46% — 3.6 billion people — lack access to basic sanitation. U.N. research also shows that almost half the world’s people will suffer severe water stress by 2030.The con...

In Dong’s riding, residents want answers on interference but no ‘rush’ to judge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:20 GMT

TORONTO — In Han Dong’s Toronto riding on Friday, residents voiced hope that the truth would emerge about China’s alleged interference in Canadian elections, but warned against condemning their newly Independent MP before the facts are clear. Dong has resigned from the Liberal caucus amid what he says are false allegations that he advised a Chinese diplomat on what the Trudeau government considered a high-priority file: the arbitrary and retaliatory detention of two Canadians in China.Joanna Leung, a 40-year-old mother of two who lives in Dong’s riding in Toronto’s northeast, said she has “mixed feelings” about the ordeal. Leung was born in China and said one of the reasons her family moved from Hong Kong to Ontario in the 1990s – before Beijing retook control of Hong Kong in 1997 – was because of how little they trusted the Chinese Communist Party. “I already witnessed how the Chinese government influence people so if there’s Chinese ...

Knight Foundation leader to retire, leaving powerful legacy

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:20 GMT

Alberto Ibargüen announced Friday that he was stepping down as the leader of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, ending a run as the grantmaker’s president that began in the George W. Bush administration. With about $3 billion in assets, Knight is among the 50 wealthiest foundations.During his tenure, Ibargüen made his mark in the cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight operated their newspaper empire. In Detroit, Ibargüen helped orchestrate a $370 million foundation effort to keep the city’s finances from cratering. In Miami, he crusaded for the arts, helping the city become an international cultural destination. And as a former newspaper executive who saw the news industry being decimated all around him, Ibargüen made it a top priority at Knight to restore the credibility and viability of journalism in response to the upheaval caused by the internet.Ibargüen, 79, was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in New Jersey. After serving in the Peace Corps and working as a ...

Longtime PC cabinet minister Merrilee Fullerton resigns

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:28:20 GMT

Merrilee Fullerton, a longtime cabinet minister in Premier Doug Ford’s government, has resigned.Fullerton, who shuffled through three cabinet posts and was in charge when thousands died of COVID-19 in Ontario nursing homes, said Friday that she was stepping down immediately.She did not detail why she was stepping down.The family physician left medicine for politics in the lead-up to the 2018 election when she won her Ottawa-area riding of Kanata-Carleton. She won that seat again, handily, in 2022.“A strong sense of duty brought me to politics after decades as a family physician serving my community, to continue my work toward solutions that would address the shortcomings of our health-care system and improve health services for individuals,” she wrote in her resignation letter to Ford.“To serve the people of this province has been a profound honour.”This afternoon I spoke with the Premier and tendered my resignation as MPP for Kanata-Carleton and as Min...