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Russia to announce a verdict in Navalny’s case; Kremlin critic expects lengthy prison term

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:52 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny due to hear the verdict Friday in his latest trial on extremism charges. The prosecution has demanded a 20-year prison sentence, and the politician himself said he expects a lengthy prison term. Navalny is already serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court in a penal colony east of Moscow. In 2021, he was also sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for a parole violation. The latest trial against Navalny has been taking place behind closed doors in the colony where he is imprisoned. If the court finds Navalny guilty, it will be his fifth criminal conviction, all of which have been widely seen as a deliberate strategy by the Kremlin to silence its most ardent opponent. Navalny, 47, is President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe who exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests. He was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poiso...

Cyprus allows human COVID-19 medications to be used on cats to fight deadly virus mutation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:52 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus’ veterinarians association on Friday lauded a government decision to allow its stock of human coronavirus medication to be used on cats to fight a local mutation of a feline virus that has killed thousands of animals on the Mediterranean island.The association said in a statement that it had petitioned the government for access to the medication at “reasonable prices” from the beginning of this year, when the mutation that causes lethal Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) began to noticeably crop up in the island’s cat population.“We want to assure that we will continue to investigate and control the rise in case of FCov-2023,” the association said.Local animal activists had claimed that the mutation had killed as many as 300,000 cats, but Association President Nektaria Ioannou Arsenoglou says that’s an exaggeration. Arsenoglou had told The Associated Press that an association survey of 35 veterinary clinics indicated an island-wide total of about...

Flash floods, landslides hit parts of Slovenia after a month’s amount of rain falls in a day

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:52 GMT

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Heavy rains caused flash floods and landslides in parts of Slovenia, blocking roads and bridges, flooding buildings and forcing evacuations on Friday.Slovenia’s environmental agency, ARSO, raised the weather alert after a month’s amount of rain fell within 24 hours in northern, northwestern and central parts of the country.The Alpine nation was hit by several severe storms earlier in the summer that blew off roofs, downed thousands of trees and killed one person in Slovenia and four others elsewhere in the region. Experts say extreme weather conditions are partly fueled by climate change. Parts of Europe saw record heat and battled wildfires during the summer. The floods overnight Thursday to Friday in Slovenia blocked roads around the scenic central town of Kamnik. Authorities there urged people to stay in their homes and closed kindergartens for the day.The official STA news agency reported evacuations in several parts of the country, includi...

Ethiopia’s declaring a state of emergency in its Amhara region as local fighters clash with military

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:52 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s Council of Ministers is declaring a state of emergency in the country’s Amhara region after authorities pleaded for help as clashes intensify between regional forces and the military.The prime minister’s office announced the decision on Friday after the region’s leader said regular law enforcement was no longer able to contain the violence. The declaration needs approval from Parliament.Ethiopia’s second most populous region has been gripped by instability since April, when federal authorities moved to disarm Amhara’s security forces following the end of the devasting two-year war in the neighboring Tigray region. Authorities last year also tried to dismantle the informal Amhara militia known as Fano.This week, residents have reported fighting across the Amhara region as militia members attacked army units and protesters blocked roads. Flights to two popular tourist towns, Lalibela and Gondar, have been suspended. Internet access has been affected.A ...

India’s top court stays conviction of opposition leader for mocking the prime minister’s surname

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:52 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s top court on Friday stayed the criminal defamation conviction of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi for mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname — a conviction that disqualified him from being a member of parliament. A fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his main challenger in 2024 polls, Gandhi was ousted from Parliament after his conviction by a magistrate’s court in March.Congress party spokesman Ajoy Kumar welcomed the Supreme Court order.The defamation case involved comments Gandhi made in a 2019 election speech that were deemed to be insulting to Modi’s surname. He was sentenced to two years in prison by a magistrate’s court but the courts suspended his prison sentence in April.The case was filed by Purnesh Modi, who is a member of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat state but is not related to the prime minister.Gandhi’s conviction was upheld by the Gujarat state High Court so he filed an appeal in the country’s Supreme Cour...

In the news today: Statistics Canada to release July employment figures this morning

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:52 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…StatCan to release July jobs reportStatistics Canada is set to release its July jobs report this morning.Canada’s unemployment rate has been rising for the previous two months, and high interest rates are expected to have pushed unemployment up further. In June, the unemployment rate was 5.4 per cent.Wage growth also slowed in June, rising 4.2 per cent year-over-year.Here’s what else we’re watching …B.C. port workers to conclude vote on contractA labour researcher says he hopes the federal government doesn’t rush to intervene in British Columbia’s port dispute, even if union members reject a tentative deal with employers today.The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada concludes the two-day vote at 6 p.m., after a tumultuous period that included a 13-day shutdown of more than 30 port terminals and other sites last...

Mutinous soldiers in Niger sever French military ties while ‘hostage’ president pleads for US help

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:52 GMT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Niger’s military junta says it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler, firing some of the previous government’s key ambassadors and warning citizens of the West African nation to watch for foreign armies and spies. A regional delegation’s efforts at negotiation quickly deadlocked.The junta’s announcement on state television late Thursday deepens the post-coup isolation for what had been the United States’ and allies’ last major security partner in the Sahel, the vast region south of the Sahara Desert that various Islamic extremist groups have turned into the global center of terrorism.With two days remaining before a deadline set by the West African regional bloc to release and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face possible force, Bazoum in a plea published in a Washington Post opinion piece said, “I write this as a hostage” and urged the U.S. and partners to help.Niger’s mutinous soldiers face a Sunda...

Egypt raises interest rates as it battles spiraling inflation and households struggle to keep up

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:52 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Central Bank is hiking interest rates as the cash-strapped North African country continues to battle surging inflation and a depreciating currency.In an online statement late Thursday, the bank’s monetary policy committee said the most basic lending rate, the overnight deposit rate, was increased from 18.25% to 19.75%.Egyptians, particularly working class households, are struggling to keep up with rising prices, which have soared since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. The annual inflation rate reached 36.8% in June, up from 33.7% recorded in May, according to data released by the state-run Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics.The prices of basic items such as grains, meat, poultry, fish and fruit have risen drastically in recent months.“Given the balance of risks surrounding the inflation outlook, the MPC judges that a policy rate hike … is warranted in order to contain the inflationary pressures,″ Thursday’s statement said.Over the past year, E...

Breastfeeding Olympians want it all: Top careers and motherhood

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:52 GMT

PARIS (AP) — When Clarisse Agbégnénou won her sixth world judo title, confirming the reigning Olympic champion as one of the athletes to watch at next year’s Paris Games, the French star’s smallest but greatest fan was less wild about her mother’s newest gold medal than she was about her breast milk.After a peckish day of few feeds — because mum had been busy putting opponents through the wringer — 10-month-old Athéna made amends that night.“She didn’t let my boobs out of her mouth,” Agbégnénou says. “I was like, ‘Wow, okay.’ I think it was really something for her.”Breastfeeding and high-performance sports were long an almost impossible combination for top female athletes, torn for decades between careers or motherhood, because having both was so tough.But that’s becoming less true ahead of the 2024 Olympics, where women will take another step forward in their long march for equality, competing in equal numbers with men for the first time, and with pio...

Researcher warns against intervention as B.C. port workers conclude contract vote

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:37:52 GMT

VANCOUVER — A labour researcher says he hopes the federal government doesn’t rush to intervene in British Columbia’s port dispute, even if union members reject a tentative deal with employers today.The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada concludes the two-day vote at 6 p.m., after a tumultuous period that included a 13-day shutdown of more than 30 port terminals and other sites last month.McGill University associate professor Barry Eidlin says he hopes the federal government lets the dispute be resolved at the negotiating table, regardless of the vote’s outcome.He says the prospect of federal intervention represents “backsliding to a past era” when workers’ fundamental rights weren’t respected.The tentative contract between the union and the BC Maritime Employers Association was announced on Sunday, a day after federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to impose a deal or bindi...