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International court rules against Guatemala in landmark Indigenous and environmental rights case

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:33 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Guatemala violated Indigenous rights by permitting a huge nickel mine on tribal land almost two decades ago, according to a ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Friday.The landmark verdict marks a monumental step in a four-decade struggle for Indigenous land rights and a long, bitter legal battle which has at times spilled into the streets of northern Guatemala.It also comes at the close of the United Nations climate summit COP28, which stressed the importance of renewables and energy transition minerals like nickel more than ever.According to a verdict read from Costa Rica in the early hours of the morning, the Guatemalan government violated the rights of the Indigenous Q’eqchi’ people to property and consultation, by permitting mining on land where members of the community have lived at least since the 1800s.Guatemala will have six months to begin the process of awarding a land title to the community, and was ordered to set up a development fund....

Prince Harry’s phone hacking victory is a landmark in the long saga of British tabloid misconduct

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:33 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry’s victory against Mirror Group Newspapers on Friday over what a British judge called “habitual” illegal activity is a landmark moment in the long and twisting saga of lawbreaking by Britain’s tabloid press.Judge Timothy Fancourt ruled that Mirror newspapers had hired private investigators to snoop for personal information and engaged in illegal phone hacking for well over a decade.It’s the latest chapter in a tale of tabloid power and attempts to tame it stretching back years — but it’s unlikely to be the end of the story.WHAT IS PHONE HACKING?In the pre-digital era, Britain’s fiercely competitive tabloid newspapers sold millions of copies a day and would go to great lengths to get scoops, including by using underhanded techniques.One method was phone hacking — calling someone’s number and punching in 0000 or another default PIN number in hope that would give access to their voice messages. Often, it did.Targets included members of the royal family, ...

NewsAlert: Online News Act funding capped for private broadcasters, CBC: report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:33 GMT

OTTAWA — The amount of funding private broadcasters will get through the Online News Act will be limited — with an even lower cap for the CBC — a federal government source confirms final regulations will say today.The source confirmed a report on the final regulations published in the Globe and Mail, on the condition they not be named so they could discuss matters not yet made public.More coming.The Canadian Press

Man in critical condition from head-on collision in Caledon

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:33 GMT

A man is in critical condition due to a head-on collision in Caledon on Friday morning.Emergency services responded to a call at approximately 6:10 a.m. of a collision on Highway 10 at Old School Road.The collision was reportedly between a small truck and a car, with the front of the car smashed in.Peel paramedics say a man was sent to local hospital in critical condition.Highway 10 is closed from the 410 to King Street.

‘Reacher’ star Alan Ritchson talks season two of hit show and how ‘Amazon took a risk’ on him

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:33 GMT

There’s a common phrase associated with Jack Reacher in Lee’s Child’s books: “Reacher says nothing.” Saying nothing, however, can be terrifying for Alan Ritchson, who plays Reacher on TV.“He’s socially awkward, very stoic, very cerebral and none of those things should make for an interesting character,” Ritchson recently told The Associated Press. “As I play Reacher, I swear there’s not one scene where I feel like, ‘That was the most interesting scene of all TV.'”“And then like the director, Sam Hill will come out, ‘It was so good! Oh, it’s so muscular and it was so full and like, it was right there, and we could just feel it coming out of your pores!“I was just standing there,” deadpans Ritchson.Reacher is a former U.S. Army officer who travels the country with only a toothbrush and wants no attachments or possessions. Nomad life leads Reacher to constantly meet new people and be in different environments, providing “Reacher” an easy set up for i...

Shops in 2 Dutch cities start selling legally grown cannabis in an experiment to regulate pot trade

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:33 GMT

BREDA, Netherlands (AP) — A paradox at the heart of the Netherlands’ permissive pot policy went up in smoke Friday in two Dutch cities as “coffeeshops” began selling the country’s first legally cultivated cannabis as part of an experiment to regulate the trade.The experiment could mark the beginning of the end for a long-standing legal anomaly — you can buy and sell small amounts of weed without fear of prosecution in the Netherlands, but growing it commercially remains illegal.“This is really a very, very big step in the right direction,” Derrick Bergman, chairman of the Union for the Abolition of Cannabis Prohibition, said as he sat in the De Baron cannabis cafe in the southern Dutch city of Breda.Dutch Health Minister Ernst Kuipers visited earlier to launch the new policy. The plan for the experiment dates back to 2017 and is seen as as a way of providing “quality-controlled” weed to coffeeshops — places that are allowed to sell marijuana — and shutting out ille...

Police officer fatally shoots 19-year-old in Mesquite, Texas, suspect in a vehicle theft

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:33 GMT

MESQUITE, Texas (AP) — Police in Mesquite, Texas, say an officer investigating a stolen vehicle fatally shot a 19-year-old man who was in another vehicle. The officer saw the stolen vehicle being followed by a second vehicle, then both stopped at a convenience store early Thursday in the east Dallas suburb, the Mesquite Police Department said in a statement.The officer found the stolen vehicle unoccupied at gas pumps and saw two men fleeing the scene as he went to the second vehicle where four people were inside, police said.The driver of the second vehicle refused to obey the officer’s orders to turn off and stop moving the vehicle.“The driver continued making furtive movements inside the vehicle and during the course of the encounter the officer fired three rounds, striking the driver,” the police statement said.Police identified the driver as Payton Lawrence, 19, of Mesquite.Firearms were found inside the vehicle, police said.The three people inside the vehicle were questio...

Finland reports a rush of migrant crossings hours before the reclosure of 2 border posts with Russia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:33 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Dozens of migrants crossed into Finland on Friday, hours before the reclosure of two southern crossing points on the border with Russia as the Nordic country experiences an influx of asylum-seekers.The Vaalimaa and Niirala crossings had reopened briefly Thursday after being shut down at the end of last month, along with Finland’s six other posts on the border with Russia. Finland blames Moscow for sending migrants to the border in an effort to destabilize the country, which joined NATO in April. Russia denies the accusation.“This is an exceptional phenomenon. We have never seen traffic like this before,” deputy border commander Samuli Murtonen told Finnish broadcaster YLE.Already by late Thursday, the Finnish Border Guard had reported that dozens of migrants without proper documentation or visas had arrived at the two checkpoints. However, the Finnish government decided the same day to close them again, effective Friday as of 8 p.m. They will remaine...

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore says Orioles lease at Camden Yards headed to a vote

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:33 GMT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A long-term agreement between the Baltimore Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority for a new lease at Camden Yards is moving forward for a vote by state officials next week, Gov. Wes Moore announced.The agreement is slated to go before the Maryland Stadium Authority on Monday. It also is expected to go before the state’s Board of Public Works later that day.“This historic agreement embodies the three core principles I laid out at the beginning of this process: this is a long term deal that will keep baseball in Baltimore for all to enjoy, that puts all Maryland taxpayers at the top of mind, and that benefits the entire City of Baltimore,” Moore said in a statement.The governor’s office has yet to release details about the agreement.“I know for many this process has been long, and the team that worked on securing this deal has done so diligently with the best interests of the taxpayer in mind,” the governor said in a statement. “The Orioles are a treas...

The title of Bill Maher’s new book promises ‘What This Comedian Said Will Shock You’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:33 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Bill Maher has had a few second thoughts, or at least some variations on the first ones.Next June, Simon & Schuster will publish “What This Comedian Said Will Shock You,” in which the outspoken host of HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher” revisits some of his on-air commentary. According to the publisher’s announcement Friday, Maher “reviewed more than a decade of his editorials, rewriting, reimagining, and updating them, and adding new material to speak exactly to the moment we’re in.”Subjects range from free speech and drugs to religion and show business. “We’re not investigative journalists — we don’t break stories, we break new ways of looking at stories,” Maher said in a statement.Maher’s previous books include “The New New Rules” and the novel “True Story.”The Associated Press