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2 US Navy sailors charged with providing sensitive military information to China

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

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Two U.S. Navy sailors were charged Thursday with providing sensitive military information to China — including details on wartime exercises, naval operations and critical technical material.The two sailors, both based in California, were charged with similar moves to provide sensitive intelligence to the Chinese. But they were separate cases, and it wasn’t clear if the two were courted or paid by the same Chinese intelligence officer as part of a larger scheme. Federal officials at a news conference in San Diego declined to specify whether the sailors were aware of each other's actions.Both men pleaded not guilty in federal courts in San Diego and Los Angeles. They were ordered to be held until their detention hearings, which will take place Aug. 8 in those same cities.U.S. officials have for years expressed concern about the espionage threat they say the Chinese government poses, bringing criminal cases in recent years against Beijing intelligence operatives who ha...

Buffy Sainte-Marie retires from live performances, cites health concerns

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

Buffy Sainte-Marie has announced that she’s retiring from live performances.A statement announcing her decision cited factors including travel-induced health concerns and performance-inhibiting physical challenges.“I have made the difficult decision to pull out of all scheduled performances in the foreseeable future,” Sainte-Marie said in the statement. “Arthritic hands and a recent shoulder injury have made it no longer possible to perform to my standards.“Sincere regrets to all my fans and family, my band and the support teams that make it all possible.”The legendary singer-songwriter, who’s in her early 80s, suggested in September that performances in Ottawa and Vancouver were part of what she said was “probably going to be her last tour.”Sainte-Marie, in an interview with The Canadian Press at the time, said she was cutting back on flying, meaning fewer appearances, following a rough summer that included a bout with COVID-19 and being st...

Babies should get recently approved drug for RSV, CDC says

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

Infants should get a recently approved drug to protect them against a respiratory virus that sends tens of thousands of American children to the hospital each year, U.S. health officials said Thursday.An infection with RSV is a coldlike nuisance for most healthy people, but it can be life-threatening for the very young and the elderly. There are no vaccines for babies yet so the new drug, a lab-made antibody that helps the immune system fight off the virus, is expected to fill a critical need.The drug, developed by AstraZeneca and Sanofi, is expected to be ready in the fall before the RSV season, typically November through March. In the U.S., about 58,000 children younger than 5 are hospitalized for RSV each year and several hundred die.A panel of outside advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the one-time shot for infants born just before or during the RSV season and for those less than 8 months old before the season starts. They also recommended a d...

Tornado touches down near Ottawa Thursday evening, Environment Canada says

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

Environment Canada says a tornado touched down in the Ottawa area this evening during a severe thunderstorm.It was confirmed near Metcalfe, Ont., a rural community about 30 kilometres southeast of Ottawa, just before 7 p.m. eastern time.There were also a number of reports of hail throughout the national capital, along with strong winds and rain. Ottawa Fire Services says part of a roof was ripped off a home in Riverside South, a community south of Nepean.The fire service says everyone got out of the home safely and the home’s structural integrity was not damaged, but it’s not clear whether the damage was caused by a tornado. Severe storms in mid-July brought tornados to Barrhaven, which is another south Ottawa neighbourhood, and to Mirabel, Que.Barrhaven is only about 30 kilometres west of Metcalfe, where Thursday’s tornado was spotted.About 125 homes were damaged in Barrhaven during the July 13 storm, said Kim Ayotte, the general manager of emergency and protectiv...

Chairperson of Alabama’s medical marijuana commission steps down

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

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The chairperson of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission stepped down on Thursday after a lawsuit challenged his eligibility to serve on the board. Dr. Steven Stokes, a radiation oncologist from Dothan, Alabama, submitted his resignation Thursday from the commission tasked with regulating medical marijuana providers in the state. “Dr. Stokes has a genuine desire to see medical cannabis products available to patients in Alabama. … We greatly appreciate Dr. Stokes’ contribution to the Commission and anticipate that he will remain at the forefront of the development of Alabama’s medical cannabis program,” a spokesperson for the commission wrote in an email.The statement from the commission did not give a reason for the resignation. A lawsuit filed last month challenged Stokes’ eligibility to serve on the commission since he also serves as a trustee for the University of South Alabama. State law says public officials, lobbyists and candidates for pu...

REVIEW: Losing Yourself, and the journey back

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

Imagine waking up one day, and not remembering much about your life. You’re in the hospital, everything seems hazy, and you’re just wondering when you can go back to high school. But when the doctor and your family come, they tell you you’re not actually a teenager but a 29 year old. And not only that, but you’ve got three kids as well and you can’t remember anything about them.Katrina O’Neil and Robert Gow in Losing Yourself, courtesy of Accessible Media Inc.That’s the situation that Katrina O’Neil from Cambridge, Ontario finds herself in. She’s the subject of a new short documentary called Losing Yourself, which depicts her experience reclaiming her life after losing 14 years of her own memory. Katrina suffered a cardiac arrest, and during that time her brain didn’t receive a lot of oxygen. This caused several years of her memory to be erased, including every single memory of her three children.What’s most interesti...

Former City College professor charged with raping multiple victims from El Salvador, prosecutors say

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

NEW YORK (AP) — A former City College chemistry adjunct professor was arrested Thursday and charged with coaxing three women from El Salvador to come to the United States for a better life before subjecting them to rape and sexual assault once they arrived, authorities said.Jorge Alberto Ramos, 43, of the Bronx, was arrested on charges in an indictment returned in Manhattan federal court that alleged he carried out the scheme from 2013 through 2023, grooming the women to make the trip by expressing concern for their families and by sending them gifts and money.At an initial court appearance, Ramos agreed to remain detained until a bail proposal can be offered. He faces two counts of inducement to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity and two counts of transportation to engage in unlawful sexual activity. He also was charged with conspiracy to engage in human smuggling, human smuggling and harboring an alien.If convicted, he could face decades in prison.His lawyer did not imme...

York University, international scientists conducting specialized Toronto air quality analysis

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

As much of Ontario has been dealing with periodic periods of intense forest fire smoke this year, it has brought a renewed focus to the state of our air quality. Approximately 40 researchers from Toronto and overseas have gathered at York University and will use state-of-the-art technology 24 hours a day and seven days a week over six weeks in an effort to better understand how poor air quality can impact our health and our communities.On the rooftop level of the Petrie science building at York University’s Keele campus, millions of dollars worth of scientific tools have been jammed into a small air quality research station lab and on a terrace. Feeding into the lab room and the roughly half a dozen computers inside is a network of tubing and other instruments. Much of the data is coming in real-time through wireless devices. There are homegrown technologies inside the lab too such as Xcalibr, a tall cabinet of circuitry and equipment that’s name draws inspiration from t...

Judge rejects attempt to temporarily block Connecticut’s landmark gun law passed after Sandy Hook

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

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday rejected a request to temporarily block Connecticut’s landmark 2013 gun control law, passed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, until a gun rights group’s lawsuit against the statute has concluded.U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven ruled the National Association for Gun Rights has not shown that the state’s ban on certain assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines, or LCMs, violates the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms or that such weapons are commonly bought and used for self-defense.Connecticut officials “have submitted persuasive evidence that assault weapons and LCMs are more often sought out for their militaristic characteristics than for self-defense, that these characteristics make the weapons disproportionately dangerous to the public based on their increased capacity for lethality, and that assault weapons and LCMs are more often used in crimes and mass shootings...

Justice Kagan supports ethics code but says Supreme Court divided on how to proceed

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

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Justice Elena Kagan publicly declared her support for an ethics code for the U.S. Supreme Court but said there was no consensus among the justices on how to proceed, suggesting the high court is grappling with public concerns over its ethics practices.“It’s not a secret for me to say that we have been discussing this issue. And it won’t be a surprise to know that the nine of us have a variety of views about this,” she said Thursday at a judicial conference in Portland, Oregon.The Supreme Court is navigating a fraught moment in its history. It has come under growing scrutiny for its lack of an official code of conduct, and public trust in the body is at a 50-year low following a series of polarized rulings, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade and federal abortion protections last year.The Associated Press obtained thousands of pages of documents that show how justices spanning the court’s ideological divide have lent the prestige of their positions to parti...