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Tens of thousands march against Serbia’s populist leadership following mass shootings

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:40 GMT

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Tens of thousands of people marched through the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and blocked a key bridge Friday in the second large protest since two mass shootings that rattled the Balkan country and left 17 people dead, including many children.Protesters gathered in front of the Parliament building before filing by the government’s headquarters and onto a highway bridge spanning the Sava River, where evening commuters had to turn their vehicles around to avoid getting stuck. At the head of the column was a black banner reading “Serbia Against Violence.”As the demonstrators passed the government buildings, many chanted slogans decrying Serbia’s populist president, Aleksandar Vucic, whom they blame for creating an atmosphere of hopelessness and division in the country that they say indirectly led to the mass shootings.Pro-government media criticized the bridge blockade, with the Novosti daily newspaper reporting that “harassment has begun, hooligans ha...

Associated Press photographer Elise Amendola, who documented decades of sports and news, dies at 70

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:40 GMT

Renowned Associated Press photojournalist Elise Amendola — a determined, joyous and patient journalist who masterfully photographed pivotal global news and sporting events spanning decades — has died. She was 70.Amendola, who recently retired from the AP, died Thursday at her home in North Andover, Massachusetts, after a 13-year battle with ovarian cancer, her wife and fellow photographer Mary Schwalm said Friday. Amendola documented many important moments in history, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Boston Marathon bombing, the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, U.S. presidential campaigns, and many Super Bowls, Olympics, World Series and other major sporting events. “I owe the AP for our beautiful life,” Schwalm told the AP Friday. “I first met Elise when I was a photo runner at the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. By Athens in 2004, I was a staff photo editor on the sports desk and we’d become friends. I had the pleasure to edit her photos … ...

Black College World Series hopes to spur MLB careers for HBCU players

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:40 GMT

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The spectators were mostly Black kids, ranging from elementary school to high school. The teams — all from historically Black colleges and universities — had names that won’t resonate with the average baseball fan.Wiley College. Bluefield State. Rust College.The Black College World Series, held this week in Montgomery, is giving dozens of HBCU players from NAIA and Division II schools a chance to compete for a title beyond their own leagues and perhaps attract attention from Major League Baseball teams.Not a single one of their HBCU predecessors was on an MLB opening day roster this year, despite a rich history of big league alums that includes Hall of Famers Lou Brock (Southern University), Andre Dawson (Florida A&M) and Larry Doby (Virginia Union)“We all have concerns about the fact that we don’t have as many African-American players playing today,” Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith said. “But it’s all about what do you do about it? I think it’s ...

Kentucky is latest battleground for secretaries of state facing election falsehoods during primaries

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:40 GMT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s secretary of state has won bipartisan praise during his first term in office for expanding voter access during the COVID-19 pandemic and overseeing elections that have been free of widespread problems.That record still hasn’t paved a clear path to reelection for Republican Michael Adams. He now must persuade primary voters who have been bombarded for years with false claims about rigged elections.He faces one challenger in Tuesday’s GOP primary who has promoted debunked election claims and another who favors pulling Kentucky out of a multistate effort designed to detect voter fraud, an effort being pushed by conspiracy theorists in conservative states.The battle for Kentucky’s top elections post follows similar campaigns during last year’s midterm elections, when candidates who denied the results of the 2020 election won GOP primaries in numerous states. A handful of them went on to win the office in deeply Republican states, but each of...

Police identify woman shot and killed at south Etobicoke condo

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:40 GMT

Toronto police have identified the 23-year-old woman shot and killed at a condo in south Etobicoke earlier this week.Police were called to the area of Manitoba Street and Legion Road around 4:30 a.m. on May 10 for reports of “unknown trouble.”Investigators say security at a condo building in the area received calls from residents who reported hearing a violent interaction and the sound of a loud bang. Security located a woman with gunshot wounds.The woman, who has been identified as Viyaleta Lukoshka, was pronounced dead at the scene.Kadeem Robinson, of Toronto, was arrested later that day charged with second-degree murder.

GOP lawmaker: Former Trump prosecutor declines to provide details on hush-money investigation

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:40 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — An ex-prosecutor who once oversaw Manhattan’s yearslong investigation of former President Donald Trump repeatedly declined to substantively answer questions at a closed-door deposition Friday of the House Judiciary Committee, according to a Republican lawmaker in the meeting.Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, exited the meeting after roughly one hour and said Pomerantz, the former prosecutor, repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment that protects people from providing self-incriminating testimony.Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a scheme to bury allegations of extramarital affairs that arose during his 2016 White House campaign. GOP lawmakers have decried the investigation as a “political persecution” and launched an oversight probe.Pomerantz in a written opening statement called the committee’s inquiry itself “an act of political theater.” He also explained he was invoking the Fifth Amendment because the...

Oregon GOP walkout threatens abortion, trans bills – and senators’ own careers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:40 GMT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A boycott by Republican state senators in Oregon threatens to derail hundreds of bills, including on gun control and abortion rights, as a deadline looms that could also upend the protesters’ political futures. Democrats control the Statehouse in Oregon. But the GOP is leveraging rules that require two-thirds of lawmakers be present to pass legislation, which means Democrats need a certain number of Republicans to be there too.Republican and Democratic leaders in the Oregon Legislature met behind closed doors for a second day Thursday to try to bridge the divide as the boycott entered its ninth straight day, with partisan bills on abortion, gender-affirming care and gun control on the line. Lawmakers with 10 unexcused absences are barred from reelection under a constitutional amendment passed overwhelmingly last November by voters weary of repeated walkouts. Several statehouses around the nation, including in Montana and Tennessee, have been ideological batt...

London police chief rejects complaints of heavy-handed response to coronation protesters

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:40 GMT

LONDON (AP) — London’s top police officer defended the department Friday from complaints of a heavy-handed response to protesters during the coronation of King Charles III, saying his officers intervened to prevent “serious disruption and criminality.”Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said officers responded to “rapidly developing intelligence” suggesting protests could affect the safety and security of the coronation events last Saturday. Prompting the concerns were indications that demonstrators planned to use high-volume sound devices that could have panicked horses and to block the procession between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey by locking onto things along the route, Rowley said in a letter responding to questions from Mayor Sadiq Khan.‘’Had our officers not acted on the reasonable grounds based on the evidence in front of them in the moment and the potential risk to the event, there would now be much more serious questions to answer about the event,’’ Row...

Man seriously injured in stabbing in front of city-run supervised injection site

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:40 GMT

A man was rushed to hospital with serious, possibly life-threatening injuries, after he was stabbed in front of a supervised injection site in downtown Toronto on Friday afternoon.Just before 2 p.m. emergency crews rushed to the scene in front of the The Works, a city-run supervised injection and harm reduction facility, located at 277 Victoria St. near Yonge-Dundas Square.Paramedics could be seen administering chest compressions to the victim, who was rushed to hospital in an ambulance.There’s no word on suspects at this time.More to come

WestJet pilots could strike as of Tuesday as talks drag on

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:53:40 GMT

TORONTO — WestJet pilots and their employer are continuing to hold talks as the union warns that a walkout could come as early as Tuesday.The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents some 1,600 flight crew at WestJet and subsidiary Swoop, says it is poised to file a 72-hour strike notice just after midnight.Bernard Lewall, who heads the union’s WestJet contingent, says the workers’ issues revolve around job protection, pay and scheduling, with some 340 pilots leaving the carrier over the past year and a half — mostly to other airlines.WestJet says there have been three times more pilot hires than resignations at its mainline operation this year.The Calgary-based airline says its pilots are among the best paid in Canada, but that a contract on par with those recently secured by some U.S. pilot groups would be financially unworkable and put the company’s future at risk.Labour shortages continue to plague the aviation industry, with a dearth of workers in areas r...