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Zimbabwe’s opposition says the country is going in ‘a dangerous direction’ after activist’s killing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:28 GMT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s opposition leader warned Wednesday that the country is “heading into a dangerous direction” as his party mourned an official abducted while campaigning for upcoming elections and later found dead.Tapfumaneyi Masaya, 51, was part of a team of Citizens for Change Coalition activists campaigning Saturday in Harare’s Mabvuku township when he was seized by unidentified people and bundled into a vehicle, said Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, which is giving legal representation to his family.Masaya’s body was dumped near a park on the outskirts of the capital and taken to a morgue where it was identified by his family and fellow party activists Monday. Police confirmed the body had been identified.“The callous politically motivated abduction and murder of Tapfumanei Masaya is a tragic and ugly turn of politics in Zimbabwe,” Nelson Chamisa posted on X, formerly Twitter.The opposition has accused the ruling ZANU-PF party and security agencies of leading ...

Discrimination charge filed against Michigan salon after owner’s comments on gender identity

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:28 GMT

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A hair salon in northern Michigan is facing a discrimination charge from the state’s Department of Civil Rights after its owner posted on social media earlier this year that anyone identifying as other than a man or a woman is not welcome at her business.The department claims in the charge filed Wednesday that Traverse City’s Studio 8 Hair Lab violated the state’s civil rights act in a Facebook post in July from its owner, Christine Geiger, by unlawfully discriminating against three claimants. The post, which is no longer available, read, “If a human identifies as anything other than a man/woman please seek services at a local pet groomer. You are not welcome at this salon. Period. Should you request to have a particular pronoun used please note we may simply refer to you as ‘hey you.’”A hearing will now be scheduled before an administrative law judge, who will issue a recommendation after hearing the merits of the complaint, according to the ...

More seniors choosing to age in home instead of downsizing: CMHC report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:28 GMT

OTTAWA — A new report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says that although seniors tend to consider downsizing as they age, a large proportion are instead choosing to age in their home rather than put it on the market.CMHC says the usual increase in renter rates as cohorts age has been occurring later in life and is less pronounced than it used to be.That could be due to factors such as people living longer, households having more money than their predecessors and relying less on property sales to provide for themselves, and homeowners in urban centres having a wider range of housing to choose from.The report says households in Toronto and Vancouver are the most likely to transition to condominiums, while in Montreal, there’s a preference for moving to rental housing.As Canada looks to create additional housing to bring costs down, the national housing agency says solutions geared toward seniors could include increasing supply from existing units by creating secondary...

Personal information of Toronto Public Library staff stolen in cyber attack, investigators say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:28 GMT

Officials from the Toronto Public Library (TPL) are shedding some light on what type of data has been compromised in an ongoing cybersecurity incident.Investigators were able to determine that cyber criminals stole a large number of files from the library’s network in an incident first announced on October 28. It is believed personal information from TPL staff, including names, social insurance numbers, and home addresses have been affected.“It has been a very challenging time, and we are deeply sorry for the concern it has caused,” reads an update posted on the library’s website on Tuesday. “Regrettably, the criminals that compromised our network did steal a large number of files from a file server. We did not pay a ransom.” Related: Toronto Public Library says sensitive data may have been exposed in cybersecurity incident Cybersecurity incident at Toronto Public Library leaves some services inaccessible P...

Maine pair ordered to pay $1.25 million for racially motivated attack on Black man

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:28 GMT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A pair of white men sentenced to federal prison for breaking a Black man’s jaw in a random attack have been ordered to pay $1.25 million in damages by a state judge.The judge issued a default judgement against Maurice Diggins and Dusty Leo, of Biddeford, both of whom are in federal custody and weren’t represented by attorneys in the proceeding.The victim, Daimon McCollum, may never collect the damages but the award “demonstrates that this kind of conduct is abhorrent and won’t be tolerated,” his attorney, Allyson Knowles, said Wednesday.McCollum was attacked in April 2018 in Biddeford by the men, who taunted and shouted racial slurs from their vehicle before a confrontation in which McCollum was struck in the jaw.Knowles said Superior Court Justice Richard Mulhern issued a default judgment last month. Leo and Diggins initially participated in the proceedings with letters but then stopped, Knowles said. On Nov. 9, the judge ordered them to pay $750,...

Male beaten and stabbed in Oshawa, 3 in custody

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:28 GMT

Three people, two men and a woman, are facing charges after a male was beaten and stabbed in Oshawa on Tuesday afternoon.Officers were called to the John Street East and Simcoe Street South area at around 3:10 p.m. for reports of an armed person.The victim was found with serious but non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital.Police say several people assaulted him before he was stabbed.The suspects fled prior to police arriving on scene, but were arrested a short distance away.Ryan Gustave, 49, Lauren Hickey, 30, and Austin Ellis, 29, all of no fixed address, were arrested and all face charges of assault with a weapon, among others.The trio were held in custody for a bail hearing.

A record Russian budget will boost defense spending, shoring up Putin’s support ahead of election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:28 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Russia’s State Duma took a step forward Wednesday towards approving its biggest-ever federal budget which will increase spending by around 25% in 2024, with record amounts going on defense.Defense spending is expected to overtake social spending next year for the first time in modern Russian history, at a time when the Kremlin is keen to shore up support for President Vladimir Putin as Russia prepares for a presidential election in March.Record low unemployment, higher wages and targeted social spending should help the Kremlin ride out the domestic impact of pivoting the economy to a war footing, but could pose a problem in the long term, analysts say. The draft budget “is about getting the war sorted in Ukraine and about being ready for a military confrontation with the West in perpetuity,” said Richard Connolly, an expert on Russia’s military and economy at the Royal United Services Institute in London.“This amounts to the wholesale remilitarization...

A Moroccan cobalt mine denies claims of arsenic-contaminated local water. Automakers are concerned

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:28 GMT

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — A mining company controlled by Morocco ‘s royal family on Wednesday denied claims that operations at a site used to mine minerals for car batteries were causing hazardous levels of arsenic to appear in the local water supply.The Managem Group in a statement denied the findings published in German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung that pointed to increased levels of arsenic in the water near its century-old cobalt mine at Bou Azzer in the central Moroccan desert.The newspaper’s investigation, published last weekend, found those levels of arsenic were hazardous.At the mine itself, they found almost 19,000 micrograms of arsenic per liter in the water. In Zaouit Sidi Blal, a date-farming community 4.3 miles (7 kilometers) from the mine, they found just over 400 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water. That’s roughly 44 times the World Health Organization’s guideline value for lifelong consumption, the investigation said.Arsenic is a toxic chemical found in...

Greece fines local branches of J&J and Colgate-Palmolive for allegedly breaching a profit cap

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:28 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities on Wednesday announced fines totaling 1.67 million euros ($1.81 million) on the local branches of two U.S.-based health care and consumer products giants for alleged breaches of a profit cap imposed amid Greece’s cost-of-living crisis.The Development Ministry said Johnson & Johnson Hellas was fined 1 million euros and Colgate-Palmolive Hellas 672,000 euros. It didn’t provide further details on the alleged breaches.The fines were imposed under a law adopted in July that caps gross profits for a broad range of key consumer goods and services — mostly in the food and health sectors — until the end of 2023. The law stipulates that the gross profit per unit cannot exceed that from before Dec. 31, 2021.Successive polls have identified the cost-of-living crisis, largely triggered by the war in Ukraine, as a major concern for most Greeks, with the overwhelming majority saying it has forced them to reduce purchases of basic goods. Toget...

Prime Minister’s Office gives mandate letters to two ministers, months after shuffle

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:31:28 GMT

OTTAWA — The Prime Minister’s Office has quietly published mandate letters for two ministers who were given new portfolios in the Liberal government’s summer cabinet shuffle, but it won’t be updating its prescriptions for jobs that already existed. The letters for the ministers in charge of the newly minted citizens’ services and sport and physical activity portfolios were posted online earlier this week, and serve as a guide to what the prime minister wants them to accomplish.Other ministers are not getting new mandate letters despite many of them having switched jobs, even though the last batch of instructions was given in 2021 during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The prime minister’s press secretary, Mohammad Hussain, says the new letters build on earlier commitments, and ministers are expected to deliver on their priorities.The letter for Citizens’ Services Minister Terry Beech says he should seek to improve the way the government deliv...