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Ex-Haiti mayor accused of killing, torture faces civil trial

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:24 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — The former mayor of a small Haitian town accused of terrorizing his political opponents goes on trial in Boston federal court on Monday in a case that highlights the violent nature of Haiti’s politics and the lack of accountability.The suit filed against Jean Morose Viliena, who now lives in suburban Boston, includes claims of killing, torture and arson in the town of Les Irois, which is about 140 miles (225 kilometers) west of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.The plaintiffs in the suit filed by the Center for Justice and Accountability in San Francisco are three Haitian citizens who allege they or their relatives were violently persecuted by Viliena and his political allies.They allege Viliena — a loyalist of former Haitian President Michel Martelly — and his associates killed the brother of a man who accused Viliena of misconduct in office, attempted to kill two others during a raid on a community radio station, and burned down 36 homes while targeting pol...

BBC backtracks on Lineker over tweet slamming UK asylum plan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:24 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The BBC secured a draw on Monday in its showdown with Gary Lineker, reversing the former soccer great’s suspension from the airwaves for a tweet that criticized the U.K. government’s new migration policy.The about-face followed a weekend of chaos and crisis for Britain’s publicly funded national broadcaster, which faced a huge backlash after sidelining one of its best-known hosts for expressing a political opinion.“Gary is a valued part of the BBC and I know how much the BBC means to Gary, and I look forward to him presenting our coverage this coming weekend,” BBC Director-General Tim Davie said.Lineker said he was “glad that we have found a way forward.”Lineker, one of English soccer’s most lauded players and the corporation’s highest-paid television presenter, was suspended Friday after he described the government’s plan to detain and deport migrants arriving by boat as “an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that ...

Arctic security is critical. Is Canada ready to stand on guard?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:24 GMT

In today’s Big Story podcast, twice in the last month, Canadians were shown just how open our northern border can be. First, the Prime Minister ordered a UFO shot down. Then, we learned that Canadian Forces had found Chinese monitoring buoys in our Arctic waters. Dr. Whitney Lackenbauer is a Canada Research Chair in the Study of the Canadian North and a professor in the School for the Study of Canada at Trent University. He joins us to discuss the shifting geographic and geopolitical Arctic landscape, and how Canada should adapt to emerging threats in the coming years.“I think what’s happened over the last year is we’ve seen that imagined circumpolar cooperative space, run into the harsh reality that the arctic is not insulated from the realities in the rest of the world,” he said. As geopolitical tensions rise, the Arctic is perhaps where Canada is most vulnerable. So how do we monitor it? How is a changing climate making it more vulnerable? And what k...

Tunisia’s parliament convenes for first time since 2021

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:24 GMT

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s new parliament convened Monday, the first time the country has had a functioning legislature since the president had the previous parliament sealed off by the army in 2021.The main opposition coalition declared it won’t recognize the new parliament, whose members were chosen in December and January in elections boycotted by the president’s opponents and ignored by the masses. Just 11% of voters cast ballots.During Monday’s inaugural session, the lawmakers will elect a new speaker of parliament to succeed the leader of Islamist movement Ennahdha, Rached Ghannouchi, whose party had the largest number of members in the outgoing parliament.Unusually, only journalists from state broadcasters and the official state news agency were allowed inside the parliament for the opening session, and dozens of reporters protested outside. The session comes amid a growing crackdown on opposition Islamists and independent media and other dissenti...

Bank stocks drop in Europe as US bank failure stirs jitters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:24 GMT

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Bank stocks sagged in Europe and U.S. stock futures fell Monday ahead of the market’s open in New York, shaken by worries the biggest U.S. bank failure in nearly 15 years might have ripple effects around the world.Markets in Asia ended mixed after assurances by U.S. officials that they were taking steps to protect depositors at Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB.But the role that recent sharp interest rate increases by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks played in the bank’s collapse caused jitters over the possibility that other financial institutions might be exposed to the same kind of risks. SVB’s holdings of government-backed bonds had fallen in value due to rising interest rates.Analysts at ING bank said most banks don’t hold the high percentage of government bonds that SVB did but added “that does not mean there aren’t more SVBs out there.” “So far, it seems that the potential problem banks are few, and importantly...

Japan court orders retrial for 87-year death row ex-boxer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:24 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Tokyo’s high court on Monday ordered a retrial for an 87-year-old former boxer who has been on death row for more than five decades after his murder conviction that his lawyers said was based on forced confession and fabricated evidence.The Tokyo High Court said Iwao Hakamada deserves a retrial because of a possibility that a key evidence that led to his conviction could have been fabricated by investigators, the Japan Bar Association said in a statement.Hakamada was out of prison since 2014, but still not cleared of charges, when the Shizuoka District Court in central Japan suspended his execution and ordered a retrial and his release. That ruling was overturned by the Tokyo High Court until the Supreme Court in 2020 ordered the court to reconsider. His defense lawyers rushed out of the courtroom and flashed banners saying “Retrial.” “We won his retrial. I’m so glad, and that’s all I can say,” said his 90-year-old sister Hideko, who has devoted her life to prove her br...

WATCH LIVE | President Biden addresses banks collapses ahead of market open

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:24 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Governments in the U.S. and Britain are taking extraordinary steps to prevent a potential banking crisis after the failure of California-based Silicon Valley Bank prompted fears of a broader upheaval.U.S. regulators worked through the weekend to find a buyer for the bank, which had more than $200 billion in assets and catered to tech startups, venture capital firms, and well-paid technology workers.While those efforts appeared to have failed, officials assured all of the bank’s customers that they would be able to access their money on Monday. The assurances came as part of an expansive emergency lending program intended to prevent a wave of bank runs that would threaten the stability of the banking system and the economy as a whole.Meanwhile, the Bank of England and U.K. Treasury said early Monday that they had facilitated the sale of the bank’s London-based subsidiary to HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, ensuring the se...

Weekend Break: Lincoln Square Ravenswood Women's Market

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:24 GMT

Check today's Weekend break with Marcella where she visits the Women's Day Artifact market events in Lincoln Square with the goal of showcasing women-owned businesses.Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.

Austin Police: Man kidnapped unconscious woman, aimed gun at man

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:24 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — An Austin man faces three separate charges after police said he kidnapped a woman on March 5 in east Austin, according to Travis County court documents.According to records, Little Abe Hill, 40, faces felony charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and the unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.An APD report said on March 5, at approximately 3:30 a.m. dispatch received a call to the intersection of East 14th Street and Comal Street saying a man in a black sedan abducted a woman at gunpoint and left the scene in the vehicle.The caller said he was in downtown with the woman, and after a night of drinking, they attempted to hail a rideshare. The report claimed a black sedan driven by Hill pulled up to the victims, and believing the vehicle to be a rideshare, they both sat in the backseat. The woman passed out shortly after getting in, according to the caller.“After driving a short distance, Hill abruptly pulled over his vehicle, exited the veh...

Texas Wells Fargo bank manager sentenced for laundering drug money, feds say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:52:24 GMT

HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A man who was employed as a Wells Fargo bank manager in Harlingen was sentenced for his role in a nearly two-year-long money laundering scheme, court records indicate. Stephen Roland Reyna was sentenced Wednesday to 20 months in prison on a charge of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, federal records show.An indictment charges Reyna and co-conspirator David Mares with participating in the laundering scheme from August 2016 to April 2018. According to the indictment, Mares was a "participant in a narcotics smuggling organization," and would ship multiple pounds of cocaine from Texas to other states. The money from the deliveries would be deposited into Wells Fargo bank accounts, where Reyna was employed as a bank manager at a branch in Harlingen, the document stated.Co-conspirators in other states would deposit money from the shipments into the accounts, and then the cash would be withdrawn at the bank in Harlingen."[Reyna] would direct his...