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RCMP confirms probe into Chong threats as ex-adviser to PM offers new details on memo

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:46:17 GMT

OTTAWA — Acting RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme confirmed Tuesday that police have opened a criminal investigation into allegations that Conservative MP Michael Chong was targeted by Beijing. He said the RCMP is also working with elections officials to probe alleged foreign interference against two other members of Parliament — Conservative MP Erin O’Toole and NDP MP Jenny Kwan — but wouldn’t confirm whether police are pursuing criminal charges in either case.“Any matters that can be charged, any person that can be charged with the Criminal Code, we will do so,” he said.The interim commissioner made the comments on Parliament Hill this morning, where he testified in front of a parliamentary committee that is studying the issue.Duheme said more than 100 investigations into foreign interference writ large are underway in Canada, adding that police stations allegedly operated by Beijing have been closed amid ongoing investigations. “We are trying to build th...

Michigan State endowment fund buys 79% stake in Detroit’s iconic Fisher Building

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:46:17 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Michigan State University’s $3.9 billion endowment fund has become the majority investor in the Fisher Building, an iconic art deco style tower near downtown Detroit, the school announced Tuesday.The fund is investing $21 million in the building, two adjacent surface parking lots and a parking structure for a 79% ownership stake. The other owners are real estate developer and property manager The Platform and the MSU Federal Credit Union.“This new investment signals our continued intent to be part of Detroit’s storied history and vibrancy,” Interim Michigan State President Teresa Woodruff said in a statement.The 30-story Fisher Building is considered by many to be Detroit’s largest work of art for its marble exterior, three-story arcade with hand-painted barrel-vaulted ceiling, spectacular mosaics, and extensive brass detailing. It is noted for the green terra cotta tiles on its tower that typically are illuminated gold at night. It was designed in 1928 by archi...

South Carolina prisoner faces 2nd life sentence for using a cellphone to arrange killing

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:46:17 GMT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina prisoner serving a life sentence for murder orchestrated killing a man he thought robbed a drug runner for a methamphetamine ring the inmate was running from behind bars, federal prosecutors said.Daniel Allen Shannon was sentenced to life in federal prison earlier this month for the killing, but the only way he will end up in federal custody is if he is released from his life-without-parole sentence in state court from a 2001 murder.Shannon ran his drug ring from prison using contraband cellphones. The director of South Carolina’s prisons has spent more than nine years trying to convince the federal government to allow states to jam cellphone signals inside prison walls.“This is yet another example of prisoners using contraband cellphones from behind state prison fences to continue committing crimes,” South Carolina Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said.Stirling has plenty of examples. There was a 2018 gang riot — orchest...

Kenya cult death toll now at more than 300 as more exhumations planned

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:46:17 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The number of people who died after a Kenyan pastor ordered his followers to starve to death in order to meet Jesus is at more than 300, authorities said Tuesday, and the death toll is expected to rise as more exhumations are planned.The death toll increased to 303 after 19 more bodies were exhumed from mass graves in the vast forested land in Kilifi County of coastal Kenya, where pastor Paul Mackenzie and his followers lived.Coastal regional commissioner Rhoda Onyancha told local journalists that the number of those rescued stands at 95 while there are 613 people missing.On Monday, 65 people among those rescued were charged with attempting suicide after they staged a hunger strike protesting against being held at a rescue center. They were moved to a jail.Those who were rescued in April were emaciated and were treated at Malindi hospital before they were taken to the rescue center.Mackenzie, the pastor whose followers were rescued, is expected back in court th...

Accused in Quebec daycare bus crash that killed two kids has case postponed to August

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:46:17 GMT

LAVAL, Que. — The court case of a Quebec man accused of killing two young children by driving a city bus into a Montreal-area daycare was postponed on Tuesday to the end of August.Pierre Ny St-Amand was arrested after a city bus crashed into the front of a daycare in the Ste-Rose neighbourhood of Laval, Que., on Feb. 8, killing two four-year-olds and injuring six other children. St-Amand, 51, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder as well as seven other charges, including attempted murder and aggravated assault.Maëva David and Jacob Gauthier were killed in the crash.Prosecutor Karine Dalphond said Tuesday the case was put off to allow for the disclosure of evidence to continue, adding that the case would return to court on Aug. 22.St-Amand was judged fit to stand trial on Feb. 24 following a psychiatric evaluation in the weeks after his arraignment.A separate evaluation that assessed St-Amand’s mental state at the time of the alleged crime — and whether the accused...

Local news, Quebec publishers first targets of Facebook’s block on Canadian news

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:46:17 GMT

OTTAWA — Meta has started blocking news for some Canadians on its Facebook and Instagram platforms in response to a Liberal government bill that could soon become law. Chris Dell, news editor of ChrisD.ca, a Winnipeg-based digital news outfit, said some readers informed him Monday that they are no longer able to access content the outlet had posted on Facebook.“It appears Meta is blocking some of our content, but not all of it,” Dell said in a statement on Tuesday.He says it’s unfortunate that these measures are being taken in response to the Online News Act, which would require tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing news content.“As a small local news outlet, the majority of our traffic comes from Facebook and Google. My hope is that an amicable agreement can be reached between Silicon Valley and Ottawa that doesn’t leave publishers caught in the middle,” Dell said. Meta is running a test for the majority of the month tha...

NDP attempts to prod Liberals into action on pharmacare by tabling its own bill

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:46:17 GMT

OTTAWA — No longer content to wait for the Liberals to make good on their promise, the New Democrats tabled their own pharmacare legislation in the House of Commons Tuesday.The NDP and Liberals struck a confidence-and-supply agreement last year that would see the NDP support the government on key votes to hold an election off until 2025 in exchange for progress on NDP priorities.One of the conditions of that deal was that the Liberals make progress toward a universal pharmacare program by passing legislation before the end of this year. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his health critic Don Davies have since questioned the government’s commitment to pharmacare.“We found that with this government, even if we got things in writing, it’s not a guarantee,” Singh said at a press conference Tuesday. “We’ve got to continually fight, put pressure, push them to deliver.” Davies pointed to recent developments at Canada’s patented drug price regulato...

Toronto Raptors name Darko Rajakovic as 10th head coach in franchise history

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:46:17 GMT

The Toronto Raptors have named Darko Rajakovic as the 10th head coach in the NBA team’s history.The 44-year-old Serb has been coaching since 1996 and was the top assistant in Memphis last season.The Raptors were the last NBA team to have a vacancy at head coach before hiring Rajakovic.Welcome to the North, Head Coach Darko Rajaković#WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/yIOJmObK17— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) June 13, 2023Rajakovic replaces Nick Nurse, who was fired on April 21.Nurse was with the organization for 10 years, including five as head coach.The Raptors won their only NBA championship under his watch in 2019 but were a disappointing 41-41 this season and were eliminated in the play-in tournament.

Berlusconi’s death leaves fate of his personal party, and Italy’s government, in the balance

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:46:17 GMT

MILAN (AP) — Silvio Berlusconi’s outsized hold on Italian political life over three decades had greatly diminished in recent years, yet the political party that remains fused with his image even in death is critical to the health of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government.Whether and how Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party survives is quietly being discussed on the inside pages of newspapers and back corridors of parliament, while Italy prepares for a national day of mourning and a state funeral on Wednesday, to be celebrated in Milan’s stately Gothic-era Duomo cathedral.Berlusconi’s deputy, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, declared on Monday: “We have the duty, as Forza Italia, to move forward, and we will.”Despite the reassuring words, Forza Italia’s fate is far from secure. Berlusconi’s personal hold on the party makes it vulnerable in his death, experts say, even as it is key to holding up Meloni’s 8-month-old coalition government.“If the party stands, then the...

Buttigieg vows federal help to fix collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:46:17 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg promised Tuesday to help repair the East Coast’s main north-south highway as quickly as possible and said that the destruction of a section of I-95 will likely raise shipping costs because truckers must now travel longer, pricier routes.Visiting the site where an out-of-control tractor-trailer hauling gasoline flipped over on an Interstate 95 off-ramp and caught fire, Buttigieg said he expected that the accident will put “upward pressure” on costs along the East Coast.Buttigieg said he had not seen any sort of estimate of cost increases, but said the industry is working to make the most of alternative routes. He suggested that the U.S. Department of Transportation is working with route-selecting software firms such as Google and Waze to optimize their products. “At the end of the day, there’s no substitute for I-95 being up and running in full working condition,” Buttigieg said.One body was pulled fro...