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Fighters rampage in Darfur despite fragile Sudan truce

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:08:15 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Armed fighters rampaged through a main city in Sudan’s war-ravaged region of Darfur on Thursday, battling each other and looting shops and homes, residents said. The violence came despite a fragile three-day truce between Sudan’s two top generals, whose power struggle has killed hundreds.The mayhem in the Darfur city of Genena pointed to how the rival generals’ fight for control in the capital, Khartoum, was spiraling into violence in other parts of Sudan. The cease-fire has brought a significant easing of fighting in Khartoum and its neighboring city Omdurman for the first time since the military and a rival paramilitary force began clashing on April 15. The fighting had turned residential neighborhoods into battlegrounds. The relative calm has allowed foreign governments to airlift out hundreds of citizens, while tens of thousands of Sudanese have streamed out of Khartoum, seeking safer areas or escape abroad. The military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, said ...

Police say head of Montreal seniors home billed for services that weren’t provided

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:08:15 GMT

MONTREAL — The head of a private seniors residence in Montreal has been charged with fraud after he allegedly billed a regional health authority for resident services that were never provided.Paul Asselin, 60, produced fake invoices using the names of people who were not living at the care home at the time the services were allegedly provided, Quebec anti-corruption police allege. The Unité permanente anticorruption says the alleged fraud took place between March 18, 2021, and April 30, 2022. Asselin, who runs Les Jardins de Jouvence residence in Montreal’s Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, has been charged with fraud under $5,000, forgery and use of a forged document. The value of the fraud is estimated at more than $4,000, police say.The local heath authority declined to comment directly on the case, but Christian Merciari, an assistant to the president and CEO, said the agency is reviewing its verification process “to ensure greater control over our process of pa...

Federal public service strike enters ninth day, no sign of back-to-work legislation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:08:15 GMT

OTTAWA — The Liberal government is showing no hints it will end the strike of its largest public sector union by legislating some 100,000 federal civil servants back to work.Workers with the Public Service Alliance of Canada walked off the job nine days ago after contract negotiations with the government couldn’t find agreement on issues such as wage increases and remote work.Amid questions over how the impasse will be resolved, former clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick says the federal government can’t discuss hypotheticals such as back-to-work legislation because negotiations are ongoing. Wernick headed the federal public service for three years. He says introducing back-to-work legislation prematurely could spell trouble for the federal government and lead to accusations of bad-faith bargaining.There’s also the matter of political support, which the minority Liberals would need to pass legislation. The NDP say they will not support any back-to-work bill,...

Stock market today: Meta’s surge fuels big Wall Street rally

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:08:15 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is steaming toward its best day since January after Meta Platforms on Thursday became the latest Big Tech company to blow past profit expectations and reports painted a mixed picture of the U.S. economy. The S&P 500 was 2% higher in late trading and on pace to erase all its losses from what had been a tough week so far. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 551 points, or 1.7%, at 33,853 as of 3 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was leading the market with a 2.4% gain. Facebook’s parent company was doing the heaviest lifting, and it jumped 14.6%. Not only did Meta beat analysts’ estimates for profit during the first three months of the year, it also gave a forecast for revenue that topped expectations. The majority of companies have been beating forecasts so far this earnings reporting season. Hasbro climbed 14%, and Comcast rose 9.7% after they also topped Wall Street’s estimates. But expectations were broadly low coming into this repor...

Saucepans clang anew in France against Macron’s pension law

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:08:15 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Protesters loudly banged pots and pans near a castle where French President Emmanuel Macron was to make a speech Thursday, in what has become a popular way to voice anger at a resented new law raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. Similar saucepan actions, dubbed “casserolades, ” were staged elsewhere in the country where government members were scheduled to travel.Macron attended a ceremony for the 175th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in France at the Fort de Joux, near the border with Switzerland, a castle where the most prominent leader of the Haitian slave revolution, Toussaint Louverture, was imprisoned and died in 1803.As police were preventing protesters from getting too close to the Fort de Joux, Macron made a surprise stop in the nearby town of Dole to meet with French people on a street market without the clattering of pots and pans. Yet he was not able to avoid all criticism, with several people raising their concerns out loud — from the pe...

Bank regulator says no indicators of liquidity shock re-emerging

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:08:15 GMT

TORONTO — The head of Canada’s banking regulator says that despite continued liquidity stress at some U.S. banks, he isn’t seeing any data to suggest that a wider shock is going to re-emerge.Superintendent of Financial Institutions Peter Routledge says it feels like the market has accepted that authorities have stabilized liquidity concerns.Speaking to media after a speech at the Economic Club of Canada, Routledge cautioned that he isn’t saying that the sector is fully in the clear, noting that the problem with shocks is you don’t know when they’re going to return.His comments come as First Republic Bank has seen its stock price plummet this week after it disclosed that it saw more than US$100 billion of deposit outflows last month.The San Francisco bank is one of several that saw knock-on effects of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, though wider contagion was limited after U.S. authorities agreed to backstop deposits at SVB.Routledge says the recent...

Cow located in Niles after 'senior prank'; students cited

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:08:15 GMT

NILES, Ill. — Authorities in Niles located a cow after it was on the loose for several hours due to a "senior prank" and the students involved have been cited.Just before 3 a.m. Thursday, police responded to the 8300 block of Ballard on the report of suspicious people in the area.Officers located several students from Northridge Preparatory School in the area and they were apparently conducting a "senior prank," police said.At some point, a live cow escaped from the group of students and went into a local neighborhood. Niles police and other authorities were working with Wagner Farms to secure the cow. ‘Uncontainable excitement’: 18-year-old captures northern lights over Illinois At around 9:20 a.m., SkyCam9 was over the scene when the cow was secured and put into a trailer.In an update Thursday afternoon, police said the students also brought a pig and chickens to the school as part of the prank. The pig and the cow were purchased via Craigslist near Winneconne, Wisconsin and the...

Bicyclist in critical condition after hit-and-run crash in Vernon Hills

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:08:15 GMT

VERNON HILLS, Ill. — A bicyclist is in critical condition after he was hit by a hit-and-run driver early Thursday morning in Vernon Hills, according to police.Vernon Hills Police Department officers were called around 4:15 a.m. to the area of Butterfield Road and Golf Road on the report of a hit-and-run involving a bicyclist. Cow located in Niles after ‘senior prank’; students cited Officers arrived and found a 60-year-old man, of Grayslake, with life-threatening injuries, according to a news release from police. He was taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville in critical condition.According to a preliminary investigation, officers determined the driver was heading south on Butterfield Road and didn't stop after the crash, according to the release. Man breaks into church, damages property in Loop overnight The driver was later located through a combination of evidence and images from a license plate reader. Police haven't identified the driver or confirmed if th...

How to know if US economy is in recession

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:08:15 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government’s report Thursday that the economy grew at a 1.1% annual rate last quarter signaled that one of the most-anticipated recessions in recent U.S. history has yet to arrive. Many economists, though, still expect a recession to hit as soon as the current April-June quarter — or soon thereafter.The economy's expansion in the first three months of the year was driven mostly by healthy consumer spending, yet shoppers turned more cautious toward the end of the quarter. Businesses also cut their spending on equipment, a trend that has continued.The list of obstacles the economy faces keeps growing. The Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate nine times in the past year to the highest level in 17 years, thereby elevating the cost of borrowing for consumers and businesses. Inflation has eased slowly but steadily in response. Yet price increases are still persistently high.And last month the collapse of two large banks resulted in a whole new threa...

Rock-throwing suspect said he and 2 others now 'blood brothers,' documents show

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:08:15 GMT

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) -- More information is surfacing about what led to the arrest of three high school seniors suspected of a rock-throwing crime spree that killed a 20-year-old woman.Arrest documents obtained by KDVR on Thursday outlined what led to the arrest of Joseph Koenig, Nicholas "Mitch" Karol-Chik and Zachary Kwak.Timeline of investigationAccording to the documents from the Jefferson County court, investigators located a camera near one of the incidents that showed three vehicles, one of which was driven by a victim and another driven by a witness. The only other vehicle on the road was tracked between multiple cameras and moving at a high speed, the affidavit showed. Father of rock-throwing suspect also arrested during investigation Investigators said they sent photos of the taillights to a Chevrolet employee. The vehicle was identified as a 2014-2016 Chevy Silverado pickup.On Tuesday, a person called police to explain that he and a coworker were talking abou...