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Families confront the Texas Walmart gunman in court. Some forgive him, others want the death penalty

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:02 GMT

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A brother who traveled more than 1,000 miles to confront his sister’s killer. An uncle of an orphaned 4-year-old whose parents died while shielding the boy from the spray of bullets. A wife whose husband was gunned down at her side while their 9-year-old granddaughter looked on. Nearly four years after a white gunman killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso in a racist attack that targeted Hispanic shoppers, relatives of the victims are packing a courtroom near the U.S.-Mexico border this week to see Patrick Crusius punished for one of the nation’s worst mass shootings. The sentencing phase, which continued Thursday, is the families’ first opportunity to address Crusius face-to-face since the Aug. 3, 2019, shooting. Crusius, 24, is expected to receive multiple life sentences in federal prison after pleading guilty to 90 murder, weapons and hate crime counts in February. He could still receive the death penalty under separate charges in state court.H...

Hearing underway for first of 2 Iowa teens who pleaded guilty in 2021 beating death of teacher

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:02 GMT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A sentencing hearing for the first of two Iowa teenagers who pleaded guilty to beating their high school Spanish teacher to death with a baseball bat was underway Thursday with details about the investigation into the killing.Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale pleaded guilty in April to the 2021 attack on Nohema Graber in a park in Fairfield, Iowa, where the 66-year-old teacher regularly walked after school. Prosecutors said the teens, who were 16 at the time, were angry at Graber because of a bad grade she had given Miller.Miller will be the first sentenced after he pleaded guilty as part of an agreement in which prosecutors recommended a term of between 30 years and life in prison, with the possibility of parole.Under Goodale’s agreement to plead guilty, prosecutors recommended a sentence of between 25 years and life with the possibility of parole. Goodale’s sentencing is scheduled for August but his lawyers have sought a delay in the hearing.Thu...

Texas man reported missing as a teen in 2015 returned home the next day, police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:02 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas man who went missing as a teenager in 2015 returned home the next day but he and his mother deceived officers by giving false names over the ensuing eight years, police said Thursday.Houston police detectives said prosecutors have declined to bring false report charges against Janie Santana and her son, Rudolph “Rudy” Farias IV, but that their investigation is continuing. The announcement came a week after police said they found Farias after receiving a call about a person lying on the ground in front of a southeast Houston church.Authorities had not previously said where Farias, now 25, spent the eight years since he was reported missing after taking his two dogs for a walk near his family’s home in northeast Houston. He was hospitalized after police found him last week and detectives interviewed him and his mother on Wednesday.“After investigators talked with him yesterday, it was discovered that Rudy returned home the following day on March 8, 2015,” ...

Lavish tomb in ancient Spain belonged to a woman, not a man, new research shows

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:02 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — When archaeologists first discovered the 5,000-year-old ornate tomb in Spain, they assumed it was for a man. It held a rock crystal dagger, ivory tusks and other lavish items. But now they’ve determined the remains are those of a woman, and all it took was two teeth.The researchers used a new method of determining sex that analyzes tooth enamel. This technique, developed about five years ago, is more reliable than analyzing skeletal remains in poor condition, according to their study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.Most details about the life of the “Ivory Lady,” as researchers dubbed her, remain a mystery but there are some clues.“She was buried alone in a tomb with very special artifacts,” said Leonardo Garcia Sanjuan, a co-author and archaeologist at the University of Seville in Spain. “That shows that she was a special person.”The tomb is located a few miles west of Seville, near Spain’s southern coast, and was excavated in 2008. Arch...

Ex-PM Stephen Harper seeks closer ties with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:02 GMT

OTTAWA — Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he wants closer ties between the parties including the Conservative Party of Canada and the Hungarian government during a trip to Budapest today.Hungary has been accused of backsliding under the governance of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.Human Rights Watch says Orbán’s government has delivered sustained “attacks on rule of law and public institutions” and the European Court of Justice repeatedly ruled that Orbán is violating EU migration laws with policies hostile to asylum claimants.Harper met Orbán in Budapest in his role as the chair of the International Democrat Union, a global alliance of right-leaning political parties.Harper says they discussed “the importance of centre-right parties strengthening their collaboration” and the “IDU’s strong support for Ukraine.”Orbán has opposed multiple moves by the European Union to punish Russia for its invasion and has called on Ukraine to con...

A Palestinian militant kills an Israeli in the West Bank, a day after Israel’s military raid in area

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:02 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Hamas militant on Thursday opened fire near an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, killing one Israeli, a day after Israeli forces withdrew from the largest military operation in the West Bank in two decades. The Palestinian attacker was shot and killed by Israeli forces, the army said.The shooting came on the heels of the Israeli withdrawal from the nearby Jenin refugee camp after a two-day offensive meant to crack down on Palestinian militants. The operation destroyed the camp’s narrow roads and alleyways, sent thousands of people fleeing their homes and killed 12 Palestinians. One Israeli soldier also was killed.Thursday’s shooting near the West Bank settlement of Kedumim raised questions about the effectiveness of the Israeli raid, which came after nearly a year and a half of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed in the area. It also could prompt calls from members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government for additional militar...

UK court rejects a government bid to withhold Boris Johnson’s messages from a COVID-19 inquiry

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:02 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A U.K. court on Thursday rejected the British government’s request to keep former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages and diaries from being made public at an official COVID-19 inquiry. The Cabinet Office took the unusual step of bringing a legal challenge after the retired judge chairing the inquiry into Britain’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic ordered the Conservative government to release full copies of Johnson’s documents.Government officials argued that the inquiry did not have the legal power to force them to release documents and messages that they said were “unambiguously irrelevant” to how the government handled COVID-19.But lawyers for the inquiry said the idea that civil servants could decide what material was relevant would undermine public confidence in the process. The judges who ruled in the Cabinet Office’s case said the requested documents included WhatsApp messages exchanged between officials...

Stock market today: Wall Street stumbles after hot jobs data raises threat of high rates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:02 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are falling Thursday after reports suggested the U.S. job market remains much more resilient than expected.The S&P 500 was 1.1% lower in afternoon trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 434 points, or 1.3%, at 33,854, as of 12:16 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.2% lower.While a sturdy labor market keeps the economy out of a long-feared recession, it could also push the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher for longer in its campaign to defeat high inflation. That in turn could mean more pressure down the line on the economy and financial markets.A report from ADP Research Institute suggested hiring by private employers was much stronger last month than economists expected, with nearly twice as many jobs created than forecast.The ADP report can be volatile and “isn’t necessarily a good predictor of the monthly jobs report” that is more comprehensive and due from the U.S. government on Friday, said Mike Loewengart, head ...

Ombudsman office condemns pace of investigation into assassination of Haiti’s President Moïse

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:02 GMT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — An ombudsman office in Haiti denounced Thursday what it called the “unacceptable slowness” of the investigation into the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse nearly two years after he was killed.The Office of Citizen Protection, an independent government agency that investigates complaints against public institutions, also demanded better protection for Walter Wesser Voltaire, the judge investigating the case. Voltaire is the fifth judge assigned to the case, with four previous ones being dismissed or resigning for personal reasons.Voltaire on Thursday declined to speak with The Associated Press, saying the investigation is confidential and that he would hold a press conference when ready.A previous judge assigned to the case told the AP that his family asked him not to investigate the case because they feared he would be killed, while another judge stepped down after his assistant died under murky circumstances. Judges in Haiti not only oversee lega...

22 Toronto parks approved in pilot program allowing alcohol consumption. Here’s the list

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:02 GMT

Toronto’s Economic and Community Development Committee has passed a time-limited pilot program to city council that will allow the public consumption of alcohol in 22 parks into the fall.The committee met to discuss the pilot program on Thursday. City council approved a plan last month that would see alcohol permitted in parks in designated wards across the city from August 2 to October 9.The pilot program will be considered by city council on July 19, 2023.Alcohol in Parks Pilot Program – parks included:Eglinton Park, Ward 8 – Eglinton-LawrenceEarlscourt, Ward 9 – DavenportDufferin Grove Park, Ward 9 – DavenportCampbell Avenue Playground and Park, Ward 9 – DavenportDovercourt Park, Ward 9 – DavenportRoundhouse Park, Ward 10 – Spadina-Fort YorkTrinity Bellwoods Park, Ward 10 – Spadina-Fort YorkChristie Pits Park, Ward 11 – University-RosedaleQueen’s Park (110 Wellesley St W), Ward 11 – University-RosedaleSir Win...