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Jury acquits Catholic priest in Tennessee who was charged with sexual battery

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:14:27 GMT

SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A jury has found a Catholic priest in Tennessee not guilty of sexual battery against a woman who was a church member.Jurors handed down the verdict late last week in the case against Father Antony Punnackal, who was suspended from his role as pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Gatlinburg after being indicted in January 2022 on two counts of sexual battery.The charges centered on allegations from February 2020 regarding Punnackal’s actions toward the parishioner. A lawsuit by the woman remains active.Punnackal has denied any allegations of assault. His attorney Travis McCarter told news outlets in a statement that the priest is a “terrific human being and we are glad to finally be able to show the world that he’s innocent of these accusations.”An attorney for the woman pointed to her lawsuit, adding in a statement that “a civil case under federal trafficking laws is very different” than a criminal case.The federal lawsuit targets Punnackal, ...

New York City’s ban on police chokeholds, diaphragm compression upheld by state’s high court

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:14:27 GMT

New York’s highest court on Monday upheld a New York City law that forbids police from using chokeholds or compressing a person’s diaphragm during an arrest, rejecting a challenge from police unions to a law passed after the death of George Floyd. The New York Court of Appeals, in a unanimous decision, ruled that the law is clear in its language and that it does not conflict with an existing state law that bans police from using chokes. The city’s law came as governments across the country prohibited or severely limited the use of chokeholds or similar restraints by police following Floyd’s death in 2020, which occurred as a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes. The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, along with other law enforcement unions, sued the city over its law and have argued that its language is vague as to what officers are allowed to do during an arrest. In a statement, John Nuthall, a spokesman for ...

Eyes turn to Ottawa to help repair strained talks on global plastic pollution treaty

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:14:27 GMT

TORONTO — As the latest talks on a global plastics treaty ended in accusations of deadlocked negotiations, eyes are now turning to Canada, which will play host to the next round of negotiations at a time when some warn the treaty’s future hangs in the balance. Nations wrapped up on Sunday a third round of talks in Kenya as part of a five-meeting schedule to hammer out a draft of a treaty to end global plastic pollution. Consensus has so far been elusive at the negotiations, with Ottawa set to host the next round in April. Environmental groups have accused some oil-producing countries and industry groups of stall tactics in an effort to water down the treaty before negotiations wrap up at the end of next year. “If they don’t find a way through these delay and divert tactics, Ottawa could become known as the place where the treaty failed,” said Karen Wirsig, Environmental Defence’s senior program manager for plastics, who attended last week’s talks....

Book Review: ‘I Would Meet You Anywhere’ is a breathtaking account of an adoptee’s search for family

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:14:27 GMT

Susan Kiyo Ito always knew she was adopted, but uncovering her birth family became a decadeslong process marked by moments of warm connection and icy divides — raw stories compiled into a memoir that’s alternately touching and heartbreaking.Opening on the fateful moment when Ito is about to meet her birth mother for the first time, “I Would Meet You Anywhere” transcends a title and becomes a refrain throughout the book. Ito’s relationship with Yuki is fraught from the beginning, but her birth mother holds the key to the information she needs to find the other half of her DNA. Ito meets Yuki when and where the latter deems convenient — New Jersey, California, a small Midwestern town; in a house, a hotel, a hospital. And Ito would meet her anywhere.In the process of finding her birth parents and piecing together her origins, Ito explores the theme of family — and what it means to occupy the various roles within it — pondering the symmetry in the first 17 years she spent living w...

Cyprus’ president says his country is ready to ship aid to Gaza once a go-ahead is given

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:14:27 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus is ready to “immediately” begin shipping large quantities of humanitarian aid to Gaza in vessels that can navigate shallow water once conditions on the ground allow for it, the president of the east Mediterranean island nation said Monday. President Nikos Christodoulides said his country’s proposal for a maritime corridor from the Cyprus’ port of Larnaca to Gaza is the “only one currently being discussed on an international level” as a feasible way to significantly supplement the trickle of aid getting into the enclave through Egypt’s Rafah border checkpoint.Planning for the corridor of about 230 miles (370 kilometers) is essentially completed, and aid can begin to flow when a pause in fighting is declared, Christodoulides said. The Cypriot leader, who has been in regular contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the proposal, said that getting a green light to start the shipments is a complicated matter requiring intricat...

Air Canada rejects blame in $24M gold theft as it faces Brink’s lawsuit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:14:27 GMT

MONTREAL — Air Canada says it bears no responsibility for the daring theft of $23.8 million in gold and cash from its facilities at Toronto’s Pearson airport earlier this year.The airline is facing a lawsuit from security services company Brink’s after a thief walked away with the costly cargo at an Air Canada airport warehouse on April 17.In a statement of defence, Air Canada rejected all allegations in the Brink’s suit, saying it fulfilled its carriage contract and denying any careless or improper conduct.The country’s largest airline goes on to say that Brink’s failed to note the value of the haul on the waybill — a document typically issued by a carrier with details of the shipment — and that if Brink’s did suffer losses, a multilateral treaty known as the Montreal Convention would cap Air Canada’s liability.In Federal Court filings last month that claim breach of contract and millions of dollars in damages, Brink’s said an unident...

Oscar Pistorius will have another chance at parole on Friday after nearly a decade in prison

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:14:27 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Oscar Pistorius will have a second chance at parole at a hearing on Friday after he was wrongly ruled ineligible for early release from prison in March.South Africa’s department of corrections said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday that a parole board will consider the former Olympic runner’s case again this week and decide “whether the inmate is suitable or not for social integration.”Pistorius, a world-famous double-amputee athlete who broke barriers by competing on carbon-fiber running blades at the 2012 London Olympics, has been in prison since late 2014 for the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He was initially convicted of culpable homicide, an offense comparable to manslaughter, for shooting Steenkamp multiple times through a closed toilet cubicle door in his home in the South African capital, Pretoria, in the predawn hours of Valentine’s Day 2013.His conviction was upgraded to murder and h...

Fate of former RCMP official accused of leaking secrets now in hands of jury

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:14:27 GMT

OTTAWA — The fate of Cameron Jay Ortis, a former RCMP official accused of leaking secrets, is now in the hands of a jury.The 12 jurors retired today to consider a verdict after Justice Robert Maranger finished instructing them on how to approach their task.Ortis, 51, has testified he offered secret material to investigative targets in a bid to get them to use an online encryption service secretly set up by an allied intelligence agency to spy on adversaries. He has pleaded not guilty to violating the Security of Information Act by revealing secrets to three individuals in 2015 and trying to do so in a fourth instance, as well as breach of trust and a computer-related offence.The Crown argues Ortis lacked authority to disclose classified material and that he was not doing so as part of an undercover operation.The defence contends Ortis did not betray Canada, but was rather acting on a “clear and grave threat.”This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, ...

New York lawmaker accused of rape in lawsuit filed under state’s expiring Adult Survivors Act

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:14:27 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A state lawmaker from Brooklyn has been accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman early in his legislative career when he went to her home to discuss disaster relief efforts for Haiti. The lawsuit, filed Friday, accuses Sen. Kevin Parker of assaulting her in 2004, during his first term. The woman said she had been working with Parker to coordinate the delivery of items and donations to Haiti after a devastating flood that affected the country and other neighboring Caribbean Islands.The suit was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, a special state law that created a year-long suspension of the usual time limit for accusers to sue. The law is set to expire after Thanksgiving.A spokesperson for Parker, a Democrat, did not immediately comment when asked about the lawsuit.A spokesperson for the Senate’s top Democrat, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, said the allegations were “extremely disturbing and we take them very seriously.”“We will take appropria...

Leader of Dutch far-right populist party hit on head in attack 2 days before general election

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:14:27 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The leader of a far-right Dutch populist party was assaulted Monday at an event in the northern city of Groningen two days before the Netherlands holds a general election.Thierry Baudet, leader of Forum for Democracy, was taken to a hospital in the city, the party said in a message on X, formerly Twitter.“It looks like everything will all be alright,” the party said. It later said Baudet was treated by a trauma surgeon after being hit on the back of the head and next to his eye with a beer bottle. It said a security guard also was injured.Video on social media showed Baudet in a bar when his attacker lunged at him. Baudet was quickly taken away and the attacker overpowered.Police spokesman Thijs de Jong said a person was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack. He said the motive was under investigation.“What we can say at the moment is that Mr. Baudet was hit on the head, possibly with an object,” De Jong said. He said he could not give furt...