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West Africa court refuses to recognize Niger’s junta, rejects request to lift coup sanctions

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:17 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — West Africa’s top court on Thursday rejected a request by Niger’s junta for a lifting of coup-related sanctions imposed by its neighbors, ruling that the junta is unconstitutional and therefore lacks the authority to make such a request.Following the July coup that toppled Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum, the West African regional bloc ECOWAS imposed sanctions including shutting borders with the member country, suspending financial transactions and freezing Niger’s assets. Neighboring Nigeria cut off power that supplied 70% of Niger’s electricity.Niger challenged the sanctions at the ECOWAS Court of Justice in the Nigerian capital Abuja arguing they were causing severe hardship for Niger’s citizens, including by curtailing supplies of food and medicine. Niger’s coup leaders asked for a provisional halt to the sanctions pending a final judgement on the issue. Delivering the ruling Thursday, Justice Dupe Atoki called Niger’s junta t...

La Scala’s gala premiere of ‘Don Carlo’ is set to give Italian opera its due as a cultural treasure

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:17 GMT

MILAN (AP) — Italian melodrama’s official recognition as a global cultural treasure is getting trumpeted Thursday with La Scala’s season premiere of Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” an opera that hits hot-button topics of power and oppression.In keeping with a La Scala tradition of off-stage melodrama, the issue of who would occupy the royal box at the Milan opera house on opening night spawned a pre-performance kerfuffle. La Scala’s unions protested the institutional seat of honor going to Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa in the absence of Italy’s president and premier. La Russa, a far-right politician whom the unions claim has not condemned Italy’s fascist past, will sit in the front row of the adorned royal box with Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, a left-wing politician who invited 93-year-old senator-for-life and Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre to join him. “Fascists are not welcome at Teatro alla Scala,’’ the labor organizations for theater workers said in a statement. “We will not ...

A Danish court orders a British financier to remain in pre-trial custody on tax fraud

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:17 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A British hedge fund trader extradited from the United Arab Emirates to Denmark where he was wanted for allegedly orchestrating a more than 9 billion kroner ($1.3 billion) tax fraud, was ordered Thursday to remain in pre-trial custody until Jan. 3.Sanjay Shah was convicted in May in Dubai of masterminding a scheme that ran from 2012 to 2015 in which foreign businesses pretended to own shares in some of Denmark’s largest companies, including pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, shipping company A.P. Moeller, windmill maker Vestas and the Carlsberg brewery. He claimed tax refunds for which they were not eligible. The Glostrup District Court in suburban Copenhagen said Shah should be remanded in custody because he’s a flight risk. His lawyer, Kåre Pihlmann, said Shah has not decided whether to appeal. During Thursday’s court session, Shah, 53, refused to talk. He has said he used a loophole in Danish law and has denied fraud. The case is considered ...

79-year-old woman dead after being struck by car in Whitby

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:17 GMT

A 79-year-old woman is dead after she was struck by a vehicle in Whitby — one of two serious crashes involving pedestrians that occurred minutes apart in the town Wednesday evening.In one incident, officers with the Durham Regional Police Service were called to Thickson Road near Applewood Avenue around 5:20 p.m.Police say a driver in a Chevrolet Cobalt was travelling north on Thickson when they struck the woman who was attempting to cross the street.The woman died as paramedics were taking her to hospital.Police say the driver remained at the scene and is cooperating with investigators. It is not yet known if they will be facing any charges.Police investigating separate Whitby crash that left man critically hurtFifteen minutes earlier, around 5:05 p.m., police say they were called to the intersection of Thornton Road North and Rossland Road West after a 28-year-old man was struck by the driver of an Acura RDX heading north on Thornton.The man was rushed to a hospital in Toron...

Denmark’s parliament adopts a law making it illegal to burn the Quran or other religious texts

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:17 GMT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A new law was passed in Denmark’s parliament on Thursday that makes it illegal to desecrate any holy text in the country, after a recent string of public desecrations of the Quran by a handful of anti-Islam activists sparked angry demonstrations in Muslim countries.The Scandinavian nation has been viewed abroad as a place that facilitates insults and denigration of the cultures, religions and traditions of other countries. The purpose of the law was to counter “the systematic mockery” which, among other things, has contributed to intensifying the threat of terrorism in Denmark, the justice ministry has said. The Folketing, or parliament, adopted the law in a 94-77 vote, with eight lawmakers absent. The new legislation will make it a crime “to inappropriately treat, publicly or with the intention of dissemination in a wider circle, a writing with significant religious significance for a religious community or an object that appears as such.” Works of ...

Japan pledges $4.5B more in aid for Ukraine, including $1B in humanitarian funds

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:17 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged $4.5 billion to Ukraine, including $1 billion in humanitarian aid to help support the war-torn country’s recovery effort in an online summit of leading industrial nations.Kishida made the announcement late Wednesday in Tokyo while hosting his last Group of Seven summit as this year’s chairperson.The $1 billion humanitarian and recovery aid includes funding for generators and other power supplies for the Ukrainian people to survive the winter, as well as measures to clear mines planted by Russia, the Foreign Ministry said. The remaining $3.5 billion includes funding for credit guarantees for World Bank loans to Ukraine. “This is significant support for the recovery of Ukraine and our economy, said Japan stands firmly with Ukraine and our people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his message posted on X, formerly Twitter, “We will keep working together to bring our common victory closer.”J...

OnlyFans has a new content creator: tennis player Nick Kyrgios

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:17 GMT

Tennis pro Nick Kyrgios is setting up a free-to-access OnlyFans page.Kyrgios is a 28-year-old Australian who was the runner-up to Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon in 2022 but was sidelined by injuries for nearly all of this past season. He played in just one official singles match in 2023.The plan to interact with the public on OnlyFans was announced Thursday via a news release and confirmed by Evolve, the talent management agency formed by Naomi Osaka that represents Kyrgios. He is one of the most prominent male athletes to join the platform.“They are revolutionizing social media and I wanted to be a part of that. Athletes can no longer just show up on the court or the field. We have to show up online too. I want to create, produce, direct and own content. That’s the future,” Kyrgios was quoted as saying in the announcement. London-based OnlyFans is a subscription site where people can pay creators for photos and videos. It includes sexually explicit content, something Kyrgios will not ...

The White House is threatening the patents of high-priced drugs developed with taxpayer dollars

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:17 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is putting pharmaceutical companies on notice, warning them that if the price of certain drugs is too high, the government might cancel their patent protection and allow rivals to make their own versions.Under a plan announced Thursday, the government would consider overriding the patent for high-priced drugs that have been developed with the help of taxpayer money and letting competitors make them in hopes of driving down the cost. In a 15-second video released to YouTube on Wednesday night, President Joe Biden promised the move would lower prices. “Today, we’re taking a very important step toward ending price gouging so you don’t have to pay more for the medicine you need,” he said.The administration did not immediately release details about how the process will work and how it will deem a drug costly enough to act. White House officials would not name drugs that might potentially be targeted.There will be a 60-day public comm...

Europe’s talks on world-leading AI rules paused after 22 hours and will start again Friday

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:17 GMT

LONDON (AP) — European Union talks on world-leading comprehensive artificial intelligence regulations were paused Thursday after 22 straight hours, with officials yet to hammer out a deal on a rulebook for the rapidly advancing technology behind popular services like ChatGPT. European Commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted that talks, which began Wednesday afternoon in Brussels and ran through the night, would resume on Friday morning. “Lots of progress made over past 22 hours” on the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, he wrote. “Stay tuned!” Representatives of the bloc’s 27 member states, lawmakers and executive commissioners are under the gun to secure a political agreement for the flagship AI Act. They spent hours wrangling over controversial points such as generative AI and AI-powered police facial recognition. There was disagreement over whether and how to regulate foundation models, the advanced systems that underpin general purpose AI services like ChatGPT and Google’...

Powerful earthquake shakes South Pacific nation of Vanuatu; no tsunami threat

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:58:17 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A powerful earthquake shook the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu on Thursday evening, but countries in the region said there was no threat of a tsunami.The magnitude 7.1 earthquake was located 123 kilometers (76 miles) south of the town of Isangel on the island of Tanna, the U.S. Geological Agency said. It said the quake was centered at a depth of 48 kilometers (30 miles).The chance of fatalities and large economic losses in the sparsely populated area was low, it said.Vanuatu has a population of about 337,000, with about 1,200 living in Isangel.The area is part of the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur.A 7.7 magnitude earthquake in May created small tsunami waves in Vanuatu.The Associated Press