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India’s opposition leader Gandhi to appeal defamation charge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:07:33 GMT

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi is expected to appear in court Monday to appeal a criminal conviction for mocking the Prime Minister’s surname that saw Gandhi expelled from Parliament, dealing a huge blow to his Congress Party ahead of general elections next year. Gandhi, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his main challenger in the 2024 polls, was ousted after a court sentenced him to two years in prison for defamation for mocking the surname Modi in a 2019 election speech. The case against Gandhi, the great-grandson of India’s first prime minister and scion of the dynastic Congress party, were widely condemned by opponents of Modi as the latest assaults against democracy and free speech by a ruling government seeking to crush dissent. The speed of his removal from Parliament shocked political circles in India, with many criticizing the action as an assault against free speech. Gandhi is flying from the capital, New Delhi, to Sura...

In The News for April 3 : Who will be the first Canadian in deep space?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:07:33 GMT

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of April 3 …What we are watching in Canada …It’s like a high-tech, high-stakes Canadian Idol finale — only instead of a recording contract, the prize is a perilous 10-day journey into deep space and a permanent place in history. Later today, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency will introduce the four astronauts who will steer the next stage of an ambitious plan to establish a long-term presence on the moon. One of them will be Canadian — the first ever to venture beyond Earth’s orbit and around the dark side of the lunar surface. Artemis II, as it’s known, is currently slated to launch as early as November 2024 and will be the first crewed mission to the moon since the final Apollo mission took flight in 1972. The crew will orbit Earth before rocketing hundreds of thousands of kilometres into deep sp...

4 hurt in German hospital fire, suspect arrested

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:07:33 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Four people were seriously hurt in an overnight fire at a hospital in Berlin, including a patient who sustained life-threatening injuries, authorities said Monday. A man was arrested on suspicion of starting the blaze.The fire on the third floor of the Klinikum am Urban in the German capital was extinguished early Monday morning, the fire service said. Three patients and a nurse were seriously injured, among them a patient who got stuck in an elevator and whose life was in danger after inhaling smoke. Forty people were evacuated as smoke spread through the building.Police said the blaze appears to have started when a 48-year-old man set fire to two hospital beds shortly after midnight. He also tried to set a garbage can alight in a foyer, but firefighters prevented him from doing so, they said in a statement. The suspect was arrested.The Associated Press

Who will be the first Canadian in deep space? Officials to unveil Artemis II crew

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:07:33 GMT

HOUSTON — It’s like a high-tech, high-stakes Canadian Idol finale — only instead of a recording contract, the prize is a perilous 10-day journey into deep space and a permanent place in history. Later today, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency will introduce the four astronauts who will steer the next stage of an ambitious plan to establish a long-term presence on the moon. One of them will be Canadian — the first ever to venture beyond Earth’s orbit and around the dark side of the lunar surface. Artemis II, as it’s known, is currently slated to launch as early as November 2024 and will be the first crewed mission to the moon since the final Apollo mission took flight in 1972. The crew will orbit Earth before rocketing hundreds of thousands of kilometres into deep space for a figure-8 manoeuvre around the moon before their momentum brings them home. The other three astronauts will all be American, making Canada and the U.S. the only two countries to ever venture tha...

Still no sign of missing man whose boat was found near bodies of eight migrants

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:07:33 GMT

There is still no sign of a missing Akwesasne man whose boat was found where the bodies of eight migrants were pulled from the St. Lawrence River last week.Akwesasne Mohawk Police have been looking for 30-year-old Casey Oakes since Thursday, whom officers were searching for when the first bodies were discovered.Oakes was last seen Wednesday night operating a boat that was found next to the migrants’ bodies, but police have made no direct connections between Oakes and the deaths. Police have said the eight victims consisted of two families, one of Romanian and another of Indian descent. Authorities said they were allegedly attempting to illegally cross into the United States from Canada through Akwesasne Mohawk Territory, which straddles provincial and international boundaries and includes regions of Quebec, Ontario and New York state.Police identified two of the migrants on Saturday as Cristina (Monalisa) Zenaida Iordache, 28, and 28-year-old Florin Iordache, who was carrying ...

Butterfly clips and mood rings: how to incorporate more-is-more Y2K trends

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:07:33 GMT

TORONTO — Take a look around and it’s hard to miss: the more-is-more esthetic of the turn of the millennium is having its comeback. What was until recently a bugaboo of the fashion world is popular once again, in line with the oft-cited 20-year trend cycle. Bootcut jeans, bucket hats and baby tees have seen a resurgence among the style cognoscenti over the last several years, and the fad has now made its way to the masses.“Y2K fashion is excess. It’s very embellished; it’s very bright and bold,” said Hina Low, a size-inclusive Toronto-area stylist who works under the name Heensie.For people in their 20s and 30s, Heensie said, so-called Y2K style serves as a reminder of childhood. Many of the celebrities seen sporting the trend, from model Bella Hadid to rapper Ice Spice, are in that age group.“It’s escapism through nostalgia,” she said.But those hoping to hop on the trend need not go all-out, she added. “There’s little nods...

‘Making things a little more accessible’: Paralyzed Bronco looks to improve buildings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:07:33 GMT

CALGARY — Spending the last five years using a wheelchair has given former Humboldt Broncos hockey player Ryan Straschnitzki a new path forward.The 23-year-old from Airdrie, Alta., says so many times friends and family have had to carry his chair up stairs, wheel him down sketchy ramps and find other ways to get him around narrow doorways.So he’s studying how to make buildings more accessible for the disabled. “Having lived this experience for five years now and going travelling all over the world and just realizing how inaccessible places are, especially Calgary, where I’m most of the time,” he said, “I realized that maybe working toward making things a little more accessible … these sorts of problems don’t have to be encountered by anyone else.”Straschnitzki was paralyzed from the chest down on April 6, 2018, when a semi-trailer ran a stop sign and barrelled into the path of the junior hockey team’s bus in rural Saskatchewan. S...

Over a year after government invoked Emergencies Act, court to hear legal challenge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:07:33 GMT

OTTAWA — A national civil liberties group is set to argue that “nebulous or strained claims” about economic instability or general unrest weren’t enough to legally justify the Liberal government’s use of the Emergencies Act early last year.The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is among the groups and individuals appearing in Federal Court today to argue Ottawa lacked sound statutory grounds to use the emergencies law and associated measures to quell protests that paralyzed the national capital and key border points.The government contends the measures taken to deal with the pan-Canadian emergency situation were targeted, proportional, time-limited and compliant with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.The Public Order Emergency Commission, a mandatory review that takes place after invocation of the Emergencies Act, found the government met the very high threshold for using the law.Now the legal arguments for and against the decision will be heard i...

Daily horoscope for April 3, 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:07:33 GMT

Moon Alert: There are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions today. The Moon is in Virgo.Happy Birthday for Monday, April 3, 2023:You like to be at the center of things as someone indispensable to an important cause. You love a challenge, and you thrive dealing with groups. This is a year of change, which means you have to be flexible and courageous. Expect to increase your personal freedom and travel.ARIES(March 21-April 19)★★Begin this week with care and caution because, for starters, you might be at odds with someone in a position of authority — a parent, boss, teacher or member of the police. In addition, surprises at work or surprises related to your earnings or your possessions might catch you off guard. Tread carefully! Tonight: Work.TAURUS(April 20-May 20)★★Today you feel impulsive and impatient. In particular, you might feel this way when dealing with kids or a romantic partner. However, it will also manifest in sports or if you’re involved in the en...

IMF approves $15.6 billion Ukraine loan, part of $115bn in global programme

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:07:33 GMT

The International Monetary Fund said on Friday (31 March) its executive board approved a four-year $15.6 billion loan programme for Ukraine, part of a global $115bn package to support the country's economy as it battles Russia's 13-month-old invasion.The decision clears the way for an immediate disbursement of about $2.7 billion to Kyiv, and requires Ukraine to carry out ambitious reforms, especially in the energy sector, the Fund said in a statement.The Extended Fund Facility (EFF) loan is the first major conventional financing program approved by the IMF for a country involved in a large-scale war.Ukraine's previous $5bn long-term IMF program was canceled in March 2022 when the fund provided $1.4bn in emergency financing with few conditions. It provided another $1.3bn under a "food shock window" program last October.An IMF official said the new $115bn package includes the IMF loan, $80bn in pledges for grants and concessional loans from multilateral institutions and other countrie...