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Former Albanian prime minister accused of corruption told to report to prosecutors, stay in country

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:53:22 GMT

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — An Albanian court ruled Thursday that former prime minister Sali Berisha, who is accused of corruption, must report to prosecutors and not leave the country while his case is under investigation.The ruling came from the country’s Special Court on Corruption and Organized Crime, which was created in 2019 to handle corruption and other crime cases involving senior officials.Last week, the 79-year-old Berisha announced the charges against him and his son-in-law, 50-year-old Jamarber Malltezi, who was arrested on the same charges of corruption and money laundering. Berisha has said that both he and Malltezi are innocent and that he considers the case politically motivated by the ruling Socialist Party of Prime Minister Edi Rama.Prosecutors allege Malltezi exploited Berisha’s position as prime minister to buy land in Tirana owned by both private citizens and the country’s defense ministry and build 17 apartment buildings on the land.The case was made public l...

Maryland Supreme Court posthumously admits Black man to bar, 166 years after rejecting him

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:53:22 GMT

BALTIMORE, Md. (AP) — More than a century after Edward Garrison Draper was rejected for the Maryland Bar due to his race, he has been posthumously admitted.The Supreme Court of Maryland attempted to right the past wrong by hold a special session Thursday to admit Draper, who was Black, to practice law in the state, news outlets reported.Draper presented himself as a candidate to practice law in 1857 and a judge found him “qualified in all respects” — except for his skin color and so he was denied.“Maryland was not at the forefront of welcoming Black applicants to the legal profession,” said former appellate Justice John G. Browning, of Texas, who helped with the petition calling for Draper’s admission. “But by granting posthumous bar admission to Edward Garrison Draper, this court places itself and places Maryland in the vanguard of restorative justice and demonstrates conclusively that justice delayed may not be justice denied.”Maryland Supreme Court Justice Shirley M. Watts said i...

REVIEW: The Killer is a murderous, methodical trip

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:53:22 GMT

David Fincher has made 12 films in his career, and a common thread among most of them is a fascination with darkness. Whether it be the religious murders of Se7en, the home invasion fear of Panic Room, or the psychological investigation in Gone Girl, Fincher seems drawn to the darkness lying underneath everything. What people do when they think no one is watching is a question that seems to plague Fincher in his darkest moments. With this film, he fully throws himself into that question by creating a film about a person whose work is to never be seen by anyone.The Killer. Michael Fassbender as an assassin in The Killer. Cr. Netflix ©2023The Killer, adapted from a French graphic novel of the same name, stars Michael Fassbender (from Inglorious Basterds and Steve Jobs) as an unnamed contract killer. A consummate professional, the film finds him on a job gone wrong and searching for vengeance after those who hired him strike back. Unfolding in five chapters, he travels the world in sea...

GTA Palestinian families urge Trudeau to demand ceasefire and help for Canadians

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:53:22 GMT

Palestinian families in the GTA whose relatives remain in Gaza gathered in Mississauga to urge the federal government to do more to help Canadians.In a press conference Thursday, many pleaded for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to demand an immediate ceasefire, a humanitarian corridor, and a safe passage for Canadians to exit the war zone.From anger to anguish, speaker after speaker expressed their fear as they watch this war unfold from the GTA, knowing their family members are in life-death situations.“We implore the Canadian government to use its diplomatic influence to help broker an end to this conflict, to put an end to the suffering and to bring about justice to the people of Gaza who are facing a severe humanitarian crisis,” said Nora, who has family in Gaza.Mansour, a Canadian living in Southern Gaza who joined the press conference live, said he sees ambulances daily and they are running out of supplies.“Almost half of the hospitals or clinics have stopped w...

Man arrested after trespassing twice in one day at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s home in Los Angeles

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:53:22 GMT

A man was arrested after trespassing twice in one day at the Los Angeles home of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., police confirmed Thursday.Police first responded to a call about the 28-year-old man trespassing at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Drake Madison, an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.The man was served an emergency protective order and released, but he returned to the property later that day, prompting police to arrest him for violating the order. He remained in police custody Thursday.Kennedy’s campaign said in a statement that the man climbed a fence at the candidate’s home but was detained by the candidate’s private security company. Kennedy, who is running as an independent, was home at the time of both arrests, the campaign added.The incidents come over a month after an armed man accused of impersonating a federal officer was arrested at a Kennedy campaign event. Kennedy and his campaign have repeatedly argued that he nee...

Indian company that makes EV battery materials to build its first US plant in North Carolina

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:53:22 GMT

BOLIVIA, N.C. (AP) — An Indian company that produces a key ingredient for long-range batteries in electric vehicles said Thursday it would build its first U.S. plant in southeastern North Carolina, creating hundreds of jobs. Executives at Epsilon Advanced Materials Inc. and Gov. Roy Cooper announced the planned $650 million facility in Brunswick County that starting in 2026 would make synthetic graphite anode material necessary for batteries that power EVs and other energy storage systems. When fully operational by 2031, the facility will generate 50,000 tons (45,359 metric tonnes) of the product annually. “We’re proud to have North Carolina as the centerpiece of our U.S. manufacturing strategy,” EAM founder and Managing Director Vikram Handa said in a news release from Cooper’s office. “Having an environmentally friendly world-class facility in North Carolina will allow EAM to provide synthetic and natural graphite anodes to the growing EV battery industry faster, more ...

Gulf oil lease sale postponed by court amid litigation over endangered whale protections

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:53:22 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A sale of federal Gulf of Mexico oil and gas leases that had been scheduled for Nov. 8 was delayed Thursday by a federal appeals court, pending court arguments that focus on protections for an endangered whale species. The Biden administration announced the sale in March and originally scheduled it for Sept. 27. But, in August, the administration reduced the the area available for leases from 73 million acres (30 million hectares) to 67 million acres (27 million hectares), as part of a plan to protect the endangered Rice’s whale. The changes from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, also included new speed limits and new requirements for personnel on industry vessels in some of the areas to be leased. Oil and gas companies sued, resulting in a Lake Charles-based federal judge’s order throwing out the changes. The administration appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The appeals court initially set the sale for Nov....

City hoping to move forward with Waterfront East LRT plans without Union Station tunnel design

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:53:22 GMT

As development continues along the Waterfront East, the push to get transit built in the area has intensified. The City of Toronto is slowly moving plans forward but has left one key portion left behind.The updated construction cost for the Waterfront East LRT is $2.57 billion over 10 years, but only 30 per cent of design has been mapped out. City planners are looking for an additional $63 million to further it along to 60 per cent designed, but in phases.“[For the] tunnel connecting Union Station to Queens Quay. They’ve suggested not to further that design and my understanding from reading the report is that engineers are suggesting that that project [is] the most complex and the most expensive,” said Tim Kocur, executive director of the Waterfront BIA.A statement from Toronto’s Transit Expansion Division said, “Balancing the City’s current financial pressures with City Council’s direction to expedite Waterfront East LRT construction, the&nbs...

Ontario NDP leader under fire for removal of rookie legislator

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:53:22 GMT

The Ontario NDP is facing division among its ranks after party leader Marit Stiles booted a rookie legislator out of caucus, dousing one political firestorm, but in turn sparking another.Earlier this week Stiles kicked Sarah Jama out of caucus after a series of events that began with a statement on the Israel-Hamas war that failed to mention or condemn the attack on Israeli civilians, though the ouster ultimately came after a series of moves from Jama that either publicly defied Stiles or caught her unaware.There’s no road back to caucus at the moment for Jama, Stiles said Thursday.“The member put us in a very untenable position and I had to make a very difficult decision and I know that there’s going to be some hurt out there and we have a lot of conversations to have and I’m listening,” she said.NDP legislator Jill Andrew defended Jama, saying she did not support kicking her out of caucus and questioning Stiles’ statement on the matter.“Th...

Man accused of drunken driving can sue Michigan police officer who misread a breath test

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:53:22 GMT

A man from Japan wrongly accused of drunken driving can sue a Michigan police officer who grossly misread a breath test and conceded during the stop that she had “no idea” what she was doing, a federal appeals court said Thursday.The man blew a 0.02 on the breath test, but it was mistakenly read by the Fowlerville officer as 0.22 — nearly three times over the state’s blood-alcohol limit for driving.A blood draw subsequently revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.01. Charges of driving while intoxicated were dropped days later in 2020 when the lab results came in. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the man’s lawsuit, alleging a violation of constitutional rights, can proceed against Officer Caitlyn Peca.The man, a 37-year-old native of Yonago, Japan, was in the U.S. on a work visa.“It would be evident to a reasonable officer that (the man) was, quite apparently, sober,” Judge Jane Stranch said in a 3-0 opinion. “So a reasonable jury could conclude that (the) arrest was not...