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Serbia and Kosovo leaders set for talks on the sidelines of this week’s EU summit as tensions simmer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:26 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo have been invited to meet with top European Union officials to try to breathe life into talks aimed at normalizing their relations, as the 27-nation bloc’s leaders gather in Brussels for a two-day summit starting Thursday.Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti are not expected to meet face to face, but the aim is to push forward with new “proposals and ideas” floated in exploratory talks last weekend, said Peter Stano, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.Fears are high of a resumption of the violence that has characterized their ties since Kosovo unilaterally broke away from Serbia in 2008. Belgrade has never recognized the move. The EU, through Borrell, has supervised a “dialogue” between them to get things back on track.The meetings, if they proceed, could be an important step forward, after about 30 Serb gunmen crossed into northern Kosovo on Sept. 24, killing a police officer and s...

Leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah holds talks with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:26 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group held talks on Wednesday with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures in a key meeting of three top anti-Israel militant groups amid the war raging in Gaza.A brief statement following the meeting said that Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah agreed with Hamas’ Saleh al-Arouri and Islamic Jihad’s leader Ziad al-Nakhleh on the next steps that the three — along with other Iran-backed militants — should take at this “sensitive stage.”Their goal, according to the statement that was carried on Hezbollah-run and Lebanese state media, was to achieve “a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine” and halt Israel’s “treacherous and brutal aggression against our oppressed and steadfast people in Gaza and the West Bank”. No other details were provided. The discussions in Beirut came as the war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, is now in...

In the news today: Israel’s bombardment in Gaza surges, reducing buildings to rubble

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:26 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…Israel ramps up airstrikes across the Gaza StripIsrael has ramped up airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, reducing residential buildings to rubble and crushing families. Airstrikes have killed dozens at a time in levelled homes, according to witnesses.The surging death toll foretells even greater loss of life ahead in Gaza, where Israeli forces are expected to launch a ground invasion seeking to destroy Hamas. Fuel shortages and the bombardment forced the shutdown of medical facilities, Gaza officials said.The war, in its 19th day Wednesday, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Health Ministry said Tuesday that at least 5,791 Palestinians have been killed and 16,297 wounded. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, according to Israeli officials, mostly civilians who died in the initial Hamas rampage on Oct. 7. In addition, 22...

Bank of Canada widely expected to hold its key interest rate steady today

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:26 GMT

OTTAWA — The Bank of Canada is set to announce its interest rate decision this morning.Forecasters are widely expecting the central bank to hold its key interest rate steady as the economy weakens and inflation slows.The key rate is currently sitting at five per cent, the highest it’s been since 2001.The Bank of Canada’s aggressive rate hikes since March 2022 are weighing on consumers and businesses, as the economy shrank in the second quarter and the labour market eased.Meanwhile, Canada’s annual inflation rate fell to 3.8 per cent in September as price pressures weaken across the economy.Most economists believe interest rates are already sufficiently high to restore price stability and return inflation to the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2023.The Canadian Press

Prison officials ‘intervened’ to stop Paul Bernardo from making public statement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:26 GMT

OTTAWA — Newly released documents show that Correctional Service Canada stopped Paul Bernardo from having his lawyer make a statement to the media as controversy swirled around the notorious killer’s transfer to a medium-security prison.Bernardo was moved to La Macaza Institution, a medium-security prison about 190 kilometres northwest of Montreal, in late May from the maximum-security Millhaven Institution near Kingston, Ont. He is serving a life sentence for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of 15-year-old Kristen French and 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy, in the early 1990s near St. Catharines, Ont.Bernardo was also convicted of manslaughter in the December 1990 death of 15-year-old Tammy Homolka, the younger sister of his then-wife, Karla Homolka. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received a 12-year sentence for her role in the crimes against French and Mahaffy. She was released in 2005. Bernardo, who was designated a dangerous offender, has admitted to sexually a...

Canadians want Ottawa to maintain current spending levels on Ukraine, survey suggests

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:26 GMT

OTTAWA — A new survey suggests more Canadians want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to maintain Canada’s current level of spending on helping Ukraine fight Russia’s ongoing invasion, rather than boosting financial support.Polling firm Leger recently asked Canadians about their country’s presence on the world stage, including Canada’s efforts to assist Ukraine defend against Russia, which began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.A total of 1,521 respondents participated in the web survey from Oct. 20 to Oct. 22. It cannot be assigned a margin of error because online polls are not considered truly random samples.The survey asked Canadians what they thought the Liberal government should do when it comes to providing financial aid to Ukraine. According to the results, 45 per cent of respondents said they thought Canada should maintain the same level of spending, compared to 30 per cent who said they thought the federal government ought to decrease it.Only 12 p...

‘I wanted to scream’: Growing conflict in Congo drives sexual assault against displaced women

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:26 GMT

BULENGO, Congo (AP) — A hooded man burst into the 42-year-old woman’s tent while her children were out searching for food, then raped her in the displacement camp where she had fled war in eastern Congo.“I wanted to scream (but) he took my mouth and he threatened me with death,” said the mother of four, who was abandoned by her husband after she became disabled in a motorcycle accident several years ago.Now, she says, she lives in fear and hesitates to let her children leave her side.Sexual violence by armed men against displaced women is increasing rapidly in eastern Congo as yearslong conflicts continue. The trend underscores the disproportionate consequences for women and girls in the region’s perpetual state of war. The Associated Press is not identifying survivors who spoke to journalists in the Bulengo displacement camp.In Bulengo and other displacement sites nearby, an average of 70 sexual assault victims each day visit clinics run by Doctors Without Borders, also...

Eye of Hurricane Otis makes landfall near Mexico’s Acapulco resort as catastrophic Category 5 storm

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:26 GMT

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico’s southern Pacific coast as a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane early Wednesday, bringing 165 mph (270 kmh) winds and heavy rain to Acapulco and surrounding towns, stirring memories of a 1997 storm that killed dozens of people.The hurricane was expected to weaken quickly in Guerrero state’s steep mountains. But the five to 10 inches of rain forecast, with as much as 15 inches possible in some areas, raised the threat of landslides and floods.Otis had strengthened rapidly, going from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in 12 hours Tuesday. Residents of Guerrero’s coast scrambled to prepare, but the storm’s sudden intensity appeared to catch many off guard.“We’re on maximum alert,” Acapulco Mayor Abelina López said Tuesday night as she urged residents to hunker down at home or move to the city’s shelters. Otis could be more devastating than Hurricane Pauline that hit Acapulco in 1997, destroying swaths of the city and k...

Japan’s top court strikes down required removal of reproductive organs to officially change gender

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:26 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a law requiring transgender people to have their reproductive organs removed in order to officially change their gender is unconstitutional.The decision by the top court’s 15-judge Grand Bench was its first on the constitutionality of Japan’s 2003 law requiring the removal of reproductive organs for a state-recognized gender change, a practice long criticized by international rights and medical groups.The decision now requires the government to revise the law, which paves the way for transgender people to have their gender changed in official documents without surgery.The case was filed by a plaintiff whose request for a gender change in her family registry — to female from her biologically assigned male — was turned down by lower courts.The decision comes at a time of heightened awareness of issues surrounding LGBTQ+ people in Japan and is a major victory for that community.Kyodo News said the judges unanimously ruled that ...

EU and China meet during 26th Competition Week to discuss competition policy and enforcement

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:51:26 GMT

Officials and experts from the EU and China met online from 23 to 25 October 2023 to discuss their cooperation on competition law and enforcement.The sessions focused on competition law enforcement in the EU and China, particularly on the approach to vertical mergers, as well as on competition law enforcement and trade associations. Participants also discussed the new regulation on the Fair Competition Review System in China, which aims at promoting a competitive and unified market by preventing public policies from distorting and restricting competition, and EU state aid procedures, with a focus on the co-operation between the EU and its member states. The EU-China Competition Week takes place biannually and is part of the Competition Co-operation project, a five-year EU funded programme offering technical cooperation to competition authorities in Asia. It provides a platform for exchanges on competition policy between the European Commission Directorate-General for Competition and...