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Italy prepares to quit Xi’s global building megaplan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:13 GMT

HIROSHIMA, Japan — It took four years for Italy to consider breaking off its special relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In 2019, Italy became the first G7 country to join China’s global infrastructure program, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), to the surprise of allies in the West. Now, Italy’s right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni is ready to tell her G7 counterparts she is prepared to sever ties with Xi’s landmark foreign policy project, according to one senior diplomat familiar with her government’s deliberations. Meloni has not yet taken a final decision, but the discussion in Rome is focused on how to exit Belt and Road, rather than whether to do so, said the diplomat, who was speaking anonymously because the matter is sensitive. If it comes, such a move would represent a dramatic turnaround in relations between Italy and China, planting Meloni firmly in the camp of Sino-skeptic countries led by U.S. President Joe Biden. It would also mark a blow t...

Election results in Hull called into question over decision to extend voting hours due to fire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:13 GMT

The results of a recent election in Hull has been called into question in the aftermath of a massive fire on election day earlier this week. Local leaders opted to keep polls open late. A judge, though, did not sign off on the decision.Now, some town meetings have already been postponed as the town can’t certify the election and can’t swear in the presumptive winners of the races until the current issue is resolved.The fire happened in a home on Q Street, drawing an emergency response as flames billowed over the area. The blaze also temporarily shut down the main road that runs through Hull, leaving the road closed for about one hour. In an effort to keep the election fair for those who couldn’t get to the polls earlier in the day, Hull’s town clerk decided to extend hours at the town’s lone polling place, Hull High School, by two hours. The town tried to notify residents, posting a message on social media and sending a reverse 911 call. Ultimately, however,...

Police in pursuit of motorcyclist suspected of being armed and dangerous in L.A.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:13 GMT

Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department are in pursuit of a motorcyclist who is allegedly armed and dangerous and may also be wanted for assault with a deadly weapon. The chase, which began near the West Hills area, transitioned onto Mullholland Drive where the suspect was clocked traveling at speeds of near 70 miles per hour on the windy roadway. Sky5 is overhead.

Driver sought in fatal hit-and-run in Burlington

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:13 GMT

Halton police are searching for the driver of a vehicle wanted in a fatal hit-and-run in Burlington on Thursday afternoon.Police say they were called to the area of North Shore Boulevard and the Queen Elizabeth Way, near the Burlington Skyway just after 2:30 p.m. following reports a cyclist had been struck. Investigators say the cyclist was later pronounced dead.The driver did not remain at the scene. Police say the silver sedan was last seen heading eastbound on Lakeshore Road toward Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital. The vehicle is believed to have damage to the front passenger side.

Myanmar raises death toll from Cyclone Mocha to 54, but full extent of damage still unknown

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:13 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — At least 54 people were killed and more than 185,000 buildings damaged in Myanmar by a powerful cyclone last weekend, state television MRTV reported Thursday.Communication difficulties in the affected areas, where infrastructure was already poor, and the military government’s tight control over information leave the actual extent of casualties and destruction unclear.Cyclone Mocha roared in from the Bay of Bengal on Sunday with high winds and rain slamming a corner of neighboring Bangladesh and a wider swath of western Myanmar’s Rakhine state. It made landfall near Rakhine’s Sittwe township with winds of up to 209 kilometers (130 miles) per hour before weakening to a tropical depression Monday as it moved inland.The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said widescale destruction of homes and infrastructure was seen throughout Rakhine state.“Urgent needs include shelter, clean water, food assistance and healthcare services,” it said. “There ar...

World leaders at G7 meetings ready to pile fresh sanctions on Russia over Ukraine war

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:13 GMT

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies planned to devote much of the first full day of the Group of Seven summit to finding new ways to punish Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats against Ukraine, along with North Korea’s months-long barrage of missile tests and China’s rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal, have resonated with Japan’s push to make nuclear disarmament a major part of the summit. World leaders Friday visited a peace park dedicated to the tens of thousands who died in the world’s first wartime atomic bomb detonation. After group photos and a symbolic tree planting, a new round of sanctions were to be unveiled against Moscow, with a focus on redoubling efforts to enforce existing sanctions meant to stifle Russia’s war effort and hold accountable those behind it, a U.S. official said. Russia is now the most-sanctioned country in the world, but the...

Ecuador court rejects lawmakers’ challenges to president’s disbanding of National Assembly

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:13 GMT

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador’s Constitutional Court voted unanimously Thursday to reject multiple challenges that sought to invalidate President Guillermo Lasso’s decree dissolving the opposition-led National Assembly as it tried to oust him in an impeachment trial.With the ruling, there are no impediments for the country’s electoral body to call elections for president and the legislature, which are tentatively set for August.In challenging Lasso’s dissolution of the legislature Wednesday, his adversaries tried to persuade the Constitutional Court to rule that the move was illegal on the grounds Ecuador is not facing any urgent crisis. But the court said it does not have jurisdiction to “rule on the verification and motivation of the cause of serious political crisis and internal upheaval invoked” by Lasso to dissolve the assembly.The conservative president, who sparred with the left-leaning assembly over his pro-business agenda since taking office in...

Trudeau calls out Italy on LGBTQ rights during meeting with Meloni at G7 summit

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:13 GMT

HIROSHIMA, Japan — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called out the Italian government’s stance on LGBTQ rights during a bilateral meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Hiroshima, Japan.“Obviously, Canada is concerned about some of the (positions) that Italy is taking in terms of LGBT rights,” Trudeau told Meloni at the start of the meeting. “But I look forward to talking with you about that.”In March, gay rights activists denounced as homophobic moves by Meloni’s far-right-led government to limit recognition of parental rights to the biological parent only in families with same-sex parents.Trudeau met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida earlier in the morning, where both leaders discussed increasing co-operation between G7 countries to further peace and economic prosperity. The G7 Leaders’ Summit is taking place between Friday and Sunday.The summit is expected to focus on geopolitical and economi...

Utah kids’ book author accused in husband’s killing changed life insurance policies, prosecutors say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:13 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah woman who wrote a children’s book about grief after her husband’s death and was later arrested on accusations of killing him made changes to her husband’s life insurance years before he was fatally poisoned, according to charging documents updated Thursday.The additional allegations, which were previously mentioned in search warrants but not the charging documents, led to the postponement of a detention hearing scheduled for Friday that would have been the first time Kouri Richins was in court since her case became the latest true crime sensation earlier this month. The hearing has been rescheduled for June 12. Prosecutors say Kouri Richins, 33, poisoned her husband, Eric Richins, 39, by slipping five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a cocktail she made for him in March 2022. The mother of three later self-published a children’s book titled “Are You with Me?” about an angel wing-clad deceased father watching over his sons. She promoted it on televi...

88-year-old Australian doctor freed 7 years after kidnapping by Islamic extremists in West Africa

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:16:13 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An 88-year-old Australian doctor held captive by Islamic extremists in West Africa for more than seven years has been freed and has returned to Australia.Kenneth Elliott was safe and well and was reunited with his wife and their children on Thursday night, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said. “I’m very pleased to advise that Dr. Ken Elliott, who’s been held hostage in Western Africa for some seven years, has been reunited in Australia with his family,” Wong told reporters in Sydney.Elliott and his wife were kidnapped in Burkina Faso, where they had run a medical clinic for four decades. Jocelyn Elliott was released three weeks later.“We wish to express our thanks to God and all who have continued to pray for us,” Elliott’s family said in a statement released by Wong’s department.“We express our relief that Dr. Elliott is free and thank the Australian government and all who have been involved over time to secure his release,” the family statement said.Ne...