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Anchor of Chinese container vessel caused damage to Balticconnector gas pipeline, Finnish police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:21 GMT

HELSINKI (AP) — Finnish investigators said Tuesday they believed an anchor of a Chinese container ship was dislodged and caused the damage to the undersea Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia on the Baltic Sea earlier this month.The National Bureau of Investigation, a branch of the Finnish police, said that it has evidence and data pointing to the Hong Kong-flagged cargo vessel Newnew Polar Bear as the culprit in damaging the pipeline running across the Gulf of Finland. Detective Superintendent Risto Lohi, NBI’s head of the investigation, said in a news conference on Tuesday that a 1.5 to 4-meter-wide dragging trail on the seabed is seen to lead to the point of damage in the gas pipeline.That trail is believed to have been caused by a heavy 6-ton anchor which the Finnish Navy retrieved late Monday.“There are traces in the (anchor) which indicate that it has been in contact with the gas pipeline,” Lohi said, citing data from expert analysis.Whether the pipeline da...

Montana man investigated in disappearance of 14-year-old is arrested on child sex abuse charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:21 GMT

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A 36-year-old man living in Montana with a teenager who mysteriously disappeared from Arizona four years ago has been charged with two felony counts of child sexual abuse based on images found on his phone, authorities said Tuesday.Edmund Davis was arrested Monday in Chinook, Montana, and is being held in the Hill County Detention Center on a $1 million bond ordered by state District Court Judge Kaydee Snipes Ruiz. It was unknown if Davis is considered a suspect in the disappearance of Alicia Navarro. Authorities in Arizona said that investigation remains ongoing. Navarro left a note behind and disappeared days before her 15th birthday, sparking a massive search that included the FBI. She was almost 19 when she walked into the Havre, Montana, police station in July and said she wanted to be removed from the missing persons list. Over the years, Navarro’s mother, Jessica Nuñez, said that her daughter, who was diagnosed with autism, may have been lured away by som...

Former reality TV star who was on ‘Basketball Wives LA’ sentenced to prison for fraud

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:21 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A former cast member of the reality TV show “Basketball Wives LA” was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison for 15 fraud-related felonies, including schemes connected to the COVID-19 pandemic.Brittish Williams, 33, of St. Louis, pleaded guilty in May to five federal counts of misuse of a Social Security number, four counts of bank fraud, three counts of making false statements to the IRS and three counts of wire fraud. Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Klocke said the actions took place over roughly a decade, and the crimes continued even after Williams was indicted.U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey also ordered Williams to pay restitution of $565,000.“You knew what you were doing. You knew it was wrong and you did it anyway,” Autrey said.Federal authorities said Williams illegally obtained loans meant for businesses hurt by the pandemic. They said she also used false Social Security numbers to defraud banks and credit card companies, submitted fake medical ...

Woman killed by husband had filed police complaint, Quebec coroner’s inquest hears

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:21 GMT

MONTREAL — A Montreal woman killed along with her two young sons by her estranged husband in 2019 told police more than a year earlier that she had received death threats and believed her husband was mentally ill.In August 2018, Dahia Khellaf had filed a domestic violence complaint with Montreal police, detailing incidents in which Nabil Yssaad twisted her arm and tried to bite her upon leaving a bank meeting and another when he threatened her with scissors.She told police she wanted to separate from her husband, wondered if he was suffering from schizophrenia and feared for her own safety — but not that of her children.A Montreal police investigator, Det.-Sgt. Caroline Raza, outlined the allegations during the second day of a coroner’s inquest into the killings of 42-year-old Khellaf and her sons, four-year-old Adam and two-year-old Aksil.Police homicide investigators concluded the three were strangled by Yssaad before he took his own life by leaping from a hospital window.Th...

Montreal fire department carries out hundreds of inspections after deadly March blaze

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:21 GMT

Montreal’s fire department says that since a fire in Old Montreal killed seven people in March, it has carried out 460 targeted inspections as part of a push to secure potentially hazardous buildings. The operation initially focused on heritage buildings in the city core but was later expanded to include other high-risk buildings and buildings subject to citizen complaints, which tripled following the March 16 blaze.The fire department says it identified 2,042 elements that did not conform to the fire safety rules and issued 13 notices to property owners demanding immediate changes.The 460 targeted inspections through the end of September were in addition to 5,292 regular building inspections that the fire department carried out between January and September.Fire department assistant director Chantal Bibeau said today the operation is part of an updated fire prevention strategy that takes into account such challenges as an aging population and building stock.The Montreal polic...

Illinois mother recuperates after Palestinian American boy killed in attack police call a hate crime

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:21 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — A Palestinian American woman whose 6-year-old son was killed in what police are calling a hate crime in a Chicago suburb has asked the public to “pray for peace” as she recuperates from her injuries. Hanaan Shahin issued a statement Tuesday through the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations after meeting with the group’s executive director a day earlier. The written statement marked her first public comments since the brutal Oct. 14 attack that left her with more than a dozen stab wounds and stitches on her face. Authorities said the family’s suburban Chicago landlord singled them out because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the escalating Israel-Hamas war. “Pray for peace,” Shahin said, thanking authorities, doctors and others. She was released from the hospital last week and has declined interviews with reporters. Shahin, who works as a caregiver to seniors, lost her son, Wadea Al-Fayoume, in the attack that has contribut...

Liberian president Weah to face opponent Boakai for 2nd time in runoff vote

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:21 GMT

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberian President George Weah will face off against challenger Joseph Boakai for the second time in a Nov. 14 runoff vote, election officials in the West African nation said Tuesday.The results of the first round announced by Liberia’s National Elections Commission are the closest runoff since the end of the country’s back-to-back civil wars. Weah, a former international soccer star, failed to win an absolute majority and took 43.83% of the first roundvote, the commission announced. Boakai led a crowded field of challengers with 43.44%. The two politicians last faced off in the 2017 vote, when Weah ultimately won 60% of the vote in the second round. It was the first democratic transfer of power in the West African nation since the end of the country’s back-to-back civil wars between 1989 and 2003 that killed some 250,000 people.Weah won that election amid high hopes brought about by his promise to fight poverty and generate infrastructure develo...

California regulators suspend recently approved San Francisco robotaxi service for safety reasons

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:21 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California regulators have revoked the license of a robotaxi service owned by General Motors after determining its driverless cars that recently began transporting passengers throughout San Francisco are a dangerous menace. The California Department of Motor Vehicles’ indefinite suspension of the Cruise robotaxi service comes just two months after another state regulator, the Public Utilities Commission, approved an expansion that authorized around-the-clock rides throughout San Francisco — the second most dense city in the U.S.That approval came over a chorus of protests, including some lodged by police and fire officials who asserted the driverless vehicles had been impeding traffic in emergencies during a testing phase. Now Cruise is being forced to slam on the brakes on its operations after the DMV concluded its robotaxis posed “an unreasonable risk to public safety,” according to a statement issued by the agency.The DMV didn’t elaborate on the s...

Province asks court to prevent feds from intervening on Highway 413, Ontario Place

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:21 GMT

Ontario is asking the courts to stop the federal government from using the impugned Impact Assessment Act to prevent the province from moving ahead with Highway 413 and Ontario Place construction.The Supreme Court of Canada found earlier this month that the law dealing with environmental impacts of major developments is unconstitutional because it regulates activities that fall under provincial purview.But it was an opinion, rather than a decision, so Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey says the province is now asking the courts to officially declare the vast majority of the act to be of no force and effect, after the federal minister has said he’ll continue to use the law. Related: NDP claims evidence is mounting that process for Ontario Place redevelopment was ‘rigged’ Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has said the Supreme Court’s opinion doesn’t strike down the law and won’t change how federal assessments have been conduc...

Former N.W.T. priest sentenced for indecent assault on child in 1980s

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:45:21 GMT

FORT SIMPSON, N.W.T. — A former priest is beginning a two-year sentence after pleading guilty to indecent assault on a child in the 1980s.Camille Piché, now 85, was sentenced Monday in Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories, after an agreed statement of facts was read out in court. The statement says Piché was the priest in Fort Simpson during the early 1980s when he befriended the family of a then eight-year-old girl.Court heard that on two occasions, Piché visited the family at their home and sat beside the girl on the living room couch.The statement says the girl was covered by a blanket when Piché reached under it and touched the girl inappropriately. The assaults happened while the girl’s father was in the room. Piche told the girl not to say anything about the assaults. The Canadian Press