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Fragile Gaza truce appears to hold as Hamas releases more hostages

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:33:48 GMT

The fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appeared to hold on Sunday as the militant group freed 17 more hostages in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners released from Israel jails, in a third set of releases under a four-day truce.The released hostages included 14 Israelis and and three foreign nationals, including the first American detainee to be freed from Gaza. Some hostages were handed over directly to Israel, while others left through Egypt, the Associated Press reported.Negotiations are continuing toward extending the four-day pause in fighting as more humanitarian aid trucks headed into Gaza on Sunday, including to northern areas of the enclave.“We are making every effort to return our hostages, and we will return them all,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.The prime minister’s office earlier Sunday received a list of the names of the hostages set to be freed and informed the families, Israeli media reported on Sunday. According to ...

Israel-linked tanker seized off Yemen

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:33:48 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Attackers seized a tanker linked to Israel off the coast of Yemen on Sunday, authorities said. While no group immediately claimed responsibility, it comes as at least two other maritime attacks in recent days have been linked to the Israel-Hamas war.The attackers seized the Liberian-flagged Central Park, managed by Zodiac Maritime, in the Gulf of Aden, the company and private intelligence firm Ambrey said. An American defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, also confirmed to The Associated Press that the attack took place.Zodiac called the seizure “a suspected piracy incident.”“Our priority is the safety of our 22 crew onboard,” Zodiac said in a statement. “The Turkish-captained vessel has a multinational crew consisting of a crew of Russian, Vietnamese, Bulgarian, Indian, Georgian and Filipino nationals. The vessel is carrying a full cargo of phosphoric acid.”Zodiac descr...

‘Felons galore:’ Santos expects ouster from Congress

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:33:48 GMT

NEW YORK  — Rep. George Santos said he expects to be expelled from Congress following a scathing report by the House Ethics Committee that found substantial evidence of lawbreaking by the New York Republican.In a defiant speech sprinkled with taunts and obscenities aimed at his congressional colleagues, Santos insisted he was “not going anywhere.” But he acknowledged that his time as a member of Congress, at least, may soon be coming to an end.“I know I’m going to get expelled when this expulsion resolution goes to the floor,” he said Friday night during a conversation on X Spaces. “I’ve done the math over and over, and it doesn’t look really good.”The comments came one week after the Republican chairman of the House Ethics Committee, Michael Guest, introduced a resolution to expel Santos once the body returns from Thanksgiving break.While Santos has survived two expulsion votes, many of his colleagues who formerly opposed the ef...

3 men of Palestinian descent shot, injured near University of Vermont

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:33:48 GMT

Three young men of Palestinian descent who were in Burlington for a Thanksgiving holiday gathering were shot and injured — one seriously — near the University of Vermont, police said Sunday. Authorities said the attack may have been a hate crime.The shootings occurred at about 6:25 p.m. Saturday near the UVM campus, according to Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad. He said police are searching for the shooter.Two of the men are in stable condition and the other suffered “much more serious injuries,” Murad said in a news release Sunday. The three, all age 20, were visiting the home of one of the victim’s relatives and were walking when they were confronted by a white man with a handgun.“Without speaking, he discharged at least four rounds from the pistol and is believed to have fled,” Murad said in a news release. “All three victims were struck, two in their torsos and one in the lower extremities.”Murad said all three men are of Palestinian descent. Two are U.S. citizens and one is a ...

Hamas releases third group of hostages as part of truce and says it will seek to extend the deal

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:33:48 GMT

By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY (Associated Press)JERUSALEM (AP) — The fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas was back on track Sunday as the militants freed 17 more hostages, including 14 Israelis and the first American, in a third set of releases under a four-day truce that the U.S. said it hoped would be extended.Some hostages were handed over directly to Israel, while others left through Egypt. Israel’s army said one was airlifted to a hospital. U.S. President Joe Biden said the elderly woman was “very sick and was in need of immediate medical help.” Hundreds of Israelis draped in flags cheered as freed hostages, waving, arrived at an air force base.They ranged in age from 4 to 84 and included Abigail Edan, a 4-year-old girl and dual citizen whose parents were killed in the Hamas attack that started the war on Oct. 7. “What she endured was unthinkable,” Biden said of the first American freed under the truce. He did not know her condition....

Special interlocutor ‘waiting’ for MP bill criminalizing residential school denialism

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:33:48 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s justice minister is considering options raised by the independent adviser on unmarked graves, who says Indigenous leaders want Canada to move on criminalizing residential school denialism.Kimberly Murray called on lawmakers to consider “legal mechanisms” that could address the practice of denying or minimizing the abuses Indigenous children suffered at residential schools in her interim report released back in June. One way to do that is by amending the Criminal Code to criminalize such actions, Murray said in a recent interview, noting Ottawa did so last year on the issue of Holocaust denialism. “We could do the same for Indigenous people,” she said. “Make it an offence to incite hate and promote hate against Indigenous people by … denying that residential (schools) happened or downplaying what happened in the institutions.” “Everybody in leadership when I speak about this, Indigenous leadership, … all want that amen...

Ontario NDP seeks to make it illegal for drivers to pass on solid double yellow lines

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:33:48 GMT

Chad Bélanger was left with a broken neck, ribs, collarbone and sternum, a bruised heart and lungs, a concussion and PTSD following a crash caused by a truck that crossed a solid double yellow line to pass another vehicle in northern Ontario.His New Democratic member of provincial parliament, Guy Bourgouin, was surprised — as are many other Ontarians that Bourgouin has heard from — to learn that it is not actually illegal to cross double lines when overtaking another vehicle.Current laws penalize operating a vehicle unsafely, including improper passing, and caution against crossing into oncoming traffic in certain conditions, but Ontario is the only province that does not make it explicitly illegal to cross two solid lines to pass, said Bourgouin.The representative for Mushkegowuk-James Bay in northern Ontario has introduced Chad’s Law, a private member’s bill that aims to change that, named after Bélanger.“I got a lot of citizens emails saying that they were, like...

Marty Krofft, of producing pair that put ‘H.R. Pufnstuf’ and the Osmonds on TV, dies at 86

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:33:48 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Marty Krofft, a TV producer known for imaginative children’s shows such as “H.R. Pufnstuf” and primetime hits including “Donny & Marie” in the 1970s, has died in Los Angeles, his publicist said. Krofft was 86. He died Saturday of kidney failure, publicist Harlan Boll said. Krofft and his brother Sid were puppeteers who broke into television and ended up getting stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Along the way, they brought a trippy sensibility to children’s TV and brought singling siblings Donny and Marie Osmond and Barbara Mandrell and her sisters to primetime. The Osmonds’ clean-cut variety show, featuring television’s youngest-ever hosts at the time, became a lasting piece of ‘70s cultural memorabilia, rebooted as a daytime talk show in the 1990s and a Broadway Christmas show in 2010. The Kroffts followed up with “Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters,” centered on the country music star; it ran from 1980-82.Like the Osmonds, “H.R. Pufn...

Québec solidaire elects Émilise Lessard-Therrien as co-spokeswoman

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:33:48 GMT

Quebec’s second-largest opposition party has elected Émilise Lessard-Therrien as its new co-spokeswoman.Québec solidaire, which has 12 seats in the province’s 125-seat legislature, doesn’t have a traditional leader but instead operates with two co-spokespeople — one man and one woman — as the left-wing party’s public face.Lessard-Therrien, 31, defeated two other candidates with 50.3 per cent of the vote to replace Manon Massé as the female spokesperson.Lessard-Therrien previously represented the western Quebec riding of Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue between 2018 and 2022 before losing her seat to the governing Coalition Avenir Québec party in the last general election.She campaigned on building support for Québec Solidaire in more rural areas and expanding beyond its traditional base in the province’s urban neighbourhoods. Earlier in the day, the party’s male co-spokesman, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, was given a new mandate with 90.1 per...

3 men of Palestinian descent attending holiday gathering shot, injured near University of Vermont

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:33:48 GMT

Three young men of Palestinian descent who were in Burlington for a Thanksgiving holiday gathering were shot and injured — one seriously — near the University of Vermont, police said Sunday. Authorities said the attack may have been a hate crime.The shootings occurred at about 6:25 p.m. Saturday near the UVM campus, according to Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad. He said police are searching for the shooter.Two of the men are in stable condition and the other suffered “much more serious injuries,” Murad said in a news release Sunday. The three, all age 20, were visiting the home of one of the victim’s relatives and were walking when they were confronted by a white man with a handgun.“Without speaking, he discharged at least four rounds from the pistol and is believed to have fled,” Murad said in a news release. “All three victims were struck, two in their torsos and one in the lower extremities.”Murad said all three men are of Palestinian descent. Two are U.S. citizens and one...