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Hospital director in Haiti says police rescued women and children after gangs surround facility

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:21:37 GMT

By EVENS SANON (Associated Press)PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A heavily armed gang surrounded a hospital in Haiti on Wednesday, trapping women, children and newborns inside until police rescued them, according to the director of the medical center who pleaded for help via social media.Jose Ulysse, founder and director of the Fontaine Hospital Center in the sprawling Cite Soleil slum in the capital of Port-au-Prince, told The Associated Press that gangs were torching homes surrounding the hospital and preventing everyone inside from leaving. He had earlier said that it appeared gangs had entered the hospital.Ulysse said Haiti’s National Police responded to his call for help and and arrived with three armored trucks to evacuate 40 children and 70 patients to a private home in a safer part of the city. Among those delicately evacuated were children on oxygen, he said.“Gangs are in total control of the area,” he said. A spokesman for Haiti’s National Police...

Tribe in Oklahoma sues city of Tulsa for continuing to ticket Native American drivers

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:21:37 GMT

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Muscogee (Creek) Nation filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the city of Tulsa, arguing Tulsa police are continuing to ticket Native American drivers within the tribe’s reservation boundaries despite a recent federal appeals court ruling that they lacked jurisdiction to do so.The tribe filed the lawsuit in federal court in Tulsa against the city, Mayor G.T. Bynum, Chief of Police Wendell Franklin and City Attorney Jack Blair.The litigation is just the latest clash in Oklahoma over tribal sovereignty since the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2020 ruling, dubbed McGirt, that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s sprawling reservation, which includes much of Tulsa, remains intact. That ruling has since been expanded by lower courts to include several other Native American reservations covering essentially the eastern half of the state.Since that ruling, Tulsa began referring felony and criminal misdemeanor offenses by Native Americans within Muscog...

Israel and Switzerland draw 1-1 in Euro 2024 qualifying game in Hungary

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:21:37 GMT

FELCSUT, Hungary (AP) — A European Championship qualifying game between Switzerland and Israel ended with a 1-1 draw on Wednesday, a match that brought the Israeli team to Hungary after all scheduled games in Tel Aviv were postponed due to the Israel-Hamas war.The match was one of two “home games” Israel is hosting in Felcsut, a Hungarian village of around 1,900 people, as it chases a qualifying place in the Euro 2024 continental championship. If the team qualifies, it will be its first time since joining the European soccer federation in 1994.Ahead of the game, fans draped in Israeli flags gathered outside the heavily guarded stadium, singing chants as their team’s bus arrived.The mood was celebratory, but some fans — some of whom traveled from as far away as Israel to attend the match — were solemn in describing the significance of the contest.“We’re going through a very, very difficult time right now, and it just felt right,” said Aaron Morali, an Israeli fan who drov...

Jurors begin deliberating in the trial of the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:21:37 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A lawyer for the man who broke into former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and attacked her husband told a federal jury Wednesday that David DePape was motivated by his political beliefs, not because he wanted to interfere with her official duties as a member of Congress, making the charges against him invalid.David DePape, 43, is charged with attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official in the Oct. 28, 2022, attack against Paul Pelosi. During her rebuttal, prosecutor Helen Gilbert said the defense had made a false distinction between Nancy Pelosi’s politics and official duties and that DePape didn’t differentiate between the two. DePape pleaded not guilty, but during testimony on Tuesday admitted to bludgeoning Paul Pelosi with a hammer while trying to carry out a plan to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage. Federal public defender Angela Chuang told the jury during her closing statement ...

Carbon price carve-out for heating oil muddied waters in Senate on other bill: Simons

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:21:37 GMT

OTTAWA — A Conservative private member’s bill to exempt more fuel used by farmers from the carbon price is stirring up intense lobbying efforts in the Senate, and leaving the Liberals on the verge of being forced to carve up their signature climate policy even more.Alberta Sen. Paula Simons said that the effort to convince senators of how to vote on this bill is extreme from both sides of the debate.She said she’s concerned that rhetoric is outpacing reality in every direction.“I’ve never been lobbied like this on private member’s bill,” Simons said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “This bill has become symbolic and it’s being used as a wedge issue.”Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has already made eliminating the carbon price the centrepiece of his political messaging ahead of the next federal election, has launched a full-on campaign to get the bill passed. That includes new ads launched on Wednesday.The premie...

SpaceX will try again to launch its mega rocket into orbit after first attempt ended in an explosion

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:21:37 GMT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX is aiming for another test flight of its mega rocket on Friday after getting final approval from federal regulators. The first launch of Starship ended in an explosion minutes after lifting off from South Texas in April. The Federal Aviation Administration issued its license Wednesday, noting that SpaceX has met safety, environmental and other requirements to launch again. Elon Musk’s rocket company said it was targeting Friday morning.After the self-destruct system blew up the rocket over the Gulf of Mexico, SpaceX made dozens of improvements to the nearly 400-foot (121-meter) rocket and to the launch pad, which ended up with a large crater beneath it.SpaceX has a $3 billion NASA contract to land astronauts on the lunar surface as early as 2025, using the spacecraft.A month ago, the FAA completed its safety review of the upcoming Starship launch. It needed more time to wrap up its environmental review. No one was injured in the first attemp...

Haitian gang leader added to FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list for kidnapping and killing Americans

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:21:37 GMT

MIRAMAR, Fla. (AP) — The FBI added a Haitian gang leader to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on Wednesday for the kidnapping and slaying of American missionaries in that country, but conceded capturing him will be a difficult task in the often lawless nation. In conjunction with the announcement, the U.S. State Department said it will pay up to $2 million for information leading to the arrest of Vitel’Homme Innocent, who is known by his first name only. He has already been indicted in the United States for the armed kidnapping of 16 Christian missionaries in 2021 and the slaying of missionary Marie Franklin and kidnapping of her husband, Jean, in 2022. Most of the first group from Christian Aid Ministries, which included five children, escaped after 61 days in captivity and the others were released. Jean Franklin was released after three weeks when his family paid a ransom. The FBI says Vitel’Homme leads the Kraze Bayre gang and worked in concert with the 400 Mawozo ga...

Lawyers insist Nikola founder shouldn’t face prison time for fraud – unlike Elizabeth Holmes

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:21:37 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for the founder of truckmaker Nikola Corp. say he should not face incarceration because his fraud conviction is nothing like the fraud that landed Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in prison. The lawyers told a Manhattan federal court judge in a filing late Tuesday that Trevor Milton never acted in a “greedy or mean-spirted way” as he built a pioneering company looking to take the battery- and hydrogen-electric trucking world to new heights.“There is not a shred of evidence from trial or from Trevor’s personal life that he was ever motivated by spite, nastiness, ill will, or cruelty,” they wrote.Milton, 41, was convicted last year of fraud for duping investors with exaggerated claims about his company’s production of zero-emission trucks.Holmes, 39, is serving an 11-year sentence for defrauding investors in the blood-testing company Theranos.Milton is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 28. Court officials have calculated federal sentencing guidelines to recommend...

Dashcam footage captures thief stealing SUV in Oakville

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:21:37 GMT

The Halton Regional Police Service released dashcam footage in hopes of identifying a man who allegedly stole an SUV from a home driveway in Oakville.Investigators said homeowners reported that their Lexus SUV was stolen on November 14, 2023, from outside their residence located in the Ninth Line and Dundas Street East area.Halton police released dashcam footage from a stolen vehicle in Oakville. Police obtained dashcam footage from the Lexus SUV after the thief ditched the stolen vehicle not far from the initial scene. The video briefly shows the male suspect authorities are hoping to identify. No injuries were reported.

NYC carriage driver shown in video flogging horse is charged with animal cruelty

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:21:37 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A carriage horse driver was charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty on Wednesday, more than a year after his frail, ill horse collapsed on the streets of Manhattan, prosecutors announced.Ian McKeever, 54, was arraigned on a charge of overdriving, torturing and injuring an animal or failure to provide proper sustenance for his treatment of the horse, Ryder, on Aug. 10, 2022, when it collapsed during the evening rush hour and lay on the street.Video published by the New York Post showed McKeever pulling on Ryder’s reins and flogging the horse with a whip.According to the criminal complaint, McKeever had been working Ryder since 9 a.m. when the horse collapsed in 84-degree (29-degree Celsius) weather.Once Ryder was down, McKeever didn’t give the horse any water, prosecutors said.A police officer removed Ryder’s harness and put ice and cold water on the horse for 45 minutes until he was able to stand up, District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a news rele...