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European socialists suspend Robert Fico’s Smer party and its ally Hlas

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:36 GMT

The Party of European Socialists on Thursday suspended both Robert Fico’s election-winning Smer (Direction) party and Peter Pellegrini’s Hlas (Voice) party, which on Wednesday announced they’d formed a government in Slovakia.“This step has been taken following the clear divergence from the values of the PES family demonstrated by Smer-SD leader Robert Fico. And additionally, as a result of concerns raised following the announcement of a government coalition between Smer-SD, Hlas-SD and a radical-right party,” said the press release.A meeting of the PES presidency made the announcement a day after the two parties announced an agreement on forming a ruling coalition in Slovakia, along with the right-populist Slovak National Party. The suspension of Hlas — which has an associated rather than full membership in the PES — was not anticipated. Stefan Löfven, the president of PES and former prime minister of Sweden, had threatened to expel Fico in an interview with S...

Olympic chiefs ban Russia — but door still open to Paris 2024 for athletes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:36 GMT

The International Olympic Committee on Thursday banned the Russian Olympic Committee, effective immediately but it has not changed its position on the possibility of Russian athletes taking part in the Paris 2024 Olympics. The IOC said in statement that Russia’s decision to claim regional sports organizations in occupied areas of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, areas which should be under the authority of Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee, as members was a breach of the Olympic Charter.Because of the breach, the ROC is suspended “with immediate effect until further notice.”As a consequence of the suspension, the Russian committee can’t operate as a National Olympic Committee and will not be able to receive any funding from the Olympic Movement.The statement specifies that the IOC’s position on Russian athletes’ involvement in next year’s Paris 2024 Games remains fully in place. As per the committee’s recommendations from earlier this year, Russian and ...

Tewksbury police investigating after individual places raccoon corpse on resident’s car

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:36 GMT

Police in Tewksbury are looking to identify a person who placed a dead raccoon on the windshield of a person’s car overnight on Wednesday.In a statement, the Tewksbury Police Department said it was just after 4 a.m. on Oct. 11, when officers received a call from a woman living on Marshall Street, stating that she had found a dead animal on her car.“Upon arrival, Tewksbury Police spoke with the resident and saw the dead raccoon, which appeared to have been run over by a car, on the windshield of the car,” a news release from Tewksbury PD stated.Reviewing surveillance footage from a Ring Camera, authorities soon found images of a person walking up to the residence around 12:30 a.m. with a black plastic bag.The individual, described as wearing light blue jeans and a black watch cap “with two strings that hang down on the sides,” proceeded to dump the corpse of a racoon onto a vehicle’s windshield before running away.As authorities continue to investi...

A new indictment charges Sen. Menendez with being an unregistered agent of the Egyptian government

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:36 GMT

By LARRY NEUMEISTER (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors have rewritten their indictment against U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife to charge them with conspiring to have him act as an agent of Egypt and Egyptian officials.The superseding indictment, filed in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, accuses Menendez of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people to register with the U.S. government if they are acting as “an agent of a foreign principal.” As a member of Congress, Menendez was prohibited from being an agent of a foreign government, even if he did register as one.Messages left with Menendez’s Senate staff and attorney on Thursday were not immediately answered.The indictment says the conspiracy occurred from January 2018 to June 2022. It alleges that in May 2019, Menendez, his wife and a business associate, Wael Hana, met with an Egyptian intelligence official in Menendez’s Senate office in Washington. During the meet...

Head into shopping season ready to manage spending and debt

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:36 GMT

By Tiffany Curtis | NerdWalletRetailers once again have begun their bid for consumers’ attention with big sales early in fall, such as what amounts to a second Amazon Prime Day sale. A longer holiday shopping season lets you spread out expenses, but it also could lead to overspending.Danetha Doe, founder of financial education company Money & Mimosas, said in an email, “It’s easy to go into unplanned debt during this time because many of us show love to those we care about by buying gifts or by spending money on travel to be with loved ones.”NerdWallet’s 2023 holiday shopping report bears that out: 52% of Americans incurred credit card debt from holiday shopping last year, and 31% of them still have lingering balances. Survey results also show that nearly 2 in 5 2023 holiday shoppers (39%) feel pressure to spend more on buying gifts than they’re comfortable spending this year, and 12% of 2023 holiday shoppers say they will likely use some of their emergency savings to buy ...

Gillette Stadium death: Police seeking assault charges against 3 Rhode Island men

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:36 GMT

Foxboro Police are seeking to arrest three Rhode Island men they say were involved in a fracas that preceded the death of a New Hampshire man attending a Patriots game at Gillette stadium last month.Dale Mooney, 53, of Newmarket, N.H., died following what appeared to be some sort of physical altercation in the 300-tier of the stadium a little before 11 p.m. on Sept. 17. Mooney was transported to Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro that night where he was pronounced dead.Foxboro Police are seeking criminal complaints alleging assault and battery and disorderly conduct, according to a Thursday morning statement in which they did not name the suspects. A probable-cause hearing or hearings will be held in Wrentham District Court “in the coming weeks,” according to police.Preliminary findings from Mooney’s autopsy did not suggest traumatic injury, “but did identify a medical issue” a spokesman for the Norfolk District Attorney’s office said a couple days after the incident. The police ...

An upset father shoots a youth football coach over his son’s playing time, police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:36 GMT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A youth football coach in St. Louis has been hospitalized in critical but stable condition after being shot at practice, allegedly by a father who was upset about his son’s playing time, authorities said.Shaquille Latimore, 30, was shot multiple times Tuesday evening at Sherman Park. Daryl Clemmons, 43, later turned himself in, police said. He was charged Wednesday with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. Clemmons does not yet have an attorney who could speak on his behalf, according to Missouri’s online court-reporting system. A call to a phone number listed for him went unanswered. He remains jailed without bond.Relatives told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Shaquille Latimore has undergone surgery and is in good spirits.Shaquille Latimore coaches a little league football team made up primarily of 7- and 8-year-olds, his mother, SeMiko Latimore, told the newspaper.Shaquille Latimore told police that Clemmons was “upset with him for not starting his so...

Mexico’s president calls 1994 assassination of presidential candidate a ‘state crime’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:36 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president unleashed a broad spate of conspiracy theories Thursday, arguing that the 1994 assassination of a Mexico presidential candidate was a government-sponsored killing.President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not provide any specific evidence for the accusation of state involvement in the killing of ruling party candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio, but he did say he had met with Colosio just days before he died, purportedly at the hands of a lone gunman.“I came to the conclusion a long time ago that this was a state crime,” López Obrador said of the assassination.Colosio had been viewed as the front-runner in the race and had seemed poised to take the then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, on a more leftward turn, away from the pro-market, privatization policies it had adopted. Researchers have speculated in the past that may have made top PRI members uncomfortable.It wasn’t the only conspiracy theory the Mexican president espoused ...

Scalise must sway skeptical GOP colleagues as he tries to round up the votes to be the House speaker

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nominated to be House speaker, Rep. Steve Scalise is heading straight into a familiar Republican problem: Skeptical GOP colleagues are reluctant to give their support, denying him the majority vote needed to win the gavel.The House opened its Thursday session at midday in anticipation of floor action to elect a speaker. But Scalise must peel off more than 100 votes, mostly from those who backed his chief rival, Rep. Jim Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chairman favored by hard-liners, as lawmakers dig in for a fight to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy after his historic ouster from the job. No votes were scheduled.“Time is of the essence,” McCarthy said when he arrived at the Capitol.Asked if it was still possible for Scalise, R-La., to find enough support, McCarthy said: “It’s possible — it’s a big hill, though.” The House is entering its second week without a speaker and is essentially unable to function, so the pressure is on Republicans to reverse course,...

Intense shelling has displaced 70,000 people in northwest Syria, UN agencies warn

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:24:36 GMT

DANA, Syria (AP) — United Nations humanitarian officials sounded an alarm Thursday over a humanitarian crisis in rebel-held northwestern Syria, warning that intense shelling by government forces displaced almost 70,000 people in recent weeks.The Syrian government, backed by Russia, pounded the country’s northwest this month, especially after a drone attack targeted a military college graduation ceremony in the heart of the government-held city of Homs. At least 89 officers and civilians were killed, making it one of the deadliest attack in the war-town nation in years.Humanitarian agencies and human rights organizations have reported Syrian and Russian strikes hitting hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure as Syria endures the 13th year of a conflict that has killed a half-million people.“We’re at the most significant escalation of hostilities since 2019,” David Carden, the U.N. deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, said after meeting with displace...