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Joran van der Sloot expected to plead guilty to federal charges at Wednesday hearing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:15 GMT

(CNN) — Joran van der Sloot, the suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway who is accused of extorting and defrauding the teen’s mother, is expected to enter a guilty plea to federal charges at a Wednesday hearing, an attorney for her family says.It is not known what specific charges in the extortion case he will plead guilty to, or what the sentence will be.Van der Sloot, one of the last people seen with the 18-year-old Holloway before she vanished, was indicted in 2010 on federal charges of extortion and wire fraud in connection with a plot to sell information about the whereabouts of Holloway’s remains in exchange for $250,000, according to an indictment filed in the Northern District of Alabama.Holloway family attorney John Q. Kelly confirmed to CNN van der Sloot intends to plead guilty in connection to the case.Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother, will hold a news conference following the hearing to make public what Van der Sloot told FBI ...

Slavery reparations in Amherst Massachusetts could include funding for youth programs and housing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:15 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts college town that established one of the nation’s first reparation funds for Black residents is considering spending the proceeds of the $2 million endowment on youth programs, affordable housing and grants for businesses.The Amherst Town Council established the reparation fund two years ago, inspired by nationwide protests against the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, to atone for slavery, discrimination and past wrongs.The council Monday night will consider a report from the town’s African Heritage Reparation Assembly on how those funds should be spent.The amount of funding would be equivalent to the annual tax revenue the town raises from cannabis sales, which is projected to be about $200,000 a year. The plan has been to grow the fund over a decade and then sustainably donate as much as $100,000 a year in the town, which is about 6% Black.The assembly, which was appointed by the town manager, now wants the...

Bipolar disorder is little researched, but doctors at Johns Hopkins aim to change that

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:15 GMT

Angela Roberts | Baltimore SunTwo months before Charita Cole Brown was supposed to graduate from college — and about two years after she experienced her first manic episode and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder — her doctors told her parents they should prepare for the likelihood that she may one day not be able to care for herself.It was March 1982 and Cole Brown had just experienced a psychotic break eerily similar to what her grandmother had experienced years earlier. Despite her doctors’ prediction that she would never lead a “normal” life, however, within a few years, a counselor had helped Cole Brown find a combination of medication and other wellness strategies that worked for her.She graduated from college, went to graduate school at Towson University, fell in love and raised two daughters to be “some of the kindest women you will ever meet.” Later, during her parents’ final years, she cared for them both.“Bipolar is not an easy illness. I don’t have any enemies, I don’t t...

Egypt looking to host international meeting on Palestine issue

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:15 GMT

Egypt has sent invitations to host an international regional summit aimed at addressing the recent developments relating to the Palestinian issue, the Presidency said Sunday in a statement.The government is intensifying communication with regional and international relief organizations in order to deliver the aid needed in the Gaza Strip, according to the statement which included the resolutions reached after a meeting of the country’s National Security Council.The statement didn’t provide further details on who was invited or when it could be held.Egypt stands ready to make any effort to calm the current situation involving fighting between Israel and Hamas, it said while also noting that the country’s national security is a “red line” and that there would be “no complacency” in protecting it.——–— Tarek El-Tablawy, Abdel Latif Wahba / Bloomberg News (—With assistance from Salma El Wardany)

Muslim woman stabbed in Illinois, son killed after she urged landlord to ‘pray for peace’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:15 GMT

By SOPHIA TAREEN (Associated Press)CHICAGO (AP) — A 71-year-old Illinois landlord upset over the Israel-Hamas war attacked a Palestinian American woman with a knife when she proposed they “pray for peace” and killed her 6-year-old son, authorities said Monday.The details emerged as Joseph Czuba appeared in court on murder, attempted murder and hate crime charges while the boy’s Muslim family prepared to bury him in the Chicago area.Czuba, a Plainfield resident, replied, “Yes, sir,” when asked if he understood the charges and was subsequently returned to jail in Joliet, 50 miles (80.4 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. A Will County judge granted a court-appointed lawyer.Wadea Al-Fayoume, who had just turned 6, had been stabbed multiple times when sheriff’s deputies discovered him Saturday in response to a 911 call.“Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern ...

Ecuador’s youngest elected president faces a practically impossible task

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:15 GMT

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador ‘s youngest elected and richest president on Monday faced the practically impossible task of reducing a terrifying, drug-driven crime wave within a greatly shortened 1.5 years in office. Daniel Noboa, 35, is the son of Ecuador’s richest man thanks to a global empire built on bananas — Ecuador’s main crop. His voters were, among other things, frightened by the escalation of drug violence over the past three years. Killings, kidnappings, robberies and other criminal activities have become part of everyday life, leaving Ecuadorians wondering when, not if, they will be victims. The spike in violence is tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru. Mexican, Colombian and Balkan cartels have set down roots in Ecuador and operate with assistance from local criminal gangs.Presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated in August. Since then, other politicians and political leaders...

‘Bizarre’ that Canada lagging on sustainable aviation: Airbus Canada CEO

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:15 GMT

MONTREAL — Canada possesses the key factors to place it at the cutting edge of sustainable jet fuel — making it all the more “bizarre” that Canada lags behind the United States and Europe on the green-flying front, says Airbus Canada’s chief executive.Benoît Schultz said the country’s long history of resource development, renewable energy, agriculture and aircraft manufacturing should put it in the pilot’s seat on developments around sustainable aviation fuel, also known as SAF.“In a country like Canada, with the natural resources that it has, with the competences in the industry that it has, with the many players of the industry … it would be really bizarre in my view if we couldn’t make sense out of the sustainable aviation fuel roadmap,” Schultz said in a video chat from Toronto.However, Canada has yet to commercially produce a drop of the stuff, often derived from used cooking oils or organic waste.Meanwhile, the U.S. has emb...

Experts weigh impact from Supreme Court ruling on other federal environmental moves

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:15 GMT

Many legal experts say a Supreme Court ruling that found much of Ottawa’s environmental assessment law unconstitutional will have no impact on other federal moves, such as clean electricity regulations or oilsands emissions caps. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and other political leaders have said Friday’s decision means Ottawa has no right to regulate the greenhouse-gas emissions from power generation or oilsands mining. Those moves, however, are based on the federal government’s power over criminal law.University of Ottawa law professor Stewart Elgie points out even the provinces acknowledge that Ottawa could use that power to rein in climate change-causing gases.But Brett Carlson, a lawyer who has worked on those issues and argued against the environmental assessment bill, says those legal precedents could be open to question if the Liberal government uses them to justify other measures. Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has said the legislation the...

Police in Belgium say 2 people have been killed in a shooting in Brussels

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:15 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — Two people were killed in a shooting late Monday in central Brussels, Belgian police said. Media reports aired amateur videos showing a man shooting several times near a station using a large weapon, and Belgian broadcasters said the two victims were Swedes. The Swedish national team was scheduled to play Belgium at Heysel Stadium later in the evening, some 3 miles (5 kilometers) away. Police spokeswoman Ilse Vande Keere said officers arrived soon at the scene, and sealed off the immediate neighborhood. She declined to elaborate on the circumstances of the shooting. The shooting came at a time of increased vigilance linked to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that has heightened tension in several European nations. The Associated Press

Exonerated in 2022, men sue New Orleans over prosecution in which killer cop Len Davis played a role

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:15:15 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two men whose convictions in a 1994 New Orleans murder were tossed decades later — in part because a notoriously corrupt killer cop was involved in the investigation — sued the city, the district attorney’s office and several former police officers Monday.Kunta Gable and Sidney Hill (also known as Leroy Sidney Nelson), say in their federal lawsuit they were framed by former police officer Len Davis, who now faces a federal death sentence, and Davis’ accomplice, former officer Sammie Williams. Gable and Hill seek an unspecified amount in damages in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. Both men were locked up for nearly three decades before current District Attorney Jason Williams joined defense lawyers in 2022 to seek their release. Key to that decision was the involvement of Davis. Davis was convicted on federal charges in the 1990s for, while serving as a police officer, having masterminded a drug protection ring involving several other officers ...