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Iraqi parliament passes controversial vote law amendments

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:24 GMT

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi lawmakers passed early Monday controversial amendments to the country’s election law that could undermine the chances for smaller parties and independent candidates to win seats in future polls.The amendments increase the size of electoral districts, a move widely backed by the Coordination Framework, a coalition of Iran-backed parties. The coalition forms the majority bloc in the current parliament, which brought Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to power last year.The bill passed in a 206-12 vote in the 329-seat assembly, according to media reports. The remaining lawmakers were absent from the hourslong session, which started on Sunday night. The amendments also reverse key articles passed ahead of the 2021 federal election and redraw the electoral maps to have Iraq return to one electoral district per each governorate. Several Iraqi political blocs and independent parliamentarians had rejected the amendments and stalled the vote for weeks. Hundreds...

Little Rock Police: 2 dead, 5 wounded in separate shootings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:24 GMT

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) — Police in Arkansas said two separate shootings Sunday night left seven victims including two fatalities in the state capital.The Little Rock Police Department said in a statement posted on Twitter that emergency services received a report at 9:25 p.m. of a shooting. The two victims sustained non-life-threatening injuries. A short time later, a second shooting occurred nearby in which another five people were shot, including two victims who were killed, police said.Both shootings took place in areas along Asher Avenue, but police could not immediately say if they were related.The identities and medical conditions of the surviving victims were not immediately released.The shootings are being investigated, police said.The Associated Press

In The News for March 27 : A final goodbye to two fallen Edmonton police officers

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:24 GMT

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of March 27 …What we are watching in Canada …A regimental funeral is set to be held today for two Edmonton police officers who were shot and killed by a 16-year-old boy.Police say a 2 1/2-kilometre procession from the Alberta legislature to Rogers Place in Edmonton’s downtown is scheduled to begin just before noon.The funeral for Const. Travis Jordan, who was 35, and Const. Brett Ryan, who was 30, is planned to be held in the afternoon at the home arena for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League.The service is not open to the public but there will be a livestream, which is to be broadcast in an outdoor plaza near the arena.Police have said the officers were responding to a family dispute at a northwest apartment complex on March 16, when the teen shot at them multiple times.They said the boy next sho...

Sask. judge to decide on bail for sisters who say they were wrongfully convicted

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:24 GMT

YORKTON, Sask. — A Saskatchewan judge is set to deliver his decision on whether to give bail to two sisters who have spent nearly 30 years in prison for what they say are wrongful murder convictions.Odelia and Nerissa Quewezance were convicted of second-degree murder in the 1993 stabbing death of 70-year-old Saskatchewan farmer Anthony Dolff near Kamsack.Defence lawyers have asked for the Indigenous sisters to get a conditional release while their case is undergoing a federal conviction review.The federal Justice Department started the review last year, saying there may be a reasonable basis to conclude there was a miscarriage of justice.The Crown prosecutor argued that even if there were issues with the police investigation, there was still enough evidence to show the sisters were involved in the killing.James Lockyer, the sisters’ lawyer, has said the women are victims of racism in the justice system and false confessions.Lockyer told a bail hearing in January that the sisters enc...

Canada argues court misconstrued Charter in directing feds to bring men in Syria home

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:24 GMT

OTTAWA — The Canadian government says a federal judge misinterpreted the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in directing officials to secure the release of four men from detention in northeastern Syria.Government lawyers are set to stress that point in the Federal Court of Appeal today as they seek to overturn a January ruling by Federal Court Justice Henry Brown.In his decision, Brown said Ottawa should request repatriation of the men in Syrian prisons run by Kurdish forces as soon as reasonably possible and provide them with passports or emergency travel documents. Brown ruled the men are also entitled to have a representative of the federal government travel to Syria to help facilitate their release once their captors agree to hand them over. The government says in written arguments filed in the Court of Appeal that Brown mistakenly conflated the recognized Charter right of citizens to enter Canada with a right to return — effectively creating a new right for citizens to be brought h...

Funeral for two Edmonton police officers shot and killed responding to family dispute

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:24 GMT

EDMONTON — A regimental funeral is set to be held today for two Edmonton police officers who were shot and killed by a 16-year-old boy.Police say a 2 1/2-kilometre procession from the Alberta legislature to Rogers Place in Edmonton’s downtown is scheduled to begin just before noon.The funeral for Const. Travis Jordan, who was 35, and Const. Brett Ryan, who was 30, is planned to be held in the afternoon at the home arena for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League.The service is not open to the public but there will be a livestream, which is to be broadcast in an outdoor plaza near the arena.Police have said the officers were responding to a family dispute at a northwest apartment complex on March 16, when the teen shot at them multiple times.They said the boy next shot and wounded his mother during a struggle for the gun, then shot and killed himself. Police said the same gun had been used in a shooting days earlier at a nearby Pizza Hut, leaving a man injured.Police...

Canada Infrastructure Bank invests $277M in Que. biofuels facility

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:24 GMT

CALGARY — The Canada Infrastructure Bank is making its first investment in low-carbon fuels, committing $277 million to a biofuels facility under construction in Varennes, Que.The facility — known as Varennes Carbon Recycling — has a total price tag of $1.2 billion and is a joint-venture project between Shell, Suncor Energy Inc., Swiss natural gas company Proman and the government of Quebec.It is being built by Montreal-based Enerkem, whose proprietary technology will be used to produce biofuels and renewable chemicals out of landfill waste and wood waste. The plant will also incorporate one of the world’s largest electrolyzers, which will split water molecules into oxygen and green hydrogen for use in its biofuel-making process.The project, which was first announced in 2020, will be the largest biofuels facility in the country once completed in 2025, said Canada Infrastructure Bank CEO Ehren Cory. “What attracted us to the project was the scale and ambition of it, first of al...

Lettuce prices likely to rise again amid California flooding, experts say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:24 GMT

Lettuce prices are likely to rise next month and could stay high into the summer, agriculture experts say, as flooding in a key California farming area becomes the latest example of extreme weather’s effect on the food chain.The Salinas Valley, where a vast amount of lettuce and other produce eaten in North America is grown every year, has seen severe rain and storms since the beginning of the year, said John Bishop, national buyer for produce distributor Fresh Start Foods.All that extra water has flooded fields and delayed planting, Bishop said, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in crop damage. “It’s been very concerning,” he said. Tens of thousands of acres of farmland have flooded in Salinas since the beginning of the year, Mark Shaw, vice-president of operations for California-based Markon Cooperative said in an email. Below-average temperatures are adding to farmers’ struggles, he added. Salinas is the same region where disease struck lettuce crops last fall, creating se...

Daily horoscope for March 27, 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:24 GMT

Moon Alert: Avoid shopping or important decisions after 9:15 p.m. EDT today (6:15 p.m. PDT). The Moon is in Gemini.Happy Birthday for Monday, March 27, 2023:People are attracted to you because you are individualistic and likable. You are committed to whatever you do. This year is the first year of a new cycle for you, which will bring new beginnings, adventures and major changes in your life. Keep your eyes open for new opportunities!ARIES(March 21-April 19)★★★★★Today you feel like an action hero. You’re full of energy and the power of positive thinking. Oh yes, you feel you can do anything! (Well, almost.) It’s a great day for a short trip. It’s also a fantastic day for those in sales, marketing, teaching or acting. Your words are like gold! Don’t hesitate to go after what you want. Tonight: Fun conversations.TAURUS(April 20-May 20)★★★★This is an excellent day for business and commerce. Trust your ability to negotiate deals behind the scenes. Research will p...

IAEA head to visit Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant this week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:24 GMT

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi will visit the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine this week to assess the serious situation there, he announced on Saturday (25 March).Grossi is pressing for a security zone to be erected around what is Europe's largest nuclear power plant, with six reactors, which has come under repeated shelling over the past months.It will be his second visit. Last September he went there and established a permanent presence of IAEA experts.Russian troops occupied the facility early in their invasion of Ukraine and it remains near the front line. Both sides blame each other for the shelling."The situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is still precarious," Grossi said in the statement, saying he wanted "to assess first-hand the serious nuclear safety and security situation at the facility".Earlier this month he appealed for the protection zone around the plant to be set up, saying he was "astonished by the complacency" around...