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Concerned about North Korea, South’s Yoon seeks more US help

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol urged ever more strengthening of the U.S.-led security alliance against nuclear-armed North Korea on Thursday, drawing cheers from Congress as he saluted the “great American heroes” who helped preserve his country’s democracy in the Korean War.Democratic and Republicans lawmakers rose to their feet again and again to applaud during Yoon’s address to a joint meeting of the House and Senate, in a speech that stressed security cooperation at a time of increased tension with both North Korea and China. Yoon also cited U.S.-Korean high-tech trade ties creating thousands of jobs in the United States.Yoon praised the U.S.-South Korea security partnership since the Korean War seven decades ago as “the linchpin safeguarding our freedom, peace and prosperity.” Lawmakers roared with approval when the South Korean leader closed with, “God bless our alliance.” They flocked to him afterward on the House floor, pressing him to sign...

Former UD athlete gets more prison time for sexual assaults

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

DOVER, Del. (AP) — A former University of Delaware athlete already serving a six-year prison sentence for sex offenses was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 additional years behind bars for other sexual attacks on young women.Clay Conaway, 27, was sentenced in a southern Delaware courtroom more than a year after he pleaded guilty to third-degree rape and no contest to three counts of fourth-degree rape. He took plea agreements as he faced five counts of second-degree rape involving four separate women.Conaway was sentenced to two years for third-degree rape, 90 days each on two counts of fourth-degree rape, and probation for the other fourth-degree rape charge. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors had agreed to ask for no more than four additional years in prison.Had Conaway been tried and convicted of second-degree rape, he faced a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison on each count. Second-degree rape involves intentional penetration with any object or body part without cons...

Health minister denies interfering in arm’s-length drug-price agency before committee

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

OTTAWA — Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says he has not exercised any undue political pressure on the independent federal agency that regulates the price of patented drugs on its efforts to lower medicine costs. NDP health critic Don Davies is accusing the minister of halting the implementation of a new rule intended to lower the cost of drugs at the behest of drug companies that have resisted the change. The new regulation came into force in July, and would see the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board compare Canadian drug prices to those in a wider range of similar countries. The agency was in the process of consulting on the finer details associated with the rule in November when Duclos wrote to its acting chair and suggested the consultation process be paused to give drug companies, patient groups, provincial ministers and himself more time to understand the changes.One of the agency’s board members resigned shortly afterward, saying Duclos undermined the board’s ...

Police say man continued date after fatal shooting over $40

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas man has been accused by authorities of pausing his dinner date to fatally shoot an individual who had allegedly posed as a parking attendant and scammed him out of $40, according to court records.Erick Aguirre has been charged with murder in the April 11 death of 46-year-old Elliot Nix.During a court hearing on Thursday, Aguirre’s bond was set at $200,000. His attorney, Brent Mayr, declined to comment.Police say Aguirre, 29, and his date had parked their vehicles near a downtown Houston restaurant when Nix approached them, saying it would cost $20 each to park their cars, according to a probable cause affidavit.Aguirre paid the $40 but was later told by a restaurant employee that Nix didn’t work for the parking lot and had scammed them, police said.An employee at a nearby smoke shop later told police he saw Aguirre run back to his car, grab a pistol and go after Nix. The employee said both men went out of his view but he heard a gunshot before 8 p.m. and then ...

Nebraska lawmakers begin second round of debate on abortion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska lawmakers began a second round of debate Thursday on a bill that would ban abortion once cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, which generally occurs around the sixth week of pregnancy and before most women know they are pregnant.Supporters advanced the so-called heartbeat bill from the first round of debate earlier this month with only a one-vote margin to break a filibuster. The bill must survive Thursday’s debate and a final round to pass. But the effort in the Republican-controlled state remains in question. An amendment introduced Thursday by a Republican co-signer to the bill, Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston, would extend the proposed ban to 12 weeks and add to the bill’s list of exceptions any fetal anomalies deemed incompatible with life.The bill includes exceptions for cases of rape, incest and medical emergencies that threaten the life of the mother, making specific exceptions for ectopic pregnancies, IVF procedures, and allowing for...

‘Difficult’ Surrey, B.C. police decision on RCMP or municipal force Friday: minister

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

VICTORIA — British Columbia Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says Surrey residents will know Friday who will police the Metro Vancouver city, the RCMP or the municipal Surrey Police Service.Farnworth says the government is set to announce its decision on the future of policing in the city, following last fall’s civic election that prompted the reversal of a move away from the RCMP in favour of an independent force. Mayor Brenda Locke was elected on the promise to go back to the RCMP, saying the transition will be less expensive than the change to the Surrey Police Service, a move the provincial government had already approved. But the provincial government also needs to approve the reversal and Farnworth says it has been one of the most difficult decisions his government has had to make. He says the key issue in the government’s decision is public safety for Surrey and the province.Farnworth said earlier he has concerns about RCMP staffing levels in the province and...

Trump lawyer cross-examines accuser at rape lawsuit trial

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyer began grilling writer E. Jean Carroll in court Thursday about a 1990s encounter at a Manhattan department store that she says ended with Trump raping her — an account she acknowledged contained some details that were “difficult to conceive of.”Lawyer Joseph Tacopina eased into Carroll’s cross-examination at a New York civil trial, questioning the validity of her bombshell claims while suggesting she only came forward with them decades later, in 2019, because of her disdain for Trump’s politics and because she wanted to sell copies of her book.Tacopina irritated Carroll by using the word “supposedly” to cast doubt on her rape claim, drawing an immediate and stern rebuke from the writer.“Not supposedly. I was raped,” she said.“That’s your version, Ms. Carroll, that you were raped,” Tacopina said.“Those are the facts,” she replied.Tacopina promised to delve deeper into Carroll’s alleged encounter with Trump, in a dressing room at ...

Monument to Coretta Scott King dedicated in Atlanta

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A new monument and garden celebrating and honoring the legacy of civil rights activist Coretta Scott King was dedicated on Thursday, which would have been her 96th birthday.The Coretta Scott King Peace and Meditation Garden and monument sits on the grounds of The King Center in Atlanta, which she founded in 1968 to memorialize the life, work, legacy and commitment to nonviolence of her husband, slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “The magnitude of her contributions to humanity are yet to be known,” the Rev. Bernice King, CEO of The King Center, said of her mother. “Today’s dedication of this monument is but a beginning. There’s much more to come, and when her legacy is fully revealed, we will know that because of her, because of Mom, because of Coretta Scott King, the dream lives and the legacy continues.” After a program featuring speeches, a poem and musical performances, Bernice King and her niece Yolanda Renee King — the 14-year-o...

Washington, Minnesota become trans refuges, shield abortions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — Democratic governors in Washington state and Minnesota on Thursday signed into law legal protections for people who travel to those states seeking reproductive and gender-affirming procedures and treatment.They are the latest blue states to enact safeguards against bans or limits on transgender and abortion healthcare in Republican states.In Seattle, Gov. Jay Inslee wore a pink tie as he signed a bill that bans other states from using Washington state courts or judicial processes to enforce their bans on abortion and gender-affirming health care. The law blocks related warrants, subpoenas, extradition requests and court orders from other states related to those out-of-state patients.“Freedom of choice is a health care issue. We are protecting access to health care,” Inslee said. Halfway across the country, Gov. Tim Walz made Minnesota a refuge for young people coming from other states for gender-affirming care. Numerous other states are rushing to impose restrictions ...

Farewell to a beloved elder: Activists reflect on Belafonte

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:07 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Carmen Berkley, a strategist with a Seattle-based foundation advocating equity and racial justice, remembers meeting Harry Belafonte a decade ago when she was a youth activist.She’d gone to Florida to attend a sit-in protest that other young Black activists had staged at the Capitol in Tallahassee over the death of Trayvon Martin, a Black teenager fatally shot in 2012 by a resident of a gated community who decided Martin looked suspicious. Berkley recalls “this magical moment” when Belafonte showed up to encourage the Capitol demonstrators.“He gave us hope. He reminded us that we are important, that we are powerful and we deserved freedom and Justice in our lifetimes,” said Berkley, vice president of strategy and impact at Inatai Foundation. “There is no one like Mr. B,” she added. “Humble and kind, generous and focused, and a true advocate for artists, advocates and all of the communities who want to get free.”Belafonte, who died Tuesday at age 96, was a close frien...