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Belgian terror gang targeted Antwerp mayor, police say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:23 GMT

Antwerp Mayor Bart De Wever was a possible target of the “radicalized Muslim youths” who were arrested Monday by Belgian police. “De Wever’s name was indeed mentioned in the Antwerp file as one target, among other targets,” Eric Van Der Sypt, spokesman for the Public Prosecutor’s Office, confirmed to POLITICO, “but it is not the case that there was already a day and an hour on which the attack was to take place. It wasn’t that concrete.”On Monday evening Belgian police arrested a total of eight people around the country, most of them in their early 20s, with five of them arrested in the Antwerp area.Seven of those arrested — described by the Public Prosecutor’s spokesman as “radicalized Muslim youths” — remain under arrest suspected of terrorist activities, according to information shared by the Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday. A spokesperson for De Wever, from the Flemish nationalist N-VA party, did...

Australia concerned by journalist’s delayed verdict in China

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:23 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia remains deeply concerned that Australian journalist Cheng Lei has not learned of a verdict a year after standing trial in China on national security charges, the foreign minister said Friday.Foreign Minister Penny Wong marked the first anniversary of the closed trial in Beijing with a statement saying her government had “advocated at every opportunity for Ms. Cheng to be reunited with her family.”“She is still waiting to learn the outcome of the trial,” Wong said. “We share the deep concerns of Ms. Cheng’s family and friends about the ongoing delays in her case.” “Our thoughts today are with Ms. Cheng and her loved ones, particularly her two children,” she added. The children live with family in the Australian city of Melbourne.Asked about Cheng’s case, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning offered no new information Friday. “China has a clear and consistent position on the case. China’s judicial departments examined the case in accordance with...

Death scene in burned Filipino ferry moves rescuers to tears

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:23 GMT

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine coast guard commander said Friday that the tragic scenes of death his team saw aboard a gutted ferry, including adults clutching children, had moved them to tears and sparked fears other passengers could be found dead in the still-smoldering ship.At least 29 of more than 250 people onboard the M/V Lady Mary Joy 3 were killed in the blaze that raged through the ferry Wednesday night while it was on an overnight trip from the southern port city of Zamboanga to Jolo town in Sulu province. At least seven passengers, including two army soldiers, remained missing in the country’s deadliest sea disaster this year, the coast guard said.Basilan Governor Jim Hataman initially reported 31 deaths Thursday but later reduced the toll to 29 after search and rescue groups crossed-checked their figures.All 35 crew members survived, including the captain, who issued an abandon-ship order when the fire hit close to midnight, then ran the ferry aground on a...

King Charles III visits Hamburg on final leg of foreign trip

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:23 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — King Charles III is boarding a carriage, though not the horse-drawn kind, for the final leg of his three-day visit to Germany, which will bring him and Camilla, the queen consort, by train Friday to the northern port city of Hamburg. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier plans to accompany the British royals on the two-hour high-speed journey from Berlin.The couple arrived Wednesday in the German capital for Charles’ first foreign trip as king. Steinmeier greeted them at the Brandenburg Gate with full military honors and later hosted a banquet in their honor.On Thursday, Charles became the first monarch to address the German parliament, telling assembled lawmakers that “together we must strive for the security, prosperity and well-being that our people deserve.” He then met with Ukrainian refugees and a German-British military unit before visiting an organic farm where he tried his hand at making cheese.Charles’ trip is part of a carefully calibrat...

Vatican: Pope spends 2nd night ‘serenely’ in hospital

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:23 GMT

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis spent his second night in a Rome hospital “serenely” as he receives antibiotics intravenously to treat bronchitis, the Vatican said Friday. A Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information wasn’t a formal Holy See statement, indicated there would be an update on the pope’s hospitalization later in the day. The 86-year-old pontiff was taken to Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic on Wednesday after he returned to his Vatican residence following his customary weekly public audience in St. Peter’s Square. The Vatican reported he had experienced difficult breathing in the previous days.A Vatican spokesman, citing hospital medical staff, provided the precise diagnosis Thursday night, saying that Francis has bronchitis, contracted through an infection, and that the antibiotic treatment had resulted in a “marked” improvement in his health. The hospitalization came four days before Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week.Due to a chronic knee pr...

In The News for March 31 : Drilling down on cost of federal dental care

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:23 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 31 …What we are watching in Canada …The federal government now expects far more Canadians with long-overdue dental needs to sign up for its insurance plan, and the health minister says that’s why the estimated cost has risen by $7 billion.In its 2023 budget Tuesday, the government revealed the federally-administered insurance program will be far more expensive over the next five years than it originally thought. It is also projecting that ongoing costs after that will more than double, to $4.4 billion per year, up from $1.7 billion.Duclos said administration costs have not contributed to driving up the price. “It’s more people with greater needs,” he said in an interview Thursday.“The fact that this is appearing to be in high demand, and in high need, is probably the outcome tha...

China factory activity grows at slower pace in March

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:23 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s factory activity grew at a slower pace in March but was stronger than expected following the end of anti-virus restrictions, a survey showed Friday.The monthly purchasing managers’ index issued by the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing and the national statistics agency declined to 51.9 from February’s 52.6 on a 100-point scale. Numbers above 50 show activity increasing.Sub-measures of production and new orders in the PMI grew at a slower pace. Employment contracted.Business activity is recovering after the ruling Communist Party ended stringent anti-virus restrictions in early December. That followed a slump in activity that dragged last year’s economic growth to 3%, its second-lowest level since at least the 1970s.“The economy continues to maintain a recovery trend, but the pace has slowed slightly,” the Federation said in a statement.Exporters are under pressure from weak U.S. and European demand after the Federal Reserve and other central banks...

Lawyer: Steenkamp’s parents to oppose parole for Pistorius

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:23 GMT

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — The parents of Reeva Steenkamp, the woman Oscar Pistorius shot dead 10 years ago, will oppose the former Olympic runner’s application for parole, their lawyer said Friday.Lawyer Tania Koen said ahead of a scheduled parole hearing for Pistorius that “unless he comes clean, they don’t feel that he is rehabilitated.”Pistorius, a multiple Paralympic champion who made history by running against able-bodied athletes at the 2012 Olympics, was convicted of murder for the Valentine’s Day 2013 shooting of Reeva Steenkamp at his home. Pistorius claims he shot Steenkamp by mistake thinking she was an intruder in his home.He was sentenced to 13 years and five months in prison and is eligible for parole under South African law after having served half his sentence.Koen said Steenkamp’s mother, June Steenkamp, would submit written and oral statements at Friday’s hearing opposing Pistorius’ application to be released from prison.“She...

More people with greater needs driving $7B increase to dental-care cost

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:23 GMT

OTTAWA — The federal government now expects far more Canadians with long-overdue dental needs to sign up for its insurance plan, and the health minister says that’s why the estimated cost has risen by $7 billion.In its 2023 budget Tuesday, the government revealed the federally-administered insurance program will be far more expensive over the next five years than it originally thought. It is also projecting that ongoing costs after that will more than double, to $4.4 billion per year, up from $1.7 billion.Duclos said administration costs have not contributed to driving up the price. “It’s more people with greater needs,” he said in an interview Thursday.“The fact that this is appearing to be in high demand, and in high need, is probably the outcome that for too many years prior to that program, there were people that were just not going to see a dentist for prevention purposes.”Dentists could end up seeing as many as nine million more patients who...

Relatives of those killed in N.S. mass shooting say their work has only just begun

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:23 GMT

HALIFAX — The brother of a man killed during a mass shooting in Nova Scotia almost three years ago says he’s keen to make sure recommendations from a public inquiry released Thursday are implemented.“It’s great to have things move forward,” Scott McLeod told a news conference in Truro, N.S., a community about a 30-minute drive east of where the shooting started on the night of April 18, 2020. “There’s still a lot of stuff to be done with the recommendations …. It’s going to give some sort of closure because this chapter is done.”McLeod’s brother Sean was among 22 people who were fatally shot during a gunman’s 13-hour rampage through northern and central Nova Scotia. The killer, a 51-year-old denture-maker, was shot dead by two RCMP officers at a gas station north of Halifax on the morning of April 19, 2020.Like his brother did, Scott works in the federal correctional system.“I’m sure he’s happy with ...