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Billy-Ray Belcourt, Jessica Johns in the running for the $60K First Novel Award

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 19:09:47 GMT

TORONTO — A horror story that highlights the cultural significance of dreams and an exploration of intimate encounters in a northern Alberta town are among the six debut novels in the running for this year’s Amazon Canada First Novel Award. Jessica Johns’ “Bad Cree,” published by HarperCollins, and Billy-Ray Belcourt’s “A Minor Chorus,” from Hamish Hamilton Canada, are vying for the $60,000 top prize.“Bad Cree” is about a Cree millennial grappling with dreams that have “terrifying, real-life consequences” and prompt her to seek strength from her female relatives. Meanwhile Griffin Poetry Prize winner Belcourt is in the running for “A Minor Chorus,” which features a narrator who goes back to his hometown to seek answers to “existential questions about family, love and happiness.” Other prize finalists are Kai Thomas’s “In the Upper Country” from Viking Canada; Andre Forget̵...

Belgium detains 7 on suspicion of planning terror attack

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 19:09:47 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — Authorities have detained seven people, most of them Chechen origin, on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack in Belgium, the federal prosecutor’s office said Thursday. The office said in a statement that the suspects had not yet selected a precise target but police decided to pick them for questioning anyway.“All of them are suspected of preparing a terrorist attack in Belgium,” the statement said. “The examining magistrate will decide at a later stage whether to bring them before him and possibly issue an arrest warrant.” Three of the suspects are Belgian nationals, according to federal prosecutors. The office’s statement said all seven allegedly belonged to a group of “strong supporters” of the Islamic State extremist group.“Possible charges are attempted terrorist assassination, participation at the activities of a terrorist group and preparation of a terrorist attack,” according to the statement. Belgium was hit by several terror attacks in the pa...

Lula’s push to curb Brazil’s guns starts with counting them

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 19:09:47 GMT

SAO PAULO (AP) — Jonathan Schmidt just made the deadline, arriving at Federal Police headquarters in the center of Rio de Janeiro with a travel bag carrying a golden pistol and seven rifles, one peeking out of the zipper.“I’m in love with guns,” said Schmidt. “I’d have over 2,000 if the government allowed.” He had already registered his firearms with the army, as required by law for sport shooters like him, but experts have cast doubt on the reliability of its database, and said lax oversight has allowed such guns to fall into criminal hands. Schmidt was adding his guns to the police registry on Wednesday on the final day to comply with a decree by Brazil’s new left-wing president — or face confiscation.Over four years in office, former President Jair Bolsonaro tried to convert a country with few weapons into one where firearm ownership and lack of regulation meant personal freedom. Now, his successor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been moving to undo Bolsonaro’s pro-gun polici...

Kenyan court sets bail for pastor in parishioner death probe

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 19:09:47 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A court in Kenya ruled Thursday that one of two pastors under investigation for the deaths of more than 100 of their congregants, many of whom are believed to have starved to death, could be released on bond or bail.Pastor Ezekiel Odero was arrested last week in connection with the deaths of dozens of his congregants at his coastal megachurch, which draws thousands of people from across the country. Police closed the church, but lawyers have filed an application, scheduled to be heard Monday, to have it reopened. Odero’s parishioners turned up outside the court Thursday to pray for his release, which was granted on condition that he post a bond in the amount of 3 million Kenyan shillings (about $22,000) or cash bail of 1.5 million shillings ($11,000). The court said there was no sufficient reason to keep the pastor in custody. Odero’s lawyers acknowledged after his arrest that 15 people died at his church but said the deaths were reported at a police stat...

Victims’ families in Oklahoma question why offender was free

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 19:09:47 GMT

Questions mounted Thursday about why an Oklahoma sex offender who authorities say shot to death his wife, her three children and their two friends and then killed himself was freed from prison despite facing new sex charges in a separate case.Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said each victim had each been shot in the head one to three times with a 9 mm pistol when they were found Monday near a creek in a heavily wooded area in rural Oklahoma.The bodies apparently had been moved there from where they were originally killed, the scene “staged” before Jesse McFadden, a 39-year-old convicted sex offender, killed himself, Prentice said Wednesday. The bodies were discovered near McFadden’s home in Henryetta, a town of about 6,000 about 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City.The gruesome discovery came Monday – the very day that McFadden was to stand trial on charges that he solicited nude images from a teen while he was in prison for rape. McFadden was sentenced to ...

Lawyer: Trump seeking to move criminal case to federal court

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 19:09:47 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s lawyer said Thursday the former president will seek to move his New York criminal case to federal court, a long-shot bid to avoid a trial in the state court where the indictment was brought.Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, said at a hearing on an unrelated issue in the case that Trump’s defense team plans to file a motion Thursday asking to transfer the historic case from state court to federal court.Such a move, while rare, would have significant advantages for Trump, including a broader, more politically diverse jury pool than in Manhattan, where voters have heavily favored his Democratic rivals.Trump’s lawyers face a Thursday deadline to file paperwork listing their grounds for moving the case — 30 days after the April 4 state court arraignment where he pleaded not guilty a month ago to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.A federal judge would then have to rule whether the case can be moved.Trump’s charges, brought by Manhattan Distri...

Zelenskyy wants Putin trial, Russia accuses US on drones

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 19:09:47 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Ukraine and Russia pressed their wartime rhetoric Thursday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressing confidence that Vladimir Putin would be convicted of war crimes and the Kremlin alleging that the U.S. was behind an assassination attempt against the Russian president.The country’s leaders have personally attacked each other multiple times during the war Russia started by invading Ukraine in February 2022. The latest flareup came Wednesday, with Russia’s claim that Ukraine had attacked the Kremlin in Moscow with drones meant to assassinate Putin.Zelenskyy denied that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the purported drone attack. The Kremlin promised unspecified retaliation for what it termed a “terrorist” act, and pro-Kremlin figures called for the assassinations of senior Ukraine leaders.Uncertainty still surrounds exactly what happened in the purported attack.Putin’s spokesman on Thursday accused the United States of inv...

Proud Boys' Tarrio guilty of Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 19:09:47 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members of the far-right extremist group were convicted Thursday of a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol in a desperate bid to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election.A jury in Washington, D.C., found Tarrio guilty of seditious conspiracy after hearing from dozens of witnesses over more than three months in one of the most serious cases brought in the stunning attack that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, as the world watched on live TV.It’s a significant milestone for the Justice Department, which has now secured seditious conspiracy convictions against the leaders of two major extremist groups prosecutors say were intent on keeping Democratic President Joe Biden out of the White House at all costs. The charge carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.Tarrio, behind bars since his March 2022 arrest, didn't appear to show any emotion as the verdict was read. He hugged one of ...

Porn companies sue Utah over law requiring age verification

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 19:09:47 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (KTVX) - A trade group based in California representing the adult entertainment industry filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the State of Utah, calling its age-verification law unconstitutional. The lawsuit was filed in a federal court by Free Speech Coalition, a not-for-profit trade association that helps filmmakers, producers, internet providers and other creative artists fight against censorship. A Utah-based erotica author, an unnamed adult entertainment attorney, sexual content creators and companies are also listed as plaintiffs. Pornhub blocks all Utah traffic in response to new age verification law Senate Bill 287 was passed unanimously and signed by Utah Legislature and Governor Cox earlier this year. It officially went into effect on Wednesday, May 3. The law requires adult sites to use an age verification system, such as proof of identification through an independent third-party service. The bill was written in the interest of protecting minors from "ha...

Boys, 13, charged for carjacking 60-year-old man on South Side

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 19:09:47 GMT

CHICAGO — Two 13-year-olds face multiple felonies for robbing and stealing a 60-year-old man's car on the city's South Side Wednesday.According to police, both teens will be facing two felonies of aggravated vehicular hijacking and robbery of victim over 60 years old. South Shore high-rise apartment building catches fire Police said the boys were arrested in the 300 block of East 84th Street after they were identified as the teens who robbed a 60-year-old man and took his vehicle by force in the 8500 block of South Calumet Avenue. The boys were placed into custody and charged accordingly.