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Erdogan urges Europe to revive Turkish EU membership talks in exchange for Swedish NATO accession

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:02:00 GMT

By KARL RITTER and SUZAN FRASER (Associated Press)VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday introduced a new condition for approving Sweden’s membership in NATO, calling on European countries to “open the way” for Turkey to join the European Union.The surprise announcement by Erdogan before departing for a NATO summit in Lithuania’s capital added new uncertainty to Sweden’s bid to become the alliance’s 32nd member, which Turkey initially blocked by saying Sweden was too soft on Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers security threats.It was the first time that Erdogan linked his country’s ambition to join the EU with Sweden’s efforts to become a NATO member.“Turkey has been waiting at the door of the European Union for over 50 years now, and almost all of the NATO member countries are now members of the European Union,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul. “I am m...

Judge declares mistrial in Emanuel Lopes double murder case

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:02:00 GMT

Following weeks of jury deliberations, a Norfolk Superior Court judge declared a mistrial Monday morning in the case of a Weymouth man accused of killing a police officer and bystander nearly 5 years ago.“Jurors, I’m in receipt of your note. Your services are complete. I’m declaring a mistrial,” Judge Beverly Cannone in courtroom video Monday morning, to audible gasps and the apparent sound of crying from the courtroom.Emanuel Lopes, 25, is accused of shooting Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna, 42, and bystander Vera Adams, 77, in the early hours of July 15, 2018. The defendant has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges in Norfolk Superior Court, including two counts of murder.Jury deliberations began on June 28 after closing arguments and restarted again when one juror was replaced on July 5.During the trial lawyers and witnesses laid out the day of the crimes in vivid detail. During July 14 and 15, witnesses testified, Lopes mood and actions took an abrupt turn...

New York Times to axe sports department, Athletic steps into batter’s box for coverage

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:02:00 GMT

The New York Times has announced they are disbanding their sports department, containing more than 35 journalists and editors.The Gray Lady said it will be leaning on The Athletic, purchased by the Times in January 2022 for $550 million, for its coverage of teams and sporting events. An email from The Times’ Executive Director Joe Kahn and Deputy Managing Editor Monica Drake told the Times newsroom that they would “scale back the newsroom’s coverage of games, players, teams and leagues,” an announcement states.The company’s current sports desk staffers, according to The Times, will shift to other newsroom roles and no layoffs are anticipated. A business desk group will focus on the financial and power aspects of the sporting world, The Times said.A letter from The Times’ sports department, signed by 28 members, was published in the company’s Sunday paper and asked for clarity about the rumored elimination of the department.“We have watched the company buy a competitor with hundreds ...

Novak Djokovic shows his experience at Wimbledon. Russian teen Mirra Andreeva shows her inexperience

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:02:00 GMT

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Novak Djokovic’s experience was on display at Wimbledon on Monday. And so was Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva’s inexperience.Djokovic, a seven-time champion at the All England Club who is looking for his 24th Grand Slam title overall, reached the quarterfinals at the grass-court major for the 14th time by beating Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-4 in a match that started Sunday on Centre Court.Djokovic saved three set points in the first set and then was two points from losing the second set. Play was then suspended because of the late hour. On Monday, Hurkacz finally managed to pick up a set, using his strong serve to near perfection.“Honestly, I don’t recall the last time I felt this miserable in returning games … due to his incredibly accurate and powerful serve,” Djokovic said on court. “He’s got one of the best serves in the world and it’s so difficult to read it.”Hurkacz had held his serve for all 67 games at Wimbledon this ye...

Israel asks Lebanon to remove militant Hezbollah tent from tense border area

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:02:00 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — The commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed on the tense Lebanon-Israel border relayed Monday an Israeli request to remove a tent set up by the militant Hezbollah group in a disputed area.The commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro, met Monday in Beirut with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.Lebanon Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib said Lebanese leaders told the U.N. commander that Israel should withdraw its troops from the Lebanese part of the town of Ghajar that was captured by Israeli troops in 2006.Israel filed a complaint with the United Nations in June claiming that Hezbollah had set up tents several dozen meters (yards) inside of Israeli territory. It’s unclear what was inside the tents or what they were for. The area where the tents were erected in Chebaa Farms and the Kfar Chouba hills were captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and are part of...

Book Review: A fast-paced, tension-laden plot at heart of Reed Farrel Coleman’s ‘Sleepless City’

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:02:00 GMT

“Sleepless City,” by Reed Farrel Coleman (Blackstone)Nick Ryan, the protagonist in a new series by veteran crime novelist Reed Farrel Coleman, begins his fictional life with a lot of baggage.Nick’s fellow New York City cops don’t trust him because his father once testified against a cabal of corrupt officers. Nick’s brother, a fellow cop, is on an alcohol-fueled path of self-destruction. And an old girlfriend Nick had never gotten over suddenly pops up in his life again, married now but raising a toddler that looks a lot like Nick. As if that weren’t enough, Nick’s mentor in the department is dead by his own hand, shooting himself after getting caught planting evidence on a pedophile who was about escape justice. Like his late mentor, Nick is willing to taking the law into his own hands when thinks the situation requires it. We learn this right off when he sets out to kill the pedophile.Meanwhile, a crooked financier has looted the police union pension fund, and a string of police s...

United Nations humanitarian chief says Sudan appears to be in a civil war ‘of the most brutal kind’

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:02:00 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Sudan appears to be in a civil war “of the most brutal kind” and the world needs a new forum for talks in pursuit of a cease-fire, the United Nations humanitarian chief told The Associated Press on Monday.Martin Griffiths spoke as regional leaders met in neighboring Ethiopia following the breakdown of peace talks in Saudi Arabia in June. Egypt says it will host leaders from Sudan’s neighbors on Thursday in search of peace, with few details.“We don’t have a place, a forum, where the two parties are present … where we can broker the kind of basic agreements that we need to move supplies and people,” Griffiths said. He called Sudan the toughest place in the world for humanitarian workers in terms of access and warned that the crisis will only worsen as the fighting spreads to new areas.“We have to re-create the architecture that we had for a little while in Jeddah,” he said of the Saudi- and U.S.-mediated talks. He criticized those discussions as “very clunk...

Impasse at strikebound B.C. ports not broken by Saturday’s round of negotiations

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:02:00 GMT

VANCOUVER — Striking British Columbia dock workers and their employer held a round of bargaining over the weekend, the first since negotiations collapsed one week ago, but neither side is saying when, or if, more talks are planned.About 7,400 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada have been on strike since July 1, idling all cargo handling at the Port of Vancouver, Canada’s busiest harbour.Prince Rupert, the country’s third busiest port, and more than 28 others along the length of the B.C. coast are also behind picket lines.The BC Maritime Employers Association says in its latest statement, issued Saturday after the round of mediated talks, that it made an offer to address dock workers’ demands to expand union jurisdiction over regular maintenance work at terminals.Jurisdiction over maintenance, as well as improved wages and language to prevent contracting out and automation are key issues in the dispute.The union has not responded public...

Man is charged in Berlin with attempted arson attack on building housing Russian news agency staff

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:02:00 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A Russian citizen has been charged in Berlin with attempted homicide and attempted arson for placing an explosive or incendiary device last year in a building where employees of a Russian news agency lived, prosecutors in the German capital said Monday.The 55-year-old suspect, whose name was not released, is accused of placing the device in an opening at the building’s basement in late April 2022. It failed to ignite for reasons that are unclear and was discovered and defused days later.The suspect was arrested on Dec. 14. Before that, he was involved in public protests against the Russian government, including a protest camp outside the Russian Embassy in Berlin, prosecutors said in a statement. Shortly after Russia launched its war in Ukraine in February 2022, he posted on social media about the building that was later attacked and said that “war against us all” was being conducted from it.The man was “not uncontroversial” among Russian opposition activists, pr...

Tennessee soccer coach is charged with child rape after restaurant workers find photos on his phone

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:02:00 GMT

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee soccer coach is accused of drugging and raping at least 10 boys after photos and videos of the children were discovered on his cell phone, police said.Police were contacted by a local restaurant on June 22 after staff found a cell phone left behind by a customer. Workers looked through it to try to determine the owner and found “unconscionable videos and pictures of children,” according to a news release Sunday from the Franklin Police Department. Camilo Hurtado Campos was arrested the following day and charged with rape of a child and sexual exploitation of a minor. Detectives have since found hundreds of videos and pictures on the phone; they say Campos recorded himself raping unconscious boys between approximately 9 and 17 years old.Police have identified two of the victims and are working to identify the others. Because the children in the videos were unconscious, they might not realize they are victims, police said. Campos lived in the Frankli...