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Judge Claise to stay on in Qatargate corruption probe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:00 GMT

Michel Claise, the Belgian judge leading the European Parliament corruption probe, will remain in his role after a request to remove him was dismissed by a Belgian appeals court Tuesday. A spokesperson for the federal prosecutor confirmed a Le Soir report that Claise could stay on. Claise has emerged as the face of the investigation into foreign countries allegedly influencing the European Parliament’s work by handing out cash to lawmakers, ever since the raids started on December 9. But his involvement in the case was in jeopardy after Maxim Töller, the lawyer of detained Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella, filed a request for Claise to recuse himself from the investigation. He claimed that Claise had shown bias against his client, as allegedly evidenced in the arrest warrant against him, which said that Tarabella’s public positions on Qatar changed after a suspicious transfer of funds.Claise refused to step away but, per Belgian law, such a request automatically must be assess...

Italy wants more evidence before transferring Qatargate-linked MEP to Belgium, lawyers say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:00 GMT

It is happening again. Italian judges on Tuesday postponed — for the second time — a ruling on whether to hand over to Belgium the Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino, a key suspect in the alleged cash-for-influence network in the European Parliament, his lawyers confirmed to POLITICO.The reasons, according to Cozzolino’s lawyers, are that the transfer to a Belgian prison might endanger their client’s poor state of health and more specific evidence is needed from prosecutors in Brussels. Cozzolino is currently under house arrest in Naples and attended the court hearing on Tuesday, according to media reports.In February Belgian prosecutors issued a European arrest warrant for Cozzolino, accusing him of accepting bribes from Morocco in exchange for favoring the country’s interests in the European Parliament.  Cozzolino’s lawyer Vincenzo Domenico Ferraro told POLITICO that “we submitted a request for further evidence from Belgium on the issue of prisons and on the inves...

DA: 14-year-old boy dead, his mother in critical condition after Brockton shooting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:00 GMT

A 14-year-old boy is dead and his 39-year-old mother is in critical condition after a shooting in Brockton early Tuesday morning, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office. Officers responding to a 911 call for a report of a shooting at 93 Tribou Street around 2 a.m. found the teen boy and woman suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. The teen was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His mother was taken to Boston Medical Center, where she remains for treatment.“I just cant imagine the heartbreak and everything else,” said neighbor Kimberly Couto. “She’s in the hospital and not knowing what’s going on.”Neither victim’s name has been released. However, school administrators have confirmed the teen was a ninth grader at Brockton Therapeutic Day School, where counselors are on hand Tuesday to deal with his classmates’ grief. Police say a 38-year-old man has been taken into custody. ...

Western Mass. doctor faces charges for alleged possession of child porn after authorities seize multiple devices, including hidden cameras

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:00 GMT

A doctor working in western Massachusetts has been charged with possessing child pornography after investigators seized dozens of devices from his homes in Winchester and Amherst, including evidence indicating he recorded minors, according to authoritiesBradford Ferrick, 32, was formally arrested on Tuesday, March 14, while already on home confinement restrictions for pending related state charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced.Authorities said that during a search of Ferrick’s Winchester residence on Feb. 13, some 61 devices were seized by state investigators, including computers, cell phones, external hard drives, and hidden camera systems. State investigators allege the devices contained “thousands of images and videos of suspected child pornography.”Before the seizure, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Ferrick had been working a medical residency in July 2022 at Baystate Franklin Family Medicine, focusing on family medicin...

Boston drops COVID-19 vaccine mandate for firefighters, some police

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:00 GMT

The Wu administration has agreed to formally drop its vaccine mandate for firefighters and police superior officers, and it’s evaluating what to do next with its vax policy.The city inked the agreement with the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 718 on Feb. 15, and the one with the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation on Monday, according to documents provided by the city following a records request. The city says it’s also in conversation with the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society for a similar agreement.“The City agrees it will not enforce the existing December 20, 2021, Vax Mandate Policy against Local 718 members,” the agreement with the firefighters reads. The pact with the federation has the same language but with “BPSOF” swapped in as the union name.In exchange, the unions will drop their state Department of Labor Relations complaints.The text reads that they penned these accords because “the parties desi...

Storm watch: Radar and Massachusetts power outage maps

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:00 GMT

Snow totals for the late season nor’easter bearing down on Massachusetts and southern New England have already flown over 20 inches in many western Mass communities.The National Weather Service has received reports of 28 inches in Windsor and 26 inches in Plainfield. In Fitchburg, weather watchers have already reported 18 inches on the ground, and counting.Meanwhile, power outages total over 68,000 statewide with the majority of issues in the central and western parts of the state, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s map.The Massachusetts Department of Transportation said in a 10 a.m. update that it had over 900 pieces of equipment out on the roads and that speed restrictions were in place on the Mass Pike from the New York border to Millbury.Keep track of the storm on the National weather Service radar below. Utility maps tracking local outages are also embedded below. National Grid outage mapEversource outage map Unitil outage map&nbs...

SIU investigating injury of man who shot police officers in London, Ont.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:00 GMT

Ontario’s police watchdog is investigating a man in a fatal shooting after he suffered a serious injury during his arrest by London, Ont. police on Saturday.Charges were laid against 42-year-old Adrian Neil Campbell after he was accused of killing another man and injuring two police officers in a lengthy standoff.The report initially said Campbell was brought into custody at 8:30 p.m. “without incident” and “did not sustain any physical injuries”, but after Campbell was taken to a cell on Sunday, he was transported to a hospital and subsequently diagnosed with a serious injury. He has since been released.The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) was notified of the injury on March 13, two days after the shooting, prompting the launch of an investigation.“What I can speak to however, is the ongoing professionalism and expertise of our officers, who ultimately took this individual into custody without further injuries to officers or to the accused himself,...

New Orleans mayor fights lowered recall signature threshold

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:00 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A court settlement that significantly lowered the number of petition signatures New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s opponents need to force a recall election was challenged in two state courts Tuesday by Cantrell and one of her supporters.In New Orleans, one lawsuit calls for a judge to set aside the settlement that reduced the number of signatures by about 5,000 votes. It says Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin violated the law when he entered into the settlement with recall organizers who had challenged New Orleans voter roll numbers. A similar lawsuit challenging Ardoin’s authority to agree to the settlement was filed in state court in Baton Rouge, according to a news release. To force a recall election, petitioners are required to obtain valid signatures from 20% of voters deemed qualified — sometimes referred to as “active voters” — under state law. The March 1 settlement came after recall organizers sued election officials saying New Orlean...

FIFA expands 2026 World Cup again to create 104-game program

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:00 GMT

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — The expanded World Cup in North America got even more supersized on Tuesday.The governing body of soccer increased the size of the 2026 tournament for the second time — six years after the first — by approving a bigger group stage for the inaugural 48-team event.By retaining groups of four teams instead of moving to three, FIFA has created a 104-game schedule that will last nearly six weeks in June-July in the United States, Canada and Mexico.The 16 host cities — 11 in the United States, three in Mexico and two in Canada (Vancouver and Toronto) — now have 24 extra games to stage on top of the 80 they already had for the inaugural 48-team tournament.Adding about 1.5 million more tickets will also further fuel FIFA’s expected record revenue of at least $11 billion through 2026 from a tournament that will rely on using high-revenue NFL stadiums.FIFA said the decision followed a “thorough review that considered sporting integrity, player welfare, team travel, comme...

Cubans search for holiday food amid deepening crisis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:44:00 GMT

HAVANA (AP) — As Belkis Fajardo, 69, walks through the dense streets of downtown Havana with a small bag of lettuce and onions in hand, she wonders how she’ll feed her family over the holidays.Scarcity and economic turmoil are nothing new to Cuba, but Fajardo is among many Cubans to note that this year is different thanks to soaring inflation and deepening shortages.“We’ll see what we can scrap together to cook for the end of the year,” Fajardo said. “Everything is really expensive … so you buy things little-by-little as you can. And if you can’t, you don’t eat.”Basic goods such as chicken, beef, eggs, milk, flour and toilet paper are difficult and often impossible to find in state stores.When they do appear, they often come at hefty prices, either from informal shops, resellers or in expensive stores only accessible to those with foreign currency.It’s far out of the range of the average Cuban state salary, approximately 5,000 pesos a month, or $29 USD on the island’s more widely us...