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DEA overseas review barely mentions corruption scandals

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:41 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — After nearly two years and at least $1.4 million spent, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Friday released an external review of its overseas operations that barely mentioned recent corruption scandals and offered recommendations that critics dismissed as overly vague.Much of the 50-page report outlines the DEA’s sprawling, 69-country “foreign footprint,” while lauding its efforts to plug gaping holes in the oversight of undercover money laundering operations and special vetted units overseas.“This report is stunningly vague in its actual evaluation of known problems at the DEA and remedies to fix them,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “This speaks to the agency’s broader effort to evade oversight. The agency has attempted to dodge my oversight inquiries but I intend to push forward.”The external probe was announced in 2021 following reporting by The Associated Press on the crimes ...

17-year-old charged in kidnapping ending in Houston shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:41 GMT

A 17-year-old has been charged with kidnapping two migrants whose rescue this week from a Houston hotel by FBI agents after days of captivity ended in gunfire that killed another suspect. Josiah Jackson was charged Friday with two counts of aggravated kidnapping in the abduction of a man and woman and the attempt to ransom them, Harris County court records show. The case filings do not list an attorney for Jackson, who is being held in a county jail ahead of a bond hearing.The migrants were stopped on a highway northwest of Houston on Saturday and were forced into another vehicle by the kidnappers, according to a prosecutor. Officials have said little about what happened between then and Thursday morning, when the FBI says its agents rescued two migrants following the shooting in north Houston.The FBI and various local law enforcement agencies offered little additional information Friday and the terse court records didn’t reveal much more.Senior Deputy Thomas Gilliland, a spok...

Biden, Trudeau celebrate ‘inseparable’ US-Canada relations

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:41 GMT

OTTAWA, ONTARIO (AP) — President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday celebrated the close, “inseparable” U.S.-Canada relationship and declared their nations’ shared values have never been more important for a world facing both tumult and possibility.Biden, making his first visit to Canada as president, said the U.S. is lucky to have Canada as its neighbor as both countries grapple with the rapidly changing global economy, climate change, war in Europe and more.“Today our destinies are intertwined and they are inseparable,” the president said in a speech before the Canadian Parliament. “Not because of inevitability of geography, but because it’s a choice, the choice we made again and again.”“Two people, two countries, in my view sharing one heart.”On one often-difficult subject, immigration, Biden and Trudeau used the visit to announce an agreement aiming to stem the flow of asylum seekers at unofficial border crossings from the U.S. to Canada.The ...

Indigenous groups wary of Canada-U.S. pledge to ‘reduce, mitigate’ Kootenay pollution

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:41 GMT

WASHINGTON — Canada and the U.S. say they hope to reach a tentative deal by summer to “reduce and mitigate” the impact of toxic mining runoff in B.C. and the Pacific Northwest that has been leaching for years into a vital cross-border watershed. Any forthcoming agreement on pollution from B.C.’s Elk Valley would be in partnership with tribes and Indigenous Peoples from both countries, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joe Biden said Friday after meeting in Ottawa. But they made no mention of the biggest demand from conservationists and Indigenous leaders in both countries: a bilateral investigation by the International Joint Commission under the auspices of the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty. Such an investigation, known in treaty parlance as a joint reference, requires both countries to agree. The U.S. has long pledged its support for the idea, but Canada has been dragging its heels for years. Indigenous leaders in the U.S. fear Friday’s announcement ...

Georgia activist killed by troopers shot first, officers say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:41 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia authorities allege that state troopers in January fatally shot an environmental protester who had fired at authorities after a trooper shot pepper balls into the protester’s tent, according to incident reports obtained Friday by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.The newspaper obtained multiple Georgia Department of Public Safety use-of-force incident reports through an open records request. The records offer the most complete account yet of authorities’ version of the Jan. 18 killing of Manuel Paez Terán, who went by the name Tortuguita and used the pronoun they. Paez Terán was killed in DeKalb County’s South River Forest as officers tried to clear activists who were camping near the site of a planned police and training center that protesters derisively call “Cop City.”Protesters have questioned officials’ assertion that officers shot Paez Terán in self-defense after the 26-year-old shot a trooper. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation continues to e...

Parade disinvites Hawaii lawmaker after pride flag comments

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:41 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — The chair of a parade honoring a Native Hawaiian leader and prince said Friday a state lawmaker won’t be allowed to participate in the event after he questioned a middle school principal’s display of a pride flag supporting LGBTQ+ people.Kūhiō Lewis, the chairperson of the Prince Kūhiō Parade, said he notified Republican state Rep. Elijah Pierick of the decision in a letter. “The LGBTQ+ and mahu community is an essential part of the fabric of Hawaii that we all know and cherish,” Lewis said in a statement. In Hawaiian language and culture, “mahu” refers to someone with dual male and female spirit and a mixture of gender traits.The parade is scheduled to be held in Kapolei on Saturday.“Rep. Pierick’s commentary is hurtful, not aligned to the cultural values that we work to promote, and will serve as a distraction to honoring a true leader of Hawaii, Prince Kūhiō,” Lewis said. He said Pierick will be removed from the parade lineup. Lewis said he looked forw...

Rwanda frees Paul Rusesabagina of ‘Hotel Rwanda’ fame

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:41 GMT

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Rwanda’s government has commuted the 25-year sentence of Paul Rusesabagina, who inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda” for saving hundreds of countrymen from genocide but was convicted of terrorism offenses years later in a widely criticized trial.Government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told The Associated Press on Friday that the presidential order was issued after a request for clemency on behalf of Rusesabagina, a 68-year-old U.S. resident and Belgian citizen. Senior U.S. officials said Rusesabagina arrived late Friday at the home of the Qatari ambassador in the Rwandan capital of Kigali and was expected to leave the country in the coming days. Nineteen others also had their sentences commuted. Under Rwandan law, commutation doesn’t “extinguish” the conviction, Makolo added.“Rwanda notes the constructive role of the U.S. government in creating conditions for dialogue on this issue, as well as the facilitation provided by the state of Qatar,” she said. Presiden...

Powder, threat sent to Manhattan DA investigating Trump

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:41 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A powdery substance was found Friday with a threatening letter in a mailroom at the offices of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the latest security scare as the prosecutor weighs a potential historic indictment of former President Donald Trump, authorities said.New York City police and environmental protection officials isolated and removed the suspicious letter, and testing “determined there was no dangerous substance,” Bragg spokesperson Danielle Filson said. The substance was sent to a city lab for further examination, police said.“Alvin, I am going to kill you,” the letter said, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation and did so on condition of anonymity.The discovery, in the same building where a grand jury is expected to resume work Monday, came amid increasingly hostile rhetoric from Trump, a Republican who is holding the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign...

Allow unvaccinated Canadians to cross U.S. border, Poilievre asks President Joe Biden

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:41 GMT

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Friday he asked President Joe Biden to remove the U.S. government’s requirement that Canadians be vaccinated for COVID-19 before crossing the border.He told reporters after their meeting that American citizens are no longer required to have their shots and Canada allows unvaccinated Americans to visit. “There are millions of good, decent, honourable people who, through a personal medical decision, are discriminated against at the border,” Poilievre said. “I encouraged the president to lift those restrictions to allow them freedom of mobility.”Poilievre won the leadership of his party a little more than six months ago by mounting a vocal opposition to COVID-19 health restrictions, including mask and vaccine mandates, but he has since focused his message on cost-of-living issues. He met with Biden on Parliament Hill Friday during the president’s 27-hour visit to the Canadian capital, and later share...

2 face charges in death of Alaska man after online post

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:06:41 GMT

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Two southeast Alaska men face charges in the beating death of a man who was attacked because of a social media post, according to an investigator’s affidavit.Moses S. Blanchard, 22, and Blaise A. Dilts, 21, of Klawock, face charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and burglary in the death of 80-year-old Lincoln Peratrovich, according to the state’s online court records system. An attorney listed for Dilts did not return a message seeking comment. An attorney was not listed online for Blanchard.The investigation was being conducted by the Alaska Bureau of Investigation, which falls under the Alaska State Troopers. The city of Klawock on Prince of Wales Island has a police department but its lone officer died in January, the Ketchikan Daily News reported.An affidavit by Adam Hawkins, a bureau investigator, said troopers on Monday evening received a complaint that a man, later identified as Peratrovich, whistled and catcalled at a minor and follo...