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Sam Bankman-Fried awaits chance to tell his side of story in epic cryptocurrency exchange collapse

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:48 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors in the case against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried rested on Thursday, setting the stage for him to testify about how his multibillion dollar cryptocurrency empire collapsed, causing billions of dollars in losses that prosecutors blame on his extravagant spending on investments, donations and a lavish lifestyle.His testimony was likely to begin by afternoon, a day after his lawyer told a Manhattan federal court judge that his client planned to testify in his defense. Defense lawyers estimated that they would question him for about five hours after brief testimony from two other witnesses.After prosecutors rested Thursday, defense lawyers immediately asked Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to acquit Bankman-Fried on the grounds that prosecutors had failed to present sufficient evidence. The judge rejected the request.The California entrepreneur has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges accusing him of diverting billions of dollars from his clients and investors to m...

Police in Illinois fatally shoot sledgehammer-wielding man after reported domestic assault

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:48 GMT

ROUND LAKE BEACH, Ill. (AP) — A man who allegedly attacked two relatives with a sledgehammer in suburban Chicago was fatally shot by police after he charged at officers.Officers in Round Lake Beach responded about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday to a domestic violence report and removed two injured women from an open garage.The suspect armed with the sledgehammer charged at officers and first was shot with a stun gun, the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force said.He continued toward the officers when at least one officer shot him with his service weapon. The man later died at a hospital. His name was not immediately released.The injured women are believed to be his mother and an aunt. They were taken to a hospital, police said.“Both victims had very serious head and facial injuries consistent with being struck with a blunt force object,” task force spokesman Christopher Covelli said.Round Lake Beach is about 60 miles (96 kilometers) north of Chicago.The Associated Press

María Corina Machado is winner of Venezuela opposition primary that government has denounced

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:48 GMT

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan government critic María Corina Machado was declared the winner Thursday of an opposition-organized primary to choose a presidential candidate, in polling last weekend that was denounced by the self-proclaimed socialist government as illegitimate.The voting Sunday organized by the National Primary Commission drew more than 2.4 million voters in Venezuela and abroad and was aimed at choosing a candidate to run against President Nicolás Maduro next year.But despite some assurances by Maduro’s government that the opposition would be allowed to choose a candidate, it has cast heavy doubt on any outcome of the weekend primary. Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into primary organizers on charges including fraud and usurping authority, and on top of that the government has official banned Machado from running for office.Still, the opposition primary commission declared Machado the winner Thursday in an event before opposition leaders and ...

Pakistan’s ex-leader Nawaz Sharif regains right to appeal convictions, opening a path to election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:48 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A federal court in Pakistan’s capital on Thursday restored the right of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to appeal his 2018 convictions in two graft cases, officials said, less than a week after he returned home from four years of self-imposed exile in London. The decision by the Islamabad High Court was a boost for Sharif ahead of parliamentary elections due in January.If the court overturns his convictions in the coming weeks, Sharif would be eligible to run for a seat in parliament, and analysts say his Pakistan Muslim League party could also return to power.Sharif stepped down as prime minister in 2017 over corruption charges. In July 2018, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the anti-graft tribunal in a case involving the purchase of luxury apartments in London. In December of the same year, he was sentenced to a further seven years by a different court in a separate corruption case. His party called the verdict a “black stain” on the justice syst...

Palestinian activist is expelled by Israeli forces from his home in a volatile West Bank city

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:48 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops expelled a prominent Palestinian activist from his home in a West Bank city at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after he hosted a foreign journalist and a well-known Israeli activist.Critics accused the military of using the cover of the Israel-Hamas war to expel Issa Amro from volatile Hebron, the only city in the West Bank where Jewish settlers live among Palestinians. The military had no immediate comment.Amro said the journalist came to his house in Hebron to gather material for an article about the situation in the occupied West Bank since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war nearly three weeks ago, after a brutal rampage by Hamas gunmen from Gaza in Israeli border communities.In the West Bank, the Israeli military stepped up arrest raids in pursuit of Hamas militants, and dozens of Palestinians, including several minors, were killed, most in clashes with troops, but also during protests and in attacks by Jewish settlers, according ...

Rep. Jamaal Bowman pleads guilty to a misdemeanor for pulling a fire alarm in House office building

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:48 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor count for triggering a fire alarm as lawmakers scrambled to pass a funding bill before a government shutdown deadline. He will pay a $1,000 fine and serve three months of probation, after which the false fire alarm charge is expected to be dismissed from his record under an agreement with prosecutors. The alarm forced the evacuation of a House office building for over an hour on Sept. 30. The New York lawmaker acknowledged pulling the alarm but said it was a mistake as he tried to open an unexpectedly locked door in a rush to get to vote. The funding package was ultimately approved with most Republicans and almost all Democrats, including Bowman, supporting the bill. “I really regret that this caused so much confusion and that people had to evacuate, and I just caused a disturbance. I hate that. It’s pretty embarrassing,” Bowman told reporters after his plea hearing. Republicans have criticized ...

Man shot in Riverdale, nearby public school in hold and secure

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:48 GMT

Toronto police are responding after a man was shot and injured in the city’s east end, leading to a nearby public school going into hold and secure.Officers were called to the Jones Avenue and Boultbee Avenue area just before 10 a.m. on Thursday for reports of a shooting.A man was shot inside of a residence. There is no information on a suspect or suspects. The severity of the victim’s injuries is unclear.Blake Street Junior Public School is in hold and secure due to the proximity of the shooting.

South Africa begins an inquiry into a building fire that killed 76 people in Johannesburg in August

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:48 GMT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — An inquiry began Thursday into an apartment building fire that killed 76 people in South Africa in August and laid bare the deep problems of poverty and neglect in parts of Africa’s richest city.The nighttime blaze swept through a five-story building in the Marshalltown district of Johannesburg, trapping many of the hundreds of people who were living there in badly overcrowded conditions.The building was believed to be one of what are known as “hijacked” buildings in Johannesburg. Authorities suspect it had been taken over by illegal landlords, who were renting out space to poor South Africans and foreign migrants looking desperately for somewhere to live.Johannesburg Emergency Services acting chief Rapulane Monageng gave the first testimony of the inquiry and said that firefighters found no fire extinguishers anywhere in the building. They had all been taken off the walls, he said. A large fire hose had also been removed and the water pipe suppl...

European Union leaders seek aid access to Gaza and weigh the plight of EU citizens there

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:48 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders gathered Thursday to debate ways to use their combined leverage to ensure that more aid reaches Palestinians in need, and how to help EU citizens in Gaza escape danger, including some held hostage by Hamas.EU nations have long been divided in their approach to Israel and the Palestinians, but the brutal nature of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7., which killed more than 1,400 people, and the hardship of civilians forced from their homes in Gaza have shone a bright spotlight on those divisions.Across the EU spectrum, Austria, Germany and Hungary are among Israel’s top supporters. The leaders of Austria and Germany went to Israel to show solidarity after the assault. Spain and Ireland often focus on the plight of the Palestinians. Hamas, for its part, is on the EU’s list of terrorist groups.The challenge has been to strike a balance between condemning the Hamas attacks, supporting Israel’s right to defend itself and ensuring that the rig...

China and the U.S. appear to restart military talks despite disputes over Taiwan and South China Sea

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:14:48 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China and the United States appear to be restarting dialogue between their militaries, despite continuing disputes over Beijing’s claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea. Chinese reports, as yet not confirmed by Washington, say the U.S. will send a Department of Defense official to attend a Chinese Defense Ministry international gathering that aims to discuss international security cooperation and raise China’s status as a global power. “China attaches great importance to the development of military-to-military relations between China and the United States,” ministry spokesperson Col. Wu Xian said at a briefing on Thursday, China froze military exchanges after then-speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi last August visited self-governing Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.China’s annual Xiangshan Forum is scheduled for Oct. 29-31. “As we see it, the ranks of the personnel taking part in the exchanges are not the most important. What i...