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Victoria ’embraces adventure’ for top spot on Condé Nast list of world’s best cities

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:28 GMT

VICTORIA — An award-winning travel magazine said British Columbia’s capital city tops its 2023 list of the world’s best cities.Condé Nast Traveller, a luxury and lifestyle travel magazine, said Victoria captured first place in its annual Readers’ Choice Awards.Victoria and Mexico’s San Miguel de Allende, which ranked sixth, were the only cities in North America to make the list.Condé Nast Traveller said Victoria’s restaurant and nightlife scene is “something to be celebrated,” while the city “embraces adventure,” and “draws outdoorsy types.”Readers gave Victoria, San Sebastián in Spain, and Singapore the top three spots on the list, followed by Tokyo, Seoul, San Miguel de Allende, Cape Town, Sydney, Copenhagen and Oslo.Victoria also topped the list of the world’s best small cities.Condé Nast, which publishes numerous magazines, including Vogue, GQ and The New Yorker, said its Traveller magazine reaches more than...

Nigeria’s president faces new challenge to election victory as opposition claims he forged diploma

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:28 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s main opposition said Thursday it will present new evidence to support its court challenge seeking to overturn this year’s presidential election, saying it can show the declared winner provided faked academic credentials to authorities.President Bola Tinubu forged a diploma from an American university that he presented to Nigeria’s election commission before the February vote and should be removed from office, first runner-up Atiku Abubakar and his lawyer alleged in a briefing with reporters. They cited records obtained from the university in a U.S. court hearing and shared with The Associated Press. Abubakar previously has argued Tinubu should not be president because the election commission did not follow due process in announcing the winner and Tinubu was not qualified to run, citing allegations of dual citizenship and of a criminal indictment in the United States. Tinubu has denied those claims. He did not comment on the new allegation, but h...

Republican leader of Wisconsin Assembly says he won’t move to impeach state’s top elections official

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:28 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican leader of the Wisconsin Assembly said Thursday that he will not pursue impeachment for the presidential battleground state’s nonpartisan top elections official, despite calls from the Republican president of the state Senate to do so.Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told a WKOW-TV reporter that he will wait until a judge has determined whether the Republican-controlled Senate had the authority to vote last month to fire Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe before he takes any further steps to oust her.In the lawsuit he brought after the Senate’s vote, Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul accused Republicans of attacking the state’s elections. The Senate acted despite not properly receiving a nomination from the bipartisan elections commission, where three Republicans voted to reappoint Wolfe and three Democrats abstained to force a deadlock and thus prevent the nomination from reaching the Senate. Wolfe has remained in ...

Father weeps as 3 charged with murder in his toddler’s fentanyl death at NYC day care

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:28 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Nicholas Dominici’s dad said he had hoped to have a photo of his son’s kindergarten graduation four years from now.“But sadly what I have is a reminder of his death,” Otoniel Feliz said, weeping as he held up a photo of his son. The toddler died last month after he and three other young children were sickened by what officials said was exposure to fentanyl at their Bronx day care center.Feliz joined Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark and other officials as they announced the indictments on charges including murder and manslaughter of the center’s operator, her husband and the husband’s cousin in Dominici’s death. He was 22 months old and had spent only a few days at the Divino Niño day care center when he died on Sept. 15.Clark said day care operator Grei Mendez, 36, her husband, Felix Herrera Garcia, 34, and Carlisto Brito, 41, were arraigned Thursday and ordered held without bail.Mendez and Brito were arrested after Dominici and three other chil...

Group that brought Charter challenge on sex work laws to appeal Ontario court ruling

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:28 GMT

OTTAWA — A group that challenged the constitutionality of laws criminalizing some aspects of prostitution is vowing to bring its fight to the Ontario Court of Appeal — even as some groups that support criminalization call on Ottawa to better protect vulnerable people in the sex trade.“Criminalization takes away our opportunities,” said Jenn Clamen, national co-ordinator for the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform, which represents 25 sex-worker organizations across Canada.“What sex workers are saying is, ‘Yes, we need more opportunity. We don’t need less opportunity.'”In a decision last month, Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein upheld prostitution-related criminal offences brought in by the former Conservative government of prime minister Stephen Harper in 2014.Clamen’s group argued that the laws, which prohibit paying for sexual services, violated the rights of sex workers by fostering stigma and preventing them from obta...

Quebec man who killed three people at random ‘not psychotic,’ says psychiatrist

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:28 GMT

MONTREAL — The psychiatrist whose patient killed three people at random over a 24-hour span in the Montreal area in August 2022 told a coroner’s inquest Thursday that what triggered the killing spree will likely never be known.Dr. Martin Vézina says he last saw Abdulla Shaikh in March 2022, a few months before the 26-year-old man killed three men on the street: André Lemieux, Mohamed Belhaj and Alex Levis-Crevier.“It’s very difficult to know what he had in his head,” Vézina testified at the inquiry, which is investigating the three deaths and the police killing of Shaikh.“We know that he clearly had anti-social personality disorder traits; did he have a pleasure in causing harm (at the time)? Did he distinguish between right and wrong? Was the illness present?” “I saw someone who was not psychotic and if he was psychotic, he hid it very, very, well,” the doctor testified.Vézina’s last meeting with Shaikh took place about two week...

City, province announce finalized deal for new $800M arena for Calgary Flames

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:28 GMT

The deal is sealed: the NHL’s Calgary Flames are getting a new $800-million arena.A preliminary deal announced in April for a new $1.2-billion event centre and entertainment district near the city’s downtown, including a new rink for the Flames, has been finalized, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said Thursday. The project plan includes plazas and gathering places, bars, restaurants and retail shops with the main event centre hosting the NHL team along with other sports, concerts and events.Design and preparatory construction work is to start right away with an opening date for the arena expected around 2026 or 2027, said provincial Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen.At that time, the Flames’ current Saddledome home — and its iconic saddle-shaped concave roof that was seen by TV viewers around the world in the 1988 Winter Olympics — will be put to the wrecking ball.“This project is moving forward,” Gondek told a news conference in Calgary alongside Alberta Premier Danielle Smit...

Trump’s penthouse value estimate boosted by millions due to his fame, execs testify in fraud trial

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:28 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’ s corporate executives once boosted the estimated worth of his Trump Tower penthouse by $20 million partly because of the value of his celebrity, according to trial testimony Thursday.Another $100 million hike in the estimate was based on a single email from a real estate broker, who hadn’t commissioned an appraisal, didn’t inspect the triplex and was told it was three times its actual size.From a witness stand, former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney shed light Thursday on calculations central to Trump’s New York civil business fraud trial. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit alleges the former president conspired with top executives to exaggerate his wealth and deceived lenders and others. Trump denies any wrongdoing.In pretrial testimony, the former president said that people who did business with him were given ample warning not to trust the statements, and that he never thought that the documents “would be tak...

‘Took away his life’: Heartbroken mother speaks after son’s fatal stabbing

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:28 GMT

A heartbroken mother is speaking out after her 23-year-old son was fatally stabbed in North York late last month.Toronto police responded to reports of a stabbing just before 10 p.m. on Sunday, September 24, near Yonge Street and Hendon Avenue, north of Finch subway station.Police said a man was stabbed and lying on the road. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.The victim was identified as 23-year-old Joyous Magdirila of Toronto. Days later, authorities arrested an unidentified youth in Magdirila’s death, charging the suspect with second-degree murder.Police have provided no other details.In an exclusive interview with OMNI Television, Joyous’ mother, Charita, described her son as a young man willing to do anything for his family.“He would always say, ‘Ma, what do you need? Do you need water? Do you want me to cook food for you?’ Those words… I would hear those words every day,” Charita Magdirila said.Police ident...

Bears legend Dick Butkus dies at 80

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:50:28 GMT

CHICAGO — The football world is mourning the loss of one of the greatest defensive players in the history of the game and one of the best athletes to come out of the City of Chicago. Dick Butkus, a College and Pro Football Hall of Famer who first made a name for himself on the high school gridirons of the city, has died at the age of 80.Here is a statement from the Butkus family through the Bears on the death of Dick Butkus at the age of 80. @WGNNews pic.twitter.com/1CqKLZADZ0— Larry Hawley (@HawleySports) October 5, 2023In a statement released through the Bears, the family confirmed that he died in his sleep overnight at his home in Malibu, California. They are gathering with Butkus' late wife, Helen, and are appreciative of prayers and support of Dick.A native of the South Side, Butkus was a star at Chicago Vocational School and then the University of Illinois, where he was a two-time All-American and Big Ten Most Valuable Player in 1963. Approaching 80, Dick Butkus reflec...