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How a group of ancient sculptures sparked a dispute between Greece and the UK

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:25:14 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — For decades, Britain and Greece were able to differ, largely politely, over the world’s toughest cultural heritage dispute: What’s the right place for some of the finest ancient Greek sculptures ever made, which have been displayed in London for more than 200 years but which Greece vocally wants back.Diplomacy failed when U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak abruptly called off a London meeting scheduled for Tuesday with Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis.Mitsotakis publicly voiced annoyance. Sunak’s spokesman linked the snub with the Greek leader’s using British television to renew his call, a day earlier, for the 2,500-year-old masterpieces’ return.Here’s a look at what the dispute’s about, and what could come next.WHAT ARE THE SCULPTURES — OR IS IT MARBLES?They were carved in 447-432 B.C. to adorn the iconic Parthenon, a temple of the city’s patron goddess Athena, on the Acropolis hill.Free-standing statues fille...

Michael Douglas gets lifetime achievement award at International Film Festival of India in Goa

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:25:14 GMT

PANAJI, India (AP) — Veteran Hollywood actor and producer Michael Douglas was honored with the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award at the 54th International Film Festival of India as it came to a close on Tuesday.The two-time Academy Award winner, 79, said he was “humbled” and with everything going on the world, the festival was “a reminder of the magic of moviemaking.”“Cinema is one of the few mediums that has the power to unite and transform us. It transcends divisions, whether that be geography, race language and even time,” he said in his acceptance speech.“Today our global language of cinema is more meaningful than ever,” Douglas added.“Endless Borders,” an Iranian film directed by Abbas Amini, won the Golden Peacock for best film at the festival held annually in coastal Goa, India’s scenic tourist hotspot.“The film is about how complicated physical borders might be yet nothing can be more complicated than the emotional and moral borders that you impose upon yourself,” the ...

Mayo Clinic announces $5 billion expansion of Minnesota campus

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:25:14 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Mayo Clinic announced a $5 billion expansion plan for its flagship campus Tuesday that includes new buildings designed so they can evolve and expand as patient needs change over the coming decades.The project is part of a Mayo strategy to transform both patient care and its campus in downtown Rochester, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southeast of Minneapolis. This storied hospital is known for its patient care as well as scientific breakthroughs in cancer and gene therapies. It draws patients from around the world.A key to it will be the creation of “neighborhoods” within the new facilities, where patients can go for all the services they need for their particular condition, such as cancer, without needing to be shuttled between various departments. Another component of that strategy will be integrating in-person and virtual visits, and taking advantage of artificial intelligence, including to accelerate the development of new cures.The idea is to blur the tr...

Four large Quebec public sector unions say they will strike for a week in December

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:25:14 GMT

MONTREAL — Four large Quebec public sector unions say they will strike for a week in December in an effort to accelerate contract negotiations with the provincial government. The four unions, who are negotiating together as a common front, say their 420,000 members will walk off the job from Dec. 8 to Dec. 14 if a deal isn’t reached before then.The unions represent the majority of Quebec’s elementary and high school teachers, as well as education support staff and a range of workers in the health-care system, including patient care aides and laboratory technicians.Workers represented by the four unions were on strike for three days last week and for a single day earlier in the month.The unions say the December strike will be the last temporary strike before their members begin an unlimited strike.A separate Quebec teachers union with more than 66,000 members began an unlimited strike last week.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 28, 2023.The Canadi...

Man in incel-inspired murder case gets life in prison, no parole for 10 yrs

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:25:14 GMT

TORONTO — A man who pleaded guilty to the incel-inspired murder of a Toronto massage parlour employee sought out the ideology that led him to commit a “horrific crime,” an Ontario judge said Tuesday in sentencing him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.Though the man was 17 when he carried out the brutal attack with a sword in February 2020, sentencing him as a youth – which would cap the sentence at 10 years behind bars – would be “insufficient” to hold him accountable, Justice Sukhail Akhtar told the court. The stabbing that killed 24-year-old Ashley Noelle Arzaga and seriously injured a woman identified only by the initials J.C. was motivated by a violent and misogynistic ideology, the judge said.The man, who cannot be identified because he was underage at the time of the attack, “committed the crime after extensively researching the incel culture,” Akhar said.“I do not accept his … attempt at avoiding responsibi...

UN warns that gang violence is overwhelming Haiti’s once peaceful central region

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:25:14 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Gangs are invading Haiti’s rural central region, suffocating a once peaceful area that served as the country’s food basket but that is now plagued by kidnappings, killings and rapes, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday.Only a handful of powerful gangs operate in Lower Artibonite, a region located north of the Port-au-Prince capital, but they have laid waste to numerous communities with sparse police presence and a lack of basic government institutions, said the U.N. Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner.“A climate of fear reigns in Lower Artibonite, where murders, sexual violence, theft, destruction of property and other abuses are committed against the population on an almost daily basis,” the report stated.More than 1,690 people have been killed and more than 1,118 kidnapped in that region from January 2022 to October 2023, according to the U.N. Gang violence has forced another 22,000 people to flee their homes, more than half of them ch...

Customer sues Chopt eatery chain over salad that she says contained a piece of manager’s finger

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:25:14 GMT

MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. (AP) — A customer has filed a lawsuit against the fast casual chain Chopt over a salad that she says contained a piece of the manager’s finger.The lawsuit filed Monday by Allison Cozzi of Greenwich, Connecticut, alleges that she bought a salad at a Chopt location in Mount Kisco, New York, on April 7, 2023, and realized while eating it that “she was chewing on a portion of a human finger that had been mixed in to, and made a part of, the salad.”According to the suit, a manager at the restaurant accidentally severed a piece of her left pointer finger while chopping arugula.The manager went to the hospital but the contaminated arugula was served to customers including Cozzi, the lawsuit says.Westchester County health department records show that Chopt was fined $900.Cozzi said in the lawsuit that she suffered injuries including shock, panic attacks, migraine, cognitive impairment, nausea, dizziness, and neck and shoulder pain as a result of eating the contaminat...

Conservative motion seeks support to order senators to pass carbon pricing bill

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:25:14 GMT

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wants MPs to order the “unelected” Senate to pass a Tory bill that would take the carbon price off natural gas and propane used on farms. Poilievre introduced a motion in the House of Commons this morning looking to send a message to senators to pass Bill C-234.The House already passed the private member’s bill, and all but three Liberal MPs voted against it.It would remove carbon pricing from natural gas and propane used to heat farm buildings and grain dryers for eight years.It has been the subject of heated debate in the Senate, with one senator saying that online attacks from people who want the bill passed recently led to a threat that forced her to leave her home on the advice of police.Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says the Conservatives didn’t think the Senate “was so unelected” when they tried to have the Senate block Liberal bills.This report by The Canadian Press was first published...

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake hits near Barbados but no damage is reported on the Caribbean island

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:25:14 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck near the eastern Caribbean island of Barbados on Tuesday. No immediate damage was reported.The quake occurred some 30 miles (50 kilometers) south-southwest of the capital of Bridgetown at a depth of 24 miles (39 kilometers), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.There was no risk of a tsunami, according to Barbados Meteorological Services.Earthquakes are relatively infrequent in Barbados, with only an average annual of 13 tremors greater than magnitude 2.5, according to the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Center.Only four small recorded tsunamis have affected Barbados in history, with the most recent reported in 1939, the center said.The Associated Press

Putin accuses the West of trying to ‘dismember and plunder’ Russia in a ranting speech

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:25:14 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, in a ranting speech before a presidential election campaign, cast Moscow’s military action in Ukraine as an existential battle against purported attempts by the West to destroy Russia. Putin, who has been in power for more than two decades and is the longest-serving Russian leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, is expected to soon declare his intention to seek another six-year term in a presidential election next March.“We are defending the security and well-being of our people, the highest, historical right to be Russia — a strong, independent power, a country-civilization,” Putin said, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to “dismember and plunder” Russia.Ukraine and its Western allies have condemned the Russian action against Ukraine as an unprovoked act of aggression.“We are now fighting for the freedom of not only Russia, but the whole world,” Putin said in a speech to participants of a meeting organize...