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Brampton man charged in $500K international fraud scheme targeting elderly victims

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:22:53 GMT

Police have arrested a 34-year-old Brampton man as part of a year-long international fraud scheme that targeted elderly victims across Canada.Police in Peel Region say between January 2020 and February 2022, a group of individuals operated a technical support scam that tricked victims into believing their personal computers were infected with a virus or malware using pop-up ads on computer screens or spam phone calls. The victims were put in contact with call centre agents who convinced them to give them remote access to their computers and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for unnecessary repairs.Police say approximately 330 Canadians fell victim to the scheme which netted the fraudsters $500,000.Jayant Bhatia of Brampton has been charged with unauthorized use of a computer, fraud Over $5000, and possession of property obtained by crime.Police say the scheme used the following business names – A2Z Consultants Group Inc., QB Services, and SSS Consultants – and operate...

China emerged from ‘zero-COVID’ in 2023 to confront new challenges in a changed world

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:22:53 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China’s prospects for 2024 look uncertain, as a year that opened free of COVID-19 lockdowns winds down without the dreamed of robust recovery for the world’s No. 2 economy.The wars in Gaza and Ukraine are straining China’s ties with the West. A U.S.-China leaders’ summit helped get relations back on track, but also clearly defined the stark divide between the two global powers. To counter a U.S.-led world order, China is pushing alternative visions for global security and development whose prospects depend partly on restoring its own economic vitality.Pandemic-related restrictions ended, China still faces long-term, fundamental challenges: a falling birthrate and aging population — India surpassed it as the world’s largest country in April — and its rivalry with the United States over technology, Taiwan and control of the high seas. Another: to balance the ruling Communist Party’s tightening grip on myriad aspects of life with the flexibility needed to keep the econom...

Newly released video shows how police moved through UNLV campus in response to reports of shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:22:53 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Officers shouted over blaring alarms and knocked down reports of additional gunfire while responding to what became a deadly shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, body camera footage released Wednesday showed. In one video, police officers moved hastily through the university’s business school on Dec. 6 amid a loud, piercing sound and called out for the alarm to be cut off. Commands were difficult to hear and, one officer noted, there was “blood everywhere” near a doorway on the fifth floor, the footage showed.The suspect, Anthony Polito, was killed in a shootout with police outside the building after fatally shooting three professors, police later said. Reports of gunfire after Polito’s death turned out to be the sounds of police trying to break down locked doors to clear classrooms, evacuate students and assess any remaining threats.The more than five hours of video made public Wednesday was the first of several releases by the Las Vegas Met...

UN is seeking to verify that Afghanistan’s Taliban are letting girls study at religious schools

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:22:53 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations is seeking to verify reports that Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers are allowing girls of all ages to study at Islamic religious schools that are traditionally boys-only, the U.N.’s top official in the country said Wednesday.U.N. special envoy Roza Otunbayeva told the U.N. Security Council and elaborated to reporters afterward that the United Nations is receiving “more and more anecdotal evidence” that girls can study at the schools, known as madrassas.“It is not entirely clear, however, what constitutes a madrassa, if there is a standardized curriculum that allows modern education subjects, and how many girls are able to study in madrassas,” she said.The Taliban have been globally condemned for banning girls and women from secondary school and university, and allowing girls to study only through the sixth grade.Taliban education authorities “continue to tell us that they are working on creating conditions to allow girls to return to school. But t...

Electric scooter Bird Global steers into bankruptcy protection in bid to repair its finances

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:22:53 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Electric scooter company Bird Global announced Wednesday that it has filed for bankruptcy protection in an attempt to stabilize its wobbly finances.The move marks a sobering comedown for a formerly high-flying startup that was trying to make it easier to get around big cities in an environmentally friendly way with its fleet of electric scooters. The concept attracted about $500 million in investments from prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners before becoming a publicly traded company in 2021.Now, the Miami-based company finds itself struggling to survive after losing more than $430 million since the end of 2021.Bird has lined up $25 million in financing from MidCap Financial, a division of Apollo Global Management, as it tries to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Florida.Michael Washinushi, Bird’s interim CEO, predicted the company will be able to bounce back and continue its “mission to make ...

A white couple who burned a cross in their yard facing Black neighbors’ home are investigated by FBI

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:22:53 GMT

The FBI is investigating a white South Carolina couple for racial discrimination after they set a cross on fire in their yard last month facing toward their Black neighbors’ home.Federal civil rights investigators searched the white couple’s home in Conway on Wednesday, according to FBI spokesperson Kevin Wheeler. The retired Black couple also recorded video of the cross being burned on Thanksgiving weekend and described days of repeated threats from their neighbors. The next week, Worden Evander Butler, 28, and Alexis Paige Hartnett, 27, were arrested on state charges of harassment and later released on bond.Cross burnings in the U.S. are “symbols of hate” that are “inextricably intertwined with the history of the Ku Klux Klan,” according to a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision written by the late Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. The justices ruled that the First Amendment allows bans on cross burnings only when they are intended to intimidate because the action “is a particu...

Ad campaign calls out Northwestern University over antisemitism concerns

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:22:53 GMT

EVANSTON — A Jewish advocacy group will air an advertisement during this weekend's Northwestern-Utah bowl game following claims that Northwestern University has not been proactive about speaking out against antisemitism. Northwestern University graduate Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor for Defense of Democracies, spoke out about his alma mater concerning campus fairness. "I’ve heard from some of the religious leaders on the campus, the rabbis, some of the Jewish students as well that there is a fear of the climate there," Goldberg said.SEE ALSO: Former NU athletes share experience with racism, hazing for first timeThe group created print, TV, and social media ads calling out Northwestern University and its president, Michael Schill, over concerns of hostility on campus aimed at Jewish students in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. "When you have chants, intimidation and disruption of classrooms saying, 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,' which is a ca...

Sheriff: Revenge after fight led to deadly Glenview apartment complex shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:22:53 GMT

GLENVIEW, Ill. — Four individuals face first-degree murder charges for their involvement in a deadly Glenview apartment complex shooting in August.According to the Cook County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to the 14000 block of Michael Todd Terrace in Glenview on reports of shots fired just after 9 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19.Upon arrival, authorities discovered 16-year-old Jose Guzman-Ezquivel and 19-year-old Carlos Guzman-Ezquivel, who had been shot multiple times.Jose was pronounced dead at the scene, while Carlos was transported to a local hospital, where he later died. A third victim, a 16-year-old, reportedly suffered a graze wound to his back.Further investigations showed that Jose Guzman-Ezquivel and Carlos Miranda, 22, of Prospect Heights, were involved in a physical altercation in July. Following the fight, a 15-year-old offender obtained a picture of Jose in order to allegedly identify him and seek revenge for the fight.On Aug. 19, Miranda and the 15-year-old offende...

'Heartbroken, empty': Ohio woman criminally charged after miscarriage speaks out

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:22:53 GMT

WARREN, Ohio (WJW) — A 33-year-old Ohio woman arrested on a felony charge after having a miscarriage at her home in September is working to clear her name and deal with the tragic outcome of her pregnancy.“I was distraught, heartbroken, empty — literally and figuratively, so to speak,” Brittany Watts said in a text message to the I-Team at Nexstar's WJW Monday night. She was describing how she felt after she miscarried her pregnancy.Watts sought medical treatment at Mercy Health St. Joseph Warren Hospital, located about 60 miles east of Cleveland, during the third week of September. She was having severe cramping and bleeding.“She was told very clearly the fetus was not viable and could not and would not survive,” said attorney Traci Timko, who represents Watts.Watts was admitted to the hospital twice that week but left after waiting in a room for several hours. Friday of that week, Watts miscarried in the bathroom of her Warren home. She was 22 weeks and one day pregnant....

Stunning image shows cosmic 'Christmas tree' glowing in space

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:22:53 GMT

(WJET/WFXP) — A space phenomenon is spreading some holiday cheer with what looks like a Christmas tree in the stars.NASA said that a telescope captured an image of NGC 2264, which is a cluster of young stars aged between one and five million years old. NGC 2264 — also known as the "Christmas Tree Cluster" since it looks like a cosmic tree with strings of glowing lights — can be found in the Milk Way, about 2,500 light-years from Earth. NASA streams first-ever high-definition video from deep space According to NASA, the stars in NGC 2264 are both smaller and larger than the Sun.The image below shows the cluster that has been rotated about 160 degrees from the astronomer’s standard of North pointing upwards. This puts the peak of the conical tree shape near the top.In this composite image, the cluster’s resemblance to a Christmas tree has been enhanced through image rotation and color choices. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare & J.MajorAs for the green gas in the cluste...