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Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir free a key Muslim cleric after years of house arrest

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Indian authorities released a key Muslim cleric after four years of house arrest and allowed him to lead Friday prayers in Srinagar, the main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir, according to mosque authorities. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has been spearheading protests against Indian rule in the disputed region. He was detained ahead of India revoking Kashmir’s special status in 2019 and throwing the Himalayan territory into political uncertainty. The 2019 decision stripped the region of statehood, its separate constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs.“Senior police officials visited the residence of Mirwaiz on Thursday to inform him that the authorities have decided to release him from house detention and allow him to go to Jamia Masjid for Friday prayers,” the mosque management committee said in a statement.Kashmiri separatist leaders, many of them either under house arrest or in police detention, have vowed to continue their struggle and refuse ...

European solar PV manufacturers oppose forced labour in a new position paper

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

Through a newly released position paper, the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) has taken a clear position against forced labour in the solar PV supply chain. ESMC strongly condemns forced labour in all forms and commits to work actively against it.The position paper consists of recommendations to policymakers and a ten-step due diligence program on how manufacturers in the solar PV supply chain should work to discover and eliminate suspected exposure to forced labour in their supply chains.“Forced labour is a violation of basic human rights and should not be accepted under any circumstance. Therefore, I am very happy and proud of our strong stance against forced labour”, says Carsten Rohr, Chief Commercial Officer at NorSun, co-chair of ESMC and member of the ESMC working group on forced labour and a socially sustainable supply chain.“The EU must adopt robust legislation as soon as possible to prohibit the sale of products made with forced labour. However, we, within the s...

Miss Manners: If I’m in the aisle seat, do I have any say over the window blind?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

DEAR MISS MANNERS: When I fly, I choose the aisle seat because I don’t want to feel “hemmed in,” as I do in the window and middle seats. But inevitably, the person in the window seat in my row puts the shade down so they can sleep. This makes me feel a little claustrophobic.Related ArticlesAdvice | Miss Manners: She claimed she was just kidding. How do I make her see it wasn’t funny? Advice | Miss Manners: My friend claims not to have heard these insulting comments Advice | Miss Manners: We’d go to the wedding but we’re obviously on the bride’s B-list Advice | Miss Manners: I unintentionally insulted a stranger in the store Advice | Miss Manners: I was berated by the mothers of the rude sing-along girls I have learned to grin and bear it, but it is annoying and feels rude. The window occupant never asks if it is OK with the rest of us in the row to close the shad...

Dear Abby: Why do they think I should give up my barstool for them?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

DEAR ABBY: Is there a rule of etiquette for changing seats in a bar setting?Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: I shouldn’t have to compete with my son’s clingy girlfriends Advice | Dear Abby: Everyone heard him call his co-worker baby, and I was humiliated Advice | Dear Abby: He never wants to see me again, but we may be thrown together Advice | Dear Abby: How can I break my wife of her rude obsession? Advice | Dear Abby: I take all these tests, and I still don’t know what I’m good at I enjoy going out to eat occasionally and, when I do, I like to sit at the bar and eat while having a drink. It seems lately, more often than not, I’m asked to move down a seat or two to accommodate another two or three people.Depending on my mood, I may or may not do it. Since this happens to me quite frequently, I am declining more and more often.I think it’s rude to ask a stranger to ...

A toddler lost in the woods is found asleep using family dog as a pillow

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

FAITHORN, Mich. (AP) — A 2-year-old girl who walked away from her home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula alongside two family dogs was found in the woods hours later sleeping on the smaller dog like a furry pillow, state police said.“She laid down and used one of the dogs as a pillow, and the other dog laid right next to her and kept her safe,” Lt. Mark Giannunzio said Thursday. “It’s a really remarkable story.”Troopers used drones and police dogs in the search while local police and citizens from both Michigan and adjacent Wisconsin helped look for the girl in the remote wooded area.Troopers from Michigan State Police’s Iron Mountain post had been called to a home in the Faithorn area of Menominee County about 8 p.m. Wednesday after the girl wandered away.Around midnight, a citizen on an ATV found the girl about 3 miles from her home, state police said.Giannunzio said the girl was checked by medical staff and appeared to be in good health.Faithorn is an unincorporated village loc...

Memo warns Massachusetts police chiefs to sit on RMV records without a warrant

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

A memo obtained by the Herald warns Massachusetts police chiefs to keep RMV records locked away from immigration officials and the public unless there’s a “judicial warrant” or grand jury or trial “subpoena.”That memo, shared by a law enforcement source, leaves no doubt that ICE and Border Patrol agents are specifically blocked from accessing driving records in the wake of the state’s new immigrant driver’s license law.The undated memo was sent by the Massachusetts Department of Criminal Justice Information Services to chiefs of police, law enforcement agency heads, and CJIS representatives. It comes after the July 1 implementation of an immigrant driver’s license law that restricted third-party access to many RMV documents that were previously public, as the Herald first reported Monday.“CJIS users with access to RMV data through either CJIS or [the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications] systems shall neither access nor disseminate RMV data...

Howie Carr: Go woke, go broke; just ask BU and Monica Cannon-Grant

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

It must suck being Monica Cannon-Grant these days.I mean, the entire Racial Grift-Industrial Complex seems to be coming apart at the seams, as one prominent con artist of color after another is exposed or fired or defeated at the polls.But only one of the flim-flammers of 2020 is looking at serious prison time.Monica Cannon-Grant.The latest of her comrades to take it on the chin is the man formerly known as Ibram Henry Rogers.Sagely, he rebranded himself as “Ibram X. Kendi,” because X marks the spot where the woke big money is. Right, Malcolm X?The X-man also realized the profitability potential of the A-word – Anti-racist. He wrote a book about how to be an “anti-racist.” He started the Center for Anti-Racist Research.The dough rolled in by the millions — $10 million alone from Jack Dorsey, the Charlie Manson-lookalike founder of Twitter.Mr. X has also been pocketing up to $40,000 for every “anti-racist training” harangue he delivers to trust-funded, melanin-impaired audience...

A shooting in a pub in Sweden has killed 2 men and wounded 2 more, police say.

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two people were killed and two wounded in a shooting at a bar northwest of Stockholm, police said Friday, in the latest outburst of deadly violence in Sweden.In a statement, police said that a man in his 20s and another in his 70s died Friday of injuries sustained in the shooting late Thursday at a pub in Sandviken some 162 kilometers (100 miles) northwest of Stockholm.“We suspect that one person was targeted and that the other three were at the scene for various reasons, but had nothing to do with it,” spokesman Magnus Jansson Klarin told Swedish news agency TT. He added that the suspected target was among the two who died. No arrests have been made, police said. It was not known whether the others were patrons or pub employees.“It’s bad enough that the gangs shoot each other to death, but when completely innocent people end up in the line of fire, it’s absolutely horrific,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Kristersson said, according to TT. On its Faceb...

Syria and China will announce strategic partnership as Asian Games diplomacy kicks off

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — China and Syria will announce the formation of a strategic partnership, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Friday at the start of a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in southern China.The meeting at a Chinese state guesthouse kicked off a series of diplomatic meetings ahead of Saturday night’s opening of the Asian Games sports competition in the city of Hangzhou.“In the face of the unstable and uncertain international situation, China is willing to work with Syria to firmly support each other … and jointly safeguard international fairness and justice,” Xi said in a video clip posted online by state broadcaster CCTV.Assad’s visit parallels in some ways that of Russian President Vladimir Putin last year for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Both leaders are virtual pariahs in the West but welcomed by China as it tries to expand its global influence and promote an alternative to the U.S.-led international order.The Syrian leader ...

Azerbaijan sends food, other aid to Nagorno-Karabakh after ending an offensive against Armenians

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:22 GMT

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Azerbaijan said it was delivering food and other humanitarian aid to Nagorno-Karabakh on Friday, two days after the region’s ethnic Armenian separatist government called a cease-fire in a short but intense fight with Azerbaijani forces. Nagorno-Karabakh’s 120,000 people have suffered severe shortages of food and medicine since late last year when a blockade began of the road connecting the region to Armenia. Improving the supply of food and other basic needs will be a key issue in building stability in the region, which is within Azerbaijan but had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces since 1994. Azerbaijan on Tuesday launched intense fire on Armenian positions in what it called an “anti-terrorist operation,” demanding that the Armenians lay down their arms and the separatist government disband. A day later, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities agreed to the military demands, but talks on how the region will be reintegrated into Azerbaijan hav...