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Guest referee gig turns into Super Bowl trip as Markham woman named Bears Fan of the Year

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:47 GMT

Shameka Leach has been a Chicago Bears fan since she was a little girl watching games with her father and brothers, but it’s the team’s outreach to others that has cemented the team in her heart.“As a team, I love the Bears for the community service part of it. I’m a really big community service activist,” the Markham resident shared.“What I love about them is they continuously — this is the part that I see and participate in — they do stuff for their community and across the state. That’s the part I love where they give back. … It’s not just the game for me. Why I love them is for the game and community service. A lot of people don’t get to see what the actual players or the organization are doing.”Leach, who volunteers plenty of time herself both with the team and off the field, was surprised at a game when the Bears played the Las Vegas Raiders by being named the Bears’ nominee for 2023 NFL Fan of...

Lawyer for alleged victim of Dani Alves files legal complaint after video circulates on social media

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:47 GMT

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The lawyer representing the woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted by Brazilian soccer player Dani Alves has filed a legal complaint with Spanish authorities after a video circulated on social media that reportedly reveals the identity of her client.Ester García, the lawyer of the alleged victim, told The Associated Press on Friday that her office filed the legal complaint. Spanish newspaper La Vanguardía said García filed the complaint with Catalan police in Barcelona.In the video, alleged images of the young woman are shown along with information supposedly revealing her name and other personal data. The Spanish state prosecutors’ office in Barcelona told the AP that it was analyzing the video to see if there were grounds to open a formal investigation. Spanish law forbids the publication of material revealing the identity of someone without their consent.The prosecutors’ office has also asked the Barcelona-based court to ensure it guarantees the privac...

Rays shortstop Wander Franco faces judge as officials accuse him of having sex with a 14-year-old

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:47 GMT

PUERTO PLATA, Dominican Republic (AP) — Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco appeared in a Dominican court Friday to face allegations that he had a brief relationship with a 14-year-old girl and gave her mother a small car and thousands of dollars in exchange for her consent, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.The 22-year-old All-Star is accused of commercial sexual exploitation and money laundering. A judge who is scheduled to issue a ruling in the case on Friday has several options: release Franco on bond, temporarily arrest him, prevent him from leaving the Dominican Republic or demand that he make occasional appearances until the investigation or a trial has ended.The girl’s mother faces the same charges as Franco. The AP is not naming the woman in order to preserve her daughter’s privacy. Franco, who was detained Monday in the northern province of Puerto Plata, hasn’t been charged with any crimes. The judge has received a nearly 600-page docum...

Jo Koy ready to fulfill childhood dream of hosting Golden Globes with hopes of leaving positive mark

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:47 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jo Koy remembers watching major award ceremonies like the Golden Globes with his mother on their living room sofa trying to guess the winners.It was a ritual that Koy cherished as a child. Since then, he’s grown as a comedian with various stand-up specials and several acting credits including last year’s film “Easter Sunday.”On Sunday, Koy will live out his childhood dream of hosting the Globes — which is looking to return to form after being tarnished following years of scandal. He calls his upcoming duties a “very big moment.”“This is a throwback to my childhood, and now I’m the guy who’s onstage,” said Koy, the second Asian host in Globes history. (Sandra Oh emceed the show in 2019.) He wants to the inspire those from the Asian community in his first major hosting gig.“As a kid and watching TV and not having that many role models to kind of indirectly inspire me, that’s what this means to me,” said the Filipino American actor, whose “Easter Su...

Brazil postpones visa requirements for U.S., Canada and Australia citizens to April

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:47 GMT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil postponed for the second time the reintroduction of requirements to obtain tourist visas for citizens of the U.S., Australia and Canada, officials said.Former president Jair Bolsonaro scrapped the visa requirements in 2019 to support the tourism industry, but the three countries continued to demand visas from Brazilians. The South American country requires visas from travelers based on principles of historical reciprocity and equal treatment.The government initially postponed the visa implementation on Oct. 1. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in September then set Jan. 10 as the new deadline. On Thursday night, Brazil’s presidency said it would be postponed yet again till April. 10.The statement said the government was still finalizing the new visa system and wanted to avoid implementing it close to the high season, mainly during the New Year’s celebrations and Carnival festivities in February, which attract tens of thousands of tourists. ...

Precision Drilling meets debt reduction goal, on track to repay $500 million by 2025

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:47 GMT

CALGARY — Precision Drilling Corp. says its long-term debt reduction target is on track and it met its 2023 goal by shedding $152 million of debt.The Calgary-based energy services company ended the year with a cash balance of approximately $55 million and total liquidity of around $615 million.In an update posted Friday, Precision says it is exceeding pace on its long-term debt reduction goal of repaying $500 million between 2022 and 2025.It says it also returned $30 million to shareholders through share repurchases last year and plans to improve capital returns to shareholders in 2024 by increasing debt reduction and share buybacks.The company says there is strong demand for its drilling services in Canada, with an average active rig count of 63 during the fourth quarter and 74 rigs currently active. It expects its rig count to peak in the low to mid-80s during the winter drilling season.In the U.S., the company’s average active rig count was 42 in the fourth quarter and has ...

China calls for peaceful coexistence and promises pandas on the 45th anniversary of U.S.-China ties

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:47 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday that the United States and China must insist on peaceful coexistence and transcend their differences like they did when they established diplomatic relations 45 years ago this week.Wang also promised that giant pandas would return to the U.S. — and specifically California — by the end of the year.“China-U.S. cooperation is no longer a dispensable option for the two countries or even for the world, but a must-answer question that must be seriously addressed,” he said.Wang struck a relatively positive note at a lavish banquet marking the anniversary with 300 guests at a hall in the sprawling Diaoyutai state guest house complex in the Chinese capital.The two countries are trying to navigate — and avoid a war — in what may be their most difficult waters since the U.S. ended official ties with Taiwan and recognized the communist government in Beijing as the government of China on Jan. 1, 1979.China’s rise as an econo...

Global food prices declined from record highs in 2022, the UN says. Except for these two staples

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:47 GMT

ROME (AP) — Global prices for food commodities like grain and vegetable oil fell last year from record highs in 2022, when Russia’s war in Ukraine, drought and other factors helped worsen hunger worldwide, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday.The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of commonly traded food commodities, was 13.7% lower last year than the 2022 average, but its measures of sugar and rice prices growing in that time.Last month, the index dropped some 10% compared with December 2022. The drop in food commodity prices in 2023 comes despite a difficult year for food security around the world.Climate effects like dry weather, flooding and the naturally occurring El Nino phenomenon, combined with fallout from conflicts like the war in Ukraine, bans on food trade that have added to food inflation and weaker currencies have hurt developing nations especially. While food commodities like grain have fallen from painful ...

Here’s a quick glance at unemployment rates for December, by Canadian city

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:47 GMT

OTTAWA — The national unemployment rate was 5.8 per cent in December. Statistics Canada also released seasonally adjusted, three-month moving average unemployment rates for major cities. It cautions, however, that the figures may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples. Here are the jobless rates last month by city (numbers from the previous month in brackets):_ St. John’s, N.L. 6.7 per cent (6.7)_ Halifax 5.1 per cent (5.8)_ Moncton, N.B. 6.1 per cent (6.0)_ Saint John, N.B. 4.5 per cent (5.3)_ Saguenay, Que. 3.0 per cent (3.0)_ Quebec City 2.7 per cent (2.7)_ Sherbrooke, Que. 4.9 per cent (4.9)_ Trois-Rivières, Que. 5.4 per cent (4.4)_ Montreal 6.0 per cent (5.7)_ Gatineau, Que. 4.5 per cent (4.2)_ Ottawa 4.6 per cent (4.7)_ Kingston, Ont. 6.1 per cent (5.8)_ Belleville, Ont. 4.0 per cent (4.9)_ Peterborough, Ont. 3.4 per cent (2.3)_ Oshawa, Ont. 7.0 per cent (7.3)_ Toronto 6.7 per cent (6.6)_ Hamilton, Ont. 5.6 per cent (5.3)_ St. Catharines-Nia...

Here’s a quick glance at unemployment rates for December, by province

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:10:47 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s national unemployment rate was 5.8 per cent in December. Here are the jobless rates last month by province (numbers from the previous month in brackets):_ Newfoundland and Labrador 10.7 per cent (10.0)_ Prince Edward Island 8.1 per cent (8.1)_ Nova Scotia 6.0 per cent (6.8)_ New Brunswick 6.6 per cent (6.4)_ Quebec 4.7 per cent (5.2)_ Ontario 6.3 per cent (6.1)_ Manitoba 4.2 per cent (4.9)_ Saskatchewan 5.0 per cent (5.1)_ Alberta 6.3 per cent (5.9)_ British Columbia 5.6 per cent (5.3)This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 5, 2024.The Canadian Press