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Vatican says it’s permissible for transgender Catholics to be baptized

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:18 GMT

In the United States, the national conference of Catholic bishops rejects the concept of gender transition, leaving many transgender Catholics feeling excluded. On Wednesday, the Vatican made public a sharply contrasting statement, saying it’s permissible, under certain circumstances, for trans Catholics to be baptized and serve as godparents.“It is a major step for trans inclusion … it is big and good news,” said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of Maryland-based New Ways Ministry, which advocates for greater LGBTQ acceptance in the church.The document was signed Oct. 21 by Pope Francis and Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who heads the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. It was posted Wednesday on that office’s website.If it did not cause scandal or “disorientation” among other Catholics, a transgender person “may receive baptism under the same conditions as other faithful,” the document said.Similarly, the document said trans adults — even if they had ...

Michigan couple back from Gaza, recall fear and desperation of being trapped amid war

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:18 GMT

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — A Detroit-area couple trapped in Gaza like hundreds of other U.S. citizens described the roar of bombs and the fear of not making it home after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.Unable to leave, Zakaria and Laila Alarayshi hunkered down.“I was crying,” Zakaria Alarayshi, 62, told reporters Wednesday at the Arab American Civil Rights League offices in Dearborn, Michigan. “Everyone was scared. Bombs everywhere. When I go to sleep, we cannot sleep. Maybe I’ll sleep in a chair for 30 minutes a day.”He feared the bombs eventually would find them.“If I’m going to die, OK, I don’t care. Die, die,” he said. The Alarayshis were among the U.S. residents who were able to evacuate from Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas militant group surprise attack on southern Israel and the subsequent Israeli bombing campaign and ground invasion. Some 500 to 600 U.S. citizens had been trapped in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the White House. President ...

Negotiations over proposed regulations for deep-sea mining plod along as pressure mounts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:18 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Debate over proposed regulations for deep-sea mining will stretch into next year as a U.N. agency that presides over the international seabed concluded its last meeting of the year on Wednesday.The ongoing debate has led to growing concerns that a company or country will be the first in the world to apply for an exploitation license before any regulatory framework is in place.Juan José González, president of the International Seabed Authority’s council, told reporters that if an application is submitted, the council has an obligation to discuss it.“We would prefer, of course, to have the regulations in place,” he said.Michael Lodge, the agency’s secretary general, said the council expects to have a mining code draft by 2025.However, a Canadian company whose subsidiary is widely expected to be the first to apply for a deep-sea mining license, said late last week that it expects to do so in mid-2024.Corey McLachlan, with The Metals Company, noted that whil...

Martinrea International sees earnings, sales rise in third quarter

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:18 GMT

TORONTO — Martinrea International Inc. says net income for the third quarter was $53.7 million, up from $35.9 million a year earlier. Sales for the quarter were $1.4 billion, up from $1.2 billion during the same quarter last year. The Toronto-based company says net earnings per share were 68 cents, up from 45 cents last year. Martinrea president and CEO Pat D’Eramo says the United Auto Workers strikes in the U.S. did not have a significant effect on the company’s third-quarter performance.However, he says the strikes will have somewhat more of an effect on fourth-quarter results. The company declared a quarterly cash dividend of five cents per share. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:MRE)The Canadian Press

Head of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami accuses Labrador group of ‘co-opting’ Inuit identity

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:18 GMT

OTTAWA — The president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is accusing an organization in Labrador of co-opting Inuit identities to secure lands, rights and financial resources.Natan Obed argues that NunatuKavut Community Council, which represents some 6,000 people in south and central Labrador it claims to be Inuit, is advancing “illegitimate claims” of Indigenous identity.Todd Russell, president of the NCC, is describing the allegations as “defamatory,” adding that ITK, the national organization for Inuit in Canada, has “no right” to determine the identity of the people his own group represents.It is not the first time the NCC has faced questions about its claims.The Innu Nation has asked the Federal Court to quash a 2019 agreement between the federal government and the council. That memorandum of understanding sets the guidelines for self-determination talks. The Inuit Nunatsiavut government in northern Labrador also does not recognize the council as an...

8 dead in crash after police chased a suspected human smuggler, Texas officials say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:18 GMT

BATESVILLE, Texas (AP) — Eight people died in a South Texas car crash Wednesday while police chased a driver suspected of smuggling migrants, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.It happened around 6:30 a.m. when the driver of 2009 Honda Civic hauling migrants and trying to outrun deputies from the Zavala County Sheriff’s Office tried to pass semi truck on a two-lane road, the state Department of Public Safety said. The Civic collided with a 2015 Chevrolet Equinox.The driver and five passengers in the Civic died, DPS said. Two people in the Equinox also died.The Associated Press

Tennessee’s long rape kit processing times cut in half after jogger’s 2022 killing exposed delays

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:18 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s lead investigative agency says it now takes less than half the time it took to process rape kits in August 2022, not long before the high-profile killing of a jogger shone a light on the long delays and prompted a funding boost.Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch discussed the improvements during a budget hearing in front of Gov. Bill Lee on Wednesday. He pointed to the most recent quarterly report, which shows the average turnaround time to process a rape kit this August was 19.6 weeks, compared to 45.4 weeks last August. He said the average time is now at about 18 weeks.The state’s turnaround times for sexual assault kits drew heavy scrutiny after the high-profile killing of teacher Eliza Fletcher in September 2022. The man charged with killing Fletcher was charged in a 2021 rape of a different woman shortly afterward, when the rape kit from that case was finally processed.The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation had attri...

Woman sues ex-Grammys CEO for sexual assault and accuses Recording Academy of negligence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:18 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A woman filed a lawsuit Wednesday against former Grammy Awards CEO Neil Portnow, accusing him of a 2018 sexual assault, and against the Recording Academy for negligence.The woman, who was not named, filed the lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Manhattan under the Adult Survivors Act. The measure, passed last year, created a temporary window for those who allege sexual assault to file past the state’s usual deadlines.In the lawsuit, the woman, described as an internationally known musician who once played at Carnegie Hall, said she met Portnow in early 2018 and had set up a meeting to interview him at his hotel in New York City later that year. She said he gave her something to drink at the meeting that made her intermittently lose consciousness and that he then proceeded to assault her.A spokesperson for Portnow, who stepped down as the CEO in 2019, said in an email that the accusations were “completely false” and “undoubtedly motivated by Mr. Portnow’s refusal ...

Great-West Lifeco sees base earnings rise in third quarter to $950 million

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:18 GMT

WINNIPEG — Great-West Lifeco Inc. says its base earnings for the third quarter were $950 million, up from $809 million a year earlier.The company attributed the increase primarily to business growth, as well as higher average equity markets and interest rates.Great-West Lifeco says its net earnings attributable to common shareholders were $905 million in the third quarter, down from $987 million during the same quarter last year. Net earnings per diluted share were 97 cents, down from $1.06 a year earlier. The company says base earnings from its Canadian segment were $296 million, down from $340 million a year earlier. Meanwhile, base earnings in the U.S. increased slightly to $262 million, while earnings rose in Europe to $206 million. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:GWO)The Canadian Press

B.C. woman who married ISIS fighter, repatriated from Syrian camp granted peace bond

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:15:18 GMT

CHILLIWACK, B.C. — A judge has placed a terrorism peace bond on a British Columbia woman who was repatriated to Canada last year from a Syrian prison camp after she married an ISIS fighter.Chilliwack provincial court Judge Kristen Mundstock says Kimberly Polman must follow several conditions while under bond, including reporting to a parole officer, remaining at her current Squamish, B.C.,  address, wearing electronic supervision equipment and not leaving the province. The order also includes conditions that Polman have no contact with several people, including her ex-husband, that she have no access to driving a vehicle except an electronic bike and that she not communicate with anyone suspected to be involved in terrorism. The court order is effective as of Tuesday and will last for eight months. Polman and another woman were returned to Canada in October 2022 from the detention camp in Syria that is holding mostly women and children who were rounded up after the fall of the extre...