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Chinese spies breached hundreds of public, private networks, security firm says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:29 GMT

Suspected state-backed Chinese hackers used a security hole in a popular email security appliance to break into the networks of hundreds of public and private sector organizations globally, nearly a third of them government agencies including foreign ministries, the cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Thursday.“This is the broadest cyber espionage campaign known to be conducted by a China-nexus threat actor since the mass exploitation of Microsoft Exchange in early 2021,” Charles Carmakal, Mandiant’s chief technical officer, said in a emailed statement. That hack compromised tens of thousands of computers globally.In a blog post Thursday, Google-owned Mandiant expressed “high confidence” that the group exploiting a software vulnerability in Barracuda Networks’ Email Security Gateway was engaged in “espionage activity in support of the People’s Republic of China.” It said the activivity began as early as October. The hackers sent emails containing malicious file attachments ...

Quebec to exhume remains of Innu boys whose families have questions about 1970 deaths

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:29 GMT

MONTREAL — A Quebec Superior Court judge has authorized the exhumation of the remains of two Innu boys whose families have questions about their 1970 deaths at a Quebec hospital.The exhumations are the first to be authorized under a 2021 Quebec law intended to help Indigenous families learn more about the deaths and disappearances of their children in Quebec health-care institutions. The children, aged four months and one month, died in May 1970 at a hospital in Baie-Comeau, Que., around 413 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, after they were admitted for whooping cough.Justice Nancy Bonsaint’s ruling says that in both cases, the families were instructed not to open their children’s caskets and that burials took place the day after their deaths.Françoise Ruperthouse, who helped the families apply for the court authorization, says they wonder whether their children were really in the caskets given to them.The province’s coroner will conduct a DNA test on the remain...

Third-party review finds ‘toxic’ culture at University of Prince Edward Island

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:29 GMT

CHARLOTTETOWN — A review of allegations of workplace misconduct at the University of Prince Edward Island says the school had a toxic environment where bullying and harassment were widespread and condoned at the top.The 112-page report by Toronto law firm Rubin Thomlinson also says the university failed to create a safe, respectful, and positive environment for staff and students.The university ordered the review in December 2021 following allegations of workplace misconduct against its former president, Alaa Abd-El-Aziz.The review says the president was accused of making inappropriate comments, but it doesn’t include details.A news release from the university says the review was conducted early to mid-2022 through surveys and interviews.University board of governors chair Pat Sinnott and president Greg Keefe say they regret that the institution hasn’t always lived up to its values.This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2023.The Canadian Press

Justin Guarini, Briga Heelan honor music of Britney Spears in ‘Once Upon a One More Time’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:29 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Performing in a fairy tale musical with songs by the Princess of Pop can be both magical and daunting. That’s the way Justin Guarini and Briga Heelan, who star in “Once Upon a One More Time,” see their roles in the jukebox musical that features songs by Britney Spears.The musical debuted at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., in 2021 and now it’s on Broadway with Heelan and Guarini reprising their roles as Cinderella and Prince Charming.On a recent two-show day, fans of all ages were wearing Britney-themed attire waiting to be seated and both actors are well aware that Spears’ dedicated fan base has high expectations.Guarini, the runner-up to Kelly Clarkson on the first season of “American Idol,” said Spears’ music reminds him of the “iconic moments of growing up.” So honoring the Princess of Pop was “a huge honor” for him, the chance to share “in the joy and so much of the fun that she has created for millions of people across the world....

Court upholds convictions against Babcock’s killers, Dellen Millard loses all three appeals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:29 GMT

Ontario’s top court has upheld convictions against Dellen Millard and Mark Smich for killing a 23-year-old woman, marking back-to-back appeals dismissed this week against the multiple murderers.The decision in the murder case of Laura Babcock comes a day after the Court of Appeal for Ontario upheld convictions against the two men for the 2013 murder of 32-year-old Tim Bosma.For Millard, the heir to an aviation fortune turned infamous murderer, the decision caps a trio of unsuccessful appeals after the court also dismissed his attempt to overturn his conviction for murdering his father.In a 125-paragraph decision on the Babcock appeal, the court dismissed Millard’s argument he was denied a fair trial because he needed more time to retain a lawyer and dismissed Smich’s argument the jury was not properly instructed on how to separate the evidence between the two men.The 2017 trial for Babock’s murder saw prosecutors argue the once close friends turned co-accused...

Indigenous kept from economic opportunities from pot legalization: Senate committee

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:29 GMT

OTTAWA — A Senate committee says the current cannabis market and legislation has kept Indigenous Peoples from sharing in the economic opportunities that the legalization of recreational pot created.The standing Senate committee on Indigenous Peoples wants the country to shift its approach to cannabis to help Indigenous communities and entrepreneurs better benefit from the pot market.The committee found some First Nations are completely blocked from participating in the cannabis market because some provinces and territories have not responded to their requests for agreements to produce and sell cannabis.While agreements have been reached in British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan, Indigenous communities told the committee Quebec and the Northwest Territories have not similar moves.The committee also wants an excise tax-sharing framework that is specific to Indigenous communities to be developed, so First Nations communities can share revenues more broadly. First Nations communitie...

Vehicle theft reaching critical point, costing Canada $1 billion per year: Report

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:29 GMT

A new report is shining a light on an alarming number of auto thefts happening across Canada and is calling on the federal government to take aim at organized crime.The report from the Canadian Financing and Leasing Association (CFLA) says a vehicle is stolen every six minutes in Canada, costing the country a billion dollars every year. The organization says the auto theft crisis has been escalating since before the COVID-19 pandemic, with thefts having surged by 300 per cent in Toronto alone since 2015.The CFLA says the thefts pose a significant safety and financial risk and help fuel illicit activities. Organized crime rings typically exploit the export market in three ways:Identity theft on financed vehicles – criminals create fake identities of people or businesses to finance vehicleReVINing – exploiting loopholes in provincial vehicle registries to replace the vehicle identification number (VIN) on vehiclesContainer export – shipping stolen vehicles overseas t...

How much prison time could Trump face? Past cases brought steep punishment for document hoarders

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI investigators who searched Harold Martin’s Maryland property in the fall of 2016 found classified documents — including material at the top secret level — strewn about his home, car and storage shed.Unlike former President Donald Trump, the former National Security Agency contractor didn’t contest the allegations, ultimately pleading guilty in 2019 and admitting his actions were “wrong, illegal and highly questionable.” But his expressions of contrition and guilty plea to a single count of willful retention of national defense information didn’t spare him the harsh punishment of nine years in prison. The resolution of that case looms as an ominous guidepost for the legal jeopardy Trump could face as he confronts 37 felony counts — 31 under the same century-old Espionage Act statute used to prosecute Martin and other defendants alleged to have illegally retained classified documents. Even many like Martin who have pleaded guilty and accepte...

Biden hosts Live Nation, SeatGeek and Airbnb execs to showcase push to end hidden ‘junk fees’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:29 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is hosting executives from Live Nation, Airbnb and other companies at the White House on Thursday to highlight his administration’s push to end so-called junk fees that surprise consumers.Biden prioritized the effort to combat surprise or undisclosed fees in his State of the Union address and has called for legislation, regulation and private sector action to end them. Biden, at Thursday’s event, was set to announce actions by companies that have eliminated or plan to eliminate those surprise fees. The consumer advocacy push is part of the Democratic president’s pitch to voters ahead of his 2024 reelection bid that government can help improve their lives in big and small ways. At the White House, Live Nation, which is based in Beverly Hills, California, is announcing that it will provide customers with upfront all-in pricing — meaning the actual purchase price including service charges and any other fees — for its owned venues ...

Donor nations commit $10.3 billion for millions of Syrians at home and as refugees abroad

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:24:29 GMT

BRUSSELS (AP) — International donors Thursday committed $10.3 billion in aid for millions of Syrians battered by war, poverty, and hunger, both at home and as refugees abroad. The funding pledges by 57 nations and 30 international organizations at an annual European Union-hosted conference in Brussels for Syria fell about $800 million short of a United Nations humanitarian appeal.Funding from the conference will help provide aid to Syrians in the war-torn country and to some 5.7 million Syrian refugees living in neighboring countries, particularly Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.Syria’s uprising-turned conflict, now in its thirteenth year, has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of its prewar population of 23 million.Amid pressing needs across the globe from Ukraine to Sudan, the annual donor conference hosted by the European Union in Brussels has had even more political overtones as Syrian President Bashar Assad is slowly carving his way back from being an internation...