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US appeals court to hear arguments over 2010 hush-money settlement of Ronaldo rape case in Vegas

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:12:30 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A U.S. appeals court planned to hear Wednesday from lawyers trying to revive a woman’s bid to force international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo to pay millions more than the $375,000 in hush money he paid her after she claimed he raped her in Las Vegas in 2009. An attorney for the woman is asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the dismissal of the case in June 2022 and reopen the civil lawsuit she first filed in Nevada in 2018.The appeal argues the federal court judge in Nevada erred in repeatedly rejecting the woman’s attempts to unseal and include as evidence the confidentiality agreement she signed in 2010 in accepting payments from Ronaldo.A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based appellate court isn’t expected to issue an immediate ruling after it’s scheduled to question attorneys for Ronaldo and his accuser, Kathryn Mayorga, during oral arguments Wednesday at a special sitting at the law school on the campus of the Universit...

A test case of another kind for the Supreme Court: Who can sue hotels over disability access

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:12:30 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A few years back, Joseph Stramondo was a last-minute replacement as a conference speaker in Salt Lake City. He went online and made a reservation for a room accessible for people with disabilities.“I figured, ‘OK, I should be set,’” Stramondo said.But when he checked in, the room he was given looked like a standard room, without bars in the bathroom or a door wide enough to accommodate his wheelchair.Returning to the front desk, Stramondo learned the room was accessible — for people with hearing loss.The Supreme Court is taking up a case Wednesday that Stramondo, his wife, Leah Smith, and other people with disabilities worry could make it harder to learn in advance what accommodations are available that meet their needs.The justices are being asked to limit the ability of so-called testers to file lawsuits against hotels that fail to disclose accessibility information on their websites and through other reservation services.The information is required by a 2010 Jus...

Haitian students play drums and strum guitars to escape hunger and gang violence

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:12:30 GMT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Woodberson Seïde held his stepsister’s hand as they walked through Haiti ‘s capital on their way to an afterschool music program.They avoided cars, motorcycles, and territory controlled by the gangs whose predation prompted this week’s U.N. Security Council vote for the deployment of a multinational armed force. Once he arrived at the school that hosts the program, 11-year-old Woodberson didn’t think much about how he sometimes eats once a day. His family sleeps on the floor of a church, something they’ve done since losing their home to gangs. The boy was neatly dressed and ready to play drums. Across Port-au-Prince, hundreds of children like Woodberson are playing percussion, piano and bass guitar to drown out the violence and hunger around them.“When I play drums, I feel proud,” Woodberson said.To many, Haiti feels hopeless. Children are mostly kept indoors for safety. Their parents worry about gangs recruiting children as...

As actors restart talks and writers return to work, here are key players in the Hollywood strikes

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:12:30 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood actors have restarted talks with studios, opening up the possibility that their part in the industry’s double strike could end with the same kind of deal the writers reached to end their pickets last week. Actors and their employers have been divided on issues of pay, the use of artificial intelligence and self-taped auditions. Here’s a look at the key figures in the negotiations to end the new strike, and the people who successfully struck the deal to end the last one. DUNCAN CRABTREE-IRELANDDuncan Crabtree-Ireland is having his close-up in Hollywood’s labor fight. As national executive director and chief negotiator for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, he leads the team that will either make the deal to return to work or decide to continue striking. He took an unlikely path to get there. Born in Memphis and raised in London and Dallas, Crabtree-Ireland went to college at Georgetown and law s...

US warns of Chinese global disinformation campaign that could undermine peace and stability

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:12:30 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — For much of the world, China’s Xinjiang region is notorious, a place where ethnic Uyghurs face forced labor and arbitrary detention. But a group of visiting foreign journalists was left with a decidedly different impression.On a tour in late September sponsored by Beijing, the 22 journalists from 17 countries visited bazaars and chatted with residents over dates and watermelon slices. They later told state media they were impressed with the bustling economy, described the region as “full of cultural, religious and ethnic diversity,” and denounced what they said were lies by Western media.The trip is an example of what Washington sees as Beijing’s growing efforts to reshape the global narrative on China. It’s spending billions of dollars annually to do so.In a first-of-its-kind report, the State Department last week laid out Beijing’s tactics and techniques for molding public opinion, such as buying content, creating fake personas to spread its message and using rep...

San Francisco will say goodbye to Dianne Feinstein as her body lies in state at City Hall

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:12:30 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Mourners will pay their respects Wednesday to the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco City Hall, where she launched her groundbreaking political career and where she spent a decade as the city’s first female mayor. Feinstein’s body will lie in state in the City Hall rotunda, with everyone from elected leaders to city residents expected to say goodbye. She died Thursday at her Washington, D.C., home after a series of illnesses. Feinstein was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969 and was board president in November 1978 when a former supervisor assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the city’s first openly gay supervisor, at City Hall. Feinstein became acting mayor, and she went on to serve as mayor until 1988. San Francisco would not be San Francisco without her. She steered the city through the HIV and AIDS crisis, bringing attention to an epidemic ignored by President Ronald Reagan. She a...

Pope will open a big Vatican meeting as battle lines are drawn on his reform project

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:12:30 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Wednesday opens a big meeting on the future of the Catholic Church, with progressives hoping it will lead to more women in leadership roles and conservatives warning that church doctrine on everything from homosexuality to the hierarchy’s authority is at risk.Rarely in recent times has a Vatican gathering generated as much hope, hype and fear as this three-week, closed-door meeting, known as a synod. It won’t take any binding decisions and is only the first session of a two-year process. But it nevertheless has drawn an acute battle line in the church’s perennial left-right divide and marks a defining moment for Francis and his reform agenda.Even before it started, the gathering was historic because Francis decided to let women and laypeople vote alongside bishops in any final document produced. While fewer than a quarter of the 365 voting members are non-bishops, the reform is a radical shift away from a hierarchy-focused Synod of Bishops a...

At least four people shot on campus of Morgan State University in Baltimore, authorities say

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:12:30 GMT

By Lea Skene, The Associated PressBALTIMORE — At least four people were wounded, none critically, in a shooting at Morgan State University in Baltimore on Tuesday, according to authorities, who urged students to take shelter on the campus of the historically Black college.The Baltimore Police Department initially said officers were on the scene for an “active shooter situation.” Police kept the campus on lockdown for hours and provided little information about their investigation. The address given for the shooting appeared to match a residential building that’s on the same block as a city police station.“We’re asking everyone to shelter in place and avoid the area,” police said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. About three hours later police said it was no longer an active shooter situation and said more details were expected at a media briefing.Police spokesperson Vernon Davis told the Baltimore Banner that at least four people...

Unofficial election results show recall effort in Englewood falling short

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:12:30 GMT

An effort to oust three Englewood City Council members as part of a recall election appears to have come up short, unofficial results released Tuesday night showed.The special election revolves around the issue of density in this suburb of 34,000, where a contingent of residents mounted a campaign earlier this year to recall four of Englewood’s seven City Council members. One of the targeted members, Cheryl Wink, resigned over the summer and wasn’t on the ballot Tuesday.Mayor Othoniel Sierra, Councilwoman Chelsea Nunnenkamp and Councilman Joe Anderson were targeted for recall.According to unofficial results released after 10 p.m. Tuesday, Sierra received 654 votes against recall and 465 in favor. Anderson had a better margin — 988 to 734 against recall. Nunnenkamp’s election was the closest, with voters in her district defeating a recall 593 votes to 564 votes.It wasn’t clear how many ballots still needed to be tallied.Those behind the recall effort acc...

L.A. County Public Works spokesman arrested on child pornography charges

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 10:12:30 GMT

A 62-year-old spokesman for Los Angeles County has been arrested in San Bernardino County on charges of producing, possessing and distributing child pornography, authorities announced Tuesday.  Steven Frasher, a resident of Redlands, was taken into custody after an investigation that led to the search of his residence, according to a news release from the San Bernardino Police Department.  Detectives with SBSD’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Specialized Crime Unit received a tip that the 62-year-old was downloading child pornography on the internet and using an online storage account to save the images, police said.  “Additionally, the suspect was found to be in possession of numerous images of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on his electronic devices,” the release stated.  Kerjon Lee, Chief of Strategic Communications at the L.A. County Department of Public Works, confirmed to KTLA that Frasher, who is listed on the county's website as ...