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‘Everyone is basically at risk’: How to avoid falling victim to financial fraud

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

Alejandra Laria Aleaga was thrilled to see a job offer pop into her inbox in October 2021. At the time, she was in her final year of college and actively seeking opportunities at video game companies and animation studios after completing her illustration degree.“Me being a student with student debt and sort of desperate to find a job and make sure that I had a job after I graduated, I got really excited and I was like, ‘Oh wow, a video game company is asking me to work for them,’” Laria Aleaga recalled.The email, which didn’t land in her spam folder, seemed to be from a reputable video game company in the United States and mentioned that the company found her through a portfolio website where up-and-coming artists share their creations in order to find work, she said.Laria Aleaga said she then proceeded to engage in what appeared to be a legitimate hiring process, which involved an interview over text messages, signing a contract and purchasing gift cards to buy equipment she was t...

Spain’s government faces no-confidence vote brought by Vox

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain’s leftist coalition government faces a no-confidence vote brought by the nation’s far-right Vox party as lawmakers on Tuesday debated the motion, which has little chance of succeeding.The vote will be held in the 348-member lower chamber on Wednesday. No other party said that it would support the attempt by Vox’s 52 lawmakers to topple the Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. In a move that has been widely panned by other political parties and Spanish media, Vox leader Santiago Abascal has broken with custom and isn’t presenting himself as an alternative prime minister. Instead, in an attempt to lure votes from centrist and leftist legislators, Vox convinced a former communist party member and university professor to lead the no-confidence measure. Ramón Tamames, 89, who was a lawmaker in the 1970s and 1980s, has pledged that if the vote were to succeed, his only act as prime minister would be to immediately call f...

Video shows Irvo Otieno pinned to floor before his death

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

DINWIDDIE, Va. (AP) — A group of sheriff’s deputies and other personnel at a Virginia mental hospital forcibly pinned patient Irvo Otieno to the ground until he was motionless and limp, then began unsuccessful resuscitation efforts, according to newly obtained surveillance video.The video, which was obtained through a link included in public court filings, shows the workers pressing down on a prone handcuffed and shackled Otieno. His death March 6 while being admitted to Central State Hospital has led to second-degree murder charges against seven deputies and three hospital workers. Relatives of the 28-year-old Otieno were shown the video last week by a prosecutor, Dinwiddie Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill, who said at one point that she planned to publicly release it Tuesday. But attorneys for at least two of the defendants sought to block its release to the public, arguing that it could hinder a fair trial.Otieno was brought to the hospital south of Richm...

Families of Montreal fire victims could face long wait for answers, police say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

MONTREAL — Police say the families of the presumed victims of a deadly fire in Old Montreal could be facing a long wait for answers, as investigators are working to enter a building described as a “scene of destruction.” Insp. David Shane told reporters today that the unstable structure of the building and the difficulty of recovering bodies could mean an agonizing delay for the loved ones of the people missing.One woman has been found dead and six people remain missing after a fire swept through the historic building in Old Montreal last Thursday.Shane says several floors of the building collapsed on each other, and because of the risk of further collapse, recovery teams will have to be lifted by crane into the building.Fire and police investigators explored the scene Monday with the help of cameras and visual inspections from the outside but did not recover any more victims. A spokeswoman for the city’s forensics lab says the process to identify victims could als...

US probes reports of steering glitch on newer Honda Civics

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating complaints from Honda Civic drivers that their steering can stick, causing a momentary increase in effort and increasing the risk of a crash.The probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration covers an estimated 238,000 Civics from the 2022 and 2023 model years.The agency says it has 145 complaints about the problem, which happens mostly at highway speeds. The complaints came over the past 11 months and occurred mostly on vehicles with low miles.An increase in steering effort can cause an overreaction or inability to avoid a road hazard, the agency said in documents posted Tuesday on its website.NHTSA has no reports of crashes or injuries from the problem. The agency will determine how many vehicles are affected and how severe the problem is. A recall is possible. Honda said that it will cooperate with the investigation, which is in its early stages and may not lead to a recall. The company also is doing an in...

Protests in Lebanon as pound hits new low against dollar

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

BEIRUT (AP) — Protesters closed down major roads in parts of Lebanon on Tuesday after the Lebanese pound briefly hit a new low amid a historic economic crisis that seemingly has no end in sight.The Lebanese pound lost more than 15% of its value on Tuesday alone, tanking to more than 140,000 pounds to the dollar. A week ago, the dollar was worth 100,000 pounds.The small nation is in the grips of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by a political class that has ruled the country since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.The political class has been resisting the implementation of reforms as demanded by the international community. Since the economic meltdown began in October 2019, three-quarters of Lebanon’s population of over 6 million, including a million Syrian refugees, now live in poverty and inflation is soaring.The official exchange rate is set by the central bank at 15,000 pounds for the U.S. dollar but t...

Missouri Senate endorses transgender health restrictions

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Senate gave initial approval Tuesday to a pair of bills that would temporarily prohibit gender transitioning health care treatments for minors and restrict them from competing in sports. The Senate votes came after an all-night session and only after Republican supporters agreed to several provisions they described as compromises with Democrats, including the addition of an automatic expiration for the restrictive provisions in 2027. The GOP also agreed to allow minors already receiving hormone treatments or puberty-blocking drugs to continue to do so, applying that ban only to those who had not yet started them. Health care providers who perform a gender-transition surgery or prescribe “cross-sex hormones or puberty-blocking drugs” to minors could have their medical licenses revoked.Republican state Sen. Mike Moon, a lead sponsor of one of the bills, said the expiration date was necessary to win approval in the Senate, where Democrats had hel...

BlackBerry strikes new deal to sell portfolio of non-core patents

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

TORONTO — BlackBerry Ltd. has signed a deal to sell a portfolio of what it says are non-core patents related to mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking in an agreement that could be worth up to US$900 million.The company says Malikie Innovations Ltd., a newly formed subsidiary of Key Patent Innovations Ltd., will pay US$170 million in cash up front and an additional US$30 million in cash by no later than the third anniversary of closing the deal. BlackBerry will also receive annual cash royalties from the profits generated from the patents that will initially be capped at US$700 million. The cap is subject to an annual increase of an amount equal to four per cent of the remaining portion of the US$700 million that has not been paid to BlackBerry as of the date of the increase. BlackBerry has transformed itself from a smartphone company to one focused on security software and services.The portfolio being sold includes about 32,000 patents and applications relating primarily...

Rapidly spreading fungus already in 28 states, including Illinois, presents 'urgent' threat, CDC warns

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

(NEXSTAR) – A fungus that poses "an urgent antimicrobial resistance threat," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has already been detected in more than half of U.S. states. Candida auris, or C. auris, is so concerning because it is often resistant to anti-fungal drugs, making it hard to treat infections. It can also be hard to identify with standard lab tests, making it even more difficult to treat properly and early. The fungus was first detected in the United States in 2016. The fungus "spread at an alarming rate" between 2020 and 2021 in health care facilities, the CDC wrote in a memo released Monday, and has continued to spread in 2022. CDC study warns of ‘dramatic increase’ in deadly fungus across US By the end of 2022, there were more than 8,000 instances of Candida auris identified across 28 states and Washington, D.C. The map below shows confirmed cases of the fungus, with states shaded in red having the most infections. While it usually isn't a s...

Stove left on determined cause of deadly fire in Ottawa

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

OTTAWA, Ill. — The cause of a deadly fire last week in Ottawa has been determined to be from a stove that was left on.On Wednesday, March 15, authorities responded to the 100 block of West Campbell Street on the report of a fire.Crews entered and found a heavy fire in the kitchen, which extended to the bedroom and living room. A victim, whose name or age was not given, was found unresponsive in the living room.They were later pronounced dead at St. Elizabeth's Hospital. Firefighters rescued after ceiling collapses during house fire on Far Southeast Side Further investigation revealed that the fire was started from an open flame on the stove. Multiple pots were melted and smoke detectors were melted as well, authorities said.It was classified as accidental.