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UK’s Suella Braverman says LGBTQ persecution not enough for asylum claims

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:15:40 GMT

LONDON — The 70-year-old global system for protecting refugees is broken and needs replacing, Britain’s home secretary is set to declare Tuesday — as she argues fear of discrimination should no longer be sufficient grounds for granting asylum.Suella Braverman, on the right of the U.K.’s governing Conservatives and seen as a leading candidate for the party’s next leader, will tell the American Enterprise Institute think tank that the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention “was an incredible achievement of its age,” but that “we now live in a completely different time.”The convention was introduced following World War II and sets minimum international standards for the treatment of refugees, including asserting that they should not be returned to countries where they face serious threats to life or liberty.According to extracts of her U.S. address released in advance, Braverman will say that the convention “now confers the notional right to move to another country upon at least ...

Dive team called after vehicle crashes into water in Yarmouth

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:15:40 GMT

A dive team responded to a crash in Yarmouth overnight that sent a vehicle into the water and a woman to the hospital.A photographer tells 7NEWS a woman was pulled from the vehicle. She was taken to the hospital and her condition was not immediately available.The cause of the crash remains under investigation. No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

1 in custody after SWAT team responds to barricaded person in Boston

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:15:40 GMT

A SWAT team was called to a report of a barricaded person in Boston overnight.Heavily armed officers responded to a home on Seaver Street around 11:15 p.m., according to Boston police.A suspect was later taken into custody. Their name has not been released.The scene was cleared after about three hours.No additional information was immediately available. This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Watertown police investigating threatening note found outside local church

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:15:40 GMT

The Watertown Police Department is investigating after a threatening note was found outside a St. Stephen’s Armenian Apostolic Church.The note, which read “Art-Saak is dead” references a decades-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan that has led to wars.And now police are reviewing evidence and the church’s security cameras to see if they can identify the person responsible. Church officials say they are taking this very seriously and will be ramping up securityIn a statement, the church said, “Hate knows no boundaries – and today it found its way into our community. Hate toward Armenians is everywhere. Stay vigilant, we cannot let this deter our fight for survival and justice.” The incident remains under investigation.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

Crews cleaning up after large tree falls across roadway in Brookline

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:15:40 GMT

A large tree toppled across a roadway in Brookline overnight, knocking out power to customers in the area.Crews on Avon Street said they would have to cut power to more homes in the area in order to remove the tree limbs that are blocking the road.They said they do not expect to have the area clear in time for the Tuesday morning commute.No additional information was immediately available.

Vincenzo Mario Santoro: Kyle Hendricks is the most underrated pitcher in Chicago Cubs history

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:15:40 GMT

Back when the Chicago Cubs traded starting pitcher Ryan Dempster to the Texas Rangers for Kyle Hendricks in 2012, little did fans know the great pitcher he would become.Some of Hendricks’ impressive career stats among active MLB pitchers includes a 3.47 ERA, which ranks 12th; an adjusted ERA+, which ranks 12th; a 1.153 WHIP, which ranks 11th; a 2.0 bases on balls per nine innings pitched, which ranks first; six complete games, which ranks 15th; and four shutouts, which rank 11th.What’s shocking is that among the top 15 qualified active pitchers in ERA, Hendricks is the only one that has yet to be named to an All-Star game. The reason for this is probably Hendricks’ low average fastball velocity and his lack of strikeouts. Since his MLB debut in 2014, Hendricks has been one of the most consistent and most reliable pitchers in the game. Today, he’s back and better than ever, somehow still pitching at the highest level.The 2016 season was when the world saw what...

2 explosions rip through dwellings in Sweden. At least one is reportedly connected to a gang feud

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:15:40 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two powerful explosions have ripped through dwellings in central Sweden, injuring at least three people and damaging buildings, with bricks and window sections left spread outside. Late Monday, an explosion occurred in Hasselby, a suburb of the capital, Stockholm. In the early hours of Tuesday, a blast in Linkoping, some 175 kilometers (110 miles) to the southwest, ripped the facade off a three-story building, leaving debris strewn across a parking area. It was not known whether the blasts were related to each other. Swedish radio said Tuesday that the explosion in Linkoping was connected to a feud between criminal gangs, a growing problem in Sweden with drive-by shootings and bombings. Two gangs — one led by a Swedish-Turkish dual national who lives in Turkey, the other by his former lieutenant — are reportedly fighting over drugs and weapons. So far this year, there have been 261 shootings, 36 people have died and 73 were wounded. The count doesn’t include t...

South Korea’s Constitutional Court strikes down law banning anti-Pyongyang leafleting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:15:40 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday struck down a 2020 law that criminalized the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets to North Korea, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech.The ruling came in response to a complaint filed by North Korean defector-activists in the South. They included Park Sang-hak, who has been a frequent target of North Korean government anger for his yearslong campaign of flying leaflets across the border with balloons.The law was crafted by the previous liberal government in Seoul that desperately pushed for inter-Korean engagement. It made leafleting a crime punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine of 30 million won ($22,000). The law passed in December 2020, six months after the North expressed its displeasure over the leaflets by blowing up an inter-Korean liaison office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. Park did not immediately comment on the court’s decision, which immediately inva...

Spain charges pop singer Shakira with tax evasion for a second time and demands more than $7 million

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:15:40 GMT

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spanish prosecutors have charged pop star Shakira with failing to pay 6.7 million euros ($7.1 million) in tax on her 2018 income, authorities said Tuesday, in Spain’s latest fiscal allegations against the Colombian singer.Shakira is alleged to have used an offshore company based in a tax haven to avoid paying the tax, Barcelona prosecutors said in a statement.She has been notified of the charges in Miami, where she lives, according to the statement.Shakira is already due to be tried in Barcelona on Nov. 20 in a separate case that hinges on where she lived between 2012-14. In that case, prosecutors allege she failed to pay 14.5 million euros ($15.4 million) in tax. Prosecutors in Barcelona have alleged the Grammy winner spent more than half of the 2012-14 period in Spain and therefore should have paid taxes in the country, even though her official residence was in the Bahamas.Spanish tax officials opened the latest case against Shakira last July. After reviewi...

Flood-hit central Greece braces for new storm as military crews help bolster flood defenses

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 11:15:40 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Emergency services in central Greece were on alert Tuesday as storms headed toward areas hit by massive floods this month.Municipal and military crews using excavators reinforced flood defenses along rivers near the central cities of Larissa and Trikala. Flooding from Storm Daniel killed 16 people in the region and caused widespread damage to property, farms and infrastructure.As it headed eastward, the latest storm — named “Elias” — caused landslides early Tuesday and prompted authorities to close sections of a highway between Athens and the western port city of Patras.The bad weather is expected to worsen through Thursday, affecting central Greece, the island of Evia, east of Athens, and islands in the central Aegean Sea.Storm Daniel swept across the eastern Mediterranean in early September. It flooded 720 square kilometers (280 square miles) across Greece’s farming heartland and caused damage in neighboring Bulgaria and Turkey before reaching Libya, where tw...