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Germany aims to seize €720 million of frozen Russian money

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:59 GMT

BERLIN — At a time when Germany’s ruling coalition is scrambling to find money due to its still-simmering budget crisis, it might be getting an unexpected windfall: a large chunk of frozen Russian money.Germany’s top federal prosecutor on Wednesday announced a motion to confiscate about €720 million held by a Russian financial institution in a Frankfurt bank account.“We will not allow Russian funds used to finance the illegal war of aggression against Ukraine to be held unchallenged in German accounts,” Justice Minister Marco Buschmann wrote on X, adding: “Liberal democracy defends itself on the side of the attacked and opposes violence with the law.”The motion represents an escalation of Germany’s efforts to sanction Russia. If prosecutors are successful, the frozen Russian funds would flow into Germany’s federal coffers, according to an official with knowledge of the case, providing the government with a potential financial boon.Until now, Germany has...

Gretchen’s table: Lamb tagine with dates and shallots

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:59 GMT

Gretchen McKay | (TNS) Pittsburgh Post-GazetteMost would agree one of the best parts of being on vacation is getting to try unfamiliar foods and cuisines and realizing, with the right recipes, you can re-create those tastes at home.While my husband and I weren’t too crazy about the skewered sardines and fried cuttlefish found in seafood restaurants and in the beach bars on a recent trip to southern Spain, we couldn’t get enough of tagine, the traditional Moroccan dish we ate several times after taking the ferry from Tarifa in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, to Tangier, Morocco, to celebrate a pretty big anniversary this fall.Tagine refers to two things in this city famous for its mosques and medinas: a slow-cooked North African stew of spiced meat and vegetables that’s communally eaten with bread to soak up the fragrant sauce, and the namesake earthenware vessel with a conical lid it’s cooked in.The perfect balance of sweet and savory, tagine is typically m...

‘The Color Purple’ review: Musical adaptation soars thanks to its drama

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:59 GMT

As toe-tapping and soul-stirring as it often is, the music of the musical film version of “The Color Purple” hitting theaters on Christmas Day isn’t the reason to see it.See it because it’s “The Color Purple.”Based on the stage musical that made its Broadway debut in 2005, the new movie is — like the acclaimed 1985 film directed by Steven Spielberg — an adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award for Fiction-winning novel.Walker’s narrative about the often heartbreaking struggles of a group of Black women living in the American South early in the 20th century remains so powerful, so engrossing, that you sometimes find yourself waiting for a number to end so you can get back to the drama.That is meant not as a slight to work of the writers of the stage show’s music and lyrics — Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray, who along with book writer Marsha Norman are counted among the film’s producers — but as praise of the direction of Blitz Bazawule, the s...

Quick Fix: Pesto Lamb with Wild Mushroom Rice

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:59 GMT

Linda Gassenheimer | Tribune News ServiceHere’s an easy and quick dinner that’s perfect for the holiday season or any time you need a quick meal. Loin lamb chops are topped with a prepared pesto sauce, making this a special meal that takes only minutes to make. I used shiitake mushrooms to make wild mushroom rice. They’re quickly sauteed in a skillet with some garlic and then the same skillet is used to cook the lamb.Only one skillet to wash. Using microwaveable brown rice means the side dish takes only 3 minutes to make.HELPFUL HINTS:Any type of mushroom can be used.An easy way to chop chives is to snip them with scissors.COUNTDOWN:Prepare all ingredients.Make rice and use the same skillet to make the lamb.Make lamb.SHOPPING LIST:To buy: 4 3-to-4-ounce loin lamb chops (about 1-inch thick), 1 can olive oil spray, 1 container prepared reduced fat pesto sauce, 4 ounces shiitake mushrooms, 1 bunch chives and 1 package microwaveable brown rice.Staples: olive oil, garlic, salt and black ...

Panera ‘charged lemonade’ deaths put renewed focus on energy drink safety

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:59 GMT

Chris Dolmetsch | Bloomberg News (TNS)Panera Bread Co. must face a lawsuit over a death allegedly linked to its new line of “charged” lemonades, which have thrust the company into the spotlight and brought a renewed focus on the safety of caffeinated energy drinks.The company on Monday lost a bid to dismiss a complaint that was filed by the family of Sarah Katz, a 21-year-old University of Pennsylvania student, who sued the company after she died of cardiac arrest in September 2022. Another suit was filed last month in relation to the death of a 46-year-old Florida man who had a heart attack after consuming the beverage in October.Panera introduced Charged Lemonade in April 2022 to capture a slice of the $21 billion energy drink market, which grew by about 8.6% last year, according to Beverage Digest. The amount of caffeine in the drinks has been the subject of numerous social media posts since they were introduced last year.While a multitude of energy drinks are available, a lawyer...

US baby boomers over 70 hold more than 30% of country’s wealth

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:59 GMT

Alex Tanzi | (TNS) Bloomberg NewsMost don’t work anymore, but Americans age 70 and older have seen their share of collective wealth surge during the pandemic.As a group, these older baby boomers have accumulated more than $14 trillion in additional net worth since the end 2019, based on Federal Reserve data. Their share of the country’s wealth has jumped to a record 30% last quarter, even though they account for 11% of the population.The aging population helps explain some the gains: There are about 2.3 million more people over 70 in the country than in 2019. But one major driver was the surge in home values and stocks during the pandemic, which benefited older generations most likely to own a house — or two — and hold equities or mutual funds.Although people who are over 70 are typically retired, a rising portion of that age group is still working. The share of adults age 65 and more in the labor force reached a historic low of 10% in the mid-1980s but has since almost doubled, acc...

US, Venezuela swap prisoners: Maduro ally for 10 Americans, plus fugitive contractor ‘Fat Leonard’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:59 GMT

By JOSHUA GOODMAN and ERIC TUCKER (Associated Press)MIAMI (AP) — The United States freed a close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in exchange for the release of 10 Americans imprisoned in the South American country and the extradition of a fugitive defense contractor known as “Fat Leonard” who is at the center of a massive Pentagon bribery scandal, officials said Wednesday.The deal represents the U.S. government’s boldest bid to improve relations with the major oil-producing nation and extract concessions from the self-proclaimed socialist leader. The largest release of American prisoners in Venezuela’s history comes weeks after the Biden administration agreed to suspend some sanctions, following a commitment by Maduro and an opposition faction to work toward free and fair conditions for the 2024 presidential election.The release of Alex Saab, a Maduro associate who was arrested on a U.S. warrant for money laundering in 2020 and long was...

'Fat Leonard,' a fugitive now facing extradition, was behind one of US military's biggest scandals

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:59 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The extradition of convicted defense contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis to the United States as part of the Venezuelan prisoner swap on Wednesday is the latest twist in a decade-long salacious saga and bribery scheme that swept up dozens of American Navy officers.One of the biggest bribery investigations in U.S. military history led to the conviction and sentencing of nearly two dozen Navy officials, defense contractors and others on various fraud and corruption charges. And it was punctuated by Francis' daring escape last year, when he fled from house arrest at his San Diego home to South America.An enigmatic figure who was 6-foot-3 and weighed 350 pounds at one time, Francis owned and operated his family’s ship servicing business, Singapore-based Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd. or GDMA, which supplied food, water and fuel to vessels. The Malaysian defense contractor was a key contact for U.S. Navy ships at ports across Asia for more than two decades. During ...

Homeless people who died on US streets are increasingly remembered at winter solstice gatherings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:59 GMT

PHOENIX (AP) — With his gap-tooth smile, hip-hop routines and volunteer work for a food charity, Roosevelt White III was well known in the downtown Phoenix tent city known as “The Zone.”But like many homeless people, White suffered from diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He died unexpectedly one sweltering September day at age 36. Thousands of people like White who died this year without a permanent home are being memorialized on Thursday in communities from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to La Crosse, Wisconsin, to Riverside, California. Established in 1990, the increasingly popular Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day is observed with prayers, candles, moments of silence and the reading of names on Dec. 21, the first day of winter and the longest night of the year.A national gathering called “One Life, Too Many. Another Year, Too Long” is planned Thursday afternoon in Washington, with a Zoom call so people can follow from afar. Other gatherings will be in Cincinnati, Ohio; Wilmington, Delawa...

Metro accuses Loblaw of falsely implicating it in bread price-fixing scheme

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:11:59 GMT

In new court filings, Metro Inc. is accusing Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and its parent company of conspiring to implicate Metro in an alleged bread price-fixing scheme.Metro has submitted a statement of defence and crossclaim in Ontario Superior Court, responding to a class-action lawsuit that implicates it and several other grocers in the alleged conspiracy.The grocer denies being involved in bread price-fixing, which is also the subject of a federal Competition Bureau investigation. Loblaw said the allegations by Metro are ridiculous and untrue. Bakery supplier Canada Bread Co. recently filed its own statement of defence in the class-action suit, in which it denied participating in a wide-ranging conspiracy to fix the price of bread. In June, Canada Bread admitted to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act and was fined $50 million. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:MRU, TSX:L, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)Rosa Saba, The Can...