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African countries to seek extension of duty-free access to US markets

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:00 GMT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The extension of the U.S. program allowing sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to U.S. markets is expected to be high on the agenda of the U.S. Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade forum that will begin in South Africa on Thursday.Officials including U.S. trade representative Ambassador Katherine Tai and deputy assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Joy Basu will meet African leaders and officials in Johannesburg over the next three days to discuss, among other issues, the possible extension of AGOA and ways to improve its benefits for African nations.The forum kicks off days after U.S. President Joe Biden announced his intention to boot Niger, Uganda, Central African Republic and Gabon off the list of beneficiaries as they have failed to comply with the eligibility criteria.AGOA is U.S. legislation that allows sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to the U.S. market provided they meet certain conditions, including adherenc...

Uganda’s military says it has captured a commander of an extremist group accused in tourist attack

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:00 GMT

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A Ugandan military spokesperson says troops have captured a commander of an extremist group whose fighters are accused of killing two tourists last month.Col. Deo Akiiki said Wednesday that a senior commander with the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel whose nom de guerre is Njovu, was in military custody.Njovu was captured during an exchange of fire on Lake Edward on Uganda’s border with Congo. An unknown number of rebels drowned or were shot in the fighting Tuesday night, according to Akiiki.Njovu has been in charge of operations such as the murder in October of a South African tourist and her British husband while they were honeymooning in remote Queen Elizabeth National Park. Their Ugandan guide also was killed and their vehicle set on fire.The ADF has ties to the Islamic State group. Following the attack on the tourists, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni urged security agencies to ensure the group “is wiped out.”Ugandan troops are hunting down ...

Ontario scraps its portion of HST on purpose-built rentals

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:00 GMT

Ontario is scrapping its portion of the harmonized sales tax on eligible purpose-built rental housing in an effort to spur construction.The province has been saying it would remove its eight per cent portion of the tax if the federal government dropped the five per cent goods and services tax on rental housing builds.The federal government did that last month.Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy says the changes will apply to new rental housing units such as apartment buildings, student housing and senior residences built for long-term care rental accommodation.The rebates apply to projects that began construction this past September until Dec. 31, 2030.To qualify, new residential units must be in buildings with a minimum of four private apartment units or 10 private rooms, and be in a building where 90 per cent of units are long-term rentals.

Quebec tuition hike: Concordia says could lose up to 90% of out-of-province students

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:00 GMT

Montreal’s Concordia University is warning of “devastating financial implications” if Quebec moves forward with a plan to double tuition for out-of-province students next fall.University president Graham Carr said in a message to the Concordia community that the new $17,000 tuition for out-of-province Canadian students will price the school out of the domestic market. He says the university expects out-of-province undergraduate registration will decline by between 65 and 90 per cent as a result, leading to an annual revenue decline of up to $32 million in four years.The school’s total annual revenue loss could reach $62 million in four years with the addition of a new government-imposed charge for every international student it recruits.Carr says a program-by-program analysis is ongoing to measure the full financial impact of the tuition increase.He adds that the school is making overtures to the provincial government, but says the province has shown no indic...

German government plans to allow asylum-seekers to work sooner and punish smugglers harder

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:00 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — The German government has approved legislation that would allow asylum-seekers to start working sooner and a plan to stiffen punishment for people who smuggle migrants.The package backed by the Cabinet on Wednesday, which still requires parliamentary approval, is the latest in a series of steps taken recently by the government as it tries to defuse migration as a major political problem. The issue was one of several that led to a poor showing in state elections last month for Chancellor OIaf Scholz’s quarrelsome three-party coalition and gains for a far-right party.Last week, ministers approved legislation intended to ease deportations of unsuccessful asylum-seekers. On Monday, Scholz will hold a meeting with Germany’s 16 state governors expected to center on responses to migration.Shelters for migrants and refugees have been filling up across Germany in recent months and Scholz, who faces enormous pressure on migration from the opposition and elsewhere, ha...

With flowers, altars and candles, Mexicans are honoring deceased relatives on the Day of the Dead

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:00 GMT

SANTA MARÍA ATZOMPA, México (AP) — Ana Martínez is eager to welcome her deceased loved ones back home.Martínez and others in southern Mexico’s Oaxaca state wait with anticipation for Day of the Dead celebrations every Nov. 1, when families place homemade altars to honor their dearly departed and spend the night at the cemetery, lighting candles in the hope of illuminating their paths.“We preserve the culture of our ancestors, and that is why we make our altars,” said Martínez, 41, who lives in the town of Santa María Atzompa.Each Oct. 31, Martínez builds a three-level altar on her terrace. First come the flowers, a type of marigold known as cempasúchil. Martínez ties them in an arch over the altar.“For us, that arch is a portal so that they (the deceased) can reach our house,” she said. “We also create a path of flowers to the door as a welcoming sign.”Next, she lights copal, an incense which is believed to guide the souls, and places foods such as apples, peanuts and bread. C...

U.S. job openings rise slightly to 9.6 million, sign of continued strength in the job market

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Employers posted 9.6 million job openings in September, up from 9.5 million in August and a sign that the U.S. job market remains strong even as the U.S. Federal Reserve attempts to cool the economy. Layoffs fell to 1.5 million from 1.7 million in August, more evidence that workers enjoy an unusual degree of job security. The number of Americans quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence they can find better pay elsewhere — was virtually unchanged.The September openings are down from a record 12 million in March 2022 but remain high by historical standards. Before 2021 — when the American economy began to surge from the COVID-19 pandemic — monthly job openings had never topped 8 million. Unemployment was 3.8% in September, just a couple of ticks above a half century low. Openings were up by 141,000 at hotels and restaurants, which have struggled to attract and keep workers since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020.The Federal Reserve’s inflation fighte...

2 men arrested in an investigation into a famous tree that was felled near Hadrian’s Wall in England

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:00 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Two more men have been arrested in the investigation into who cut down the world-famous Sycamore Gap tree, police in England said Wednesday.The men, both in their 30s, were released on bail Tuesday without being charged in the felling of the iconic sycamore that stood for about 150 years next to the Roman landmark of Hadrian’s Wall, according to Northumbria Police.On the night between Sept. 27 and 28, the tree was cut down, causing some damage to the wall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site built nearly 2,000 years ago, when Britain was part of the Roman Empire, to guard its northwestern frontier. The 50-foot-tall (15-meter-long) tree planted in the 1800s stood out in a dip between two hills along the wall and became famous after it appeared in Kevin Costner’s 1991 film “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.” It became a popular subject for photographers.Police arrested a 16-year-old boy and a man in his 60s soon after the fallen tree was discovered. Each was released after questio...

Skinned goat head thrown through front window of Vaughan home: police

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:00 GMT

York Regional Police are on the hunt for two suspects in a series of eerie vandalism incidents in Vaughan that included a skinned goat head being thrown through a home’s front window.Officers were first called to the Melville Avenue and Hudson Drive area on October 25 after a resident complained that someone had spray-painted obscenities on an SUV in their driveway and on their garage door.“Two male suspects were observed in the area at approximately 2:14 a.m.,” police explained in a release that included video footage of the incident. “One of the suspects is seen walking up the driveway, smashing the vehicle’s windows and spray-painting graffiti on it. He then sprays more graffiti on the garage.”“The second suspect appears to be standing on the sidewalk as a lookout.”Two days later, police believe the same suspects targeted the home again, but this time in an even more disturbing manner — throwing a skinned goat head through the front...

Approaching Storm Ciarán may bring highest winds in France and England for decades, forecasters warn

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:21:00 GMT

LONDON (AP) — France, England and countries across western Europe are bracing for what meteorologists warn could be some of the highest wind speeds the region has witnessed in decades as Storm Ciarán hurtles toward coastlines and is set to make landfall on Wednesday evening.Residents were battening down the hatches in northwestern France as the national forecaster Météo-France warned of exceptional winds of around 90 miles per hour (145 kilometers per hour) blowing across Brittany, Normandy and Pays de la Loire. Winds of up to 105 miles per hour (170 kilometers per hour) and waves almost 33 feet (10 meters) high are expected in the country’s northwestern tip.The national train authority, the SNCF, has canceled some regional trains in five eastern regions starting late Wednesday night. Fast trains from Paris were eliminating intermediary stops on route to Rennes and several other destinations.“It’s during the calmest moments that we must prepare,” Eric Brocardi, spokesman for t...