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Rain relief in sight for some B.C. fire zones as northeast swelters

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:06 GMT

Large portions of northeastern British Columbia continued to swelter a day after some areas hit daily record temperatures, as the forecast for rain in the south and Interior brought the promise of relief for some wildfire zones. Environment Canada said Tuesday temperatures are again to push near or past 30 C in parts of the Peace River Regional District and the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality.The heat warning for northeastern B.C. is expected to be in place until the evening, while another warning for the North Coast District, including Terrace and Kitimat, has been lifted.Historic records for daily high temperatures for Aug. 28 were broken Monday in Fort St. John, Dawson Creek and Fort Nelson.Fort Nelson reached 33.9 C, almost six degrees higher than the previous record for that day recorded in 1986.The BC Wildfire Service has cautioned that warm, dry conditions in northern parts of the province have led to increased fire activity in the region, with the Fort Nelson First Na...

Lawyers indicted with Trump say they were doing their jobs. But that may be a tough argument to make

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:06 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — As John Eastman prepared to surrender to Georgia authorities last week for an indictment related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, he issued a statement denouncing the criminal case as targeting attorneys “for their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients.”Another defendant, Rudy Giuliani, struck a similar note, saying he was being indicted for his work as Donald Trump’s attorney. “I never thought I’d get indicted for being a lawyer,” he lamented.The 18 defendants charged alongside Trump in this month’s racketeering indictment in Fulton County include more than a half-dozen lawyers. And the statements from Eastman and Giuliani provide early foreshadowing of at least one of the defenses they seem poised to raise: that they were merely doing their jobs as attorneys when they maneuvered on Trump’s behalf to undo the results of that election.The argument suggests a desire to turn at least part of the sprawling pros...

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez suspends 2024 GOP presidential bid after failing to qualify for debate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:06 GMT

MIAMI (AP) — Miami Mayor Francis Suarez on Tuesday suspended his bid for the presidency, dropping out of the 2024 race after failing to qualify for the first Republican debate.The two-term mayor became the first candidate to drop out of the crowded GOP field. He launched his campaign just over two months ago as one of the last competitors to join a primary race that has so far been dominated by former President Donald Trump.“While I have decided to suspend my campaign for President, my commitment to making this a better nation for every American remains,” he said in a statement.He did not issue an endorsement, saying instead, “I look forward to keeping in touch with the other Republican presidential candidates and doing what I can to make sure our party puts forward a strong nominee who can inspire and unify the country, renew Americans’ trust in our institutions and in each other, and win.”The 45-year-old Suarez was vying to become the first sitting mayor and first Latino elected p...

Sudan’s military leader visits Egypt on his first trip abroad since his country plunged into war

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:06 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s top military officer made a one-day visit to Egypt on Tuesday for talks with the Egyptian president, making his first trip abroad since his country plunged into a bitter conflict this year.Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, chairman of the ruling Sovereign Council, arrived in the Mediterranean city of el-Alamein and was received at the airport by President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, the council said.The two leaders discussed efforts to end the conflict in Sudan in a way that preserves “the sovereignty, integrity of Sudanese State,” an Egyptian statement said. The statement offered only generalities about the war.Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April when simmering tensions between the military, led by Burhan, and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere.The conflict has turned the capital into an urban battlefield, with the RSF controling vast swaths of the city. T...

Scotiabank loan growth slows on cautious approach, deposit focus

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:06 GMT

TORONTO — Scotiabank’s loan growth slowed last quarter as the bank took a more cautious approach to lending amid heightened strain on borrowers from higher interest rates.“Lending volumes in the quarter reflect a more cautious environment from both a household confidence and business investment perspective,” chief executive Scott Thomson told a conference call with investors and analysts to discuss the bank’s latest results Tuesday.The bank reported in its third-quarter report that while loans were up seven per cent from last year, they were down one per cent from the second quarter. Scotiabank also reported a one per cent decline in its residential mortgage balances.“We deliberately slowed the mortgage book as we signalled some time ago,” Dan Rees, Scotiabank’s head of Canadian banking, told the conference call.“We’re just being more disciplined with regards to customer selection at time of origination. I think this is a good ti...

Pilot union launches unfair labour practice complaint against Air Canada, Jazz

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:06 GMT

MONTREAL — The union representing pilots at Jazz Aviation claims that their employer and Air Canada have breached the Canada Labour Code, even as it ratified changes to their collective agreement.On Monday, the Air Line Pilots Association filed a complaint with the Canada Industrial Relations Board arguing that both airlines violated the exclusivity deal between the two and effectively narrowed the pipeline of pilots from one carrier to the other.Jazz, a subsidiary of Chorus Aviation Inc., provides regional service for the country’s biggest airline under the Air Canada Express brand.In May, Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau announced a “bridging arrangement” with St. John’s, N.L.-based company PAL Airlines to boost the number of regional flights in Eastern Canada.Tim Perry, president of the Air Line Pilots Association’s Canadian segment, said that the deal was out of bounds, due to the contract between Jazz and Air Canada.“The arrangement was that i...

Female dental assistant in Jamaica charged with kidnapping and killing an 8-year-old girl

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:06 GMT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A female dental assistant in Jamaica was charged with murder and kidnapping after police said she abducted an 8-year-old girl from school and killed her.The woman was arrested roughly two weeks ago but wasn’t charged until Monday, nearly three months after the body of Danielle Rowe was found in the town of Portmore, just west of the capital of Kingston, according to Jamaica’s Constabulary Force.Police said the woman was the former partner of the girl’s father, who is a police officer.The girl was found with her throat slashed in early June and was hospitalized, but she died a couple of days later.Authorities said Rowe’s brother also was kidnapped but was unharmed after the woman accused in the case threw him from her car.The Associated Press

18 years after Katrina levee breaches, group wants future engineers to learn from past mistakes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:06 GMT

Future engineers need a greater understanding of past failures — and how to avoid repeating them — a Louisiana-based nonprofit said to mark Tuesday’s 18th anniversary of the deadly, catastrophic levee breaches that inundated most of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.Having better-educated engineers would be an important step in making sure that projects such as levees, bridges or skyscrapers can withstand everything from natural disasters to everyday use, said Levees.org. Founded in 2005, the donor-funded organization works to raise awareness that Katrina was in many ways a human-caused disaster. Federal levee design and construction failures allowed the hurricane to trigger one of the nation’s deadliest and costliest disasters.The push by Levees.org comes as Hurricane Idalia takes aim at Florida’s Gulf Coast, threatening storm surges, floods and high winds in a state still dealing with lingering damage from last year’s Hurricane Ian.And it’s not just hurricanes...

A timeline of the case against an Ontario man accused of selling lethal substance

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:06 GMT

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Authorities in Ontario and around the world are investigating the alleged online operation run by Kenneth Law, the Mississauga, Ont., man accused of mailing a lethal substance to people at risk of self-harm. Here is a timeline of the case: Oct. 14, 2022: A coroner’s report in the United Kingdom looking into the April death by suicide of a woman in Surrey, southwest of London, lists a postal box in Mississauga, Ont., and Imtime Cuisine, the name of one of the websites police linked to Law. March 31, 2023: Peel Regional Police investigate the circumstances of a local sudden death where the person is believed to have consumed a chemical substance. It’s the first of two deaths police would later link to Law and the allegations against him. April 25: The Times of London publishes an investigation into Law, reporting on his alleged global online operation. May 2: Peel Regional Police announce they have arrested Law and charged him with two counts of counsel...

Black Montreal family removed from Air Canada flight alleges racial profiling

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:59:06 GMT

MONTREAL — A Black Montreal family says they were victims of racial profiling when they were removed from a Florida-bound flight after telling staff their bags hadn’t been loaded on the plane.Members of the Wright family are calling for accountability today as they describe the situation July 28 at Montréal-Trudeau International Airport.Keith Wright says that after his daughter informed a flight attendant the family’s bags were still on the tarmac, the plane returned to the gate and the pair were asked to disembark and not told why. Wright says seven other members of the family — ranging in age from five to 60 — were also removed from the plane bound for Orlando, despite them having no interaction with staff.The family ended up driving to the United States in the middle of the night to catch another flight and narrowly avoided missing their cruise.The family says it will file racial profiling complaints with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, assisted by the Montreal-...