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B.C. wants 1,000 more international firefighters to join wildfire battle

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:02:00 GMT

British Columbia has requested 1,000 additional international firefighters to join the battle against the province’s wildfires.Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma says she has also spoken to her counterpart in Ottawa, Bill Blair, about bringing more federal resources to help fight the 350 or so fires burning across B.C.Ma says a team from Australia is arriving on Saturday, adding to the 160 international personnel from Mexico and the United States currently deployed in B.C.Firefighters from South Korea, France, South Africa and the Dominican Republic have also been fighting fires in Canada, during what is shaping up as a record-breaking fire season.Ma says the Australians on the way are an “incident management team.” Federal Minister of Emergency Preparedness Blair had earlier said he was expecting a “fairly substantive” request for help from B.C. as wildfires worsen.Blair told The Canadian Press the government operations centre has been in discussi...

Report says junior staff behind sexual slogan approval in Experience Regina rebrand

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:02:00 GMT

REGINA — An independent review into how Regina’s tourism agency handled a failed rebrand says a junior employee approved sexualized slogans before senior management could vet them.  The third-party party review released Thursday said while some of the slogans had been known among members of a committee made up of Tourism Regina staff, senior management did not rubber-stamp their use before they were made public in March.Instead, the George B. Cuff & Associate report says a junior staffer had published the slogans online before senior management or the board could look at them.“The (slogans) are still on the table, the staff member got them in front of them, gets called by the website designer who says, ‘Are we good to go with the slogans?’ And the junior staff member says, ‘Yeah, I guess so,’” George Cuff, the report’s author, told reporters Thursday. “So, that’s the first time (the agency) probably had an opportunity to make a significant decision, and he did so without g...

Alberta and B.C. in talks to expand Canadian LNG reach globally, Danielle Smith says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:02:00 GMT

VANCOUVER — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her province has begun talks with British Columbia on expanding the reach of Canadian natural gas in the global market.Smith says she and B.C. counterpart David Eby began the discussion two weeks ago to explore leveraging Article 6 of the United Nations Paris Accord, which allows Canada to gain carbon credits for reducing emissions abroad.Speaking on the final day of the international LNG 2023 conference in Vancouver, Smith says she wants to see Alberta and B.C. “pioneer” a way to use Article 6 to spur more natural-gas export projects that would supply Asia and reduce carbon emissions there.The massive LNG Canada project in Kitimat, B.C., a $40-billion-dollar project that is about 85 per cent complete, is the only such export facility under construction in Canada and is scheduled to begin delivery mid-decade.Smith says delegates told her at the conference that many countries in Asia cannot meet emission reduction goals with...

Former Mozambique finance minister pleads ‘not guilty’ in US federal court over $2 billion scandal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:02:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Mozambique’s former finance minister pleaded not guilty in a U.S. federal court in New York on Thursday in connection with a $2 billion corruption and money laundering scandal that prosecutors said defrauded American investors and threatened to further destabilize the economy of one of the world’s poorest countries. Manuel Chang served as finance minister from 2005 to 2015 for Mozambique, a country of 31 million on Africa’s southern coast on the Indian Ocean. He was ordered detained until at least October, when his attorneys argue for a dismissal of his case.Chang is accused of receiving bribes of up to $18 million during a scheme that secured loans for Mozambican state-owned companies from foreign banks and financiers for maritime projects. The money was looted through kickbacks and other corrupt dealings, according to U.S. prosecutors.Until his extradition to the United States Wednesday, Chang had been held in South Africa after being arrested in Johann...

An anti-trans Kansas law doesn’t prevent birth certificate changes, the governor argues

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:02:00 GMT

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Democratic governor in Kansas is defending changes in the sex listings on transgender people’s birth certificates in a federal court filing arguing that continuing the changes doesn’t violate a new state law rolling back transgender rights.An attorney for Gov. Laura Kelly’s office also argued in the filing this week that the new Kansas law is discriminatory and “represents a willful failure of the Kansas Legislature” to protect people’s rights. It took effect July 1 and defines male and female based on a person’s sex assigned at birth for any other state law or regulation, barring legal recognition of transgender people’s gender identities.The state’s Republican attorney general, Kris Kobach, argues that the new law prevents the state health department, which issues birth certificates, from changing the sex listing while also requiring it to undo past changes. The issue is in federal court because of a lawsuit f...

Early-learning and child-care ministers promise to work together to improve workforce

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:02:00 GMT

IQALUIT, Nunavut — Federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for early learning and child care say they plan to work together to address workforce challenges.Karina Gould, minister of Families, Children and Social Development Canada, announced the ministers agreed during a meeting in Iqaluit to develop a plan focused on recruitment, retention and recognition.Natalie Jameson, Prince Edward Island’s minister of Education and Early Years, says that is to include fair wages, good working conditions and professional development opportunities. All provinces and territories have signed on to Canada’s $10-a-day child-care plan with individual targets and the overarching aim to reduce licensed child-care fees to $10 a day by 2026.Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunavut have all reached that goal ahead of schedule while Yukon had achieved that average before signing on.Gould says there is still a need for more child-care spaces and the federa...

Las Vegas police officer’s brother testified against him about ‘desperate’ casino heist

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:02:00 GMT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The younger brother of a Las Vegas police officer testified against him Thursday, painting a clear picture for the jury of how the two successfully stole more than $73,000 in a pre-dawn casino heist off the Strip.“Caleb told me that it was gonna be his operation and when it was happening I had to do everything he said because he had the knowledge and the skill,” Josiah Rogers said, referring to his brother’s work in law enforcement. Josiah Rogers admitted on the stand that he was the getaway driver in one of the heists, using an unregistered pickup truck with no plates. He said he knew his brother “desperately” needed money after a longtime struggle with gambling. While jurors scribbled down notes during Josiah Rogers’ testimony, Caleb Rogers avoided eye contact with his brother. Josiah Rogers has been granted immunity from prosecution for sharing details about how they rehearsed and then carried out the November 2021 robbery at Red Rock Casino.Prosecutors for the f...

$1.2M bail set for man charged with killing Tennessee surgeon remembered as skilled, beloved doctor

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:02:00 GMT

COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A man charged with killing a hand surgeon at a Tennessee clinic was being held on $1.2 million bail Thursday as those who knew the doctor remembered him as a skilled and beloved medical professional who cared for his patients. Larry Pickens, 29, told a judge on Thursday that he could not afford the bail and wasn’t sure if he could afford a lawyer, the Commercial Appeal reported. He did not enter a plea. Judge Lee Ann Dobson told Pickens that a public defender would not cost him anything and set his next court date for July 20. Pickens was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the shooting of Dr. Benjamin Mauck at Campbell Clinic Orthopedics in the Memphis suburb of Collierville on Tuesday. Police said Mauck was shot in an exam room and that Pickens had been at the clinic for several hours before the shooting.Authorities haven’t disclosed a possible motive for the shooting. The Collierville clinic remained closed Thursday, b...

Telus revises 2023 guidance, citing technology sector cost-cutting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:02:00 GMT

VANCOUVER — Telus Corp. revised downward its annual guidance for 2023, citing demand pressures as the technology sector looks to cut costs. The Vancouver-based company says it revised its guidance as a result of Telus International’s updated full-year annual outlook.As a result, Telus says it’s targeting consolidated operating revenue growth of 9.5 to 11.5 per cent, down from 11 to 14 per cent. Telus, which is the controlling shareholder of Telus International, says the spun-out company’s lower revenue guidance is due to anticipated demand challenges from certain clients in its technology vertical. Darren Entwistle, chair of Telus International’s board of directors, says the company has faced unprecedented and severe global pressures, particularly within technology as clients aggressively address cost structures, including through successive layoffs. Entwistle, who is also president and CEO of Telus, says Telus International in response is focused on its own ...

7 confirmed tornadoes after Wednesday night's storms: National Weather Service

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 19:02:00 GMT

CHICAGO — The National Weather Service confirmed Thursday a total of seven tornadoes after Wednesday night’s storms, in Oswego, Huntley, Barrington, Long Grove, and three touchdowns occurring in Elgin.The first Elgin tornado had a maximum intensity EF-1 and maximum wind speed of 100 mph. The track roughly started east of Rt. 47 and ended near the railroad tracks west of Villa Olivia Golf Course.The NWS says the second tornado in Elgin had a max intensity of EF-0 with max wind speed of 85 mph. The tornado began close to McDonald Road and ended along Hopps Road.A NWS team confirmed a third tornado after grounds were surveyed from Burr Ridge to Stickney. A EF-1 with max winds near 110 mph was identified.The fourth tornado confirmed by NWS was reportedly an EF-0 with a maximum wind speed of 85 mph in northeastern Oswego and eastern Boulder Hill Wednesday evening.NWS survey teams confirmed three additional tornados across McHenry and Lake County in Illinois. In Huntley, an EF-1 with max ...