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More money for Montreal supervised drug-use sites amid rise in addiction

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

MONTREAL — Quebec is boosting funding for supervised consumption sites in Montreal in an effort to prevent overdoses as the city grapples with homelessness and a rise in suspected drug-related deaths.The province is dedicating an additional $1.5 million for services targeted to drug users, including $1.2 million that will go to four organizations in Montreal’s downtown, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Village neighbourhoods.Lionel Carmant, Quebec junior health minister, said the funding is necessary, but he acknowledged that more needs to be done to support unhoused people and those with substance abuse issues.“Magic-wand solutions don’t exist,” he told reporters Friday. “Homelessness is a chronic problem,” and addressing it, he added, “is a long-term process.”Safe consumption sites are places where people can bring their own drugs to use in the presence of trained staff.Carmant made the funding announcement alongside representatives from Sp...

Wildfire crews fight wildfire with fire to protect, secure Cranbrook, B.C. airport

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

VICTORIA — The forest and brush around the international airport at Cranbrook, B.C., has been scorched in an all-out effort to protect the vital transportation link from an encroaching wildfire, airport manager Tristen Chernove said Friday.Wildfire crews were at the Canadian Rockies International Airport in southeastern B.C. overnight Friday monitoring the fires that were purposely lit as a guard from the out-of-control St. Mary’s River fire, he said.Chernove said the controlled burns did their job and are adding to previous wildfire mitigation measures taken by airport officials.“Last night there were some further ignitions done very close to the airport, which visually can look pretty dramatic, but it was all under control,” he said. “The airport itself, while we are in the midst of a lot of smoke, as far as fuel load around us, we are actually quite protected.”He said flights were arriving and departing Friday, but heavy smoke has resulted in some ca...

B.C. port union to recommend settlement agreement to its members

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

VANCOUVER — The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada says it will hold a meeting Tuesday to recommend the terms of a tentative agreement to its membership. The development may end the labour dispute between the union and the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association, which shut down the province’s port facilities for 13 days earlier this month.Union president Rob Ashton says in a written statement that members will take the 8 a.m. shift off Tuesday for the meeting where the deal will be presented.News of a possible agreement broke late yesterday as the union’s Local 502 said on its website that the union would hold an “emergency contract caucus” today to decide whether to ratify the deal and send it to full-membership vote.The two sides have been negotiating a new collective agreement since March but reached an impasse despite the aid of a federal mediator that triggering the strike from July 1 to July 13.The job action by about 7,400 work...

Death toll from an explosion and collapse of a Paris building in June climbs to 3

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

PARIS (AP) — A woman in her 70s who worked at a design school has died as the result of an explosion in central Paris a month ago that sent a historic building crumbling down and ignited a huge fire in the Left Bank neighborhood, bringing the death toll to three, officials said Friday.One body was found in the rubble six days after the June 21 blast, and a 59-year-old insurance agency worker later died in the hospital. A third critically injured person died on Thursday, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.The third victim was a woman born in 1946, the prosecutor’s office said. She had worked at the Paris American Academy, a school in the collapsed building that specializes in design and arts, according to Florence Berthout, mayor of the city’s 5th district.The blast, not far from the Luxembourg Gardens, left six people critically injured and more than 50 with lighter injuries or in psychological shock, according to the Paris prosecutor.A manslaughter investigation is underway, ...

Gunmen riding on a motorcycle open fire, killing worker for the World Food Program in Yemen

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

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Gunmen shot and killed the head of one of the World Food Program’s offices in southwestern Yemen on Friday, the humanitarian organization said. No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement, WFP said that Moayad Hameidi, a Jordanian, was shot by gunmen in the city of Taiz not long after he arrived in the country to assume the role as head of its office in that city. It added he died shortly after reaching a hospital. Hameidi was shot by two armed assailants on a motorbike, according to a statement issued by a local security committee on Friday. No further information was given.Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, also known by its acronym AQAP and believed to be one of the more dangerous branches of the al-Qaida terror network, is active in several regions in Yemen. Years of the country’s civil war have allowed the militants to maintain a presence in several areas around Yemen. The war began in 2014, when the Iran-b...

Aurora CEO sees compensation rise to $6.7 million amid share slump, cost cutting

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

EDMONTON — Aurora Cannabis Inc.’s chief executive saw his annual compensation climb about 38 per cent to $6.7 million in the company’s latest fiscal year as its stock dramatically fell and it aggressively cut costs.Financial filings from the Edmonton-based cannabis company show Miguel Martin earned a base salary of about $590,500 and about $3.8 million in share-based options and almost $1.1 million in option-based awards.Rounding out his earnings was about $815,000 in non-equity incentive plan compensation and $416,000 in other compensation.In comparison, he made more than $4.8 million in compensation in Aurora’s 2022 fiscal year and about $4.4 million in 2021.Martin’s compensation boost came as Aurora’s share price fell by 52 per cent over its 2023 fiscal year, which spanned three quarters because the company changed its fiscal year end.The cannabis industry has been hampered by a lack of demand, strict regulations and the strength of the illicit marke...

Brazilian petrochemical company settles with city where mining destroyed entire neighborhoods

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

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s petrochemical giant Braskem said Friday it had reached a $356 million settlement with a coastal city where four decades of the company’s rock salt mining destroyed five urban neighborhoods and displaced tens of thousands of people. Around 200,000 people in the Alagoas state’s capital of Maceio were affected by the excessive extraction of rock salt, according to the Brazil Senate’s website. In recent years, several Maceio communities became ghost towns as residents accepted Braskem’s payouts to relocate.The settlement — about 1.7 billion Brazilian reais — between Braskem and Maceio will be used for structural works in the city and for a residents’ support fund, the municipality said in a statement. The agreement does not invalidate negotiations between Braskem and the residents of the affected areas, it added. The company has so far paid over 3.7 billion reais ($775 million) in various compensations, including financial aid, Braskem sa...

‘Challengers,’ starring Zendaya, will skip Venice premiere due to actors strike, moves to 2024

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

NEW YORK (AP) — Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers,” starring Zendaya, has been pulled from the Venice Film Festival, where it was to be the opening night film, due to the actors strike.The R-rated “Challengers,” in which Zendaya stars as a tennis coach involved in a love triangle, had been planned to kick off the Venice Film Festival on Aug. 30 before opening in theaters Sept. 15. But with actors striking from working or promoting their films — including walking any red carpets — distributor MGM, which is owned by Amazon Studios, will instead open “Challengers” in theaters April 26 next year.“After thoughtful consideration with our partners, and given the parameters that SAG-AFTRA has outlined for its membership, we have made the difficult decision to withdraw ‘Challengers’ from this year’s Venice International Film Festival,” MGM said in a statement Friday. “We look forward to celebrating the film when we can do so with our ensemble cast, director Luca Guadagni...

Department of Justice warns of lawsuit over Texas border buoys along Rio Grande

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

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nexstar) — The Department of Justice is preparing to sue Gov. Greg Abbott for the state's latest border security initiative under Texas' Operation Lone Star, according to a DOJ letter obtained by Nexstar.First reported by the Houston Chronicle, the DOJ sent Abbott a letter on Thursday warning that the buoy barrier the state deployed along the Rio Grande is unlawful. Texas announced the initiative in early June as a way to deter migrants from crossing the Mexican side of the river into Texas, near Eagle Pass. RELATED: Gov. Abbott's border buoys on Rio Grande face pushback “The State of Texas’ actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out its official duties,” the department wrote, according to a copy obtained by Hearst Newspapers.Abbott responded on Twitter Friday writing "Texas has the sovereign authority to defend our borde...

Suspect wanted in Tower Grove Park robbery

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

ST. LOUIS - Police are asking for the public's help with finding a man accused of robbing a woman at Tower Grove Park last month. The robbery happened in the evening hours of June 6 near Center Cross Drive and Magnolia Avenue. Investigators say a woman was being followed by a suspect from the 3100 block of Morgan Ford Road. Once at the park, the suspect reportedly approached her and threatened to shoot her is she didn't hand over some items. Although the suspect did not display a weapon, the one complied and handed over her purse before he drove away. Protests over Francis Howell plan to allow anti-racism resolution to expire Police shared several surveillance photos of a suspect wanted in the investigation. At a convenience store, the suspect is pictured wearing a unique hooded sweatshirt with the words “SCAM LIKELY” on the hood and “STILL STUCK IN THAT ONE BAG” on the chest. The photos are believed to be from a few days after the robbery. Anyone with information is asked to con...