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7.7 magnitude earthquake in far Pacific creates small tsunami off Vanuatu

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:30 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A 7.7 magnitude earthquake Friday in the far Pacific created small tsunami waves in Vanuatu.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said waves less than half a meter (1.5 feet) were measured off Lenakel, a port town in the island nation. Smaller waves were measured elsewhere off Vanuatu and off New Caledonia.Vanuatu’s National Disaster Management Office advised people to evacuate from coastal areas to higher grounds. The office said people should listen to their radios for updates and take other precautionary measures.New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency said it expected coastal areas would experience strong and unusual currents, with unpredictable surges at the shoreline.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also said small waves were possible for Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Guam and other Pacific islands.The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake’s epicenter was near the Loyalty Islands, southwest of Fiji, north of New Zealand ...

WestJet, pilots reach 11th-hour deal as strike averted

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:30 GMT

CALGARY — WestJet and its pilots union say they have reached a last-minute deal, averting a strike ahead of the May long weekend.A statement from the Air Line Pilots Association says union leaders voted to approve an agreement-in-principle, with a membership vote to begin in the coming days.The airline had grounded the bulk of its fleet Thursday, including for its Swoop subsidiary, parking their 130 planes at airports from Vancouver to Halifax and leaving thousands of travellers in limbo across the country.The shutdown affected dozens of routes within Canada and to the U.S. and overseas, while flights at the WestJet Encore regional service and the WestJet-owned Sunwing Airlines were unaffected.Some 1,800 pilots at WestJet and Swoop had been poised to walk off the job as of 3 a.m. mountain time after the ALPA served a strike notice Monday.Bernard Lewall, who heads the union’s WestJet contingent, had said the workers’ issues revolved around pay, job security and scheduling...

WestJet pilots, airline reach ‘agreement-in-principle’ ahead of strike

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:30 GMT

The union representing WestJet pilots and the airline have agreed “in-principle” on a new pilot contract.The agreement comes at the 11th hour, with members of the Air Line Pilots Association in a position to begin strike action as of 3 a.m. MT Friday.The ALPA says the deal with WestJet followed “more than 9 months of negotiations on a new pilot contract.”Members are expected to vote on the agreement in the coming days.More to come

Detroit enclave city built on auto industry struggles under $20M water debt

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:30 GMT

HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. (AP) — Kevin Houston scanned the Michigan street where his fixer-upper and older homes bridge gaps between the vacant, overgrown lots and abandoned, ramshackle houses, boarded-up businesses and potholed streets of Highland Park.But no one would confuse the neighborhood for a park.“It’s not a bad place to live,” Houston said. “It’s not the best.”The community, just under 3 square miles (7.8 square kilometers) and nearly surrounded by Detroit, is a shell of its auto baron past, when manufacturing boomed and money flowed. Over 50,000 people lived there in 1930. Homes — elegant and spacious — rivaled some of those built in Detroit. Fewer than 9,000 now call it home. The auto companies are long gone, leaving strip malls and retail shops to bolster the city’s dwindling business tax base.And, owing about $20 million to a regional water service, Highland Park is considering municipal bankruptcy — a strategy that a decade ago allowed Detroit to erase or restructure...

China’s Xi meets Central Asian leaders, calls for trade, energy development

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:30 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping promised to build more railway and other trade links with Central Asia and proposed jointly developing oil and gas sources at a meeting Friday with the region’s leaders that highlighted Beijing’s growing influence.The two-day China-Central Asia Summit in the western city of Xi’an came as President Joe Biden and other leaders of the Group of Seven major economies met in Japan. It reflected Beijing’s efforts to develop trade and security centered on China, which resents U.S. domination of global affairs.China is making economic inroads into Central Asia, including with its Belt and Road Initiative to build railways and other trade-related infrastructure. That has rattled Russia, which sees the former Soviet republics as its sphere of influence, but their governments look to the world’s second-largest economy as an important market and a source of investment.“We need to expand economic and trade ties,” Xi said in a speech to leaders ...

New Zealand police lower hostel fire death toll to 5; man held in jail on arson charges

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:30 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand police on Friday lowered the confirmed death toll from a Wellington hostel fire from six people to five, although they said they still haven’t finished searching the dangerous four-story building.And in another development, a man charged with two counts of arson in connection with the fire made his first court appearance. He was not required to enter a plea and was ordered held in jail until his next court appearance on June 19.If found guilty, the man faces a maximum 14 years in prison on the charges. Police said they’re treating the case as a homicide investigation and could add more serious charges later.Police Inspector Dion Bennett did not offer an explanation for why authorities had downgraded the death toll after they had put it at six since Tuesday, hours after the fire ripped through Loafers Lodge.But he did say police have still not been able to search all areas of the building after parts of a roof and a floor collaps...

At graduations, Native American students seek acceptance of tribal regalia

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:30 GMT

When Kamryn Yanchick graduated, she hoped to decorate her cap with a beaded pattern in honor of her Indigenous heritage. Whether she could was up to her Oklahoma high school. Administrators told her no.Yanchick settled for beaded earrings to represent her Native American identity at her 2018 graduation.A bill vetoed earlier this month by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, would have allowed public school students to wear feathers, beaded caps, stoles or other objects of cultural and religious significance. Yanchick, a citizen of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and descendent of the Muscogee Nation, said she hopes the legislature tries again.Being able to “unapologetically express yourself and take pride in your culture at a celebration without having to ask a non-Native person for permission to do so is really significant,” said Yanchick, who now works for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma.For Native American students, tribal regalia is often passed down through g...

CP NewsAlert: WestJet, pilots reach 11th-hour deal

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:30 GMT

WestJet and its pilots union say they have reached a last-minute deal, averting a strike ahead of the May long weekend.More to come…This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 18, 2023.The Canadian Press

Austrian actor Helmut Berger, movie star in the 1960s and ’70s, dies at 78

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:30 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Austrian-born actor Helmut Berger, a European movie star in the 1960s and 1970s who rose to prominence with roles in films by Italian director Luchino Visconti, died Thursday, his agent said. He was 78.Berger died “peacefully but nevertheless unexpectedly” early Thursday in his home city of Salzburg, agent Helmut Werner wrote on his management company’s website.Berger was born in Bad Ischl, Austria on May 29, 1944. In 1964, he worked as a film extra in Rome before being discovered by Visconti, who would later become his partner and in 1966 gave him his first role. He played prominent roles in Visconti’s “The Damned,” “Ludwig” and “Conversation Piece.”Berger’s credits also included appearances in Vittorio De Sica’s “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis,” Massimo Dallamano’s “Dorian Gray,” and, later, in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather Part III.”After a string of health problems, Berger announced the end of his acting career in Novem...

With G20 event, India seeks to project normalcy in disputed Kashmir

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:23:30 GMT

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — As India prepares to host a meeting of tourism officials from the Group of 20 in the disputed region of Kashmir, authorities have deployed elite commandos and stepped up security in the region’s largest city. The meeting will be the first significant international event in Kashmir since New Delhi stripped the Muslim-majority region of semi-autonomy in 2019. Indian authorities are hoping the meeting will show that the controversial changes have brought “peace and prosperity” to the region.Since the 2019 changes, the city, known for rolling Himalayan foothills and exquisitely decorated houseboats, has become a major domestic tourist destination. Hotels have been mostly booked out for months. Kashmir has also drawn millions of visitors, who enjoy a strange peace kept by ubiquitous security checkpoints, armored vehicles and patrolling soldiers. For the G20 meeting, the city has spruced up its commercial center and roads leading to the convention center on Da...