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Hong Kong to slash elected seats in setback to democracy

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:10:48 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s leader on Tuesday stepped up a campaign to shut down further democratic challenges by unveiling plans to eliminate most directly elected seats on local district councils, the last major political representative bodies chosen by the public.Chief Executive John Lee said the proposed overhaul will reduce the proportion of directly elected seats in the municipal-level organization to about 20% — from some 90% currently. That is even lower than the level when these bodies were first set up in the 1980s, when Hong Kong was ruled by Britain. He said the rest of the 470 seats will be filled by government appointees, rural committee chairpersons and others elected by local committees that are staffed by many pro-establishment figures.The planned electoral changes are widely seen as part of Beijing’s increasing control over the former British colony, which was promised autonomy when it returned to China in 1997. Two years ago, Hong Kong already amended its e...

Media: Ugandan minister shot and killed by bodyguard

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:10:48 GMT

A bodyguard shot and killed a government minister in Uganda early Tuesday in an apparent private dispute, according to local media. The victim, Charles Engola, served in the government of President Yoweri Museveni as the junior minister in charge of labor. He was a retired army colonel. The attacker, who has not been publicly identified, then shot himself, according to state broadcaster UBC and others. The shooting took place inside Engola’s home in a suburb of the Ugandan capital, Kampala. Police detectives are now at the crime scene. The motive was not immediately clear, but the local press said there had been an apparent dispute over the guard’s wages. “Witnesses claim that the soldier was yelling that he had not been paid for a long time despite working for a minister,” the online newspaper NilePost reported. The incident is likely to send shockwaves in a country where other high-profile officials have been killed in gun attacks over the years. In 2021, a former army...

Australian government cracks down on smoking and vaping

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:10:48 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s tobacco tax will be increased by billions of dollars over the next four years as the government cracks down on smoking and vaping.Recreational vaping will be banned as the government seeks to prevent the next generation from becoming addicted to nicotine, Health Minister Mark Butler said Tuesday.The tobacco tax would be raised by 5% a year starting from September, Butler said — a total increase of 3.3 billion Australian dollars ($2.2 billion) over four years. This follows an AU$234-million ($157-million) boost for tougher regulation of e-cigarettes, including new controls on their importation and packaging.The government will work with the states and territories to shut down the sale of vapes in retail and convenience stores and make it easier to get a prescription for therapeutic use.To tackle the growing black market, the government will increase the product standards for vapes, including by restricting flavors and colors. It will require pha...

Albanian charged with supporting terror attacks

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:10:48 GMT

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian law enforcement authorities on Tuesday charged an Albanian man with supporting terror attacks in Western Europe on social media.A statement from the special prosecutor’s office against corruption and organized crime accused Bledar Zeneli of promoting and urging terror attacks, falsifying documents and weapon possession.If convicted, he faces up to 17 years in prison.Using a false profile on Facebook Zeneli and other people, who have yet to be identified, supported terror attacks in Nice, France, and Vienna in October and November 2020 “and other terror attacks and radical actions from extremist persons,” according to prosecutors.About two-thirds of Albania’s 2.8 million people are Muslims. A decade ago hundreds of them joined radical groups in Syria and Iraq, although the mainstream religious leaders urged believers not to become members.No Albanians have joined extremist groups in Syria and Iraq in the last seven to eight years, authorities say. The ...

In The News for May 2 : Farewell to “rare talent” Gordon Lightfoot

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:10:48 GMT

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what’s on the radar of our editors for the morning of May 2 …What we are watching in Canada …Gordon Lightfoot, the legendary folk musician whose silvery refrains told a tale of Canadian identity that was exported to listeners worldwide, has died at 84.The singer-songwriter died of natural causes at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto on Monday evening, said Victoria Lord, the musician’s longtime publicist and a representative for the family. He had suffered numerous health issues in recent decades.Considered one of the most renowned voices to emerge from Toronto’s Yorkville folk club scene in the 1960s, Lightfoot went on to record no less than 20 studio albums and pen hundreds of songs, including “Early Morning Rain,” “Carefree Highway” and “Sundown.”“We have lost one of our greatest singer-songwriters,” tweeted ...

Canadian broadcasters ramp up coronation coverage ahead of main event Saturday

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:10:48 GMT

TORONTO — Canada’s major networks have kicked off a week of coronation coverage leading to Saturday’s historic crowning of King Charles III and Queen Consort, Camilla.CBC’s flagship newscast “The National” and “CTV National News” are each broadcasting live from London all week, while “Global National” heads overseas Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.In-depth coverage of the coronation at Westminster Abbey will begin in the wee hours Saturday for much of the country, and is set to feature Lisa LaFlamme on Citytv, Adrienne Arsenault on CBC, Dawna Friesen on Global and Omar Sachedina on CTV.Live coverage of Saturday’s main event begins at 4 a.m. ET on channels including Citytv, CBC TV, CBC News Network, CTV, CP24 and CTV News Channel. Global starts its live coverage at 5 a.m. ET.Streaming coverage also begins at 4 a.m. ET through digital options including CBC Gem, CBC News Explore, CBC Listen, CTVNews.ca and the CTV and CTV News apps. Coverage on Globalnews.ca starts at 5 a.m. ...

Tom Cochrane, Steven Page recall Gordon Lightfoot’s influence on Canadian music

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:10:48 GMT

TORONTO — Gordon Lightfoot left a lasting impression on music fans and some Canadian musicians say his influence on the country’s collective identity is immeasurable.Rock singer Tom Cochrane described Lightfoot, who died Monday at 84 years old, as a personal friend and inspiration who proved himself as one of Canada’s “seminal cultural artists” while being “a heck of a nice guy” all the while.Cochrane twice honoured the “If You Could Read My Mind” and “Sundown” singer-songwriter for his musical contributions – the first time was when he inducted Lightfoot into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003.At that ceremony, he compared Lightfoot to one of the Group of Seven artists, a compliment Cochrane says resonated with the folk musician who “saw himself genuinely as the cultural embodiment of who we are as a nation.”A representative for Lightfoot’s family says he died of natural causes at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. He had suffered numerous heal...

Fishers crabby over Japan’s Russian imports, but Tokyo says Canada exports negligible

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:10:48 GMT

OTTAWA — Atlantic fishers are feeling the pinch as Japan brings in cheap Russian product rather than Canadian snow crabs, with federal ministers and provincial premiers saying they are raising the issue with Japanese officials.But Tokyo is pushing back on claims that its trade decisions are undermining G7 sanctions — or that they are having much of an effect on the Canadian industry.Snow crab prices have dropped in Newfoundland and Labrador from $7.60 per pound at the start of last year’s season to an opening price of $2.20 this year. Fishers in the province have refused to start harvesting this year as they scramble to sell off last year’s surplus, although the price could still rise.Analysts say crab is a lucrative species for Atlantic Canada, and it was the country’s second-largest seafood export in 2021. Market prices hit record highs during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but began plummeting last year.The United States blocked sales from Russia to punish t...

Some 35,000 CRA workers continue strike as tentative deal reached with Treasury Board

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:10:48 GMT

Talks are set to resume between the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency, as some 35,000 CRA employees continue to walk the picket line.PSAC tweeted Monday evening that the two sides had met throughout the day and late into the night, without an agreement.Earlier in the day, the CRA said in a statement that the agency and the union had resumed in-person negotiations, with “a view to reach a new collective agreement as soon as possible, that is both fair to employees and reasonable for taxpayers.”The country’s largest federal public-sector union announced early Monday morning it had reached deals with the government covering more than 120,000 public servants across the country and bringing them back to work after a 12-day strike.The tentative agreements came after the Treasury Board, which oversees the administration of the federal government, tabled what it described as a “final offer” on Friday.They include 11.5 per cent wage...

Canadians targeted ‘more aggressively’ by fraud calls than Americans, study suggests

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 08:10:48 GMT

TORONTO — A new study suggests there’s been an uptick in phone scams in Canada, such as those involving federal agency impersonation or air duct cleaning.A report released Tuesday by Seattle-based Hiya, which aims to protect phone users from spam through its voice security platform, found 6.3 per cent of unwanted calls received by Canadians in the first three months of the year were considered fraud, compared with 5.9 per cent in the final quarter of 2022.Unwanted calls include those that are legal, such as sales calls concerning a service the recipient has subscribed to, as well as two illegal types: scams involving an outright lie, and those where a product does exist, but the recipient didn’t request it.Canada lags behind the United States, the study found: the average Canadian received three spam calls per month in the early part of the year, compared with 14.5 in the United States. But Canadians were on the other end of a much higher proportion of fraud-related call...