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Nepal to give priority to relations with India, China

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:01:44 GMT

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal’s new government, led by a communist prime minister, will give priority to enhancing relations with both of its giant neighbors, India and China, but won’t use them against each other for its own benefit, the newly appointed foreign minister said Wednesday. Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud told The Associated Press in an interview that Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is set to make his first official trip abroad to India since taking power earlier this year. Nepal is bordered on three sides by India and shares an open border, while the highest Himalayan peaks are divided between Nepal and China. The two Asian giants compete for influence over the tiny nation, showering it with financial aid and investments.Saud, however, said the government will continue to maintain good relationships with both countries and would not do anything to hamper ties with either of the neighbors.“We will never use the two nations against each other for our ...

UN says at least 55 migrants drowned in shipwreck off Libya

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:01:44 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — A rubber boat carrying dozens of Europe-bound migrants sank off the coast of Libya and at least 55 people drowned, including women and children, the U.N. migration agency said on Wednesday.The International Organization for Migration said the disaster took place on Tuesday. The boat was carrying at least 60 migrants and had set off from the coastal town of Garabouli, east of Libya’s capital, Tripoli.The agency said five migrants survived the shipwreck and were brought back to shore by the Libyan coast guard. It was not immediately clear what happened to the vessel.The was the latest tragedy in the central Mediterranean Sea, a key route for migrants. The IOM said at least 537 people have drowned or gone missing in migrant disasters in the Mediterranean so far this year, while over 4,300 have been intercepted and returned to Libya.Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East trying to make it to Europe....

Bavaria to make it easier to shoot wolves in Alpine region

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:01:44 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — Officials in Germany’s southern state of Bavaria said Wednesday that they want to make it easier to shoot wolves after farmers complained that their livestock on Alpine pastures are being preyed upon.Governor Markus Soeder said his state administration has passed a decree allowing hunters to carry out a general cull in an area where a wolf has killed a single farm animal. The cull no longer has to be restricted to the specific wolf responsible for the killingThe move has angered conservationists, some of whom have accused Soeder of exaggerating the problem to drum up support for his conservative Christian Social Union ahead of state elections in October.Regional lawmaker Florian von Brunn of the opposition Social Democrats accused Soeder of “stoking fear” about wolves and predicted that European Union conservation rules would result in the decree being nixed in the courts.Soeder dismissed concerns about the protection of wolves, which have returned to various par...

Medal of Honor recipient’s remains ID’d 73 years after Korea

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:01:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The remains of a U.S. Army corporal killed during the Korean War have been identified 73 years after he was declared missing and was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery, U.S. and South Korean officials said Wednesday. Luther H. Story of Buena Vista, Georgia was posthumously awarded the nation’s highest military award for his actions during an intense attack by the North Korean army on Sept. 1, 1950. U.S. officials said that Story “fearlessly stood in the middle of the road, throwing grenades into the truck. Out of grenades, he crawled to his squad, gathered up additional grenades, and again attacked the vehicle.”He was wounded in action and stayed behind so that his company could get to safety. “When last seen he was firing every weapon available and fighting off another hostile assault,” U.S. officials said. Story’s remains could not be identified, and Gen. Omar Bradley presented Story’s father the Medal of Honor at a Pentagon ceremony in 1951...

Rogers records $511 million profit in Q1 as it prepared to close Shaw deal

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:01:44 GMT

TORONTO — Rogers Communications Inc. saw its profit increase by 30 per cent to $511 million in its most recent quarter as it prepared to close a deal to buy Shaw Communications Inc.The Toronto-based telecommunications company says its first-quarter profit compared with a net income of $392 million in the same period last year.The profit amounted to diluted earnings per share of $1 for the period ended March 31, up from 77 cents during its previous first quarter.On an adjusted basis, its net income totalled $553 million, a 20 per cent increase from $462 million during the prior first quarter, while its adjusted diluted earnings per share moved from 91 cents to $1.09 per share.Revenue for the period ticked up six per cent to $3.8 million in the most recent quarter, up from $3.6 billion in the previous first quarter.The period covers the last quarter before Rogers combines with Shaw, which it purchased in March 2021 for $26 billion, but only got the final government approval to move fo...

Teck Resources cancels shareholder vote on separation plan ahead of annual meeting

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:01:44 GMT

VANCOUVER — Teck Resources Ltd. says it will not go ahead with a key shareholder vote on its plan to separate its metals and steelmaking coal businesses into two companies.The announcement comes just hours ahead of the company’s annual meeting.Teck board chair Sheila Murray says the board will focus on incorporating the feedback it heard into a revised value-enhancing separation to maximize value for shareholders.Teck is facing an unsolicited takeover offer from Swiss commodities trader Glencore, which had urged shareholders to reject the company’s proposal in favour of its offer to acquire the company.Glencore had said it would be unable to pursue its own bid if Teck’s plan to separate its businesses went ahead.Teck is controlled by the Keevil family, which owns the company’s class A shares together with Japanese company Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. Ltd.This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:TECK.B)The...

Infinite banking has TikTok buzzing, but is it for you?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:01:44 GMT

Scroll through TikTok’s finance feed and you’ll come across viral videos on “infinite banking.” The concept is making a splash on social media, fueled by celebrities like rapper Waka Flocka Flame.But infinite banking is nothing new. The term was coined by economist Nelson Nash in the 1980s and outlined in his 2000 book, “Becoming Your Own Banker: Unlock the Infinite Banking Concept.” The strategy involves tapping into the cash value of certain life insurance policies like whole life and treating it as a personal bank.Nash promoted infinite banking as a path to financial freedom and wealth creation. But it’s a little more complicated than Waka Flocka Flame and TikTokkers claim.HOW INFINITE BANKING WORKSWhole life insurance policies usually last your entire life and have a cash value component that grows at a guaranteed rate over time. This rate of return varies among insurers, but it’s typically around 5%, Barry Flagg, a chartered life underwriter in Tampa, Florida, and the founder o...

Mendicino announces first step of firearm buyback program, targeting industry

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:01:44 GMT

OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says Ottawa has taken its first step toward launching its firearms buyback program, beginning with industry. Mendicino said at a news conference this morning that the government has signed a contract with the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association to work with businesses and retailers that currently hold inventory prohibited under a May 2020 order-in-council. The cabinet decision to ban about 1,500 models of firearms the government says are unfit for civilian use came in the wake of a mass shooting in Nova Scotia, the deadliest in modern Canadian history.The association Mendicino named in his announcement tweeted during the minister’s remarks that it remains “skeptical” of this industry buyback program, citing concerns about a lack of implementation process.Mendicino says the Liberal government will be transparent about the cost of the program, which is expected to begin later this year, but he did not prov...

Sudanese crowd at borders to escape amid shaky truce

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:01:44 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Crowds of families have been growing at Sudan’s border crossing with Egypt and at a main port, desperately trying to escape their country’s violence and sometimes waiting for days with little food or shelter, witnesses said Wednesday. In the capital Khartoum, the intensity of fighting eased on the second day of a three-day truce. Taking advantage of relative calm, many residents in Khartoum and the neighboring city of Omdurman emerged from their homes to seek food and water, lining up at bakeries or grocery stores, after days being trapped inside by the fighting between the army and a rival paramilitary group. Some inspected shops or homes that had been destroyed or looted. “There is a sense of calm in my area and neighborhoods,” said Mahasen Ali, a tea vendor who lives in Khartoum’s southern neighborhood of May. “But all are afraid of what’s next.” Still, gunfire and explosions could be heard in the city, though residents said clashes were in more limited p...

Slovenia: Bear lightly injures dog walker, amid cull debate

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 07:01:44 GMT

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — A bear has attacked and bitten a man walking his dog in a village south of Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana, authorities said Wednesday.The man suffered a minor leg injury in the attack around 7.30 on Wednesday morning in Želimlje, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Ljubljana, municipal authorities said.The bear went back into the forest, where logging is currently taking place. Slovenia is an Alpine country covered in forests.Slovenia has been engulfed in a debate over the need for an organized culling of bears, amid demands that their population be lowered from the current 1,100 to around 800.Wednesday’s incident comes after two bears collided with cars on roads in central Slovenia last week in two separate accidents. One of the animals died and the other ran away injured.The Associated Press