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Laurentian Bank concludes review without deal to sell, sticks with plan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:49 GMT

MONTREAL — Laurentian Bank has completed its review of strategic options without a deal to sell the bank. It says it has decided that its best path forward to drive shareholder value is an accelerated evolution of its current plan with an increased focus on efficiency and simplification.A strategic review is often seen by investors as a prelude to a sale by a company. However, Laurentian says it will work on simplifying its organizational structure and focusing on allocating capital and resources to its highest grossing businesses and specialized products.As part of that plan, the bank says Éric Provost, currently head of commercial banking, will assume the leadership of personal banking as group head of personal and commercial banking.Sébastien Bélair will also become the bank’s chief administrative officer, assuming responsibility for the bank’s operations in addition to his current role as chief human resources officer.Laurentian says it will share more information wh...

Tiny Italian island coping with thousands of migrants who arrived in a short span

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:49 GMT

MILAN (AP) — A migrant reception center in Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa was overwhelmed Thursday as it coped with transferring to the mainland thousands of migrants who arrived on small, unseaworthy boats in a 24-hour span this week.The Red Cross said 4,200 migrants remained at the center of the 6,800 who had swamped the tiny tourist and fishing island in a flotilla of some 120 boats arriving from Tunisia. Transfers to the mainland were ongoing.“After a particularly challenging day like yesterday, today people are being continuously transferred,’’ said Francesca Basile of the Italian Red Cross. “The situation is certainly complex and gradually we are trying to return to normal.”She said all of the migrants have been given food, and that camping beds were being distributed “so that they don’t sleep in the cold.”On Wednesday, some migrants scuffled for food and bottles of water, according to Sicilian media. Others jumped into the sea to cool off.Italian television SKY TG24...

Ontario proposes letting pharmacists prescribe flu meds, give RSV vaccines

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:49 GMT

Ontario is planning to allow pharmacists to prescribe flu medication, administer flu shots to babies and administer RSV vaccines, when available, ahead of an expected fall viral surge.The Ministry of Health is asking for feedback on new draft regulations from the Ontario College of Pharmacists, but with a short two-week comment period as the respiratory virus season looms.“During the 2022-23 fall and winter season, Canadians experienced a surge of respiratory infections due to increased infections of influenza, RSV and COVID-19, which resulted in higher than usual hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions and deaths compared to previous seasons,” the college writes in a document posted on the province’s regulatory registry.“Based on insight from multiple health system and pharmacy partners, the 2023-24 fall and winter season may experience a similar surge of influenza, RSV and COVID-19 as community-based public health measures, such as masking, have re...

Libyan city buries thousands in mass graves after flood; mayor says death toll could triple

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:49 GMT

The city of Derna has buried thousands of people in mass graves, Libyan officials said Thursday, as search teams scoured ruins left by devastating floods and the city’s mayor said that the death toll could triple.The deluge swept away entire families on Sunday night and exposed vulnerabilities in the oil-rich country that has been mired in conflict since the 2011 uprising that toppled long-ruling dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Health officials have confirmed 5,500 deaths and say 9,000 people are still missing.Here’s a look at the latest developments.WHAT HAPPENED IN LIBYA?Daniel, an unusually strong Mediterranean storm, caused deadly flooding in towns across eastern Libya, but the worst-hit was Derna. As the storm pounded the coast Sunday night, residents said they heard loud explosions when the dams outside the city collapsed. Floodwaters washed down Wadi Derna, a valley that cuts through the city, crashing through buildings and washing people out to sea.A U.N. official said Thurs...

Movie Review: ‘Cassandro,’ with Gael Garcia Bernal as a liberated luchador, is a winner

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:49 GMT

Anyone who has eagerly followed Gael Garcia Bernal since his breakthrough roles in “Amores Perros” and “Y tu mamá también” likely never foresaw him one day in the world of lucha libra wrestling. Bernal, far from the most brawny actor, has been a slyer shape-shifter, whether in heels as a femme fatale in Pedro Almodovar’s “Bad Education” or on a motorcycle as Che Guevara in Walter Salles’ “Motorcycle Diaries.” But while almost anything with Bernal in it has been worth seeing, it’s been a little while — maybe his pair of movies with Pablo Larrain, 2012’s “No” and 2016’s “Neruda” — since Bernal had a sufficiently good part to, well, really go to the mat for. He’s found it, though, in “Cassandro,” Roger Ross Williams’ based-on-a-true-story drama about the Mexican wrestler Saúl Armendáriz. He was an exótico in 1990s lucha libra wrestling who rose to become one of the sport’s most popular champions. Exóticos, who first emerged in the 1...

China promotes economic ‘integration’ with Taiwan while militarily threatening the island

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:49 GMT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China is promoting new economic opportunities for Taiwanese people while at the same time ramping up military activity around the island it claims as its own.Experts say the “carrots and sticks” approach, which Beijing has employed for years, signals a choice between peaceful “reunification” and military aggression ahead of a Taiwanese presidential election next year.This week, China unveiled a plan for an “integrated development demonstration zone” in its southeastern Fujian province, the closest to self-governed, democratic Taiwan. Taipei strongly rejects China’s sovereignty claims.As part of the plan, Beijing is encouraging Taiwanese companies to list on Chinese stock exchanges and is promising better conditions for Taiwanese investors and a more “relaxed” environment for travel, according to a statement Tuesday by the Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council, China’s Cabinet.“The goal is to build an integrated development demonstration zone...

France sends the army to ensure water to drought-stricken Indian Ocean island of Mayotte

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:49 GMT

PARIS (AP) — France is sending military forces to distribute water on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, which is facing an unprecedented water crisis prompted by the island cluster’s most severe drought in decades.Troops with the French Foreign Legion and French navy based in the region will work with local authorities to ensure water supplies to local populations, the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.Authorities have ordered water cuts two days out of three on Mayotte, a territory northwest of Madagascar that is the poorest part of France. The water woes come on top of migration tensions around people arriving from the neighboring country of Comoros.Residents protested Saturday outside the Mayotte water management headquarters, carrying banners reading “Mayotte is Thirsty!”, according to local media reports. When the water taps are working, families fill up buckets and tubs as they can, but supplies quickly run low, especially in more remote areas....

World Cup referee Yoshimi Yamashita among first women match officials at Asian Cup

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:49 GMT

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Referee Yoshimi Yamashita will return to Qatar to make more soccer history at the men’s Asian Cup in January after she worked in the country last year at the men’s World Cup.Yamashita is among five female match officials, including two referees, picked Thursday by the Asian Football Confederation to work in Qatar. The tournament runs form Jan. 12 to Feb. 10.It is the first time the AFC has appointed female match officials for its marquee men’s event.Katherine Jacewicz of Australia was also picked among the referees. The assistants selected are Makoto Bozono and Naomi Teshirogi of Japan, and Kim Kyoung Min of South Korea.The 24-team Asian Cup will be played in most of the same stadiums as the men’s World Cup, where Yamashita served as the fourth official for six group games.Yamashita was one of three female referees picked by FIFA for the men’s World Cup. Stephanie Frappert of France made history working the Germany-Costa Rica game in t...

Grocer Empire reports Q1 profit and sales up from year ago

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:49 GMT

STELLARTON, N.S. — Empire Co. Ltd. says it earned $261.0 million in its latest quarter, up from $187.5 million in the same quarter last year, boosted by the sale of its 56 gas stations in Western Canada to Shell Canada.The grocer, which owns Sobeys and Safeway and other banners, says the profit amounted to $1.03 per share for the quarter ended Aug. 5, up from a profit of 71 cents per share a year earlier.Sales in what was Empire’s first quarter totalled $8.08 billion, up from $7.94 billion in the same quarter last year. Same-store sales were up 3.0 per cent, while same-store sales, excluding fuel, were up 4.1 per cent.On an adjusted basis, Empire says it earned 78 cents per share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 71 cents per share a year earlier.The average analyst estimate had been for an adjusted profit of 75 cents per share, based on estimates compiled by financial markets data firm Refinitiv.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14...

Chevron reports LNG outage at Australian plant as strike action escalates

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:10:49 GMT

SYDNEY (AP) — A Chevron Corp. liquefied natural gas plant in Australia reported a production outage Thursday as workers escalated a strike action against facilities that provide more than 5% of global LNG supplies. The U.S. energy giant said in a statement that it was working to resume full production at its Wheatstone facility “following a fault which has impacted about 25% of LNG production.”“The cause has been identified and restart activities have commenced,” the statement said.Chevron’s Wheatstone and Gorgon plants in Western Australia state account for more than 5% of global LNG supply.Chevron did not link the disruption to an escalation Thursday in the strikes at its Wheatstone and Gorgon LNG plants in Western Australia. Around 500 workers at the two Chevron sites have been taking limited strike actions since Sept. 8 in a dispute over wages and conditions.The Offshore Alliance, a partnership between the Australian Workers’ Union and the Maritime Union of Australia that ...