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Uzbekistan hosts summit of regional economic alliance

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:03 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — An economic bloc that includes several ex-Soviet nations along with Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey held a summit Thursday, with leaders vowing to further expand trade and economic ties.Members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), who met in Uzbekistan’s capital of Tashkent, discussed plans for speeding regional economic integration.They also talked about the need for increasing the ECO’s global profile through fostering regional and global partnerships. “Our vast region, which is home to half a billion people, has a great potential for developing cooperation in trade, economy, industry, investment, innovation and transport,” the summit’s host, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, said in a speech at the summit.He said it was important to “fully utilize the potential of transcontinental transport corridors that pass through our territories and link us with major markets in the Asia-Pacific region, South Asia, the Middle E...

WSP Global Q3 profit and revenue up as business grows across all segments

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:03 GMT

MONTREAL — WSP Global Inc. is reporting its third-quarter profit and revenue both rose by nearly a quarter compared with a year ago, buoyed by organic growth as well as recent acquisitions.The engineering company says its net earnings attributable to shareholders grew to $156.2 million or $1.25 per share for the three months ended Sept. 30 compared with $127.5 million or $1.05 per share in the same period a year earlier.Revenue rose 24 per cent to $3.6 billion in its third quarter from $2.9 billion the year before.On an adjusted basis, WSP’s profit climbed to $1.98 per share in its most recent quarter compared with $1.59 per share a year earlier.The result beat analyst expectations for $1.90 per share, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.Chief executive Alexandre L’Heureux also says a seven per cent year-over-year backlog growth to $14.28 billion in the third quarter speaks to continued demand for the Montreal-based firm’s services.This report by The Canad...

Veteran Spanish conservative politician shot in face in Madrid street

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:03 GMT

MADRID (AP) — Veteran Spanish right-wing politician Alejandro Vidal-Quadras has been taken to a hospital in Madrid after being shot in a street in the capital, police said Thursday.Police said he was shot in the face on a central street around 1:30 p.m. local time and was conscious when taken to a hospital.Vidal-Quadras, 78, was a long-time member of Spain’s conservative Popular Party, its regional leader in Catalonia, and a European Parliament member before he broke away to help found the far-right Vox party. He left Vox shortly after a failed attempt to win a European lawmaker seat in 2014.Police are investigating the shooting.Vox President Santiago Abascal said he believed Vidal-Quadras’ life was not in immediate danger.“Thank god it seems that Alejandro Vidal-Quadras is out of danger,” Abascal said.Popular Party President Alberto Núñez Feijóo deplored the shooting and wished for his recovery.The Associated Press

Few community college students go on to earn 4-year degrees. Some states have found ways to help

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:03 GMT

After delaying college for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jaden Todd wasn’t sure a four-year school was the right place to start.“I was extremely concerned that I forgot how to learn,” he said.Community college appealed as a stepping stone, but he also had heard stories of students who had to start over when they transferred because their credits didn’t count at the new school. Todd, 21, was relieved to wind up at Northern Virginia Community College’s ADVANCE program, a partnership with George Mason University that put him on a clear path to his goal of a bachelor’s degree in computer science.Such established arrangements between two- and four-year colleges and universities have shown promise in helping more community college students go on to earn bachelor’s degrees, according to data released Thursday by U.S. Education Department. Only 13% of federal financial aid recipients who enrolled in community college in 2014 received a bachelor’s degree within eigh...

In Wisconsin, old fashioneds come with brandy. Lawmakers want to make it somewhat official

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:03 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — In Wisconsin, the old fashioned cocktail comes with brandy, not bourbon.Now, state lawmakers want to make it somewhat official.A bipartisan resolution declaring the brandy old fashioned as the official Wisconsin state cocktail was up for approval Thursday in the state Assembly. It’s a resolution, not a bill, so even if passed by the Assembly and Senate the brandy old fashioned won’t make it onto the list of other official state symbols that include milk as the official beverage, kringle as the official pastry and corn as the official grain. Getting that level of recognition, enshrined in the state’s “Blue Book,” requires introduction of a bill, a public hearing and then the signature of the governor.Some efforts to declare official state symbols, like Colby as the official cheese, have run into opposition. The Colby proposal, around since 2019, has gotten shredded by those concerned that naming just one official cheese would hurt the sales, or ...

Hit summer movies help Cineplex reports record Q3 revenue

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:03 GMT

TORONTO — Cineplex Inc. reported net income of $29.7 million in its latest quarter as Barbie, Oppenheimer and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning helped its revenue hit an all-time quarterly record.The movie theatre company says the profit amounted to 40 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, down from $30.9 million or 43 cents per diluted share a year earlier.The results for the quarter last year included a $49.8-million one-time gain related to the reorganization of its Scene loyalty program.Revenue for the quarter this year totalled $463.6 million, up from $339.8 million in the same quarter last year.The increase came as theatre attendance rose to nearly 15.7 million for the quarter compared with nearly 11.1 million a year earlier.Box office revenue per patron rose to $12.00 compared with $11.25 a year ago, while concession revenue per patron was $8.44, up from $8.35 in the same quarter last year.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2023.C...

Delays at Pearson Terminal 1 after arriving passengers mistakenly allowed through wrong door

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:03 GMT

Several passengers arriving at Pearson International Airport on Thursday morning are reporting major delays after an apparent mistake by airport staff.In a post to X at 8:30 a.m., the airport said travellers at Terminal 1 transborder were being held after arriving passengers were let through the wrong door into a restricted area.Photos posted to social media show hundreds of passengers waiting in the terminal.In an update on X just before 10 a.m., the airport said it was beginning to resume “normal operations with heightened security.”Passengers at T1 transborder are holding this morning after arriving passengers were allowed to flow through the wrong door. We will update as information becomes available. pic.twitter.com/a1DH9mns4w— Toronto Pearson (@TorontoPearson) November 9, 2023An unconfirmed tip to CityNews claims passengers from a Calgary flight were the ones mistakenly allowed into the restricted area. An aviation source tells CityNews it was a Lynx flight a...

Poland’s outgoing minister asks new legislators to seek further war reparations from Germany

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:03 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s outgoing deputy foreign minister said Thursday that he has written to newly-elected legislators and senators urging them to continue to seek some $1.3 trillion in reparations from Germany for the Nazis’ World War II invasion and occupation of the country. Poland’s right-wing government has prepared a report of the losses caused by Nazi Germany’s occupation in 1939-45, and last year directed a formal request to Berlin for reparations. Berlin says the case had been settled long ago and is closed. A government change is due in Poland following last month’s general election and the outgoing deputy foreign minister, Arkadiusz Mularczyk, who had been the driving force behind the report, said he’s written to all new parliament members asking them to keep pushing for the reparations.“These action aimed at obtaining elementary justice for Poland and for the Poles are undoubtedly a patriotic and moral element for all the new lawmakers and senators,” Mularc...

Republican presidential hopeful wants to build a wall along the Canada-U.S. border

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:03 GMT

It was a well-worn Canadian punchline during the Trump years: someone should build a wall along the Canada-U.S. border. One of the former president’s would-be successors says he wants to do exactly that. During Wednesday’s Republican primary debate, a straight-faced Vivek Ramaswamy called it an example of skating to where the puck is going.It also reflects a popular talking point among some Capitol Hill Republicans who say they fear an increase in migrants entering the U.S. illegally from Canada. Ramaswamy’s campaign strategy has been to embrace and amplify Trump’s shock-and-awe tactics, which famously included plans for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. The debate, featuring just five of the Republican hopefuls, came in the face of fresh polling that suggests Trump himself remains the runaway favourite.

Analysts warn that Pakistan’s anti-migrant crackdown risks radicalizing deported Afghans

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:03 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Pakistani government’s crackdown on undocumented migrants and mass deportations to Afghanistan risk radicalizing those who have been forced out of the country — often returning to deplorable conditions back home, analysts and experts said Thursday.More than 250,000 Afghans have left Pakistan in recent weeks as the government rounded up, arrested and kicked out foreign nationals without papers. The drive mostly affects Afghans who make up the majority of foreigners living in Pakistan, although authorities say that all who are in the country illegally are targeted. Thousands are crossing the border every day into Afghanistan with few or no belongings, enduring harsh conditions until they are relocated within a country they left to seek a better life.The mistreatment could lead to their radicalization by fueling hatred for Pakistan, said Zahid Hussain, an analyst of militancy and author of several books, including “Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Milita...