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Alberta researchers call for public inquiry into program to ensure oilsands cleanup

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 18:54:48 GMT

Alberta university researchers are calling for an open public inquiry into a provincial program designed to ensure oilsands producers can pay to clean up after themselves.They say the agreement at an international climate meeting to transition away from fossil fuels makes it all the more imperative that there’s enough money left to clean up tailings ponds and other impacts when the mines complete their useful life. Co-author Martin Olszynski at the University of Calgary says the government’s current plan allows companies to delay paying for remediation until production starts to decline — meaning there will be less money for cleanup just as it starts to be needed. He says the current tailings pond plans are scientifically unproven and won’t return the land to something that can be used for other purposes.He and his colleagues are calling for an inquiry similar to the one being held into renewable energy in Alberta, especially after delegates at the COP28 meeting in...

Montreal mayor Valérie Plante says fatigue was factor in news conference health scare

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 18:54:48 GMT

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is back on the job after taking ill and sinking to the ground during a news conference last Tuesday.Plante told reporters at city hall she has consulted her doctor and is doing well after taking a week off to recuperate.Video from last Tuesday shows Plante trailing off in the middle of answering a question in English, then saying she didn’t feel well and slowly sinking to the floor.Plante says she had started to feel dizzy, felt her vision blur, and decided to sit down to ensure she didn’t fall and hurt herself.She says fatigue likely played a role after an “intense” fall session that included tabling a budget, managing a homelessness crisis, and responding to a spending scandal at the city’s public consultation office.Plante says she took the dizzy spell as a sign she needed rest, adding that she is “up and running” after a few days of sleep, light yoga and time with her children and husband.This report by The ...

Satan club plans to meet after classes at Tennessee elementary school

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 18:54:48 GMT

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — An After School Satan Club plans to begin offering activities to children at a Tennessee elementary school following Christmas break, officials said.The Satanic Temple plans to host the club at Chimneyrock Elementary School in Cordova, news outlets reported. It will begin meeting on Jan. 10 in the school’s library and run through the spring semester, according to an announcement Tuesday posted on social media.A flyer about the club says the Satanic Temple is a non-theistic religion that views Satan “as a literary figure who represents a metaphorical construct of rejecting tyranny and championing the human mind and spirit.”It says it does not attempt to convert children to any religious ideology, but offers activities that “emphasize a scientific, rationalistic, non-superstitious worldview.” Memphis-Shelby County Schools said in a statement that the district would rent out the space to the organization per its policy.“As a public school distric...

South Carolina’s top education official wants online digital maps as part of $38M school safety ask

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 18:54:48 GMT

GILBERT, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s top education official plans to ask lawmakers for $5 million to put a digital map of every school in the state online and make those maps immediately available on police officers’ mobile devices as they respond to a shooting or other emergency at a given school.Education Superintendent Ellen Weaver announced those plans Wednesday as she joined Gov. Henry McMaster and law enforcement officials at the state’s newest project to protect students — a closed school now dedicated to training officers, firefighters, paramedics and others to respond to school safety.Weaver and McMaster joined South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel at the Center for School Safety and Targeted Violence, which the division has used for training since 2017 with permission of the local school board, but has since purchased and turned into a training facility.“If our students and teachers aren’t safe, nothing else matters,” said Weaver, who was elected s...

2 snowmachine riders found dead after search in western Alaska

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 18:54:48 GMT

NOME, Alaska (AP) — Two snowmachine riders in western Alaska were found dead a day after they were reported overdue and a storm hampered search efforts, authorities said.Alaska State Troopers identified the riders as Charlene Habros, 34, and Dustin Gologergen, 55, both of Nome. Troopers, the Alaska National Guard and Nome search and rescue were working to recover the bodies Wednesday, troopers spokesperson Austin McDaniel said by email.Troopers received a report around 7 a.m. Monday that the two were traveling from Teller to Nome — about 70 miles (112.7 kilometers) away — and were overdue. Initial ground search efforts from Nome were hampered by a storm. The wind chill in Nome earlier Monday morning was as cold as 20 below 0 Fahrenheit (-29 Celsius) and stayed well below 0 F throughout the day.A search plane located the snowmachine but there were no signs of the two, and a Teller-based search-and-rescue team was unable to reach the site because of poor weather. Road-clearing crews f...

BP denies ex-CEO Looney a $41 million payout, saying he misled the firm over work relationships

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 18:54:48 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The former chief executive of BP has been denied a 32.4 million pound ($41 million) payout after he was found to have misled the company over his past relationships with colleagues, the energy giant said Wednesday.Bernard Looney resigned in September after acknowledging he had not been “fully transparent” in his disclosures about his work relationships.BP said the company sought assurances from Looney in 2022 about the relationships but has concluded that his statements were “inaccurate and incomplete.”“Mr. Looney knowingly misled the board,” BP said. “The board has determined that this amounts to serious misconduct.”The firm said the 32.4 million pounds’ worth of salary, pension, bonus payments and shares have been forfeited as a result. Some payments already given to Looney, including 50% of the cash bonus paid for the 2022 financial year, will be “clawed back,” it added.The move reflects “the decision by the board that Mr. Looney should not retain ...

Albania’s Constitutional Court blocks Parliament’s ratification of deal with Italy on migrants

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 18:54:48 GMT

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday blocked, at least temporarily, the ratification by lawmakers of a contentious deal that Tirana signed with Rome to process asylum applications of some migrants arriving in Italy by sea in Albania instead. The court’s chief judge, Olta Zacaj, said the court would hold a public hearing on Jan. 18 to determine whether the agreement violates Albania’s constitution. The decision means the Parliament will not vote on whether to ratify the deal, a session that had been planned for Thursday. It was not immediately clear when — presumably after the January debate — the lawmakers could vote. The court’s decision followed a petition from the opposition, which has argued that the agreement runs counter to Albania’s constitution and international law. Under the five-year deal announced in November, Albania was to shelter up to 36,000 migrants for a year, or about 3,000 a month, trying to reach Italy withou...

Judge questions whether legal cases cited by Michael Cohen’s lawyer actually exist

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 18:54:48 GMT

A lawyer for Michael Cohen, the fixer-turned-foe of former President Donald Trump, appears to have cited court rulings that do not exist in a legal filing seeking to have Cohen’s post-prison supervision end early, according to a federal judge in New York who is threatening penalties.U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman issued an order Tuesday telling attorney David M. Schwartz to provide by Dec. 19 copies of three rulings Schwartz cited in the motion he filed last month. If the copies cannot be produced, the judge said Schwartz should explain in writing why he should not be sanctioned.“As far as the Court can tell, none of these cases exist,” Furman wrote. He added that if copies of the rulings aren’t submitted, he wanted “a thorough explanation of how the motion came to cite cases that do not exist and what role, if any, Mr. Cohen played in drafting or reviewing the motion before it was filed.”Schwartz did not immediately respond to phone and email messages Wednesday.A new ...

Self-defence or deliberate killing: Final arguments in trial of Saskatchewan Mountie

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 18:54:48 GMT

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — Crown prosecutors say a Saskatchewan Mountie deliberately lured his lover to an isolated area to kill him, but the officer’s lawyer argues the shooting was in self-defence.Bernie Herman, who is 55, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 26-year-old Braden Herman.The two men are not related.Braden Herman’s naked body was found in 2021 in a park on the outskirts of Prince Albert.Prosecutor Jennifer Schmidt says in the trial’s closing arguments that Bernie Herman’s testimony about not being able to remember what happened cannot be believed. Defence lawyer Darren Kraushaar told court the men’s relationship was violent and toxic and the shooting was not planned or deliberate. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 13, 2023.The Canadian Press

Armenia and Azerbaijan exchange POWs in line with agreement announced last week

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 18:54:48 GMT

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia and Azerbaijan on Wednesday exchanged prisoners of war, in line with an agreement announced last week that also promised the two countries would work towards a peace treaty and was hailed by the European Union as a major step toward peace in the tumultuous region.Azerbaijan brought back two servicemen, while 32 soldiers returned to Armenia, officials in both countries reported.Azerbaijan waged a lightning military campaign in September in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The offensive ended three decades of rule there by ethnic Armenians and resulted in the vast majority of the 120,000 residents fleeing the region, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.In their joint statement last week, the two countries said they “share the view that there is a historical chance to achieve a long-awaited peace.” They said they intend “to normalize relations and to reach the peace treaty on the basis of respect for the principles of sove...