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Aftershock rattles Morocco as rescuers seek survivors from the earthquake that killed over 2,000

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:51 GMT

AMIZMIZ, Morocco (AP) — An aftershock rattled Moroccans on Sunday as they prayed for victims of the nation’s strongest earthquake in more than a century and toiled to rescue survivors while soldiers and workers brought water and supplies to desperate mountain villages in ruins. The disaster killed more than 2,000 people — a number that is expected to rise.The United Nations estimated that 300,000 people were affected by Friday night’s magnitude 6.8 quake and some Moroccans complained on social networks that the government wasn’t allowing more help from outside. International aid crews were prepared to deploy, but waited for the Morocco government to request their assistance.“We know there is a great urgency to save people and dig under the remains of buildings,” said Arnaud Fraisse, founder of Rescuers Without Borders, who had a team stuck in Paris waiting for the green light. “There are people dying under the rubble, and we cannot do anything to save them.”Help was slow to ar...

Motorcyclist critically injured, lost control and struck vehicle in city’s west end

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:51 GMT

A male motorcyclist is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after they lost control of their bike and struck a vehicle in the city’s west end.Toronto police were called to the Bloor Street West and Kipling Avenue area in Etobicoke at around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday for reports of a collision.Police said a 29-year-old man was operating a 2022 Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle southwest on Dundas Street West near Jerry Howarth Drive when he lost control and travelled through an enclosed grass area before striking a Kia near the intersection.A 47-year-old woman was operating the 2014 Kia Forte westbound on Bloor Street West at the time.The male motorcyclist was rushed to a trauma centre with life-threatening injuries. Police said the woman was not seriously injured in the crash.The investigation is ongoing.

North Macedonia police say a migrant was electrocuted as he descended from freight train roof

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:51 GMT

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Authorities in North Macedonia say a migrant was electrocuted as he tried to descend from the roof of a train carriage.The man in his 30s died instantly early Sunday when he touched a cable during an attempt to descend from the roof of a freight train container near the central town of Gradsko.Police said in a statement the accident was reported by the National Crisis Center. They did not provide details about the migrant’s origin.The police told The Associated Press that, in the first six months of 2023, a total of 5,280 attempts at illegal crossing were prevented, the vast majority of them at the southern border with Greece. That is a reduction of 43% on the same period last year.Most of the migrants attempting to cross into North Macedonia are Syrians, police said. Konstantin Testorides, The Associated Press

These are the major players among Canadian airlines in an increasingly crowded market

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:51 GMT

Air Canada has been the dominant player since it acquired rival Canadian Airlines in 2001, and now accounts for nearly half of the country’s domestic air travel market, flying by far the most planes internationally as well.WestJet, founded as a regional upstart in Calgary in 1996, has grown to serve nearly a third of the domestic market. It completed its purchase of Sunwing earlier this year but is facing a growing raft of rivals out of its home base in Alberta.Porter Airlines, which launched in 2006 out of the Billy Bishop regional airport near downtown Toronto, is tracing a rapid expansion as it seeks to nearly double its fleet by 2025 in direct competition with Air Canada. It now flies out of the larger Toronto Pearson airport as well.Air Transat, co-founded by current Quebec Premier François Legault in 1986, has struggled to market its tour packages since the COVID-19 pandemic. It has also failed to turn a quarterly profit for three-and-a-half years straight while shoulder...

Airline competition ramps up, setting stage for showdown and reducing (some) fares

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:51 GMT

MONTREAL — Passengers aren’t the only ones feeling cramped these days.Though Canadian flights have long been dominated by Air Canada and WestJet, the emergence of newer carriers including Flair Airlines and Lynx Air has shaken up the sector, injecting fresh competition to a once-complacent market.Most airlines are setting plans in motion to ramp up growth over the next year, adding more planes to an already crowded field — and cheaper fares on the busiest routes. “Whenever you’ve got players trying to establish themselves in these markets, it is a boon for consumers,” said former Air Canada chief operating officer Duncan Dee.Key domestic arteries such as Toronto-Vancouver, Vancouver-Calgary and Montreal-Toronto host more airlines than ever — up to six now versus as few as two several years ago — with fares dragged down by a pair of budget carriers.The cost of a domestic round-trip plane ticket fell to $289 on average this fall, a drop of 24 per cent from 2019 levels and 11 per...

A US Navy vet got unexpected help while jailed in Iran. Once released, he repaid the favor

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:51 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michael White had only recently arrived in a grim Iranian jail when a curious fellow prisoner, an English-speaking Iranian, approached him in the courtyard for a conversation.The American did not reveal much at first, but it was the beginning of an unlikely friendship between White, a Navy veteran imprisoned on spying charges he says were unfounded, and Mahdi Vatankhah, a young Iranian political activist whose positions on social issues had drawn his government's ire.As the men connected behind bars over a shared interest in politics and human rights, they developed a bond that proved vital for both.Vatankhah, while in custody and after his release, helped White by providing White's mother with crucial, firsthand accounts about her son's status in prison and by passing along letters White had written while he was locked up. Once freed, White did not forget. He pushed successfully this year for Vatankhah’s admission to the United States, allowing the men t...

'Maryment' CEO joins Weekend Morning News to share more on wedding budgeting

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:51 GMT

It is still wedding season and we know the cost of saying 'I Do' adds up. Laura Panozzo, CEO of 'Maryment' shares more on how it doesn't have to be that way.Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.

Sunday brunch: Bread pudding pancakes with Southport Grocery and Cafe

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:51 GMT

Check out this morning's Sunday Brunch with Southport Grocery and Cafe where we make bread pudding pancakes.Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.

Author of 'The Owners Manual to Life' on worrying less

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:51 GMT

Author of 'The Owner's Manual to Life' and therapist Michael Zajaczkowsi joins WGN Weekend Morning News to share tips on how to worry less and live a better life.Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter.

The northern lights were heating up: Why haven't we seen them lately?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:18:51 GMT

(NEXSTAR) - Earlier this year, those living as far south as Alabama were treated to a special celestial treat: not aliens, but the aurora borealis. Since then, most in the U.S. haven’t had the chance to see the northern lights, despite hopes that they would dance to the south amid an active space weather period. So where are the northern lights? “It’s a little bit of a crapshoot,” Bill Murtagh, program coordinator for the SWPC and seasoned space weather forecaster, tells Nexstar. “We’ve had just as many eruptions occur since [spring], but we just haven’t been lucky - or unlucky, whichever way you look at it.”Certain conditions have to be met for any part of the Lower 48 to see the northern lights. Coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, play a major role in that. CMEs are explosions of plasma and magnetic material from the sun, NOAA explains. While CMEs and solar flares (which can occur simultaneously) can impact navigation, communication and radio signals here on Earth, CME...