Economic migrants seeking to settle in Canada's mostly French-speaking Quebec will have to pass a controversial "values test," the provincial government announced Wednesday.
"I think it's important that we understand the values and the society where you want to live," said Quebec Premier Francois Legault.
Those include support for democracy, gender equality and a new secularism law that prohibits some public servants from wearing religious symbols such as veils or turbans, he said.
The aim is to ensure better integration, said Quebec immigration minister Simon Jolin-Barrette, who announced a raised ceiling in arrivals from 40,000 this year to a maximum of 44,500 in 2020.
Quebec has the unique option of selecting which immigrants to Canada it wants to take in, and assigns them a so-called selection certificate -- the first step toward permanent residency.
The test, which starts on January 1 but does not apply to refugees, requires applicants to answer 15 of 20 questions ...

Quebec introduces 'values test' for immigrants

PTI Automatic

The Islamic State group's leadership has a "deep bench" and a replacement for deceased chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi could surface within weeks, the US government's top counter-terrorism expert said Wednesday.
Acting Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Russ Travers did not predict which IS figure would take over after Baghdadi, cornered in a weekend US military raid, killed himself in a Syria.
But he said the group has a number of people who could take the helm, with the ability to command some 14,000 fighters who have dispersed across Syria and Iraq.
"There's no question that the losses over the weekend were significant to ISIS," Travers told the House Homeland Security Committee, referring to Baghdadi's death as well to the killing of IS spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir.
"At the same time, it's a deep bench," he said.
"The United States and the coalition overall has had tremendous success in eliminating leadership over the years in both Al-Qaeda and ISIS. And yet the bench .

New IS leader could replace Baghdadi in weeks: US official

A fire ripped through a historic Japanese castle on the southern island of Okinawa early on Thursday morning, spreading throughout the World Heritage site's complex, local authorities said.
Shuri Castle is a key part of a complex dating back to the Ryukyu Kingdom, and is believed to have been in use from around the 1400s.
The blaze started before 3:00 am on Thursday morning, with the cause unknown as yet.
"The cause of the fire has not been determined yet but a security company alarm went off at around 2:30 in the morning," Ryo Kochi, a spokesman with the Okinawa prefectural police told AFP.
"It started at the main temple and looks to be spreading fast to all the main structures... Firefighters are still battling the fire," he added.
Television footage showed large orange flames engulfing the castle. Local media said there were no initial reports of injuries.
Kochi said a tourist event was being held at the castle from the 27th, and some work linked to the event continued until 1:00 ..

Fire engulfs World Heritage Japanese castle in Okinawa

Israel's justice minister on Wednesday approved the extradition of a Russian alleged hacker to the United States, where he is wanted for fraud.
"After thorough discussions these last few weeks with various parties, including political and judicial actors" Alexei Bourkov is to be extradited, Justice Minister Amir Ohana said in a statement.
The statement did not give a date for the planned extradition, nor the precise allegations faced by the Russian citizen, who was arrested in Israel in 2015.
Bourkov's name has been mentioned several times by Russian and Israeli media in connection with a possible prisoner swap with Naama Issachar, an Israeli-American convicted in Russia on cannabis charges.
According to Israeli media, Naama Issachar's family plan to submit a request to Israel's supreme court to prevent the extradition of Bourkov, in the hope of securing an agreement for their own relative to be freed.
The 26-year-old Israeli was arrested in Russia in April for possession of nine ...

Israel approves extradition to US of Russian 'hacker'

E-cigarette leader Juul shipped around one million mint-flavoured pods that were "contaminated," and then failed to inform customers or issue a recall once it realized the problem, according to a lawsuit filed by a former executive.
It comes as the vaping industry is facing tough scrutiny amid a mysterious epidemic of lung conditions linked to e-cigarette use that has killed 34 people and sickened around 1,500 in recent months.
In the lawsuit filed in a federal court in California on Tuesday, ex-senior vice president for finance Siddharth Breja's legal team wrote he was sacked for "whistleblowing" by objecting to the contaminated pods shipment and other unsafe conduct like selling expired or near-expired products.
The claims were termed "baseless" by the company, which told AFP that Breja was terminated "because he failed to demonstrate the leadership qualities needed in his role."
But Breja's suit claimed that the company had a culture of disregarding health and safety concerns, and .

Juul shipped 1 million contaminated products: lawsuit

Twitter said Wednesday it would bar political advertising globally on its platform, responding to growing criticism over misinformation from politicians on social media.
Chief executive Jack Dorsey said in a tweet that the company took the action to head off potential problems from "machine learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes."
The move comes with Facebook under pressure to apply fact-checking to politicians running ads with debunked claims.
Dorsey said the new policy, details of which will be unveiled next month, would ban ads on political issues as well as from candidates.
"We considered stopping only candidate ads, but issue ads present a way to circumvent," he said.
"Additionally, it isn't fair for everyone but candidates to buy ads for issues they want to push. So we're stopping these too.

Twitter to ban political ads worldwide on its platform

A female news presenter who is pursuing an equal pay claim against the BBC gets one sixth of the fee earned by a male presenter, an employment tribunal heard Wednesday.
Samira Ahmed, who fronts "Newswatch", was paid a fraction of the sum received by Jeremy Vine for presenting "Points of View" -- both viewer right-to-reply shows.
But the BBC argues that the programmes are not comparable, saying "Newswatch" is serious while "Points of View" is an entertainment programme.
The claim comes amid increased focus at the British Broadcasting Corporation on the size of top stars' pay and whether female stars are getting comparable amounts.
The BBC said "Points of View" requires the presenter to deal with issues "in a light-hearted way" -- and so its presenters have historically been "well-known figures in the world of light entertainment", meriting a higher market fee.
Newswatch "deals with matters seriously" on the "relatively niche" BBC News channel, and is only repeated on the main BBC One ..

Presenter takes BBC to tribunal in equal pay claim

The latest version of the popular US video game "Call of Duty" met with widespread anger and calls for a boycott in Russia on Wednesday for depicting Russian troops as brutal sadists.
Since its release last week, state media and gamers have railed at what they see as anti-Russian "propaganda".
"They have shown our men as scumbags," influential professional gamer Ilya Davydov, known as Ilya Maddyson, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
"You have to be a complete monster to play a blatantly criminal game that says directly that the army of our country are terrorists," Maddyson tweeted, suggesting it should be banned.
A news anchor on Channel One state television complained that the game depicts Russians as "real sadists" who "bomb, burn and destroy everything" and kill innocent people.
Published by US company Activision Blizzard, Call of Duty is a highly realistic "first-person shooter" game.
In one section, a young girl called Farah witnesses her father's murder by a Russian soldier in an ..

Russians slam US video game Call of Duty

The US Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate for the third straight time on Wednesday, but the central bank remains divided, with two of the 10 voting members dissenting.
And the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee made a key change in the wording of the statement, which makes it less certain it will make another move in December.
The FOMC lowered the policy interest rate by 25 basis points to a target range of 1.5-1.75 percent, as expected, pulling back another of the four interest rate increases it implemented in 2018.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is due to hold a press conference at 1830 GMT to explain the central bank's rationale but he will face a difficult balancing act.
Policymakers believe continued growth and strong employment "are the most likely outcomes but uncertainties about this outlook remain," the FOMC said in the announcement.
But in a key edit to the prior statement, the Fed removed the pledge to "act as appropriate to sustain the expansion." .

US Fed lowers key interest rate a third time

A Bangladesh opposition stalwart was jailed in absentia for three years Wednesday for threatening the prime minister in what his party said was another example of government critics being muzzled.
Thousands of opposition activists have been arrested under the rule of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has tightened her grip on power since being re-elected in December.
Giasuddin Quader Chowdhury, a vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was found guilty of making statements "conducive to public mischief" and "criminal conspiracy", the court said.
The charges arose from a speech he gave at a rally in 2018 when he said Hasina's fate would be "worse" than that of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's first president who was assassinated in 1975.
"We wanted a harsher punishment as we believe in the rule of law," prosecutor Samir Das Gupta told AFP.
Defence lawyer Enamul Hoque said the judgement was "politically motivated and biased".
Chowdhury's lawyers said the .

Bangladesh opposition stalwart jailed for threatening PM

Firefighters made progress battling a fire raging in northern California's wine country on Wednesday as rare "extreme" red flag warnings were issued for much of the Los Angeles region.
The National Weather Service said powerful Santa Ana winds, with potential gusts of up to 80 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour) in mountainous areas, had created "extremely critical" conditions in parts of southern California.
"We expect the Santa Anas to be howling," the NWS said.
A blaze in the Simi Valley northeast of Los Angeles known as the "Easy Fire" forced the evacuation of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and nearby homes, officials said.
Closer to Los Angeles, firefighters were battling the "Getty Fire," which began near the famous Getty Center museum on Monday and by Tuesday had burned 656 acres (265 hectares).
Authorities said the Getty Fire, which was caused by a tree branch that fell on power lines, had been 15 per cent contained but the strong winds had raised fears that ...

California fires: warnings for Los Angeles, progress up north

President Donald Trump still hopes to sign a trade deal with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in coming weeks despite Chile's cancellation of the APEC summit where they had been scheduled to meet, the White House said Wednesday.
"We look forward to finalising Phase One of the historic trade deal with China within the same time frame, and when we have an announcement, we'll let you know," spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement.

US wants China trade deal in 'same time frame' despite APEC summit cancellation

President Sebastian Pinera Wednesday pulled Chile out of hosting the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and the Cop 25 climate change conference due to an ongoing political crisis.
Pinera said the decision was "deeply painful" but after more than 10 days of street protests, Chile has decided it was not in a position to host either the November 16-17 trade summit or the December 2-13 climate convention.

Crisis-wracked Chile pulls out as APEC, climate meet host

The American economy slowed a touch in the third quarter but remained solid, thanks to a pickup in home sales and steady consumer spending, government figures showed Wednesday.
GDP growth avoided the steeper dropoff feared by economists but the US-China trade war still walloped the business sector, according to Commerce Department data.
The steady expansion offered President Donald Trump a measure of relief for his economic agenda, which has failed to produce the three percent growth he touted.
The economy expanded 1.9 per cent in the July-September period, well above economists' expectations but a notch lower than the 2.0 per cent growth seen in the second quarter.
The result, which is subject to revision, muddies the waters a bit for the US Federal Reserve, which later Wednesday is expected to announce a third consecutive interest rate cut in the effort to buoy flagging growth amid the uncertainty caused by Trump's trade wars.
"The Greatest Economy in American History!" Trump ...

US economy grows 1.9 per cent in Q3: Commerce

Belgium has denied a Chinese academic a visa and banned him from the EU's passport-free travel area for eight years after identifying him as a potential threat to national security, sources close to the probe told AFP Wednesday.
Song Xinning, the head of the Chinese government-backed Confucius Institute at the VUB university in Brussels, came to the attention of Belgium's VSSE intelligence agency for "damaging national security", the sources said.
The De Morgen and De Standaard newspapers said Song, a politics researcher who had visited Belgium for over a decade, was suspected of "espionage" for the Chinese state without giving precise details of the accusations against him.
The Belgian national Immigration Office said Song was refused a visa renewal in early September "for reasons of public order" after regularly visiting the country since 2007 without ever taking up permanent residence.
Other sources told AFP that the "public order" terminology also covers matters of spying and ...

Belgium kicks out Chinese academic in 'spy' row

A shoot-out in the northern Brazilian city of Manaus between police and suspected drug traffickers left 17 people dead, local authorities announced Wednesday.
"The individuals exchanged fire with the police, 17 were hit by bullets and transported to hospital, where they were confirmed dead," the state security secretariat said of the clash late Tuesday.
The aim of the police operation had been "to intercept a group of drug traffickers from a criminal faction that was preparing to murder rivals to take control of drug selling positions" in the city.
Police seized 17 weapons, including an Uzi submachine gun, as well as a huge amount of ammunition.
Military police commander Ayrton Norte told reporters that authorities were tipped off that 50 armed people were in a truck heading to attack a rival gang.
Various groups are fighting for control of the drug trafficking business in the north of Brazil, a strategic area for the transport of cocaine from neighbouring countries such as Colombia, .

Brazil says 17 killed in police action in Manaus

A forensic pathologist hired by Jeffrey Epstein's brother said Wednesday that evidence suggested the disgraced financier had not died by suicide in his jail cell but had been murdered.
Michael Baden contradicted the official verdict of suicide by hanging given by officials in August, saying Epstein's injuries were "more indicative of homicidal strangulation."
"I think that the evidence points toward homicide rather than suicide," Baden, a former New York City medical examiner who was present at the autopsy, told Fox News.
He said multiple fractures found in Epstein's neck -- specifically the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage -- were "very unusual for suicide."
Epstein was found dead in New York's high-security Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 10 as he awaited trial on allegations that he trafficked girls as young as 14 for sex.
New York's chief medical examiner Barbara Sampson ruled that he had killed himself, a verdict that has been disputed by Epstein's lawyers and his ...

Pathologist says Epstein's injuries point to murder, not suicide

Facebook said Wednesday it took down accounts linked to a Russian ally of President Vladimir Putin seeking to spread disinformation on the social platform in eight African countries.
The operations hiding behind fake identities were linked to Evgeny Prigozhin, who has been indicted in the United States in connection with an influence campaign targeting the 2016 US elections.
"Each of these operations created networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing," Facebook cybersecurity chief Nathaniel Gleicher said in a statement.
"We have shared information about our findings with law enforcement, policymakers and industry partners.

Facebook says Russian disinformation campaign targeted African countries

Dominic Thiem booked his spot in the Paris Masters third round on Wednesday by edging out Milos Raonic in a marathon encounter, while Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas also progressed.
Fifth seed Thiem had to dig deep to get past Raonic 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 6-4 as the Canadian powered down 30 aces in a thunderous serving display.
But Thiem, who has lost the last two French Open finals to Rafael Nadal across Paris at Roland Garros, saved nine of 10 break points to stay with his opponent before clinching the crucial breakthrough in game nine of the deciding set.
"It was unbelievable today, his serve," admitted the Austrian after winning in two hours and 38 minutes.
"He served almost all his serves between 205 (kph) and 230. When you have your chances you feel under so much pressure because you know you won't have many."
Thiem, who reached the semi-finals at Bercy last year, will face either Belgian 12th seed David Goffin or Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov in the last 16.
"The draw is unreal, only top 

AFP

AFP

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