One of the women who spoke to Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston ahead of his change of heart on the bill to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic in the province is recounting the moments on Thursday that led to the decision.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s economy softened in August, extending a slowdown in industrial activity and real estate prices as Beijing faces pressure to ramp up spending to stimulate demand.

Data published by the National Bureau of Statistics Saturday showed weakening activity across industrial production, retail sales and real estate this month compared to July.

“We should be aware that the adverse impacts arising from the changes in the external environment are increasing,” said Liu Aihua, the bureau’s chief economist in a news conference.

Liu said that demand remained insufficient at home, and the sustained economic recovery still confronts multiple difficulties and challenges.

China has been grappling with a lagging economy post-COVID, with weak consumer demand, persistent deflationary pressures and a contraction in factory activity.

Chinese leaders have ramped up investment in manufacturing to rev up an economy that stalled during the pandemic and is still growing slower than hoped.

Beijing also has to deal with increasing pressure to implement large-scale stimulus measures to boost economic growth.

While industrial production rose by 4.5% in August compared to a year ago, it declined from July’s 5.1% growth, according to the bureau’s data released.

Retail sales grew 2.1% from the same time last year, slower than the 2.7% increase last month.

Fixed asset investment rose by 3.4% from January to August, down from 3.6% in the first seven months.

Meanwhile, investment in real estate declined by 10.2% from January to August, compared to last year.

The figures released Saturday come after trade data for August saw imports grow just 0.5% compared to a year ago.

The consumer price index rose 0.6% in August, missing forecasts according to data released Monday. Officials attributed the higher CPI to an increase in food prices due to bad weather.

But the core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose by just 0.3% in August, the slowest in over three years.

The Associated Press

As crime rates rise on P.E.I., the number of police officers per capita in the province has fallen. Some see that as a problem, but it's unlikely that the two are directly connected.

Halifax is among a number of cities in Canada experiencing hotter weather than outlying areas due to the so-called heat island effect, but people who study it say there are solutions.

Walking Together For Peace, a 200-kilometre walk across Nova Scotia, began in Pugwash and will end in Halifax on Sept. 21 for the International Day of Peace. CBC visited the walkers as they passed through Tatamagouche.

Andrew O'Hara says utility gave little notice on Aug. 11 when it released water from the dam, which O'Hara said lowered levels in front of his cottage by just over a metre, about four feet.

A board member at the Madhu Verma Migrant Justice Centre in Fredericton says refugees are being used as political scapegoats after the New Brunswick premier made comments about asylum seekers earlier in the week.

UNB professor Allen Curry has returned from his lengthy expedition around eastern waterways in the U.S. with a plan to create the Water Weaver Scholarship for students, named after the vessel in which he travelled more than 10,00 kilometres.

Some Western University students have observed a level of cleanliness on campus that they say is questionable as a strike by facilities workers enters its third week. 

The buzz of a CF-18 zooming through the sky is guaranteed to make you look up, and if one does fly by, look closely at the underbelly. 

London Morning music curator Ryan Soulliere keeps his ear to the ground listening for new and interesting songs. He shares three songs every week that will boost your own playlist.

BUKWO, Uganda (AP) — Dozens of mourners in Uganda paid respects to Rebecca Cheptegei, the Olympic athlete who died last week in Kenya after her partner set her on fire.

Local leaders and others gathered at the local administration hall Saturday as they awaited her burial at her ancestral home in a village near the Kenya border.

Cheptegei died after her body suffered 80% burns in the attack by Dickson Ndiema, who doused her in gasoline at her home in western Kenya’s Trans-Nzoia County on Sept. 3. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed to his injuries.

According to a report filed by the local chief, they quarreled over a piece of land the athlete bought in Kenya.

The horrific gasoline attack shocked many and strengthened calls for the protection of female runners facing exploitation and abuse in the East African country.

Cheptegei’s body was returned to Uganda Friday in a somber procession following a street march by dozens of activists in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret who demanded an end to physical violence against female athletes.

Cheptegei, who was 33, is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in a worrying pattern of gender-based violence in recent years. Kenya’s high rates of violence against women have prompted several marches this year.

Ugandan officials have condemned the attack, demanding justice for Cheptegei. First lady Janet Museveni, who also serves as Uganda’s education and sports minister, described the attack as “deeply disturbing.”

Don Rukare, chairman of the National Council of Sports of Uganda, said in a statement on X that the attack was “a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete.”

Four in 10 women, or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women, have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey.

Many Ugandan athletes train across the border in Kenya, an athletics powerhouse with better facilities. Some of the region’s best runners train together at a high-altitude center in Kenya’s west.

Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics, finishing in 44th place, less than a month before the attack. She had represented Uganda at other competitions.

Patrick Onen And Rodney Muhumuza, The Associated Press

MORONI, Comoros (AP) — The president of the Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros was “slightly injured” in a knife attack while attending the funeral of a religious leader on Friday, his office said.

President Azali Assoumani’s injuries were not serious and he had returned to his home, his office said in a statement. It said the attacker was arrested by security forces and is in their custody, but gave no details on the attacker’s identity or any more information on the circumstances of the attack.

Government minister Aboubacar Said Anli said Saturday that a civilian was also injured during the attack while attempting to protect the president.

Assoumani was reelected as president of Comoros in January in a vote denounced by opposition parties as fraudulent. At least one person died in unrest following the election. Assoumani, 65, is a former military leader who first came to power in Comoros in a coup in 1999.

The country, which is made up of an archipelago of islands off the east coast of Africa, has experienced more than a dozen coups or attempted coups since its independence from France in 1975.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

The Associated Press

BUKWO, Uganda (AP) — Dozens of mourners in Uganda paid respects to Rebecca Cheptegei, the Olympic athlete who died last week in Kenya after her partner set her on fire.

Local leaders and others gathered at the local administration hall Saturday as they awaited her burial at her ancestral home in a village near the Kenya border.

Cheptegei died after her body suffered 80% burns in the attack by Dickson Ndiema, who doused her in gasoline at her home in western Kenya’s Trans-Nzoia County on Sept. 3. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed to his injuries.

According to a report filed by the local chief, they quarreled over a piece of land the athlete bought in Kenya.

The horrific gasoline attack shocked many and strengthened calls for the protection of female runners facing exploitation and abuse in the East African country.

Cheptegei’s body was returned to Uganda Friday in a somber procession following a street march by dozens of activists in the western Kenyan town of Eldoret who demanded an end to physical violence against female athletes.

Cheptegei, who was 33, is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in a worrying pattern of gender-based violence in recent years. Kenya’s high rates of violence against women have prompted several marches this year.

Ugandan officials have condemned the attack, demanding justice for Cheptegei. First lady Janet Museveni, who also serves as Uganda’s education and sports minister, described the attack as “deeply disturbing.”

Don Rukare, chairman of the National Council of Sports of Uganda, said in a statement on X that the attack was “a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete.”

Four in 10 women, or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women, have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey.

Many Ugandan athletes train across the border in Kenya, an athletics powerhouse with better facilities. Some of the region’s best runners train together at a high-altitude center in Kenya’s west.

Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics, finishing in 44th place, less than a month before the attack. She had represented Uganda at other competitions.

Patrick Onen And Rodney Muhumuza, The Associated Press

Newfoundland and Labrador's justice minister can't say what led to delays that allowed an accused murderer to walk free without standing trial.

The mayor of Steady Brook and the leader of the PCs say it’s time to think outside the slopes — and find an investor that will turn Marble Mountain into a casino that could make money and halt a reliance on government subsidies.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people as the friends and family members of a Turkish-American activist killed by an Israeli solider prepared to honor her in a funeral.

The airstrikes in Gaza City hit one home housing 11 people, including three women and four children, and another strike hit a tent in Khan Younis housing Palestinians displaced by the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Civil Defense said Saturday. They followed airstrikes earlier this week that hit a tent camp on Tuesday and a United Nations school housing displaced people on Wednesday.

They hit as a campaign to inoculate children in Gaza against polio drew down and the World Health Organisation said about 560,000 under 10 have recovered from their first dose, seven out of every eight children the campaign aimed to vaccinate. The second doses are expected to begin later this month as part of an effort for which the WHO said parties had already agreed to.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the campaign as “a massive success amidst a tragic daily reality of life” in a post on X on Friday.

Meanwhile, the body of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, the Turkish-American activist killed Sept. 6 by an Israeli soldier, was returned to her hometown late Friday accompanied by a police honor guard, the official Turkish news agency reported.

Draped in a Turkish flag, the coffin carrying her remains was carried from a hearse to a hospital in Didim by six officers in ceremonial uniform. Her funeral is due to be held in the coastal town in western Turkey later Saturday.

The 26-year-old activist from Seattle, who held United States and Turkish citizenship, was killed after a demonstration against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to an Israeli protester who witnessed the shooting.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that Eygi was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli forces. Turkey announced it will conduct its own investigation into her death.

Anadolu Agency reported her body arrived in Didim after an autopsy at the Izmir Forensic Medicine Institute.

As Eygi’s family watched the coffin being unloaded, her mother had to be helped by medics, the agency said.

Her death earned condemnation from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken as the United States, Egypt and Qatar push for a cease-fire and the release of the hostages. Talks have repeatedly bogged down as Israel and Hamas accuse each other of making new and unacceptable demands.

The war began when Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. They abducted another 250 people and are still holding around 100 hostages after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire in November. Around a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead.

It has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times, and plunged the territory into a severe humanitarian crisis. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count, but says women and children make up just over half of the dead. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants in the war.

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Associated Press reporters Sam Metz and Andrew Wilks contributed from Rabat, Morocco and Istanbul, Turkey.

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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Wafaa Shurafa And Samy Magdy, The Associated Press

Labour talks between Air Canada and its pilots are approaching a midnight deadline, when either side could trigger the start of a shutdown for Canada’s largest airline.

After more than 14 months of negotiations, starting Sunday the two sides will be in a position to provide 72-hour notice of a strike or lockout that could disrupt travel for the more than 100,000 passengers who fly the airline daily.

In the days leading up to the deadline, the two sides have said they remain far apart on the central question of pay.

The Air Line Pilots Association union, representing more than 5,200 pilots, has said it is corporate greed that’s holding up talks, as Air Canada continues to post record profits while expecting pilots to accept below-market compensation.

The airline has said the union is being inflexible with “unreasonable wage demands,” prompting it to call for the government to be ready to intervene.

ALPA Canada president Capt. Tim Perry issued a statement on Friday, asking the federal government to respect workers’ collective bargaining rights and refrain from intervening in the bargaining process. He says the government intervention violates the constitutional rights and freedoms of Canadians.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau however has emphasized that it’s up to the two sides to figure out a deal.

Speaking Friday, Trudeau said the government isn’t just going to step in and fix the issue, something it did promptly after both of Canada’s major railways saw lockouts in August and during a strike by WestJet mechanics on the Canada Day long weekend.

He said the government respects the right to strike and will only intervene if it becomes clear no negotiated agreement is possible.

Numerous business groups have called on the government to intervene to protect the business and travellers.

Air Canada has said it will have to start gradually shutting down operations once 72-hour notice is given as it will take time to properly position its 252 aircraft and its crews that fly to 47 countries.

It says if operations are shut down, it will take up to 10 days to resume normal operations.

The airline is offering travellers scheduled to fly between Sunday and Sept. 23 to change their flight for free, which is a potential for extending that, and said it will notify all travellers of any impact in advance of their flight.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:AC)

The Canadian Press