Mayor didn't expect tight result in Ontario community vote to host nuclear waste site | Canada News Media
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Mayor didn’t expect tight result in Ontario community vote to host nuclear waste site

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SOUTH BRUCE PENINSULA, Ont. – The mayor of an Ontario municipality that has formally decided it is willing to become the site of a deep geological repository for Canada’s nuclear waste says he didn’t think the results of a referendum would be that close.

The Municipality of South Bruce, located south of Owen Sound, held a vote putting the question to its residents and the results released late Monday show they voted 51 per cent in favour of the proposal.

There were 3,130 votes, and there was only a 78-vote gap between the “yes” and “no” responses.

South Bruce Mayor Mark Goetz says in an interview he did not think it would be quite so tight, but “the results are the results” so it is the decision the municipality will proceed with.

The results of the vote were binding as long as there was at least 50 per cent voter turnout, and nearly 70 per cent of eligible residents cast a ballot.

Goetz says he is pleased to see so much participation and engagement from his community.

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization plans to select a site this year where millions of bundles of used nuclear fuel will be placed in a network of underground rooms connected by cavernous tunnels.

The process for the $26-billion project has already been narrowed down to two sites, Ignace in northern Ontario and South Bruce, and the organization has said both the local municipality and the First Nation in those areas will have to agree to be hosts.

Ignace, between Thunder Bay and Kenora, became the first community to make its decision known in July, as town council voted in favour of a nuclear waste repository at a special meeting.

Attention now will turn to Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and Saugeen Ojibway Nation, to see if they share the same willingness as Ignace and South Bruce, respectively.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2024.

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Man injured after early morning stabbing by fellow patient at Montreal hospital

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Montreal police say a 53-year-old man was allegedly stabbed by a fellow hospital patient early this morning.

They say the victim suffered serious injuries but is expected to survive following the incident, which hospital officials say took place in the emergency room.

Police were called to the downtown Université de Montréal hospital known as the CHUM at about 1:15 a.m.

Const. Véronique Dubuc says a 35-year-old male suspect attacked the other with a sharp object and hospital staff intervened.

The victim was seriously injured in the upper body but was quickly stabilized by hospital staff.

Police are investigating and don’t yet know the motive for the attack.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version cited police saying the suspect and victim were hospital roommates, but in fact the stabbing is alleged to have happened in the emergency room.

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8 million people were infected with TB in 2023. WHO says that’s the highest it has seen

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LONDON (AP) — More than 8 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis last year, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, the highest number recorded since the U.N. health agency began keeping track.

About 1.25 million people died of TB last year, the new report said, adding that TB likely returned to being the world’s top infectious disease killer after being replaced by COVID-19 during the pandemic. The deaths are almost double the number of people killed by HIV in 2023.

WHO said TB continues to mostly affect people in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Western Pacific; India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines and Pakistan account for more than half of the world’s cases.

“The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage, when we have the tools to prevent it, detect it and treat it,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

TB deaths continue to fall globally, however, and the number of people being newly infected is beginning to stabilize. The agency noted that of the 400,000 people estimated to have drug-resistant TB last year, fewer than half were diagnosed and treated.

Tuberculosis is caused by airborne bacteria that mostly affects the lungs. Roughly a quarter of the global population is estimated to have TB, but only about 5–10% of those develop symptoms.

Advocacy groups, including Doctors Without Borders, have long called for the U.S. company Cepheid, which produces TB tests used in poorer countries, to make them available for $5 per test to increase availability. Earlier this month, Doctors Without Borders and 150 global health partners sent Cepheid an open letter calling on them to “prioritize people’s lives” and to urgently help make TB testing more widespread globally.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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‘Halloween comet’ breaks apart after flying close to the sun

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A recently discovered comet that some stargazers had hoped to see during Halloween week has disintegrated before the day of ghosts and ghouls.

NASA confirmed Tuesday its sun-observing spacecraft captured the moment when the comet Atlas broke into chunks this week as it passed close to the sun.

Astronomers have been tracking the so-called Halloween comet, also known as C/2024 S1, since it was discovered in September by a telescope in Hawaii.

As it raced toward the sun, a space observatory operated by NASA and the European Space Agency spied its demise.

The comet is thought to be part of a family of comets that pass incredibly close to the sun.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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