CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Canada’s second-largest airline, WestJet, and its pilots union say they have reached a last-minute deal, averting a strike on Friday before a holiday weekend in the country.

A statement from the Air Line Pilots Association says union leaders voted to approve an agreement-in-principle, with a membership vote to begin in the coming days.

The airline had grounded the bulk of its fleet Thursday, including for its Swoop subsidiary, parking their 130 planes at airports across Canada and leaving thousands of travelers in limbo across the country.

UNITED NATIONS, May 19 (APP): Reaffirming its commitment to reduce disaster risk, Pakistan told the UN General Assembly Thursday of the government’s “outstanding” efforts in responding to last year’s devastating floods across the country, with swift rescue and relief operations to get some 30 million affected people out of immediate risk.

In spite of huge financial challenges, Lt. General Inam Haider Malik, Chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), said the government demonstrated its resolve and commitment for the urgent needs of the affected people.

19 May 2023; MEMO: Multiple commercial sectors in Egypt yesterday launched a campaign to boycott the purchase of the US dollar from the black market after the exchange rate recently exceeded 41 Egyptian pounds as opposed to the official price of 30.90 Egyptian pounds in the Central Bank of Egypt to the, the news website Arabi21 reported.

CAIRO (AP) — In a symbolic gesture, Sudan’s top army general on Friday fired the paramilitary leader — his former ally turned rival — as the deputy of the country’s governing body, state media reported.

The dismissal by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan of Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the Rapid Support Forces, from the Sovereignty Council comes as the two fueding generals continue to battle for control over this troubled African country.

The monthlong conflict has killed at least 705 people, the World Health organization said Friday.

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/: The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has designated the activities of Greenpeace International within the country as undesirable, the law enforcement agency’s press service told reporters on Friday.

18 May 2023; AA: Russia Halal Expo 2023 on Thursday opened its doors to visitors on the sidelines of the 14th International Economic Summit: Russia-Islamic World: Kazan Forum 2023.

Expected to garner more than 7,000 visitors, the expo features halal products and services with an aim to promote the halal industry in Russia, improve commercial, economic, and social relations between Russia and participating Muslim countries and give trading partners a chance to showcase their goods.

STOCKHOLM, May 18 (NNN-XINHUA) – Tenants in Sweden face the highest rent increase in three decades, local media reported, yesterday.

The average increase will be 4.2 percent, following negotiations between the Swedish Union of Tenants and the landlords, Swedish TT news agency reported.

“It has been an incredibly tough and long round of negotiations,” Erik Elmgren, head of the Swedish Union of Tenants told TT about the increased rent for nearly 1.1 million apartments for the coming year.

17 May 2023; MEMO: Post-9/11 conflicts and invasions in the Middle East and other surrounding regions have directly and indirectly killed at least 4.5 million people over the past two decades, a new report has revealed.

17 May 2023; MEMO: Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, on Wednesday oversaw, via video-link, the signing of a deal to finance and build an Iranian railway line as part of an embryonic international North–South Transport Corridor, Reuters reports.

STOCKHOLM, May 18 (NNN-XINHUA) – Tenants in Sweden face the highest rent increase in three decades, local media reported, yesterday.

The average increase will be 4.2 percent, following negotiations between the Swedish Union of Tenants and the landlords, Swedish TT news agency reported.

“It has been an incredibly tough and long round of negotiations,” Erik Elmgren, head of the Swedish Union of Tenants told TT about the increased rent for nearly 1.1 million apartments for the coming year.

17 May 2023; MEMO: Two Turkish journalists were released several hours after their arrest by the German police on Wednesday, sparking a diplomatic row between Ankara and Berlin, Anadolu News Agency reports.

HARLINGEN, Texas (AP) — An 8-year-old girl died Wednesday in Border Patrol custody, authorities said, a rare occurrence that comes as the agency struggles with overcrowding.

The child and her family were being held at a station in Harlingen, Texas, in Rio Grande Valley, one of the busiest corridors for illegal crossings, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol’s parent agency, said in a statement.