Marwa Hamdy is seen in this undated photo from Hamdy's personal Facebook page. A spokesperson with EgyptAir has confirmed Hamdy was one of the Canadians on board flight MS804, which crashed in the Mediterranean Sea en route from Paris to Cairo on Thursday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Facebook *MANDATORY CREDIT*
May 20, 2016 - 2:16 PM
Highlights from the news file for Friday, May 20:
____
SEARCHERS LOOK TO DEBRIS FOR CLUES ON EGYPTAIR CRASH: Searchers have found debris of the EgyptAir jetliner that fell out of the sky over the Mediterranean Thursday. Two Canadians were among the 66 people on board the Paris to Cairo flight. It's not known what caused the plane to plunge into the sea, but Egyptian and Russian officials have suggested it could have been an act of terrorism. Experts say answers will come only with examination of the wreckage and the plane's black box recorders. But retrieving them may take time.
____
NEW DEMOCRAT MP ATTACKED OVER COMMONS FRACAS: New Democrat MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau says some people have been phoning her office suggesting she is crying wolf since she was elbowed in the House of Commons by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Brosseau says she is still shaken by the incident, adding that Trudeau had no right to swear at MPs and push his way through a group of opposition members. She says the scrutiny she has received since Wednesday's encounter has been worse than in 2011, when as a rookie candidate she was ridiculed publicly for travelling to Las Vegas during the election campaign.
____
FRAUD CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST SENATOR: Prosecutors in Ottawa have dropped fraud and breach of trust charges against former Liberal senator Mac Harb. A month after the acquittal of Sen. Mike Duffy, prosecutors said Friday there was no reasonable prospect of conviction. The charges stemmed from living expenses Harb, a one-time Liberal MP from Ottawa, filed for a secondary home in the city while claiming his primary residence was far from the national capital. On Thursday the RCMP abruptly announced it wouldn't pursue charges against Sen. Pamela Wallin, closing its investigation into her travel expenses.
____
GOV'T POINT MAN ON ECONOMY SAYS ACTION NEEDED: The man who will chair a federal advisory council responsible for coming up with solutions on fixing the economy says the government must act soon. Dominic Barton, the global managing director of consulting giant McKinsey & Co., says many of the country's existing sectors hold significant promise but he cautions that staying the current economic course, however should not be an option. He says with an aging population it's important to do something "relatively aggressive." Barton's ideas include pushing deeper into Asian markets, learning precisely how to help smaller companies scale up and enticing huge investors from here and abroad to pour cash into major public infrastructure projects, like railways and roads.
____
TRUDEAU REMARKS WELCOMED BY U.K. DIPLOMAT: The top British envoy to Canada says he welcomes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying this week that Britain should not leave the European Union. High Commissioner Howard Drake says his country faces a huge decision in the June 23 referendum that will decide whether Britain should leave the 28-country EU. Drake says he did not think Trudeau was meddling in Britain's internal affairs and was simply using his prerogative as a world leader to state Canada's national interests. Trudeau told Reuters news agency on Thursday that he wants to see Britain remain as part of a united Europe, where it would enjoy greater prosperity.
____
POTENTIAL DISEASE DETECTED IN B.C. FARMED SALMON: Scientists have found a condition in farmed salmon in British Columbia that has been a problem with farmed fish in Atlantic Canada. Scientists say more research is needed to determine if it could affect wild populations of the fish. Pathologists found lesions on salmon on one farm indicating they had heart and skeletal muscle inflammation. The disease has been found in several countries. Among them Norway where it has been linked to low levels of mortality with some farms showing no salmon deaths, while up to 20 per cent of fish die in others.
____
FROZEN FOOD RECALL POSES CHALLENGE TO AUTHORITIES: Amid a massive frozen foods recall involving millions of packages of fruits and vegetables that were shipped to all 50 U.S. states, Canada and Mexico, authorities who want to stem the listeria-linked illnesses and deaths worry it'll be difficult to get consumers to dig through their freezers and check for products they may have bought as far back as 2014. It's one of the largest food recalls in recent memory, with well over 400 products from CRF Frozen Foods in Pasco, Washington, sold under more than 40 different brand names at major retailers like Costco, Target, Trader Joe's and Safeway. So far, eight people have been sickened by listeria that's genetically similar to that found in CRF vegetables, and two have died, though listeria was not the primary cause of death
____
FIREFIGHTERS TRY TO MAKE PROGRESS ON FORT MAC WILDFIRE: The massive wildfire that gutted parts of Fort McMurray hasn't grown in size around the Alberta city and more firefighters are being brought in to try to make some progress on the blaze. Alberta senior wildlife manager Chad Morrison says cooler temperatures, higher humidity and a forecast for rain have allowed the government to safely put more crews on fighting the fire. He says there is a plan to have an extra 1,000 firefighters on the firelines over the next two weeks, adding to 1,100 already fighting the blaze.
____
PARIS TERRORISM SUSPECT WON'T TALK: A man suspected of being part of a team that carried out last November's terrorism attacks in Paris refused to talk when he was questioned Friday by anti-terror judges. Salah Abdeslam's lawyer says his client is frustrated at 24-hour video surveillance of his cell, but didn't give a direct reason for refusing to talk. Abdeslam, a French citizen of Moroccan origin, was handed a half-dozen preliminary terrorism charges after his transfer on April 27 from Belgium, where he was arrested after four months on the run.
____
WAR BRIDES REUNION IN HALIFAX:War brides across Canada are gathering in Halifax for a reunion that will include a return to the port where most of them landed 70 years ago. Some 48,000 women met and married Canadian soldiers during the Second World War. The president of the Canadian War Brides and Families Association says the many of the young brides had difficulty with the transition, making gatherings of women who share their experience all the more meaningful.
_____
News from © The Canadian Press, 2016