Nation & World Glance

Canada-US reach free trade deal with Mexico

TORONTO — Canada and the United States reached a deal Sunday night for Canada to stay in a free trade pact with the U.S. and Mexico.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the deal in a joint statement late Sunday. They say the newly named the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, will result in freer markets and fairer trade.

The agreement preserved a NAFTA dispute-resolution process that the U.S. wanted to jettison, the official told The Associated Press ahead of an official announcement. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

The agreement also exempts tariffs on 2.6 million cars. On dairy the official said Canada essentially gave the U.S. the same access it offered in the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement that President Donald Trump rejected.

“It’s a good day for Canada,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said as he left his office. Trudeau said he would have more to say Monday.

South Korea begins removing mines, expects North to do same

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea began clearing mines from two sites inside the heavily fortified border with North Korea on Monday under tension-reducing agreements reached this year. Seoul says North Korea is expected to do the same.

The development comes amid renewed international diplomacy on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program after weeks of stalemated negotiations. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to visit Pyongyang this month to try to set up a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

South Korean troops entered the Demilitarized Zone on Monday morning to remove mines around the border village of Panmunjom and another frontline area where the rivals plan their first joint searches with North Korea for soldiers during the 1950-53 Korean War, according to Seoul’s Defense Ministry.

The South Korean troops will try to focus on taking out mines on the southern parts of Panmunjom’s Joint Security Area and the so-called “Arrow Head Hill,” where one of the fiercest battles during the Korean War happened. Seoul officials believe the remains of about 300 South Korean and U.N. forces are in the Arrow Head Hill and likely many Chinese and North Korean remains too.

South Korean Defense Ministry officials said they couldn’t immediately confirm whether North Korea also began demining on the northern parts of the two sites. But they said they expected the North to abide by the tension-easing deals their defense chiefs struck on the sidelines of their leaders’ summit last month in Pyongyang.

Burials beginning in Indonesia as rescue need grows urgent

PALU, Indonesia — A mass burial of earthquake and tsunami victims was being prepared in a hard-hit city Monday as the need for heavy equipment to dig for survivors of the disaster that struck a central Indonesian island three days ago grows desperate.

The toll of more than 800 dead is largely from the city of Palu and is expected to rise as areas cut off by the damage are reached. The magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck at dusk Friday and spawned a tsunami said to have been as high as 6 meters (20 feet) in places.

The grave being dug in Palu for 300 victims will be 10 meters by 100 meters (33 feet by 330 feet) and can be enlarged if needed, said Willem Rampangilei, chief of Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency.

“This must be done as soon as possible for health and religious reasons,” he said. Indonesia is majority Muslim, and religious custom calls for burials soon after death, typically within one day.

Military and commercial aircraft were delivering some aid and supplies to the region. But there was a desperate need for heavy equipment to reach possible survivors buried in collapsed buildings, including an eight-story hotel in Palu where voices were heard in the rubble. A 25-year-old woman was found alive Sunday evening in the ruins of the RoaRoa Hotel, according to the National Search and Rescue Agency, which released photos of the her lying on a stretcher covered in a blanket.

California’s tough net neutrality bill prompts US lawsuit

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the nation’s toughest net neutrality measure Sunday, requiring internet providers to maintain a level playing field online. The move prompted an immediate lawsuit by the Trump administration.

Advocates of net neutrality hope the new law in the home of the global technology industry will have national implications by pushing Congress to enact national net neutrality rules or encouraging other states to follow suit.

But the U.S. Department of Justice wants to stop the law, arguing that it creates burdensome, anticonsumer requirements that go against the federal government’s approach of deregulating the internet.

“Once again the California Legislature has enacted an extreme and illegal state law attempting to frustrate federal policy,” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.

The law is the latest example of the nation’s most populous state seeking to drive public policy outside its borders and rebuff President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Pope Francis names temporary leader to Las Cruces Diocese

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Pope Francis has appointed the bishop emeritus of the Tucson Diocese to temporarily oversee the Diocese of Las Cruces.

The Las Cruces Sun-News reports Rev. Gerald Kicanas (kihKA’-nuhs) was named last week as the administrator for the southern New Mexico diocese until a new bishop is named.

Kicanas replaces Bishop Oscar Cantu who was recently reassigned as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of San José, California.

Kicanas was appointed coadjutor bishop of Tucson on October 2001, installed as bishop of Tucson in March 2003. He became bishop emeritus in November 2017.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces was founded in 1982 and encompasses the counties of Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lea, Luna, Otero, Sierra, Lincoln and Chavez counties.

Tucson treatment plant sends contaminated water to residents

TUCSON — Tucson Water officials are investigating how a treatment plant sent water contaminated with chemical compounds to thousands of residents of the city.

The Arizona Daily Star reports that utility officials mistakenly thought that uncontaminated water was coming out of the plant, which has long treated water pollution on Tucson’s south side.

Authorities say the utility had been sampling the water at a point its officials thought was connected to the treatment plant, but which actually was getting water from other sources.

According to the Star, the levels of the chemicals found in the water coming from the treatment plant were lower than the recommended maximum in federal health advisories.

The plant’s water is sent to about 60,000 residents of downtown Tucson and the city’s west and north sided.