Work stoppage possible as WestJet issues lockout notice to maintenance engineers' union
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
A woman who was extradited from South Korea this week after the bodies of her two children were found in abandoned suitcases made her first court appearance in New Zealand on Wednesday.
The 42-year-old woman has been charged with two counts of murder. She was not required to enter a plea during the brief procedural hearing at the Manukau District Court.
The judge imposed a temporary order that keeps many details of the case secret, including the names of the woman and the victims. The judge allowed it to be reported that the suspect was the children's mother, according to The New Zealand Herald.
If found guilty, the woman would face a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, although she would become eligible for parole after a minimum of 10 years.
In court, the woman wore a tan jacket over a black T-shirt. According to the Herald, the woman, through an interpreter, asked the judge if she could speak with him, before the woman's lawyer stepped in to say it would be better if she didn't, with which the judge agreed.
The woman left the courtroom after less than five minutes and will remain jailed until her next court appearance on Dec. 14.
The case horrified many people in New Zealand after the children's bodies were discovered in August when an Auckland family bought abandoned goods, including two suitcases, from a storage unit in an online auction.
The children were between 5 and 10 years old, had been dead for years, and the suitcases had been in storage in Auckland for at least three or four years, according to New Zealand police.
South Korean police say the woman was born in South Korea and later moved to New Zealand, where she gained citizenship. Immigration records show she returned to South Korea in 2018.
South Korean police first arrested the woman at a southern port city in September. The Seoul High Court then granted approval of her extradition after she expressed her consent in writing to be sent back to New Zealand. Earlier this month, South Korean Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon issued an order for the woman to be extradited.
The woman was handed over to three New Zealand police officers Monday evening at the Incheon International Airport near Seoul. South Korea's Justice Ministry said it also provided New Zealand with unspecified "important evidence" in the case.
"With the extradition, we hope that the truth of the case, which has garnered worldwide attention, will be revealed through the fair and strict judicial process of New Zealand," the ministry said in a statement.
South Korean police had said it was suspected the woman could be the mother of the two victims, as her past address in New Zealand was registered to the storage unit where the suitcases were kept.
New Zealand authorities said the family that ended up purchasing the suitcases and other abandoned storage items had nothing to do with the case.
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Almost a week after all London Drugs stores across Western Canada abruptly closed amid a cyberattack, they began a "gradual reopening" on Saturday.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Auston Matthews was back on the ice with his teammates Saturday.
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.