News in brief
By The Associated Press
Apple Store employees vote to authorize strike over working conditions
TOWSON, Md. | Workers at the first Apple Store to unionize have now also authorized a first strike against the tech giant’s retail operations.
A statement from the union representing the workers at a store in Towson, Maryland says they voted late Saturday to authorize a strike. No date was set for the strike.
The vote follows what the union called “over a year of negotiations with Apple management that yielded unsatisfactory outcomes.”
The workers are seeking changes in what they call unpredictable scheduling practices and are wanting wages that align with the local cost of living. Apple in a statement that it will engage with the union “respectfully and in good faith.”
Magnitude 6.4 earthquake shakes Mexico-Guatemala border
TAPACHULA, Mexico | A strong earthquake has shaken the border of Mexico and Guatemala, driving frightened residents into the streets.
The temblor struck just before 6 a.m. Sunday near the Mexican border town of Suchiate, where a river by the same name divides the two countries.
There were no immediate reports of damage, but more mountainous, remote parts of the border are prone to landslides.
The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, according to the U.S. Geological Survey and a depth of 47 miles.
Flash floods in Afghanistan leaves hundreds dead and missing
ISLAMABAD | Victims of the devastating floods in northern Afghanistan are burying the dead and looking for the loved ones still missing.
The U.N. food agency estimates that unusually heavy seasonal rains have left more than 300 people dead and over 1,000 houses destroyed, most of them in the northern province of Baghlan, which bore the brunt of the deluges Friday.
Aid group Save the Children said about 600,000 people, half of them children, live in the five districts in Baghlan that have been severely impacted by the floods. The group said it sent a “clinic on wheels” with mobile health and child protection teams to support children and their families.
—From AP reports
