Laughing matter: Thousands of Bali yogis join mass chuckle
Thousands of people gather for a laughter yoga session on Indonesia's resort island of Bali to heal themselves with giggles and pray for world peace.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading reproductive health care provider and abortion rights advocacy organization, plans to spend a record $50 million ahead of November's midterm elections, pouring money into contests where access to abortion will be on the ballot. The effort, which breaks the group's previous $45 million spending record set in 2020, comes months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that created a constitutional right to hav
Environment Canada is continuing to issue heat warnings for Calgary and much of southern Alberta with daily high temperatures expected to reach 30 C for the rest of the week. Daytime temperatures in some parts of the province are forecast to range from 29 to 34 C. The heat should taper off Monday night and Tuesday before rising again on Wednesday, the agency said on its alerts page. As of 10:20 a.m. Wednesday, the heat warnings covered these areas: Calgary. Okotoks, High River, Claresholm. Drumh
Four times the tonnage of the original Open Arms rescue tugboat and with a capacity to carry up to 1,000 people, the Open Arms Uno made its first rescue on Wednesday, picking up 101 migrants stranded on a wooden boat off the Tunisian coast. "Sit down, if you don't sit down we don't continue," a crew member shouted to the excited migrants from a speed boat launched from the vessel operated by the Spanish charity Open Arms before all were taken aboard. One had jumped into the water to try to reach the speed boat, prompting it to briefly move away in a safety maneuver.
The 70-year-old man who police shot in downtown Windsor Monday bought a machete from a pawn shop not far from the incident. That's according to Valentin Petre, who owns the Rabbit Hole pawn shop near the corner of Wyandotte Street and Ouellette Avenue. Petre says he gave investigators video of a man who appears to be Allan Andkilde, the victim in the shooting, buying the item from his store. "He's been here a few times," Petre said. "We talk once in a while, not to the point where we're buddy-bu
Ontario is seeing far fewer forest fires this year than the 10-year average, and only a fraction of what it experienced last summer, when fires tore through a record amount of land in the province, according to the provincial government. There have been 179 fires so far this year, with 2,416 hectares of land burned, Evan Lizotte, a fire information officer with the Ministry of Natural Resources, said in a recent interview. That's compared with the 10-year average of 669 fires and 174,196 hectare
QUEBEC — Premier François Legault said Tuesday the government would launch a "massive" vaccination booster campaign to get ahead of the next wave of COVID-19, which he said is expected after students return to class and people start spending more time indoors. All Quebecers over the age of 18 will be eligible to make an appointment for a booster by the end of the month, Legault told reporters in Quebec City alongside Health Minister Christian Dubé and public health director Dr. Luc Boileau. "Fal
A doctor in eastern Ontario charged with first-degree murder in the death of an elderly patient last year is now facing three new first-degree murder charges. Dr. Brian Nadler was arrested Wednesday. All three of the latest alleged victims were under Nadler's care.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin is fighting to keep his seat as a New Mexico county commissioner as he faces possible removal and disqualification from public office for his participation in last year’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Griffin was previously convicted of a misdemeanor for entering Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021. He was sentenced to 14 days and given credit for time served. Three residents of Santa Fe and Los Alamos counties filed a lawsuit seeking
The World Health Organization's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has suggested that racism is behind a lack of international attention being paid to the plight of civilians in Ethiopia's war-shattered Tigray region. Calling it the "worst humanitarian crisis in the world", with 6 million people unable to access basic services, Tedros questioned in an emotional appeal why the situation is not getting the same attention as the Ukraine conflict. "Maybe the reason is the colour of the skin of the people," Tedros, who is from Tigray, told a virtual media briefing on Wednesday.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A Navy nuclear engineer and his wife withdrew their guilty pleas Tuesday in a case involving an alleged plot to sell secrets about American nuclear-powered warships after a federal judge rejected plea agreements that had called for specific sentencing guidelines. Jonathan and Diana Toebbe of Annapolis, Maryland, pleaded guilty in February in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to one count each of conspiracy to communicate restricted data. The sentencing range a
LANGLEY, B.C. — The Greater Vancouver Zoo says a "small number" of its wolves are unaccounted for after the animals were believed to have been released as a result of "malicious intent," but there is no danger to the public. The zoo says on its website that a number of wolves were discovered outside their enclosure in the morning and it's working with the B.C. Conservation Officer Service to "contain" the animals, while the Langley RCMP investigate what appears to be a case of unlawful entry and
WASHINGTON (AP) — A year after America's tumultuous and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, assessments of its impact are divided — and largely along partisan lines. Critics slam the August 2021 evacuation of more than 120,000 American citizens, Afghans and others as poorly planned and badly executed. They say the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces opened the door to a resurgence of al-Qaida and Islamic State militants in the country. And the exit, they say, signaled the United States' lack of c
BUCHA, Ukraine (AP) — Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the world Tuesday to honor civilians who were killed when Russian ground forces tried to invade Ukraine's capital and eventually retreated from the area surrounding Kyiv. Ban, a former South Korean diplomat who served as secretary-general between 2007 and 2016, visited Bucha, a city northwest of the Ukrainian capital where hundreds of civilians were found dead after the Russian withdrawal in late March. “It’s hard to expre
Musk has a history of being unconventional, posting irreverent tweets. Below are some other tweets by Musk - who has more than 103 million followers - which have taken investors, Twitter users, Twitter's board and the rest of his audience by surprise. May 13, 2022: "Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users."
A plan to kill off an invasive fish, along with all other fish species in New Brunswick's Miramichi Lake, can go ahead — for now. Last week, Court of Queen's Bench Judge Terrence Morrison issued an emergency injunction temporarily barring a group from using rotenone, a pesticide and piscicide, on the lake with the intent of killing off invasive smallmouth bass. That injunction expired at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, and a hearing in Woodstock Court of Queen's Bench that was supposed to include arguments
LONDON (AP) — Two African soccer players have been unable to enter Britain to face English team West Ham in a Europa Conference League game, Danish club Viborg said Tuesday. Entry visas were not processed in time for Nigerian player Ibrahim Said and Gambian forward Alassana Jatta to play in London on Thursday in the playoff round of the third-tier European competition. Viborg said the problem could not be solved despite working with embassies from Denmark and Britain, along with UEFA and the Dan
Security cameras are now installed at the Halifax Public Gardens after bark was stripped from about 30 trees last month. A municipal spokesperson says along with the cameras, there is also overnight security. Sometime between the evening of July 25 and the morning of July 26, the trees were attacked with an axe. Fourteen trees had bark removed in a ring around the trunk, also known as being girdled. Four trees that were severely damaged have been cut down. "Our sense of security in here is compl
Demand for housing in the Windsor area is already outstripping supply, and the region will need 30,400 new homes by 2031, according to new research. Getting there would require creating new housing more quickly, according to Mike Moffatt, an economist and senior director of the Ottawa-based think-tank, the Smart Prosperity Institute, which published the report. Moffatt says it about 3,000 homes per year need to be added to the region, more than double the level of construction we've seen over th
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A U.S. congressional delegation has arrived in Kenya to meet with the new president-elect and the opposition figure likely to file a court challenge to his election loss in the latest electoral crisis for East Africa’s most stable democracy. The new U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Meg Whitman, said the delegation led by Sen. Chris Coons also will meet with outgoing Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been publicly silent since the Aug. 9 election. President-elect William Rut
Ontario's highest court has ordered the provincial government to pay $3.5 million to a company at the heart of a tainted-meat scandal nearly two decades ago, pointing to the province's "litany of bureaucratic ineptitude" in temporarily taking over the business. In a decision released last week, the Court of Appeal for Ontario ruled the provincial Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs owed a duty of care to Aylmer Meat Packers and its owner, Butch Clare, when it took over the company's