CHIANG MAI, Thailand (AP) — Just a handful of Chinese visitors were posing for photos and basking in the sun this week in the market and plazas near Chiang Mai’s ancient Tha Phae Gate, one of many tourist hotspots still waiting for millions of Chinese travelers to return. The beaches and temples of destinations like Bali and Chiang Mai are the busiest they have been since the pandemic struck three years ago, but they’re still relatively quiet. Still, Chanatip Pansomboon, a soft drinks seller in
Martine Corbeil has lived in her Montreal home since 1997 and has always parked her car in the driveway out front. But last August, she got a letter from the borough of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. "It said that we were not allowed to park in front of our house according to this bylaw," she said. That will certainly complicate things for her — and not just because she has to carry her groceries from a curbside spot. She has an electric car and there's a charging station attached to her house s
TORONTO — Canada's mental health crisis demands a national summit with representation from all levels of government, Toronto Mayor John Tory said Wednesday, claiming a lack of provincial and federal support is offloading responsibilities onto "ill-equipped" municipalities. In a statement, Tory called for a summit that would see mayors, ministers, premiers and the prime minister discuss how better to support people living with mental health and addiction challenges. Coming out of the COVID-19 pan
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith pressured the attorney general and his office to intervene in COVID-related court cases and get rid of charges, multiple sources familiar with the interactions told CBC News.
PRAGUE (AP) — A retired army general who backs military support for Ukraine and a euroskeptic billionaire who has questioned NATO's collective defense clause are contesting for the ceremonial but prestigious post of Czech president in a runoff starting Friday. Former Gen. Petr Pavel and Andrej Babis advanced to a second round of voting because none of the eight initial candidates received an absolute majority in the first round two weeks ago. The polls favor Pavel, an independent candidate who c
CALGARY — Imperial Oil Ltd. is going ahead with a $720-million project to build a renewable diesel facility at its Strathcona refinery near Edmonton. The project, first announced in August 2021, is expected to produce 20,000 barrels per day of renewable diesel once it is complete. That will make it the largest facility of its kind in Canada, upon its expected completion in 2025, and one of the largest renewable diesel complexes in North America. "We would consider ourselves world-class. When you
Coquitlam RCMP have confirmed a 21 year-old woman who went missing on Jan. 13 has been found safe. The woman's family, friends, and community members have also confirmed via posts on social media that she was located alive in Victoria, B.C., on Jan. 25 Police did not issue a missing-persons alert when the woman's disappearance was first reported, upsetting advocates pleading for her safety. RCMP say they received a report on Jan. 13, and the case remained a priority. A news release is issued if
Geneviève Guay says she's not against the development of commercial and residential space around the soon-to-open light-rail network station on Nuns' Island in Montreal. But she is concerned about the number of people expected to move onto the island, which, she explained during a public consultation meeting Tuesday evening, doesn't have the infrastructure to handle a population boom. Nuns' Island is in the Verdun borough where the Champlain Bridge connects to the city from the South Shore. The
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The Biden administration is temporarily delaying stepped-up legal protections for two imperiled species following efforts by congressional Republicans to derail the actions. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday it was postponing reclassification of the northern long-eared bat from “threatened” to the more severe “endangered” category until March 31. The change had been scheduled to take effect Jan. 30. On Tuesday, the service announced that new designatio
LANSING, Mich.. (AP) — Just three months ago, Rep. Elissa Slotkin was one of the most vulnerable Democrats in Washington, fighting an expensive campaign for reelection in a Michigan district that Republicans were sure they could retake. That was all a distant memory recently as Slotkin sat beaming next to Sen. Debbie Stabenow at a Lansing luncheon commemorating Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Fresh off a surprisingly comfortable 5 percentage-point victory, Slotkin was eager to praise Stabenow, the d
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Germany apologized on Thursday for using a leopard emoji in a jibe at Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Twitter that ended up offending some Africans. The German foreign ministry poked fun at Russia's top diplomat during his tour of Africa when it tweeted that he wasn't there looking for leopards, but using the trip to try and justify Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The tweet, and the leopard emoji the foreign ministry used on its official account,
The relationship between police and Black communities is often "deeply problematic and tense" across North America, says Natalie Delia Deckard. And that's one of the reasons she felt compelled to apply to be on the Windsor police services board. The University of Windsor criminology professor and founding director of the Black Studies Institute was one of 48 applicants council considered for the public position it needed to fill. During an in-camera session earlier this month, council appointed
Heavy snow will slow traffic to a crawl across much of southern Quebec through Thursday morning.
ONTARIO — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre doubled down on his belief that "everything feels broken" Friday, as he laced into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for suggesting otherwise. Poilievre addressed Tory MPs at the start of their two-day caucus retreat ahead of the return of the House of Commons next week, beginning with the question: "What's happening in our country?" He spent his speech listing off ways he believes Canadians are hurting — from high prices at the grocery store to crime t
HALIFAX — Liberal Angela Simmonds says she is resigning her seat in the Nova Scotia legislature effective April 1. Simmonds, who was first elected to represent Preston in the August 2021 general election, was the first Black woman to be named deputy Speaker in Nova Scotia. In a statement released by the party today, Simmonds says she needed to step down to “stretch out the legacy of changemakers” and lift up new voices. She says she will spend the next few months with her family and community wh
Some ill-timed signage posted by OC Transpo has led to a flurry of confusion over which buses will run during messy weather, and how much snow will fall on Ottawa Wednesday evening into Thursday morning. The signs posted at bus stops — meant to remind riders that deep enough snow will mean a reduced bus schedule as part of a pilot program — didn't detail how many centimetres are needed to trigger such a severe storm schedule. According to an image posted on social media, one of the signs stated
Residents along the north coast of Labrador aren't happy with the rise in the price of stove oil — which some are using as their only source of heat during the long and cold winter months. Some, who don't have wood burning stoves to supplement their heating costs, are spending between nearly $1,000 and $2,000 a month just to keep warm. The fuel is similar to that of furnace oil but is further refined in order to lower its pour point — the point at which the fuel becomes gel. Caroline Rideout, wh
EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s promise to assemble a panel of medical experts to deliver ongoing advice on public health and COVID-19 will be covered off by former Reform Party Leader Preston Manning’s pandemic review, her office said Wednesday. “The central role of the (Manning) panel will be to review legislation and recommend amendments to better enable the province to respond to future health emergencies,” Smith’s spokesman Taylor Hides said in a statement, responding to questio
BANGKOK (AP) — The production of opium in Myanmar has flourished since the military's seizure of power, with the cultivation of poppies up by a third in the past year as eradication efforts have dropped off and the faltering economy has led more people toward the drug trade, according to a United Nations report released Thursday. In 2022, in the first full growing season since the military wrested control of the country from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, Myan
