Children look at an ice sculpture during the 2023 Bloor-Yorkville Icefest in Toronto, Canada, Feb 18, 2023.  (PHOTO / XINHUA) OTTAWA – Canada's population increased by more than a million people for the first time in history in 2022, almost entirely due to a surge in immigrants and temporary residents, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday. Total population […]

A gas leak is seen at the Nord Stream 2 pipeline on Sept 27 from a Danish F-16 jet off the Baltic island of Bornholm, south of Dueodde. (PHOTO / AFP) China hopes some Western member states of the United Nations Security Council will renounce their "selfish geopolitical interests" and play a constructive role in […]

Putin warns against UK plans to send ammunition with depleted uranium Ukrainian soldiers ride atop a tank on the frontline in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Mar 22, 2023. (PHOTO / AP) The United States announced on Tuesday that it will speed up delivery of battle tanks to Ukraine, while the United Kingdom will send tanks […]

Men extract water from a well at the village of El Gel, 8 kilometres from the town of K'elafo, Ethiopia, on Jan 12, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP) UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations used its first conference on water security in almost half a century on Wednesday to exhort governments to better manage one of […]

Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson speaks during a news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (not in image) after a meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, March 15, 2023. (PHOTO / AP) STOCKHOLM – Sweden's lawmakers overwhelmingly voted on Wednesday in favor of the country joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Sweden and […]

A handout photograph released by the UK Parliament shows Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak standing at the despatch box and speaking during the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) at the House of Commons, in London, on March 22, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP) LONDON – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak won the backing of […]

Protesters hold a banner reading "Last warning" during a youth demonstration against the French government's  pensions reform plan in Paris on March 9, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP) PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said a deeply unpopular new law that raises the retirement age was necessary and would enter into force by the end […]

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Ministers' Questions session in parliament in London on March 22, 2023. On the same day, Sunak is set to win parliamentary approval for a key element of a post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland. (PHOTO / AP) LONDON – British Prime Minister […]

Austria's foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg answers journalists during a Foreign Affairs Council meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels on Nov 14, 2022. (PHOTO / AFP) VIENNA – Russia will always remain important for Europe, Austria's foreign minister said, saying that to think otherwise was delusional. Alexander Schallenberg also defended the country's second-biggest bank, Raiffeisen […]

In this May 07, 2019 photo, steam rises from towers of the coal-fired power plant of Moorburg in Hamburg, northern Germany. (PHOTO / AFP) LONDON – Governments globally raised a record $63 billion from the sale of carbon allowances in emission trading systems in 2022, as many countries increased ambitions to cut pollution despite record […]