British Columbia is reporting 498 new cases of COVID-19 and four more deaths, pushing the death toll in the province to 1,411. Among more than 89,000 cases diagnosed to date, 4,851 are active, including 281 people who are in hospital. A statement from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix says no data about new cases of COVID-19 variants of concern is available today due to a lab sequencing issue. BC had confirmed close to a thousand variant cases earlier this week. More than 444,000 doses of three approved COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in BC and

The federal government has rejected Iran's explanation of human error for the shooting down of an airliner from Ukraine in January of 2020. Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired two missiles at Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 shortly after it took off from Tehran. All 176 people on board were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens and dozens more with ties to the country. Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra largely dismiss the 145-page document, which was posted to the website of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization today. They say the report makes no

Health Canada's updated vaccine delivery website says Canada will get more than 2.5 times the number of doses of Pfizer-BioNTech in the next eight weeks, than were delivered in the last 14 weeks. The site, updated today, confirms more than 8.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine are to be shipped to Canada between March 22 and May 16. That includes almost 1.2 million doses in each of the next two weeks, and just over one million doses a week, for the next six weeks after that. Moderna has not confirmed shipments past the end of March, and there is no date yet for the first shipments expected

Police say a woman has been fatally shot in Vancouver. A statement from Sgt. Steve Addison says police responded to a call at about 4 a.m. on Wednesday. Addison says the woman was found in a social housing building in the Downtown Eastside and died later in hospital. Police believe her attacker fled. Addison says no arrests have been made and the woman has not been identified. The shooting is Vancouver's third homicide of the year. Vancouver Police Department on Twitter: #VPDNews: Vancouver Police are investigating the city’s third homicide of the year, which occurred Wednesday morning in a

Authorities say a 21 year old man has been captured hours after eight people were killed in shootings at three Atlanta-area massage parlours. Cherokee County sheriff's Capt. Jay Baker said Robert Aaron Long of Woodstock, Georgia, was taken into custody in Crisp County on Tuesday night. Crisp County is about 150 miles south of Atlanta. Four people were killed at a massage parlour in Acworth. Shortly after, three people were killed at a spa in northeast Atlanta, while a fourth person was killed at another spa across the street. The killings came amid a recent wave of attacks against Asian Ameri

The Transportation Safety Board has received the final report into the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet over Tehran, and will discuss it at a news conference tomorrow. Ukraine International Airlines Flight 7-52 crashed after it was shot down by Iran's Revolutionary Guard in January, 2020. All 176 people aboard were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens, 30 permanent residents and dozens of others bound for Canada. Transportation Safety Board of Canada on Twitter: #MEDIA: TSB will hold a news conference to provide its comments on the final safety investigation report into the downing of U

RCMP in Nanaimo say a 57 year old man is facing criminal charges after driving into multiple police vehicles causing damage Monday. They say the first police vehicle was side-swiped while driving with its siren on for another call, and later the same man appeared to steer his pickup truck into two parked police cars before driving into the side of a building. After being blocked in, Mounties say the man got out of his truck and charged at an officer. The officer used a Taser and pepper spray. Constable Gary O'Brien says in a statement officers have had extensive interactions with the man who'

A female officer of the Canadian Armed Forces is quitting the military, saying she is "sickened" by investigations into alleged sexual misconduct by senior military leaders.In her sharply worded resignation letter, obtained by The Canadian Press, Lt.-Col. Eleanor Taylor says she is also "disgusted" it took so long for the top brass to come under scrutiny.A veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Taylor has also served with the military's special forces and most recently held a top position with a reserve unit in Halifax.Her resignation comes amid allegations of misconduct involving senior members

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by Bharat Bhoomi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (BBBSS), seeking directions to the authorities concerned to ensure equal opportunity of dialogue and of being heard in connection with farmers' issues relating to forcible land acquisition.A three-judge bench of the Apex Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde, and comprising justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, refused to entertain the petition."We are dismissing the petition, we are not casting any aspersions on you," the Bench said.The petitioner, BBBSS, ha