The White House says the U.S. will stage a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing to protest Chinese human rights abuses. It's a move China has vowed to greet with ``firm countermeasures.'' White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday that U.S. athletes will continue to compete and will ``have our full support.'' The administration, however, won't dispatch U.S. dignitaries to attend the games. Psaki says the U.S. has a ''fundamental commitment to promoting human rights" and says the U.S. ``will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games.''

Highway 11 between Hazelwood Avenue and Clayburn Road has reopened to passenger and emergency vehicles, restoring the highway connection between Abbotsford and Mission.Traffic is moving in a single lane in each direction between Hazelwood and Clayburn using the southbound lanes of Highway 11. The northbound lanes remain closed until the highway can be repaired.There will be no left turn onto Highway 11 from Valley Road.This section of Highway 11 is limited to passenger vehicles only, plus emergency and municipal service vehicles. Drivers should obey all signage and traffic control. Delays can

Police in Abbotsford say the RCMP's homicide team has taken charge of the investigation into human remains found inside a burned vehicle. They say officers found the remains after responding to reports of a vehicle fire around the five-thousand-block of Riverside Street yesterday morning. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Mounties' Integrated Homicide Investigation team. Abbotsford Police on Twitter: UPDATE - Vehicle Fire Results in Suspicious Death December 6th, 2021 AbbyPD investigators have now transitioned this investigation to the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team Anyo

British Columbia's health minister says he isn't as worried about the newest COVID-19 variant, Omicron, because the focus needs to stay on the Delta variant, which is having a ``profound impact'' on the province. Adrian Dix says the Delta variant is disproportionately affecting those who haven't been vaccinated, citing more than 150 people, most of them unvaccinated, who have been moved from the Northern Health authority to southern hospitals. He says the transfers are weighing down the health-care system because most of those people are in critical condition and require teams of health-care

The Trans Mountain pipeline has restarted following a three-week precautionary shutdown during a series of storms that battered BC. The federal Crown corporation says the pipeline was safely restarted yesterday after all necessary assessments and repairs were completed. It says some of that work included the construction of ``protective earthworks'' after flooding exposed sections of the pipeline that carries 300,000 barrels per day of petroleum products from Alberta to B.C. Trans Mountain says it's monitoring the pipeline on the ground, by air and through its control centre after the restart

Pakistan's military says one of its helicopters has crashed in bad weather in the Pakistan-administered section of disputed Kashmir, killing the two pilots on board. The military says the helicopter went down on Monday on the Siachen glacier. It's one of the world's longest mountain glaciers, located in the Karakoram Range, and often referred to as the ``highest battleground on earth'' because of the wars that Pakistan and India have fought over the Himalayan region of Kashmir. The military says rescue helicopters and troops have been dispatched to Siachen. No further details on the crash wer

One of the scientists behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is warning that the next pandemic may be more contagious and more lethal unless more money is devoted to research and preparations to fight emerging viral threats. Professor Sarah Gilbert says scientific advances made in fighting deadly viruses must not be lost because of the cost of fighting the current pandemic. Gilbert is calling on governments to redouble their commitment to scientific research and pandemic preparedness.

Police in Abbotsford say officers found human remains after responding to reports of a vehicle on fire early yesterday morning. The forensic identification unit was at the scene, but police offered no further details, noting the investigation had just begun. Anyone with information is asked to contact Abbotsford police.

B-C has expanded emergency financial assistance for people affected by extensive flooding and landslides over the last three weeks. The Ministry of Public Safety says the disaster financial assistance program is available to help eligible people recover from the impacts of a series of destructive storms between November 14th and December 2nd. It says eligibility has been expanded to affected residents in the northwest, southwest, central and southeast regions as well as Vancouver Island. Applications will be accepted until March 3rd