The outbreak of a novel coronavirus is prompting calls in China to ban the sale of wildlife and exotic species. The COVID-19 virus spreading throughout the globe is suspected to have originated in the same type of live animal market that spawned the SARS epidemic in 2002. Now, more than 60-million people are under lockdown in more than a dozen Chinese cities, and the virus has sickened more than eight times more people than SARS.

A fifth case of the novel coronavirus has been presumptively confirmed in British Columbia. Provincial health officer Bonnie Henry says a woman in her 30s returned from Shanghai, China, in the past week through Vancouver's airport before travelling by car to her home in the Interior health region. Henry says the woman wore a mask on the plane and contacted health officials when she had symptoms of an illness before being tested positive Tuesday for the virus called COVID-19. She says officials will be contacting passengers who sat three rows ahead and behind the woman on the aircraft that arr

Thousands who rely on a commuter train to get to work in Vancouver from homes in the Fraser Valley or municipalities east of the city had to find some other mode of transport this morning as a blockade shut down the West Coast Express. Demonstrators supporting the Wet'suwet'en battle against a pipeline on traditional territories set up the blockade yesterday afternoon, forcing cancellation of all eastbound trains. Protesters stayed in place overnight, cancelling westbound trains this morning, but began packing up shortly after the end of the morning rush. TransLink says it has assurances from

Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says Canadian health workers are assisting in Japan after 12 Canadians contracted the novel coronavirus while on a cruise ship.Champagne says three members of the Public Health Agency of Canada and two medical personnel from the Canadian Armed Forces have been sent to Yokohama, the Japanese port city where the Diamond Princess has been docked since last week.Some 3,500 passengers on the ship are under quarantine and 218 people have tested positive for the coronavirus.Champagne says the Japanese government will allow some elderly people to co

The RCMP's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is appealing to the public for help in its investigation into a fatal shooting in Langley last Friday night. Police say first responders found 42 year old Ravinder Singh Sandhu shot inside his vehicle at the parking lot of the Langley Crossing Shopping Centre around 9:30 pm. They say he was transported to hospital, where he remained in critical condition until just recently, when he died of his injuries.Sandhu was known to police and his murdered is believed to be targeted, and investigators are looking for witnesses and requesting dash cam vi

The accused who has been arrested in connection with the killing of five people of a family in Delhi's Bhajanpura confessed that he killed the woman and her children with an iron rod after getting into an argument over a money related matter, police said. Alok Kumar, Joint CP Eastern Range, said, "Accused is 28-year-old and has been arrested from Delhi. He has said that he got into fight with deceased over money after which he killed the woman and her children with an iron rod. Later, he killed the woman's husband. Further investigation is on."

A Victoria judge has approved an injunction preventing anti-pipeline protesters from blocking access to B.C.'s legislature. The ruling comes as Victoria police anticipate traffic and other disruptions tomorrow when anti-pipeline protesters are expected to expand demonstrations. Police say they've heard protesters are planning to blockade public buildings in the provincial capital, just days after hundreds blocked the entrance to the legislature when the spring session kicked off inside. Speaker Darryl Plecas made the application and a B.C. Supreme Court judge granted the order, authorizin

B.C. and federal government officials are tentatively set to meet with provincial Indigenous leaders in the hope of ending an anti-pipeline rail blockade that has stalled travellers and choked Canada's economy. Premier John Horgan responded to a letter from a Gitxsan leader today, saying the government wants to meet with chiefs of the Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en Nation over a rail blockade in New Hazelton. Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser says he will represent the provincial government at the meeting with chiefs, and federal Crown Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett will als

Former Conservative cabinet minister John Baird says he's not running to lead the federal Conservative party. His announcement puts an end to days of speculation that he could enter the race, talk that began late last month after both current MP Pierre Poilievre and former interim party leader Rona Ambrose decided not to run. Baird had been poised to run Poilievre's campaign, but Poilievre dropped out last month, saying his heart wasn't in it. The absence of what some in the party feel is a ``true blue'' voice in the contest a role some saw as belonging to either Poilievre or Ambrose _ put pr