The head of Ukraine International Airlines is thanking Canada for its part in investigating the crash of one of its planes outside Tehran in early January. In a long statement on the airline's website today, Yevhenii Dykhne also says the company expects the formalities for compensation to families of the 176 people killed will be "finalized in the immediate future." Iran admits an air-defence battery shot the plane down, hours after Iran launched missiles into Iraq in retaliation for the American killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. The Iranian government says the operators of a missi

China's foreign ministry said Friday it will send charter flights to bring home residents of virus-afflicted region from overseas. The one-sentence statement gave few details, but said those from Hubei province and its capital Wuhan would be sent directly back to Wuhan in light of the “practical difficulties" they were encountering. The new type of virus originated in Wuhan and has since spread to more than a dozen nations and regions overseas. Most of the overseas cases were found among people who had travelled from Wuhan, although physicians are concerned about person-to-person transmissio

The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of new virus from China a global emergency after the number of infected people spiked more than tenfold in a week. The United Nations health agency made the determination on Thursday as more cases of human-to-human transmission were being reported worldwide. To date, China has reported more than 7,700 cases, including 170 deaths. Eighteen other countries have reported cases, as scientists race to understand how exactly the virus is spreading and how severe it is.

British Airways and Asian budget carriers Lion Air and Seoul Air are suspending flights to China as fears spread about the outbreak of a new virus that has killed more than 130 people.Several other airlines including Finnair, Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific and Singapore-based Jetstar Asia are reducing the number of flights to the country as demand for travel drops because of the outbreak.British Airways said Wednesday it is immediately suspending all flights to and from mainland China after the U.K. government warned against unnecessary travel to the country amid a virus outbreak.The airline

A Canadian teacher who lives in the Chinese city that is the epicentre of a coronavirus outbreak says he has no plans to leave.Wayne Duplessis says he and his family are hunkered down in their home just outside of Wuhan's city centre.He, his wife, Emily Tjandra, and their 15-year-old son Wyatt have spent the last two weeks chatting with people online, watching videos, movies, and the news, and listening to music.Some Canadians in Wuhan have called on the federal government to send a flight to get them out, but Duplessis says he doesn't think it's wise to spend hours in the air with people who

A veteran pilot who plunged into a Los Angeles-area hillside, killing Kobe Bryant and eight others, had tried to avoid fog so heavy that it had grounded police choppers, authorities said. But even experienced pilots may have only seconds to act when they are blinded by weather, an expert said as investigators began scouring the wreckage for clues to Sunday morning’s crash. The NBA postponed the Los Angeles Lakers' next game against the Clippers on Tuesday night after the deaths of the retired superstar and the other victims.Bryant’s death at age 41 was mourned around the world in an outpo

China says the death toll from a new virus has risen to 80, with 2,744 confirmed cases. The National Health Commission said Monday morning there were 769 new cases confirmed in the 24 hours through midnight Sunday. The government also reported five cases in Hong Kong and two in Macao. Small numbers of cases have been found in Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the U.S., Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, France and Australia. The U.S. has confirmed cases in Washington state, Chicago, Southern California and Arizona. Canada said it discovered its first case, a man in his 50s who was in Wuh

It is expected to take several days for officials to recover the bodies of former NBA star Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and seven others from a helicopter crash outside Los Angeles. LA County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Lucas says the next priority after recovery is identification and notifying the families involved. The Bryants were on the flight with Orange Coast College coach John Altobelli, his wife, Keri and daughter, Alyssa, who was about 13 and played on the same basketball team as Bryant's daughter, Gianna.

China is swiftly building a hospital dedicated to treating patients infected by a new virus that has killed 26 people, sickened hundreds and prompted lockdowns of at least 13 cities on the eve of the country's most important holiday.Transportation is halted and streets eerily quiet in the locked-down cities as the virus led to the cancellation of festivities for the Lunar New Year.Wuhan, where the outbreak began, and 12 neighbouring cities have a combined population of more than 36 million.A Wuhan hospital with space for 1,000 beds is being built in the style of a facility that Beijing constr