Health Canada says the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine can now be given to kids as young as 12.The vaccine was previously authorized for anyone at least 16 years of age or older.A trial of more than 2,200 youth in that age group in the United States recorded no cases of COVID-19 among vaccinated kids.Health Canada's chief medical adviser Dr. Supriya Sharma says the evidence is there that the vaccine is safe and effective in that age group.It is the first vaccine approved for children in Canada, and Sharma says it is a significant step forward in Canada's fight against COVID-19.The trial used the same

Those who are pregnant in British Columbia have now been designated a priority population to receive COVID-19 vaccine. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says data shows pregnant people experience severe illness from COVID-19 at a rate similar to those who are in their 50s. She says prioritizing people who are pregnant and 16 years and older for vaccination will help protect them, their babies and the wider community. B.C. has recorded 697 new cases of COVID-19, for a total of 132,353, along with one new death. There are 7,161 active COVID-19 cases, with 486 people hospitalized. More

The British Columbia Conservation Officer Service says a woman has been airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after being attacked by a cougar. The service posted on Twitter that the attack happened Tuesday morning at the woman's remote property west of Agassiz in the Fraser Valley, about 110 kilometres east of Vancouver. It says the conservation service's predator attack team responded to the scene, as did paramedics and the RCMP. B.C. Emergency Health Services says in a statement it received a call just before 8:15 a.m. about the attack along a forest service road and deployed an air a

The police chief in Delta, B.C., is offering comfort to community members following a spate of public shootings in the Lower Mainland, saying officers across the region are working together to solve the crimes. Chief Neil Dubord acknowledges many residents are feeling anxious after a corrections officer was gunned down in a brazen attack outside the Scottsdale Centre mall on Saturday afternoon. That was followed by a shooting outside another shopping centre in Langley, B.C., on Monday, although the two incidents have not been linked. There was also a targeted attack Sunday in Burnaby on a wom

Increasing values are prompting homeowners to sell, but the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver says more supply is still needed to meet active market demands. The board reports there were 4,908 residential home sales in its 15 regions in April, a 342 per cent increase from the same month last year. Board economist Keith Stewart says there's been a corresponding supply from home sellers this spring to meet the spike in sales, but more homes are needed on the market to bring conditions to balance. The number of homes listed for sale in the region is 10,245, a 9.1 per cent increase from April

A farmer in Belgium could face criminal charges if he doesn't put a stone back in its original place. A farmer in Belgium accidentally re-drew the country's border with France. France and Belgium realized their border had been moved after a local history buff who went for a walk in the woods discovered one of the stones marking the limit had been moved about two metres. It turns out a local farmer moved the stone inside French territory.Reportedly he was annoyed it was in his tractor's path.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government's advice that people should get vaccinated as soon as it's their turn has not changed. He made the comment after a federal panel said vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are ``preferred.'' Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the only way Canada brings the pandemic to a close is for everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Amid a flurry of fear and frustration over new advice from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, Trudeau says he's glad he was given the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Trudeau also announced that one-milli

A man has been arrested in Victoria after a woman was attacked with a hammer at a park in James Bay. Officers on patrol were called to Irving Park following a loud altercation and learned on the way there that a woman's tent was destroyed with a baseball bat before she was assaulted with a hammer. Police say the suspect was found in his own tent and taken into custody while the woman was treated by paramedics at the scene. Charges of assault with a weapon, breach of probation and breaching conditions of release are being recommended against a 48-year-old man with a criminal record. Victoria p

A man has suffered potentially life-threatening injuries in a brazen daylight shooting outside a busy shopping mall in Langley, B.C.A statement from the RCMP says it happened Monday just after 3:30 p.m. in the parking lot of Willowbrook Shopping Centre, 45 kilometres east of Vancouver.Investigators say the shooting does not appear random and few other details have been released.It was the fourth shooting in Metro Vancouver in as many days.There was an attack Sunday in Burnaby on a woman who is expected to survive, the fatal shooting Saturday of a 29-year-old corrections officer in the parking