RCMP say a 13-year-old boy has been arrested for an alleged assault in Port Coquitlam, B.C., and they are asking the public to avoid making ``snap judgments'' about the case based on what's being said on social media. The teen was arrested after police say they received a call on Jan. 10 about an alleged assault on the grounds of Citadel Middle School. The RCMP say their initial investigation determined there was a ``verbal confrontation'' between four male and one female youths, which ``escalated when the girl used a low level of physical force.'' The Mounties say at that time, a 13-year-old

There will soon be a bit more breathing room for train passengers on the Canada Line between Richmond and Vancouver. TransLink announced that four new trains will be put into service today, increasing customer capacity by 15 per cent during the peak hours. It says the new trains will provide more space, frequency and comfort for the service that was popular when it opened a decade ago and has growing in ridership by 25 per cent since then. The addition is the first of 12 new trains being rolled out as part of the Mayors' 10-year transit expansion plan in Metro Vancouver.

Health officials in the United States say a Washington State man is the first person in the U-S to be diagnosed with a new coronavirus first identified in China. The man, in his 30's, is being treated in an Everett hospital, near Seattle and is said to be in good condition. He was travelling in the Wuhan area of China when the outbreak began, and returned to Washington State last week, where the virus was confirmed. Beijing says six people have died and 291 have been infected in China -- and cases of the pneumonia-like illness have been reported in four other countries prompting many airp

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday stayed a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order quashing the appointment of Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta. With this development, Gupta will now continue as Punjab DGP. "The honourable court has stayed the CAT order. The matter will now come up for hearing on February 26," Punjab Advocate General Atul Nanda told news agency ANI.The Chandigarh bench of the CAT had on Friday quashed the appointment of Dinkar Gupta. A 1985-batch officer Mohammad Mustafa and 1986-batch officer Siddharth Chattopadhyaya had challenged the a

Former Quebec premier Jean Charest has decided not to seek the federal Conservative leadership. In an interview with Radio-Canada today, he says the odds are stacked against someone from outside the party like he is. Charest had been testing the waters for a leadership attempt since current Conservative leader Andrew Scheer announced his intention to resign.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will move next week to formally approve North America's new, long-delayed free trade pact.Trudeau says the government will introduce a ways and means motion Jan. 27 when Parliament resumes, and will table legislation to ratify the deal two days later.Trudeau says millions of Canadians depend on stable, reliable trade with their largest trading partners.That will effectively remove the final legal hurdle in preserving continent-wide trade after President Donald Trump foisted the acrimonious renegotiation of the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agre

Quebec's immigration minister has acknowledged the province's system to sponsor refugees needs reform after hundreds of people camped out in his department's Montreal offices over the weekend, hoping to claim one of the few available applications.The government said it would only accept 750 privately-sponsored refugee applications for the entire province.Most were reserved for organizations seeking to bring an asylum seeker to Quebec, while just 100 applications were reserved for groups of two to five people hoping to sponsor a refugee. The Immigration Department held to a first-come, first-s

Three possible cases of a new type of viral pneumonia have been investigated in Canada and ruled out as coronavirus, the country's chief public health officer said Monday.The World Health Organization, meanwhile, announced plans to hold an emergency meeting to decide whether the illness linked to three deaths in China is an international emergency.Dr. Theresa Tam declined to say where in Canada the potential cases were located, but she said the individuals had travelled to Wuhan, the Chinese province where coronavirus is believed to have originated in a now-closed seafood market before being d

It's now Day 5 of the state of emergency in the St. John's, N.L., as cleanup continues from Friday's massive blizzard that dumped 76 centimetres of snow in the area.Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says 450 troops including about 175 reservists will be in Newfoundland today to help the province dig out from the storm.Travel remains difficult across eastern Newfoundland, and some residents are relying on each other for food. The City of St. John's says some stores will be allowed to reopen today to sell "basic foods."Most other businesses have to remain closed, with exceptions for gas stations a