SOCHI, Russia – Two skiing sisters and a snowboard star fighting a broken rib gave Canada’s Olympians the strong start they desired in Sochi. Canada earned a medal of every colour Saturday on the opening day of Olympic medal competition. Montreal’s Justine Dufour-Lapointe led the way, flying to gold in the women’s moguls. Chloe Dufour-Lapointe wasn’t far behind her sister, taking silver and relegating defending champion Hannah Kearney of the […]

  UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos has insisted that the UN and aid agencies will not be deterred by Saturday’s attack on a convoy bringing supplies into the Syrian city of Homs. Baroness Amos said she was sad that a three-day ceasefire to allow aid into the old part of Homs had been broken. The events were “a stark reminder of the dangers that civilians and aid workers face every […]

Today, like more garages in Vancouver, it is a garage for intercity buses in a desolate industrial section of Sherbrooke, Que., right next to a provincial prison. There is no plaque, nothing to indicate that more than 70 years ago, an intriguing chapter in Canadian history unfolded within its brick walls. Erwin SchildRabbi Erwin Schild’s family home shortly after a bomb blast in Germany during the war. In 1940, as […]

Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence of human footprints outside of Africa, on the Norfolk Coast in the East of England. The footprints are more than 800,000 years old and were found on the shores of Happisburgh. They are direct evidence of the earliest known humans in northern Europe. Details of the extraordinary markings have been published in the science journal Plos One. The footprints have been described as “one […]

Amsterdam’s red-light district opened its first “prostitution museum” on Thursday, hoping to lure tourists who always wondered what life was like for those on the other side of the infamous glass windows — but were too afraid to ask. “How do they live? What happens in their world?” said Melcher de Wind, a founder of the “Red Light Secrets Museum of Prostitution” which showcases one of the Dutch capital’s most […]

A pig that weighed in at nearly one ton was publicly slaughtered today after its owner won first prize on a competition held by a Taoist temple in Taiwan. Ten Holy Pigs were force fed to make them grow ten times larger than normal for the contest held by the Sanhsia Tzushih Temple in Yingko, New Taipei City, northern Taiwan. The tradition is generations old, but in recent years it […]

The Pacific island chain of Kiribati is one of the most densely settled places on Earth. The BBC’s Julian Siddle investigates how the island is dealing with its overpopulation problem. Kiribati is perhaps best known as one of the countries most likely to disappear due to climate change. Most people who live on Kiribati’s main island – South Tarawa – rely on the surrounding seas for their livelihoods. The ocean […]

  STORY HIGHLIGHTS Beijing-based tour company posts exclusive photos and video taken from North Korea’s “luxury ski resort” The resort has a 120-room luxury hotel and 11 ski runs The tour company runs into Dennis Rodman and North Korean pop girl group during visit Skiing is not the first thing that immediately springs to mind when thinking about North Korea. But a luxury resort in the isolated nation is now […]

Hayley Spraggett’s first clues that working overseas would require a lot of attention to cultural differences and finessing her presentation came well before she ever got her first job. It turned out that her UK-friendly two-page curriculum vitae (CV) would just not cut it down under. Instead, recruiters advised her to include every job she had ever held. “In Australia, they want to see everything that you’ve ever done and […]

Groundhog Day (Canadian French:Jour de la Marmotte; Pennsylvania German: Grundsaudaag, Murmeltiertag) is a day celebrated on February 2. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, then spring will come early; if it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks.Modern customs of the […]