Instead of enticing a foreign grocer to come to Canada, some experts say Ottawa should look at ways to support smaller and regional grocery companies to boost competition.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said this week that he’s been reaching out to foreign grocery companies in the hopes they will come to Canada and help strengthen competition in the industry.

“Am I going to succeed? I don’t know. But certainly it’s worth trying,” Champagne told reporters Tuesday, adding that more players in

MONTREAL — A provincial court justice of the peace has upheld the Quebec government’s imposition of curfews during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding several people guilty of breaking the health order during a protest.

Marie-France Beaulieu of the Quebec court ruled Tuesday that the curfew — which forced Quebecers to stay indoors from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. — infringed Charter-protected rights like freedom of expression and lawful assembly, but she said those violations were reasonable and justified given the public health context

VANCOUVER — Recent wild temperature swings in British Columbia have raised concerns about the impact on some local animals’ health, and potentially their survival.

Temperatures in the Fraser Valley city of Abbotsford, for instance, have swung from a low of -15.4 C on Jan. 12 to more than 18 C this week, and one researcher says she’s particularly worried about the swing’s impact on bees.

University of British Columbia bee researcher Alison McAfee says the extreme highs and lows are particularly dangerous

OTTAWA — Amid a chill in relations with both of Asia’s heavyweights, regional experts say it’s time Ottawa warms up to Southeast Asia, arguing Canada has an edge as a middle power with large institutional investors.

The call comes after years of strain with Beijing, which included the detention of two Canadians in China for more than 1,000 days, and more-recent tensions with India after Ottawa accused its government of complicity in a British Columbia homicide.

“We’re in a bit of

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Authorities in Norway issued several landslide and avalanche warnings for the southern part of the country Friday as it continued to get hammered by bad weather that officials said also might close roads in the north at short notice.

Flights to and from the airport in the Arctic city of Tromsoe resumed Friday after some 200 passengers had to sleep there due to the gale-force winds and snow from Norway’s since 1992.

The Norwegian Meteorological Institute said strong winds still were blowing

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s Pardons Board said Friday it has reduced ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak’s 12-year jail sentence by half and sharply cut a fine, less than two years into his sentence from a corruption case linked to the theft of billions of dollars from state coffers.

With the sentence commuted, Najib will be freed by Aug. 23, 2028, the board said in a statement. The board also cut Najib’s 210

BANGKOK (AP) — Markets in China sank Friday despite a fresh flurry of measures to help prop up the ailing property sector, as the International Monetary Fund forecast that the Chinese economy will continue to slow in coming years.

The forecast that the economy would expand at a 4.6% annual pace this year, down from 5.2% in 2023. It put growth in 2028 at 3.4%. It noted that housing starts had fallen more than 60% from

GENEVA (AP) — FIFA wants to open debate on setting soccer transfer fees by algorithm instead of the historic way of two clubs negotiating a market value price for contracted players.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino used his address to its annual law conference that closed Friday in Tokyo to refloat an idea that has circulated for several years about reforms in the global transfer market that is .

“Now more than ever it is fundamental for us to talk about these and other topics,” Infantino told soccer lawyers.

“For example, to

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish police arrested seven people on Friday on suspicion of selling information to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

The suspects, who allegedly passed details to Mossad via private detectives, were detained in a joint operation with Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, or MIT.

Acting on warrants issued by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, police anti-terror and intelligence branch officers carried out raids in Istanbul and the west coast city of Izmir, Anadolu reported