OTTAWA — The RCMP has eased its policy on cannabis use by members, saying simply they must be fit for duty when reporting for work.

The new substance use policy replaces a 2018 one that required front-line officers and many other employees in “safety-sensitive” positions to refrain from recreational cannabis use for four weeks before duty.

The change, implemented earlier this month, brings the Mounties in line with many other police forces on employee pot use.

The National Police Federation, which represents nearly 2

VANCOUVER — The high-pitched tweets, trills and chirps sound like the chorus of birds in the treetops.

But the songs documented in new research emanate from sites including abandoned mines in British Columbia, and the voices belong to silver-haired bats.

Authors of a new study say that while bats are well known for using sound to echolocate prey and navigate around objects, silver-haired bats have now been identified as only the second such species in North America that has been documented as singing.

Cori Lausen, director of

Northern Alberta is the only part of the country still under an extreme cold warning, about a week after Western Canada was gripped by bitter cold and biting winds.

Environment Canada says wind chill values nearing -40 were expected overnight, though conditions are set to improve in the afternoon.

In B.C., Vancouver has extended an extreme weather alert in the city until Sunday because of snow accumulation and freezing rain conditions, with extra shelter spaces available.

Schools in Metro Vancouver, with the exception of Langley, reopened

Canadian director Chris Nash says the rugged wilds of northern Ontario are a main character in his Sundance horror film, “In A Violent Nature.”

The ambient slasher follows Johnny, an unforgiving, undead monster, as he trudges through the woods and systematically slaughters a group of camping teens who stole a locket from his resting grounds.

“In A Violent Nature,” which is set to debut Monday in the Midnight program of the Sundance Film Festival, has no protagonists. Everything is shown from Johnny’s perspective. But

Northern Alberta is the only part of the country still under an extreme cold warning, about a week after Western Canada was gripped by bitter cold and biting winds.

Environment Canada says wind chill values nearing -40 were expected overnight, though conditions are set to improve in the afternoon.

In B.C., Vancouver has extended an extreme weather alert in the city until Sunday because of snow accumulation and freezing rain conditions, with extra shelter spaces available.

Schools in Metro Vancouver, with the exception of Langley, reopened

Canadian director Chris Nash says the rugged wilds of northern Ontario are a main character in his Sundance horror film, “In A Violent Nature.”

The ambient slasher follows Johnny, an unforgiving, undead monster, as he trudges through the woods and systematically slaughters a group of camping teens who stole a locket from his resting grounds.

“In A Violent Nature,” which is set to debut Monday in the Midnight program of the Sundance Film Festival, has no protagonists. Everything is shown from Johnny’s perspective. But

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — An Israeli strike on the Syrian capital on Saturday destroyed a building used by the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, killing at least five Iranians, Syrian and Iranian state media reported.

The Syrian army said the building in the tightly guarded western Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh was entirely destroyed, adding that the Israeli air force fired the missiles while flying over Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The Israeli military did not comment.

A few hours later, an Israeli drone strike on a car near

JERUSALEM (AP) — Iran said Saturday it had conducted a successful satellite launch into its highest orbit yet, the latest for a program the West fears improves Tehran’s ballistic missiles.

The announcement comes as heightened tensions grip the wider Middle East over Israel’s continued war , and just days after Iran and engaged in tit-for-tat airstrikes in each others’ countries.

Meanwhile Saturday, the U.S. conducted new strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have been targeting shipping in the Red

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Much of the U.S. remained gripped by deadly Arctic weather Sunday — with subfreezing conditions reaching as far south as Texas and Florida. But the numbing cold is expected to ease up in the coming days.

Freezing rain, sleet and high wind gusts later Sunday would make traveling in parts of Kansas and Oklahoma particularly treacherous, the National Weather Service said. Wind chills in Iowa made it feel like minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 7 degrees Celsius) in some parts.