CALGARY — A French-language trial for a man accused of sexually assaulting seven women was delayed Monday for an undetermined period of time.

Richard Robert Mantha, 59, faces numerous charges that include kidnapping, threats causing bodily harm, sexual assault with a weapon and administering a noxious substance.

Mantha, who has ties to Quebec, was denied bail last summer and has been in custody since he was arrested last April.

His trial, which is to be held completely in French, was set to begin Monday and run

Parts of British Columbia are being told to prepare for snow as a polar cold snap pushed east through the Prairies and into Ontario on Monday.

Environment and Climate Change Canada said moisture from a Pacific system will bring precipitation beginning late Tuesday to central and southern B.C., and the potential for snow or icy rain during this time “could pose a hazard to travel and outdoor activities.”

Special weather statements are up for the southern part of the province, including Metro Vancouver and eastern Vancouver Island, that say snow

MOSCOW (AP) — North Korea’s foreign minister is visiting Russia on Monday for three days of talks, as international concern grows over an alleged between the two countries.

A delegation led by Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrived in Moscow on Sunday, according to North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency. She is to meet her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

Choe is visiting at Lavrov’s invitation, the ministry said.

The United States and

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Almost 100,000 children in Afghanistan are in dire need of support, three months after earthquakes devastated the country’s west, the U.N. children’s agency said Monday.

A 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook Herat province on Oct. 7 and a second strong quake struck the same province days later, on Oct. 11, killing more than 1,000 people. The majority of those dead in the quakes in Zinda Jan and

HONG KONG (AP) — The former chairman of state-owned Chinese bank China Everbright Group has been arrested on suspicion of embezzlement and bribery, prosecutors said in a statement Monday, amid an intensified campaign against corruption.

The investigation into Tang Shuangning, the former party secretary and chairman of China Everbright Group has ended and the case would be “transferred to the procuratorate for review and prosecution,” China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate said in a statement.

Tang, 69, was expelled from the Chinese Communist

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The world could have its first trillionaire within a decade, anti-poverty organization Oxfam International said Monday in its annual assessment of global inequalities timed to the gathering of political and business elites at the .

Oxfam, which for years has been trying to highlight the growing disparities between the super-rich and the bulk of the global population during the , reckons the gap has been “supercharged” since the coronavirus pandemic.

The group said the fortunes of the five richest men — Tesla CEO ,

BERLIN (AP) — Farmers clogged Berlin streets with their tractors on Monday, honking their horns in protest at a plan to scrap tax breaks on the diesel they use, the climax of a week of protests that has tapped into wider discontent with Germany’s government.

Columns of tractors rolled into the capital ahead of the demonstration at the landmark Brandenburg Gate. Over , farmers have blocked highway entrances and slowed traffic across Germany with their protests, intent on pushing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government to abandon the planned cuts entirely

SYDNEY (AP) — A day after an Australian became queen of Denmark. her native land on Monday celebrated the unlikely fairy tale with cocktails, picnics and a “Danish Fiesta.”

Mary Donaldson’s journey from Tasmania to the world’s first Australian-born queen has captivated both Danes and Australians. People gathered to mark the occasion across Australia, including Queen Mary’s hometown of Hobart, the capital of the southern island state of Tasmania.

In Melbourne, scores gathered at Denmark House, one of Melbourne

BERLIN (AP) — The United Nations appealed on Monday for $4.2 billion to help people in Ukraine and displaced outside the country this year, saying that people on the front lines have “exhausted their meager resources” and many refugees also are vulnerable.

About three-quarters of the total, $3.1 billion, is meant to support some 8.5 million people inside Ukraine. The remaining $1.1 billion is sought for refugees and host communities outside Ukraine.

A recent wave of attacks