Russia puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on its wanted list
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
Chinese authorities refused to let Canadian diplomats attend the trial of a Chinese-born Canadian tycoon who disappeared from Hong Kong five years ago, Canada's government said Tuesday.
Xiao Jianhua was last seen at a Hong Kong hotel in January 2017 and was believed to have been taken to the mainland by Chinese authorities. He was placed under investigation by anti-graft authorities that year, according to news reports, though the government has released no details.
The government has never confirmed whether Xiao, the founder of Tomorrow Group, which has been linked to a series of anti-corruption prosecutions and seizures of financial companies by regulators, was detained or what charges he might face.
The Canadian government said earlier Xiao was due to stand trial Monday but gave no indication whether a trial took place or where. It gave no details of possible charges.
"Canada made several requests to attend the trial proceedings. Our attendance was denied by Chinese authorities," a Canadian government statement said.
A foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said he had no information about Xiao.
Xiao vanished amid a flurry of prosecutions of Chinese businesspeople accused of misconduct.
That fueled fears the ruling Communist Party might be abducting people outside the mainland. Hong Kong at that time prohibited Chinese police from operating in the former British colony, which has a separate legal system.
Since then, Beijing has tightened control over Hong Kong, prompting complaints it is violating the autonomy promised when the territory returned to China in 1997. The ruling party imposed a national security law in 2020 and has imprisoned pro-democracy activists.
Hong Kong police investigated Xiao's disappearance and said the subject crossed the border onto the mainland. But an advertisement in the Ming Pao newspaper in Xiao's name the same week denied he was taken against his will.
At the time of his disappearance, Xiao was worth nearly $6 billion, making him China's 32nd wealthiest person, according to the Hurun Report, which follows the country's wealthy.
Founded in 1999, Tomorrow expanded into banking, securities, insurance, coal and real estate.
The company became one of the highest-profile targets in a campaign by the ruling party to reduce risks in Chinese financial industries. News reports said Xiao was suspected of improperly using money from banks and other companies to pay for acquisitions, but no charges against him have been announced.
In 2020, regulators seized nine companies controlled by Xiao. That included four insurers, two securities firms, two trust firms and a company involved in financial futures. The business magazine Caixin reported at the time that the seized assets totaled almost 1 billion yuan ($150 million).
A retired bank regulator, Xue Jining, admitted taking bribes of 400 million yuan ($62 million) in bribes in a corruption case linked to Baoshang Bank Ltd. in the northern region of Inner Mongolia, which regulators seized from Tomorrow in 2019.
Auditors found Tomorrow misused money from Baoshang Bank, according to news reports.
One of the Tomorrow companies seized in 2020, Tianan Property Insurance Co., put its assets up for sale last month, asking 2.1 billion yuan ($315 million).
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
Ontario Provincial Police say two people were killed after a car and a transport truck collided in the westbound lanes of Highway 417 near Limoges, Ont. on Tuesday afternoon.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
A candidate for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left party in next month's election for the European Parliament was beaten up and seriously injured while campaigning in an eastern city, the party said Saturday.
Police are investigating after a BMW exploded in the St-Lambert Exo train station parking lot on Montreal's South Shore.
A group of lawyers has written what they call a groundbreaking book about how mental health is perceived in the legal profession.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.