Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
British children's author and illustrator Raymond Briggs, whose creations include "The Snowman" and "Fungus the Bogeyman," has died. He was 88.
Briggs' family said he died Tuesday, and thanked staff at Royal Sussex County Hospital in southern England "for their kind and thoughtful care of Raymond in his final weeks."
"We know that Raymond's books were loved by and touched millions of people around the world, who will be sad to hear this news," the family said in a statement released Wednesday through Publisher Penguin Random House.
Born in London in 1934, Briggs studied art and briefly worked in advertising before starting a decades-long career as a children's illustrator. He won a Kate Greenaway Medal -- considered the Oscars of children's publishing -- in 1966 for illustrating a book of nursery rhymes, "The Mother Goose Treasury."
He tweaked a fairy-tale story with "Jim and the Beanstalk," published in 1970, and won a second Greenaway award for "Father Christmas." Published in 1973, it featured a grumpy but genial Santa Claus and -- like many of Briggs' books -- was adapted for television.
"Fungus the Bogeyman," which charted a day in the life of a scary subterranean monster, disgusted and delighted children in equal measure after its publication in 1977.
The next year came "The Snowman," a bittersweet story in which a boy's wintry creation magically comes to life. The wordless book has sold more than 5.5 million copies around the world, and a 1982 animated adaptation has been shown on British TV every Christmas since.
Far more sombre was 1982's "When the Wind Blows," a story about the aftermath of a nuclear attack on Britain imbued with melancholy and anger. It was adapted as an animated film in 1986, with music by David Bowie and others.
Briggs' anti-nuclear stance made him unpopular with members of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government. So did "The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman," a picture-book satire on the Falklands War.
Later works include "Ethel & Ernest," a poignant graphic novel based on the lives of Briggs' parents, published in 1998.
Francesca Dow, managing director of Penguin Random House Children's, said Briggs was "unique" and "inspired generations of creators of picture books, graphic novels and animations."
"Raymond's books are picture masterpieces that address some of the fundamental questions of what it is to be human, speaking to both adults and children with a remarkable economy of words and illustrations," she said.
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
After more than a century, Boy Scouts of America is rebranding as Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
A first-of-its-kind Canadian research study is working towards a major medical breakthrough for a brain disorder, believed to be caused by repeated head injuries, that can only be detected after death.
In March, Indonesian officials and local fishermen rescued 75 people from the overturned hull of a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Until now, little was known about why the boat capsized.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
Canadian immigrants threatened by hostile regimes are urging parliamentarians to quickly pass the 'Countering Foreign Interference Act' so they can feel safe living in their adopted home.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
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 mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
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.