Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
Sydney will end hotel quarantine for vaccinated passengers when scheduled international flights restart in Australia within two weeks, officials said on Friday, while maintaining some restrictions on foreigners entering the country.
Vaccinated travellers who test negative for COVID-19 before flying to Australia's largest city would be spared 14 days in hotel quarantine from Nov. 1, New South Wales state Premier Dominic Perrottet said.
The major relaxation of the state's pandemic restrictions, which makes entering Australia easier for some travellers, was announced four days after Sydney came out of a 106-day lockdown.
"We can't live here in a hermit kingdom. We've got to open up and this decision today is a big one, but it is the right one to get New South Wales connected globally," Perrottet said.
"It's going to be great for our tourism industry, it's going to be great for tourist operators," he added.
Sydney's is the first Australian international airport to reopen because News South Wales has the highest vaccination rate of any state.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison approved the Nov. 1 travel resumption, but has yet to say when foreign tourists will be welcomed back in Australia. He has ruled out this year.
Australian permanent residents and citizens will be free to travel next month for the first time since the nation's border was closed in March last year by some of the toughest travel restrictions in the democratic world. Skilled migrants and students would be given priority in coming to Australia over international tourists.
Morrison said on Friday that parents of Australians would be reclassified as immediate family, enabling foreign nationals to visit grandchildren born in Australia during the pandemic.
Grandparents previously had to wait until tourists were allowed back to reunite with families. But restrictions on foreigners entering Australia would otherwise not change, Morrison said.
Qantas Airways responded to the news by bringing forward scheduled international flights by two weeks to Nov. 1. The first flights will operate between Sydney and Los Angeles and Sydney and London.
Limits on hotel rooms available for quarantine have been a major barrier for Australians who want to come home.
It is unclear whether returning Australians will be able to avoid hotel quarantine in other states by landing in Sydney then catching domestic flights across state lines.
The government of Victoria state, which has overtaken neighbouring New South Wales as Australia's COVID-19 hotspot, is keen to see details of the quarantine changes.
Peppered by journalists' questions about the two states' conflicting quarantine policies, Victoria Health Minister Martin Foley replied: "Everyone just needs to take a chill pill."
"We are not aware of the full details of a media release hot off the printer from the New South Wales government," Foley said.
Queensland state, which has remained virtually free of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic through tight state border controls, has hinted it would open to vaccinated interstate travellers by Christmas.
"There's just been an enormous change this morning that I haven't been able to get my head around so I need to work out what that change means," Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said.
Health professionals have accused Perrottet of putting economic priorities ahead of health since he replaced his predecessor Gladys Berejiklian last week.
But Australian Tourism Export Council, which represents the nation's tourism export sector, welcomed the end of hotel quarantine.
"Australia's tourism industry has borne the brunt of international border closures with many businesses suffering with no income since March 2020," the council's managing director Peter Shelley said.
"This announcement not only gives tourism businesses their income back, but also lets the world know they are welcome back in Australia," he added.
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.