Ottawa pizzeria places among top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world at international competition
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's audiobook service Audible and phone apps for reading the holy books of Islam and Christianity have disappeared from the Apple store in mainland China, the latest examples of the impact of the country's tightened rules for internet firms.
Audible said Friday that it removed its app from the Apple store in mainland China last month “due to permit requirements.”
The makers of apps for reading and listening to the Quran and Bible say their apps have also been removed from Apple's China-based store at the government's request.
Apple didn't return requests for comment Friday. A spokesperson for China's embassy in the U.S. declined to speak about specific app removals but said the Chinese government has “always encouraged and supported the development of the Internet.”
“At the same time, the development of the Internet in China must also comply with Chinese laws and regulations,” said an emailed statement from Liu Pengyu.
China's government has long sought to control the flow of information online, but is increasingly stepping up its enforcement of the internet sector in other ways, making it hard to determine the causes for a particular app's removal.
Chinese regulators this year have sought to strengthen data privacy restrictions and limit how much time children can play video games. They are also exerting greater control over the algorithms used by tech firms to personalize and recommend content.
The popular U.S. language-learning app Duolingo disappeared from Apple's China store over the summer, as have many video game apps. What appears to link Audible with the religious apps is that all were recently notified of permit requirements for published content.
Pakistan Data Management Services, which makes the Quran Majeed app, said it is awaiting more information from China's internet authority about how it can be restored. The app has nearly 1 million users in China and about 40 million worldwide, said the Karachi-based company.
Those who had already downloaded the app can still use it, said Hasan Shafiq Ahmed, the company's head of growth and relationships.
“We are looking to figure out what documentation is needed to get approval from Chinese authorities so the app can be restored,” he said in an email.
The maker of a Bible app said it removed it from the Apple store in China after learning from Apple's App Store review process that it needed special permission to distribute an app with “book or magazine content.” Olive Tree Bible Software, based in Spokane, Washington, said it's now reviewing the requirements to obtain the necessary permit “with the hope that we can restore our app to China's App Store and continue to distribute the Bible worldwide.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned Apple's actions, saying the company was enabling China's religious persecution of Muslims and others.
“This decision must be reversed,” said a statement from CAIR's national deputy director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell. “If American corporations don't grow a spine and stand up to China right now, they risk spending the next century subservient to the whims of a fascist superpower.”
The removals were first detected this week by watchdog website AppleCensorship, which monitors Apple's app store to detect when apps have been blocked, especially in China and other countries with authoritarian governments.
This week, Microsoft said that it would shut down its main LinkedIn service in China later this year, citing a “significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China.”
Unlike LinkedIn, which has been offering a specialized Chinese service since 2014, Amazon-owned Audible said it does not have a dedicated service for customers in China.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
Police are searching for a suspect in a homicide investigation after a man was slashed in downtown Toronto on Sunday.
This Mother's Day Weekend, take a look at some of the most emotional movies inspired by moms.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.