More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
China could be capable of mounting a "full-scale" invasion of Taiwan by 2025, the island's defence minister said Wednesday -- days after record numbers of Chinese warplanes flew into Taiwan's air defence zone.
"With regards to staging an attack on Taiwan, they currently have the ability. But [China] has to pay the price," Chiu Kuo-cheng, the defence minister, told Taiwanese journalists on Wednesday.
But he said that by 2025, that price will be lower -- and China will be able to mount a "full-scale" invasion.
Chiu's comments came after China sent 150 warplanes, including fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers, into Taiwan's Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) since October 1.
At a parliament meeting Wednesday, Chiu described cross-strait military tensions as "the most serious" in more than 40 years since he joined the military, Taiwan's official Central News Agency (CNA) reported.
At the meeting, the Taiwan military submitted a report to lawmakers saying China's anti-intervention and blockade capabilities around the Taiwan Strait will become mature by 2025, according to CNA.
The lawmakers also reviewed an US$8.6 billion special defence budget for homemade weapons, including missiles and warships.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Chiu noted that Taiwan has not made any moves to provoke an attack in response to the Chinese air incursions.
"We will make preparations militarily," he said. "I think our military is like this -- if we need to fight, we will be on the front lines."
Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since the end of a civil war more than seven decades ago, in which the defeated Nationalists fled to Taipei. However, Beijing views Taiwan as an inseparable part of its territory -- even though the Chinese Communist Party has never governed the democratic island of about 24 million people.
Beijing has refused to rule out military force to capture Taiwan if necessary, and blames what it calls "collusion" between Taiwan and the United States for rising cross-strait tensions.
"The U.S. has been making negative moves by selling arms to Taiwan and strengthening official and military ties with Taiwan, including the launch of a US$750 million arms sale plan to Taiwan, the landing of US military aircraft in Taiwan and frequent sailing of U.S. warships across the Taiwan Strait," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Monday.
China's Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday that senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi and US national security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet in Zurich to "exchange views on China-US relations and relevant issues."
The ministry did not provide the date of the meeting. China's state-run braodcaster CCTV said the Chinese delegation arrived in Zurich on Tuesday.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
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.”