Norovirus spreading at 'higher frequency' than expected in Canada
Norovirus is spreading at a 'higher frequency' than expected in Canada, specifically, in Ontario and Alberta, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The leaders of Estonia and Finland want fellow European countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens, saying they should not be able to take vacations in Europe while the government of Russia carries out a war in Ukraine.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas wrote Tuesday on Twitter that "visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right" and that it is "time to end tourism from Russia now."
A day earlier, her counterpart in Finland, Sanna Marin, told Finnish broadcaster YLE that "it is not right that while Russia is waging an aggressive, brutal war of aggression in Europe, Russians can live a normal life, travel in Europe, be tourists."
Estonia and Finland both border Russia and are members of the European Union, which banned air travel from Russia after it invaded Ukraine. But Russians can still travel by land to both countries and apparently are then taking flights to other European destinations.
YLE reported last week that Russian companies have started offering car trips from St. Petersburg to the airports of Helsinki and Lappeenranta in Finland, which have direct connections to several places in Europe. Russia's second-largest city is about 300 kilometres (186 miles) from the Finnish capital.
Visas issued by Finland are valid across most of Europe's travel zone, known as the "Schengen area" which is made up of 26 countries: 22 EU nations plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Normally, people and goods move freely between these countries without border checks. Nineteen other countries outside this travel area allow in foreigners using a Schengen visa.
Some EU countries no longer issue visas to Russians, including Latvia, which made that decision this month because of the war.
Tourist visas for Russians are expected be discussed at an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers on Aug. 31, YLE reported.
"I would believe that in future European Council meetings, this issue will come up even more strongly. My personal position is that tourism should be restricted," Marin told the Finnish broadcaster.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday expressed hope that "common sense" will eventually prevail in European countries that are calling to bar Russians from traveling to the EU.
Peskov said proposals for such a ban are usually coming from countries Moscow has already deemed "hostile" and "many of those countries in their hostility sink into oblivion."
"I think that over time, common sense will somehow manifest itself, and those who made such statements will come to their senses," Peskov said.
Putin's close associate and deputy head of Russia's Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, dismissed Kallas' statement Tuesday in a social media post, adding ominously: "I just want to remind her of another saying: 'The fact that you are free is not your merit, but our flaw."'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also aired a proposal against Russian tourism in an interview with The Washington Post published Tuesday. He said "the most important sanctions are to close the borders" for Russian travellers, "because the Russians are taking away someone else's land."
Russians should "live in their own world until they change their philosophy," Zelenskyy said, adding that such restrictions should apply to all Russians, even those who left the country and oppose the war.
It contrasts with what Zelenskyy said in March, a month after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine, when he urged Russians to leave the country to avoid funding the war with their taxes.
Asked about Zelenskyy's remarks in The Washington Post, Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, called them a "statement ... that speaks for itself," which Moscow views "extremely negatively."
Norovirus is spreading at a 'higher frequency' than expected in Canada, specifically, in Ontario and Alberta, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The same storm system that brought deadly tornadoes to parts of the U.S. is heading north, hammering some Canadian provinces with rain and snow, according to latest forecasts.
A gold watch worn by John Jacob Astor IV, a member of the wealthy Astor family and the richest man aboard the Titanic, sold for a record-breaking US$1.485 million at auction on Saturday.
A boycott targeting Loblaw is gaining momentum online, with what could be thousands of shoppers taking their money elsewhere in May.
French actor Gérard Depardieu has been taken into police custody in Paris to face questioning, his lawyer told CNN Monday.
McGill University says the growing encampment on its lower field in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza violates its policies.
The trial for the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg is set to begin on Monday.
Jim Arner was always interested in genealogy and discovering more about his ancestry. But after submitting his own DNA test, he learned an old work colleague was actually a distant cousin.
Three women diagnosed with HIV after getting 'vampire facial' procedures at an unlicensed medical spa are believed to be the first documented cases of people contracting the virus through a cosmetic procedure using needles.
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.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
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.