Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Greek authorities conducted a major search and rescue operation Wednesday for dozens of people believed missing at sea east of the island of Karpathos after a boat reportedly carrying up to 80 migrants towards Italy sank during the night.
The coast guard said 29 men were rescued 33 nautical miles (38 miles, 61 kilometres) off Karpathos, a southeastern island between Rhodes and Crete.
Two were plucked from the waves by an air force helicopter and flown to Karpathos, while the other 27 were picked up by a passing tanker ship and taken to the island of Kos.
The survivors were from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, and told authorities there had been 60 to 80 people on the vessel, the coast guard said. No further survivors had been located by late Wednesday, although the search was continuing.
Those rescued said the boat had departed the Antalya area on the southern Turkish coast for Italy when it ran into trouble during the night.
Strong winds and rough seas were complicating search and rescue efforts involving an air force helicopter, two navy ships, a coast guard vessel and three merchant ships.
"The search is continuing with unreduced intensity," said Shipping and Island Policy Minister Giannis Plakiotakis, under whose jurisdiction the coast guard lies. "The protection of human life is our daily concern and absolute priority," he said, adding that more than 6,000 people had been rescued in 145 search and rescue operations over the past two years.
The most common sea route for asylum-seekers from the Middle East, Asia and Africa has been from Turkey to the nearby Greek islands. But with Greek authorities increasing patrols in the Aegean, and facing persistent reports of summarily deporting new arrivals to Turkey without allowing them to apply for asylum, many are now attempting the much longer, and more dangerous, route directly to Italy. Greek authorities deny they carry out illegal summary deportations of asylum-seekers.
In a separate incident in northern Greece, a key entry point for people crossing illegally from Turkey by land, a police officer was charged Wednesday with attempted manslaughter with intent after two members of a group of migrants fleeing arrest were shot and injured.
The 52-year-old suspect was arrested late Tuesday following the shooting near the town of Kavala, and is in custody pending an initial court appearance Thursday.
Police said a patrol car came upon about 30 migrants getting out of a van on a highway. When they tried to run away, the patrol car gave chase, with the officer in the passenger seat saying he fired in the air for intimidation.
Nine of the van's passengers -- seven Syrian men, one Syrian woman and an Egyptian man -- were arrested. Two of the Syrian men, aged 20 and 26, suffered bullet wounds, one in the shoulder and the other in the forearm.
They were taken to hospital, where one was treated and released and the other remained for surgery, police said.
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
A group of demonstrators were kicked out of the legislature after a second NDP motion calling for unanimous consent to reverse a ban on the keffiyeh failed to pass.
The RCMP says it has uncovered a plot by two men in Montreal to sell Chinese drones and military equipment to Libya illegally.
The U.S. Justice Department announced a US$138.7 million settlement Tuesday with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016, a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue to prey on victims before his arrest.
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
A 35-year-old man wanted in connection with the murder of Toronto resident 29-year-old Sharmar Powell-Flowers nine months ago has topped the list of the BOLO program’s 25 most wanted fugitives across Canada, police announced Tuesday.
The Canadian Medical Association is asking the federal government to reconsider its proposed changes to capital gains taxation, arguing it will affect doctors' retirement savings.
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.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.