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.
The chief investigator for a Boston museum still working to recover US$500 million worth of art stolen in 1990 said Thursday he was hoping for new leads to emerge following the death of a highly scrutinized figure in the case.
A Connecticut mobster who died last week, Robert Gentile, had long been suspected of possessing at one time some of the pieces taken from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in history's largest art heist. He denied having any role or knowledge of the paintings' location up until the end of his life.
But Anthony Amore, who is also the museum's security director, said investigators had not been focused entirely on Gentile.
"One interesting thing is when masterpieces like these are stolen they are often recovered and oftentimes it happens a generation or two after the heist," Amore said in an interview. "And sometimes that's because somebody passes away or relationships become estranged. And perhaps with Mr. Gentile's passing, someone will feel liberated to speak about what they know. That's conjecture. That's hopeful talk."
Acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Nathaniel Mendell said his office is encouraging anyone with information to contact the FBI.
The museum, which is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the artwork's recovery, is conducting its investigation alongside and in partnership with the FBI, Amore said.
On March 18, 1990, two men masquerading as Boston police officers got into the museum by telling a security guard they were responding to a report of a disturbance, according to authorities. The guard and a co-worker were handcuffed and locked in the basement while the thieves made off with the 13 pieces of art.
The missing pieces include Rembrandt's only known seascape, "Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee," and Vermeer's "The Concert," one of fewer than 40 known paintings by the 17th-century Dutch painter.
Federal authorities described Gentile as a person of interest, saying he talked about the stolen paintings with fellow prisoners and once told an undercover FBI agent he had access to two of the paintings and could negotiate the sale of each for $500,000. His home outside Hartford was searched several times by federal agents, and he served several years in prison after they found firearms he was prohibited from owning as a convicted felon.
Robert Fisher, who worked on the investigation as a member of the U.S. attorney's office in Boston until 2016, said the investigation likely had determined all there was to know about Gentile's possible role.
"To me I thought if he really did know or have information about the paintings that he would have given that up before he passed away, particularly considering the reward was now up to $10 million," Fisher said. "If the theory was that he had access to paintings, he had every opportunity to come forward when he was in prison and out of prison and very ill."
A spokesperson for the FBI in Boston, Kristen Setera, said its investigation remains active. "We vigorously investigate every tip we receive," Setera said.
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.
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.
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.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
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.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States, injuring at least three people.
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.
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
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.
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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.