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.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned about possible food shortages and urged the country to brace for extended COVID-19 restrictions as he opened a major political conference to discuss national efforts to salvage a broken economy.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency also said Wednesday that Kim called for discussions on how the North should deal with the "current international situation," though it did not mention any specific comments from Kim about the United States or South Korea.
North Korea has so far ignored the allies' calls to resume nuclear negotiations that have stalled for two years following the collapse of Kim's ambitious summitry with former President Donald Trump, it was derailed by disagreements over exchanging relief from crippling U.S.-led sanctions with denuclearization steps by the North.
The North's economy has deteriorated amid pandemic border closures, which choked off trade with China, while devastating typhoons and floods last summer decimated crops.
Monitors assessing the situation in North Korea have yet to see signs of mass starvation or major instability, but some analysts say conditions could be aligning for a perfect storm that undercuts food and exchange markets and triggers public panic. The Korea Development Institute, a South Korean government think tank, said last month the North could face food shortages of around 1 million tons this year.
During the plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee that opened Tuesday, Kim urged officials to find ways to boost agricultural production, saying the country's food situation "is now getting tense."
KCNA said Kim also "set forth the tasks for the state to maintain perfect anti-epidemic state" -- suggesting North Korea would extend its pandemic lockdown despite the stress on its economy.
While the report was short on specifics, the party meeting does provide more clues about how serious food and consumer goods shortages are becoming in North Korea, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha University in Seoul.
"Extended pandemic border restrictions are taking a toll on the economy as price and exchange rate indicators appear to be worsening," he said.
Experts widely doubt North Korea's claim that it has not had a single COVID-19 case, given its poor health infrastructure and porous border with China, its major ally and economic lifeline.
Kim had called for the party meeting to review national efforts to rebuild the economy in the first half of the year.
While addressing "unfavorable" conditions and challenges on Tuesday, Kim also expressed appreciation over what he described as improvements, claiming that the country's industrial output rose 25% from last year, KCNA said.
The report said the Central Committee meeting will continue but did not specify until when.
North Korea held its first ruling party congress in five years in January, when it laid out development plans for the next five years.
At that meeting Kim urged the country to be resilient in their struggle for economic self-reliance, He also called for reasserting greater state control over the economy, boosting agricultural production and prioritizing the development of the chemical and metal industries.
Experts say those sectors are crucial to revitalizing industrial production that has been undercut by sanctions and the suspension of imports of factory materials amid the pandemic.
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.”