World

Women who planned to give birth outside of a hospital setting (“planned out-of-hospital birth”) experienced a small but significant increase in perinatal death compared with women who planned to give birth in a hospital setting, according to a large population-based study of Oregon births. “There is a small risk of serious complications that are best dealt with in hospital. They’re ... Read More »

Kosher medical marijuana to go on sale in New York after firm secures Jewish dietary certification. Vireo Health of New York — one of the only five companies which have been licensed to produce and sell medical marijuana in the state — announced Wednesday that all of its products have been certified kosher. Read More »

A student has fallen to his death while attempting to take photos of the New York skyline from the top of the Four Seasons Hotel. Police say Conner Cummings was clambering over scaffolding on the 52-storey Manhattan building overlooking Central Park after gaining access to a rooftop level. Read More »

San Quentin State Prison officials on Tuesday provided a rare glimpse inside the country’s largest death row, where 725 inmates await a decision on a proposed one-drug execution method and a vote on whether to scrap the death penalty altogether. Prison officials have allowed reporters a rare glimpse inside the jail for the first time since the ruling that the ... Read More »

BlackBerry Ltd. is to continue its operations in Pakistan after the government backed down on demands for access to information from its BES servers. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had been seeking monitoring capabilities for all domestic BlackBerry Enterprise Service traffic, which includes user emails and private messages. Read More »

The fine for those caught driving with a mobile device in Alberta is set to increase today. The ban on using a mobile device came into effect in September 2011, with fines rising in subsequent years from $172 to $287. Starting today, the monetary penalty will now be paired with three demerit points. Read More »

A Canadian couple who renovated their kitchen to match a cartoon one on “The Simpsons” has been saluted by the popular TV show. Marcia Andreychuk and Joel Hamilton had their names mentioned during the episode “Barthood,” a parody of the Richard Linklater film “Boyhood.” It aired on Dec. 13. In the episode, Homer and Bart are watching hockey when the ... Read More »

The B.C. government’s quit-smoking assistance program is now available to people who drop by a pharmacy to qualify for free nicotine replacement products. As of Jan. 1, 2016, participants no longer have to register by calling 8-1-1 to reach the HealthLinkBC medical advice service. The program has also expanded its offerings to include nicotine inhalers and lozenges as well as ... Read More »

Sixteen city hotels will go green as part of the NYC Carbon Challenge, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the city 80 percent by 2050. The expansion of the Carbon Challenge to these 16 hotels is projected to reduce citywide GHG emissions by an additional 32,000 metric tons and result in an estimated $25 million in energy ... Read More »

Telus customers will be receiving a rebate from the company after an agreement was made with the Competition Bureau worth $7.34 million. The bureau launched an investigation in 2012 over certain third-party services that the country’s largest wireless carriers billed customers for without their permission. At issue is false or misleading representations in ads for services that sent trivia questions ... Read More »

TSA: Travelers in 5 states may need more than driver’s license to fly. On Dec. 22, the Department of Homeland Security alerted state officials in Illinois and Missouri that their exemptions to a federal identification standard will end. In practice, this means that driver’s licenses from those states wont be valid to pass through security at various federally operated or ... Read More »