At least two fake BBC accounts spread a false claim that Queen Elizabeth II had died on Thursday, December 29. Two accounts, namely @BBCNewsUKI and @BBCNewsUKk, tweeted the message which read, “BREAKING: Buckingham Palace announces the death of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 90. Circumstances are unknown. More to follow soon.”

As NASA prepares to one day send astronauts to Mars, such missions come with a host of engineering and habitability problems, to say the least. Now, the nation’s space-exploration agency has a potential engineering solution that relies on an unexpected building material: ice. Researchers and experts at NASA’s Langley Research Center have came up with a novel, efficient solution that …

Pregnant women who take certain omega-3 fatty acid supplements can reduce by one-third the risk that their offspring will develop asthma, according to a new study from the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC) and the University of Waterloo. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that women who were prescribed 2.4 grams of …

The northern lights put on a festive show over northern Canada just before Christmas, and a NASA satellite captured a stunning infrared image of the spectacular display. With the “day-night band” (DNB) of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), the Suomi NPP satellite acquired this view of the aurora borealis on December 22, 2016. The northern lights stretched across …

A Red Deer man punched what turned out to be a cougar to save his dog in Whitecourt near a Tim Hortons on Monday. According to Reuters, 31-year-old William Gibb of Red Deer, Alberta, told police that he rescued his dog from one of the fierce felines Monday outside a Tim Hortons restaurant in Whitecourt.

Broken Hatchimals leave thousands of children disappointed as must-have Christmas toy fails to hatch. The makers of the popular toys “Hatchimals” are having to answer a lot of questions, even taking to social media to apologize and instruct customers on troubleshooting.

North Shore Rescue says it is standing down for the night in the search for two hikers who may be lost on Cypress Mountain and in the attempted rescue of a snowboarder who was reported missing in the Howe Sound area. 43-year-old Tin Hou Lee and 64-year-old Chun Sek Lam are believed to have been snowshoeing when they went missing. …

De Beers Canada is ending an agreement with another company to hunt for diamonds at the Western Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan. The world’s largest diamond mining company says it is walking away from its search for the precious stones on a 43,000-acre property in northern Saskatchewan after several “targets” turned out to be magnetic minerals mixed with organic materials. De …

The 117th annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count is underway, and residents have a chance to volunteer to gather data about the health of regional birds. In Canada, the counts are added to a database by Bird Studies Canada. In the U.S., the data is collected by the Audubon Society. Started in 1900, the Christmas Bird Count is North America’s longest-running …

Christine Longridge, accused of killing her daughter, reportedly struggled with mental health issues. Police said they were initially called to the house for an assault around 4:30 on Dec. 23; Rachael Longridge was found with severe injuries and died at the scene. Staff Sargent Bill Clark said Rachael had “just graduated at the top of her nursing class and was …

Cheetahs, the fastest animal in the world, are on the brink of extinction according a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Just 7,100 cheetahs remain across the globe as the species continues to face a range of threats largely caused by humans The research noted that Asiatic cheetahs have been especially screwed, with one …