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As Canada continues to battle an opioid epidemic, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is calling on federal lawmakers to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of illegal drugs for personal consumption. CACP's president, Chief Constable Adam Palmer, said it's time to rethink how police and governments approach the use and abuse of illegal drugs in order to save lives. Source

LOS ANGELES -- New charges have been filed against a former University of Southern California campus gynecologist accused of sexually assaulting young women who were his patients, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said Thursday. Source

SINGAPORE -- Wearing masks and plastic gloves, Singaporeans began voting Friday in a general election that is expected to return Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's long-governing party to power. About 1,100 polling stations across the city-state were open at 8 a.m. Source

DANVILLE, CALIF. -- A San Francisco Bay Area doctor who was on an off-roading trip with his 15-year-old son was shot and killed after he stopped to ask a man for directions, his son and other relatives said. Source

TORONTO -- A Texas man has pleaded guilty to trafficking more than US$3.5 million in wildlife -- primarily rare turtles -- from Mexico into the United States. Alejandro Carrillo of El Paso, Texas, has pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiring to traffic wildlife into the United States and one count of smuggling wildlife into the United States. Source

WINNIPEG -- A Canadian fashion mogul is asking a U.S. court to dismiss a class-action lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted dozens of women. Peter Nygard's motion filed Wednesday in a New York court argues it does not have jurisdiction to hear the lawsuit. Source

LA PAZ, BOLIVIA -- Interim Bolivian President Jeanine Anez announced Thursday that she has tested positive for the new coronavirus, becoming the third Latin American leader to be infected in recent weeks. Anez said she will continue to work from isolation amid a spike in cases in the Andean nation, which has banned mass gatherings to try to limit the spread of the virus, which can cause the sometimes deadly COVID-19 disease. Source

Several worker advocacy organizations have filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture alleging that meat processing companies Tyson and JBS have engaged in racial discrimination during the coronavirus pandemic. The complaint filed Wednesday alleges the companies adopted polices that violate a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects individuals from racial discrimination by recipients of federal financial assistance. Source

TORONTO -- A Toronto resident who says he was “aghast” at the sight of two employees not wearing masks at a hardware store appears to have uncovered a loophole in the city’s new face covering bylaw. Source

DALLAS -- A Dallas man has been arrested and charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a Black transgender woman. Angelo Walker, 20, was taken into custody Wednesday and is being held in the Dallas County jail on a $900,000 bond. Source