24News.ca

The push is on for Parliament to quickly ratify the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade agreement so that Canada can reap the benefits that come from being an early adopter of the deal — and there's a race on now to beat other countries to the punch. Source

MOSCOW -- While Crimean authorities searched for clues that might help explain why a teenager gunned down 20 people at his vocational school before killing himself, the stunned city of Kerch prepared to say farewell to the victims. Source

OTTAWA -- The federal government has no intention of sending anyone to a major investment conference in Saudi Arabia next week at a time when Riyadh is the target of global outrage -- and one source insists Ottawa never had plans to dispatch a delegation. Source

PHILADELPHIA -- Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania, using subpoenas to demand secret files and testimony from high-ranking leaders in what victims' advocates say is the first such probe ever launched by the U.S. Source

New Brunswick could be lurching toward a new minority government or a new election after all four political parties said that none of their members would be on the ballot to become Speaker of the legislature. Source

OTTAWA -- The Liberal government is well aware the massive black market for marijuana is banking on the appeal of products like gummies, tablets, sprays and creams but it defends waiting for another year to greenlight these items for the legal market. Source

GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Police in a North Carolina city are treating a pit bull puppy as a hero after he dug up a loaded .38-calibre revolver at an apartment complex. Greenville police posted on its Facebook page the puppy that officers nicknamed Ryder was playing in the grass at the apartment complex when it found the gun wrapped in a t-shirt. Source

Even with only a handful of stores open in each province, some provincial governments raked in revenue from cannabis on the first day of legal recreational sales. Quebec’s Societe Quebecoise du Cannabis (SQC) reports that its dozen provincially-run retail locations had customers waiting up to four hours to buy its products. Source

The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation of child sexual abuse inside the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, using subpoenas to demand confidential files and testimony from church leaders, according to two people familiar with the probe. Source

TORONTO -- Demand for newly legal pot appears to be outstripping supply as retailers run low on some products or are cleaned out completely amid a shortfall that could last for months. Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries said Thursday that it is expecting product shortages in both brick-and-mortar and online stores could last "up to at least six months. Source