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PARIS, FRANCE -- French writer Gabriel Matzneff said in an interview Wednesday that he "regrets" his trips to Asia to have sex with children, claiming that at the time "no one ever said it was a crime. Source

MOSCOW -- Russia's emergency services rescued 536 ice fishermen after they got stranded on a giant ice floe that broke off the island of Sakhalin in eastern Siberia, officials said. Around 60 more people were able to get back on the shore on their own Tuesday evening, emergency officials said. Source

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA -- An airplane evacuating as many as 240 Americans from a Chinese city at the centre of a virus outbreak has landed in the U.S. The U.S. government chartered the plane to fly out diplomats from the U.S. Source

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND -- Another person who suffered critical injuries from an eruption of a New Zealand volcano last month has died, bringing the death toll to 21, police said Wednesday. Police Deputy Commissioner John Tims said the person died Tuesday night at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital. Source

The impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump is moving into its next phase Wednesday, with senators preparing to question the prosecution and defence. They're also contemplating whether they want to call additional witnesses before they make a final determination on whether or not to remove Trump from office. Source

High-profile sexual harassment cases have spurred Canadian employers to do more to prevent abuse in workplaces, but there's still a long way to go, experts say. When dozens of women came forward starting in late 2017 to accuse former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, it gave rise to the #MeToo movement and prompted workplaces in and out of Hollywood to examine their record on the issue. Source

It will be a smaller, simpler ceremony this year in Quebec City to mark the 2017 mosque shooting that left six people dead and dozens suffering from injuries both physical and psychological. A citizens group, Commémoration citoyenne de l'attentat du 29 janvier 2017, will hold a community supper later today — the third anniversary of the shooting — at a Catholic church down the street from where the attack took place. Source

If there's anything to be said about the Liberal minority government so far, it's this: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his inner circle don't seem to be in a hurry to do much of anything. That might sound harsh, given that Parliament just resumed for the first time since before the Christmas break. Source

The number of restricted firearms registered in Canada rose nearly 24 per cent in the first three years of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government. The number of registered firearms that are restricted or prohibited stood at 1.16 million at the end of 2018, according to the Commissioner of Firearms report for 2018. Source

NEW DELHI -- A speeding bus and auto-rickshaw collided in western India, killing at least 27 people and injuring dozens more, police said Wednesday. Both vehicles fell into a roadside well after the crash late Tuesday in Maharashtra state. Source