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EDMONTON -- Alberta reported 1,699 COVID-19 cases Wednesday after 18,412 tests were completed, bringing the province's positivity rate up to 9.5 per cent. The province confirmed another 1,332 variant cases in the last 24 hours, meaning about 59 per cent of cases in Alberta are variants. Source

JERUSALEM -- A missile launched from Syria struck Israel's Negev desert region early Thursday, setting off air raid sirens near the country's top-secret nuclear reactor, the Israeli military said. In response, it said it struck the missile launcher and other targets in neighbouring Syria. Source

EDMONTON -- Education Minister Adriana LaGrange says the group representing Alberta teachers is playing politics with a proposed new kindergarten to Grade 6 curriculum and isn't sincere about real bridge-building. The Alberta Teachers' Association has publicly stated the proposed learning plan is “fatally flawed, and teachers, academics and curriculum experts should work on a revised version. Source

India has been overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of new coronavirus cases daily, bringing pain, fear and agony to many lives as lockdowns have been put in place in New Delhi and other cities. India's Health Ministry reported 295,041 new cases on Wednesday and 2,023 deaths, taking total fatalities to 182,553. Source

OTTAWA -- The country’s chief public health officer says given COVID-19 variants are no longer unique to specific countries and are spreading quickly across the globe, Canada is sticking by its universal approach to travel restrictions. Source

Athlete protests and political messages will remain banned at the Olympics, the IOC said Wednesday, after a survey found that a majority of competitors were in favour of keeping the ban in place. That means raising a fist on the podium — like American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos famously did at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics — or taking a knee would still risk punishment at the Tokyo Games this year. Source

QUETTA, PAKISTAN -- A powerful bomb exploded in the parking area of a luxury hotel in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding at least nine others, police said. Source

QUETTA, PAKISTAN -- A powerful bomb exploded in the parking area of a luxury hotel in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding at least nine others, police said. Source

MONTREAL -- A fifth variant type of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 has been detected in Quebec. The health department in the Mauricie-et-Centre-du-Quebec region reported Wednesday that the B.1.617 variant, first sequenced in India, has been reported. Source

IQALUIT -- The spouse of a Nunavut man shot and killed by RCMP last year says she wants to see the report on the investigation into his death. The Ottawa Police Service issued a statement earlier this month on its independent investigation into the shooting, which found the officers involved not criminally responsible for Abraham Natanine's death. Source