Legendary Musician Eric Clapton On Wheelchair

Eric Clapton gets escorted in a wheelchair and is surrounded by his supportive daughters as he catches a flight out of LAX, UK bound

Eric Clapton seen in wheelchair after announcing he has 'severe bronchitis'. Eric Clapton’s bronchitis seems to be taking a toll.

The legendary musician canceled his Los Angeles concerts last weekend due to “severe bronchitis,” and he was snapped at the airport on Wednesday in a wheelchair.

The 71-year-old singer has only performed two shows so far this year – both a New York City.

He took to Twitter on March 24 to apologize to his fans for having to cancel his Los Angeles concerts. He announced the shows would be rescheduled for September.

Quebec Mosque Attack Update: 6 Dead, Suspect Arrested

At least six people have been reportedly killed and eight injured in a shooting that took place inside a mosque at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Center in Quebec City, Canada, on Jan. 29, 2017. (Pictured) A police officer stands guard at the center. 

Police were investigating a single suspect in a shooting at a Quebec City mosque that killed six people, with a second person who was arrested now considered a witness, authorities said on Monday.

The sole suspect in the attack on Sunday evening prayers was Alexandre Bissonnette, a French-Canadian university student, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The man now considered a witness was of Moroccan descent although his nationality was not immediately known, the source said. He was named by media as Mohamed Khadir or Mohammed Belkhadir by media.

Police declined to give details of those arrested or possible motives for the shooting at the mosque, the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec.

File Income Tax By May 5, CRA Extends Deadline Due To Human Error

Janyce McGregor, CBC 
Canadians have been given five extra days to file their 2014 income tax returns, thanks to a "human error" at the Canada Revenue Agency.

Last Friday, the CRA issued a statement saying the deadline for filing tax returns electronically was May 5 at 3 a.m.

That was a mistake. On Monday, the agency issued a new statement, saying this year's deadline is, in fact, April 30.

Canada's unemployment rate stays at 6.8 per cent in March

The Canadian Press
Canada’s economy posted a surprise job gain in March as more people found part-time work.

Statistics Canada’s latest labour market survey says the country’s jobless rate remained at 6.8 per cent in March — unchanged from the previous month — and it registered a month-to-month net gain of nearly 29,000 jobs.

Women over 55 years old, in particular, were able to find new jobs in March.

The unemployment rate matched the consensus projection of economists, who also predicted no new jobs would be created for the month, according to Thomson Reuters.

“The bar was set pretty low for this employment release and it managed to clear it,” Bank of Montreal chief economist Douglas Porter said in a note to investors.

Avril Lavigne's Husband Chad Speaks About Wife Battle With Lyme Disease

Avril Lavigne recently discussed her debilitating bout of Lyme Disease after months away from the limelight, and now husband Chad Kroeger has expressed that he’s “very thankful” to have Avril’s condition out in the open.

The 40-year-old rocker shared his relief with KISS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O this week in Australia. “I’m like, “OK the wife has come out and said this and now I don’t have to keep hiding,” he said. “With everyone going, ‘What’s wrong with your wife?’ and me just going, ‘Ah, she’s going to be fine.’

He added: “I’m like, ‘Okay, I can talk about this now.’”

Ebola Update: Liberia Re-Opens Schools Closed for 6 Months due to Crisis

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – President of Liberia

The Liberia Education Ministry has announced the re-opening of schools which had been closed down for more than six months due to Ebola outbreak.

Benjamin Jacobs, National School Superintendent, said on Monday in Monrovia, that the re-opening which was initially planned for February 2, was postponed by two weeks.

He said this was to allow adequate distribution of more than 7,000 health and sanitation kits, including hand-washing buckets and thermometers to public and private schools.

Ramses Kumbuyahm, Deputy Education Minister, said the ministry has trained 15,000 teachers and school administrators on how to implement health and safety protocols to prevent further Ebola infection.

Congress set to pass bill approving Keystone

Dina Cappiello The Associated PressThe United States Congress approved a bill Wednesday to construct the privately funded Canadian Keystone XL oil pipeline project, setting up a confrontation with President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto the measure.

The House voted 270-152 to send the bill to the president, endorsing changes made by the Senate that stated climate change was real and not a hoax, and oilsands should no longer be exempt from a tax used to cleanup oil spills. Only one Republican voted against the measure.

But neither chamber has enough support to overcome a veto, and supporters were already strategizing on how to secure the pipeline’s approval using other legislative means.

Hottie Felon Jeremy Meeks Sentenced to 27 Months in Prison

Remember the ridiculously handsome California felon, Jeremy Meeks a.k.a #HottieThug, whose mugshot went viral last year?

Thousands of women all around the world fell for him, and he even landed a Hollywood agent, and was offered $100,000 to star in an adult film.

However, his brief moments of fame couldn't save him from jail time. A Sacramento judge on Thursday sentenced Meeks to 27 months in prison and ordered him to partake in a substance abuse treatment program while in prison, NBC News reports.

According to reports, he was arrested in June 2014 during a gang crackdown in Stockton, CA. He then pleaded guilty to “one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

First of Three Avatar Sequel Pushed Back to 2017, James Cameron Says

Nolan Feeney TIMES

Director James Cameron announced the news

The first of three planned Avatar sequels has been pushed back to late 2017, according to director James Cameron.

The film was most recently expected to open in 2016, according to the Hollywood Reporter, but Cameron says that date was somewhat ambitious, as writing all the follow-up films at once has been “very involved.”

United Nations Declares Mali Ebola Free

The fight against Ebola continues in African countries.

The United Nations has declared Mali Ebola-free, after 42 days without any new cases of the deadly virus.

Minister of Health and Public Hygiene, Ousmane Koné said in a statement, ‘I declare on this day, January 18, 2015, the end of the end of the Ebola epidemic in Mali.’

Mali became the sixth West African country to record a case of Ebola when a two-year-old girl from Guinea died in October. It was close to being declared Ebola free in November before a second wave of infections.

700 Target Canada employees to lose jobs in Winnipeg and Brandon Area of Manitoba

CBC - Almost 700 employees between the Winnipeg and Brandon Target locations will lose their jobs after the American retailer announced Thursday it would be pulling out of the Canadian market.

Target’s exodus from Canada marks one of the largest mass layoffs in Manitoba’s recent history.

A Thompson nickel smelter and refinery slashed 500 jobs in 2010. Convergys Corp., a Cincinnati-based call centre that used to have an operation in Winnipeg, laid off 500 employees in 2009 in Winnipeg.

Philippe Cyrrenne, professor of economics at the University of Winnipeg, said mass layoffs like these are rare.

"Target came in big and they left big," said Cyrrenne.

He said the impact of the layoffs on Manitoba’s economy won’t be felt immediately, because Target employees receive a 16-week severance package.

The real short-term challenge will fall on the shoulders of the hundreds of employees who will be competing for fewer, similar retail jobs.

"It will be difficult at the outset,” said Cyrrenne. “They all have similar skills so it could take a while. The best case scenario is for a larger retailer to come in."

Goodnews! Ebola Outbreaks in West Africa Slowing Down – UN

An outbreak of Ebola that has claimed over 8,400 lives in West Africa appeared to be slowing down, the UN special envoy on Ebola said on Friday.

“The change in behaviour that we’ve been hoping for, working for, anticipating, is now happening everywhere.
“The facilities to treat people are available everywhere.
“Safe burial teams are providing safe and dignified burial services everywhere and the result is that we’re seeing the beginning of the outbreak slowing down,’’ David Nabarro told newsmen.

Nabarro declined to predict when the outbreak of the virus could be definitively over.

The hemorrhagic fever is spread through contact with bodily fluids of infected people or the highly contagious body of someone who has died of the virus.

France government to deploy troops in schools, others

Confronting a nation in shock from last week’s terrorist attacks, the French authorities on Monday began to unveil a broad array of measures to send thousands of soldiers and police officers to guard Jewish schools and other sites, reinforce electronic surveillance and reach into schools and prisons that have a reputation as crucibles of jihadist recruitment, The New York Times reports.

The display of muscle by a government likely to face mounting questions about its failure to prevent the killings recalled the mood in the United States after the September 11 attacks, when the authorities embarked on a broad front of measures to tighten security and provide legislation for more intrusive surveillance.

The French response played into an emerging and potentially divisive debate across Europe that pits civil liberties campaigners against the demands of security officials who cite the attacks as evidence of an urgent need to introduce stronger powers to monitor suspects. And it comes as a time when the United States is engaged in intense soul-searching, touched off in part by the release of a searing Senate report on the torture of terrorism suspects, over whether it turned itself into a garrison state after September 11, 2001.

British Ebola nurse no longer critically ill, hospital says

Pauline Cafferkey was diagnosed with Ebola on her return to Glasgow from Sierra Leone. Photograph: PA

The Guardian, 
British nurse Pauline Cafferkey, who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone, is showing signs of improvement and is no longer critically ill, the Royal Free hospital in London has said.

The Scottish public health worker remains in isolation at the hospital where she is receiving specialist care. She was diagnosed with Ebola after returning to Glasgow and was admitted to the city’s Gartnavel hospital on 29 December before being transferred to the Royal Free the following day.

Cafferkey, from Cambuslang in south Lanarkshire, had volunteered with Save the Children at the Ebola treatment centre in Kerry Town before returning to the UK.

Celine Dion Ax Caesars Palace Gigs

Celine Dion is NOT coming back to Vegas ... at least till the end of this year ... TMZ reports

The plan was ... Celine would return to Caesars Palace in March after taking a hiatus last August to care for her ailing husband.

Our Caesars sources say Celine has informed the venue the earliest she will return is most likely at the end of the year. She will not give a date.

We're told Celine continues to care for Rene Angelil, her husband of 20 years. He's battling throat cancer, but we are told he is getting better.

Caesars continues to fill The Colosseum with other acts ... including Rod Stewart, Elton John, Shania Twain, Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn.

NFL athlete Devon Still’s heartbreaking update on daughter's cancer status

NFL player Devon Still's 4 year old daughter Leah Still is battling neuroblastoma, a rare pediatric cancer. Beautiful Leah was diagnosed in June 2014 and the Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle has been updating fans on Leah's status via his instagram page. Leah has been undergoing surgery to help fight the disease and after six months of constant treatment, the cancer is sadly still in her body.

Devon update fans in a touching message on instagram yesterday;

"I wanted to hear so bad that my daughter's cancer was gone and when I didn't it hurt me bad. I couldn't even bring myself to tell my family the results without breaking down. I honestly just wanted to shut down from every one. But I understand that blessing don't happen when I want them to, they happen when they're suppose to. So we are going to keep faith and keep fighting no matter what. #LeahStrong #BeatCancer"

Al-Qaida leader claims responsibility for attack on Paris in video message

In this April 23, 2013 file photo, a suspected Yemeni al-Qaida militant, center, holds an Islamist banner as he stands behind bars during a court hearing in state security court. CP

Maggie Michael, The Associated Press 

Yemen's al-Qaida branch on Wednesday claimed responsibility for last week's deadly attack on a Paris satirical newspaper, with one of its top commanders saying the assault was in revenge for the weekly's publications of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, considered an insult in Islam.

The claim came in a video posting by Nasr al-Ansi, a top commander of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP as the branch is known, which appeared on the group's Twitter account.

In the 11-minute video, al-Ansi says the assault on Charlie Hebdo, which killed 12 people — including editors, cartoonists and journalists, as well as two police officers — was in "revenge for the prophet."

He said AQAP "chose the target, laid out the plan and financed the operation" against the weekly, though he produced no evidence to support the claim.

Paris Attack! Latest Issue of Charlie Hebdo Magazine Sold Out

The latest issue of controversial French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has reportedly sold out within minutes of hitting newsstands on Wednesday.

As a result, the publisher of the magazine has decided to print 2 million additional copies, Guardian UK reports. You will recall that the initial plan was to print 3 million copies but due to the overwhelming demand, the planned print run has increased to 5 million in total.

Large queues were seen at magazine kiosks all around France following the release of the publication.

Prior to the terror attacks, the magazine reportedly had a circulation of 60,000.

Photo Credit: Wall Street Journal/AP

Police arrest third Ottawa man on terror charges linked to Larmond brothers

Pedestrian make their way across Parliament Hill in Ottawa on October 31, 2013. CP

Joe Lofaro MetroThe RCMP have arrested a third Ottawa man on terrorism-related charges.

Suliman Mohamed, 21, was charged with participating in the activities of a terrorist group following an arrest made by the RCMP’s Ottawa Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET).

Police say this arrest is linked to the Jan. 9 arrest of twin brothers Ashton and Carlos Larmond. The brothers lived in the Overbrook area of Ottawa and were the subject of a lengthy national security investigation by the RCMP.

Because of the purported link between the three men, Mohamed was also charged with conspiracy to participate in terrorist activity with the other two accused.

Charlie Hebdo! Police Chief In Charge Of Paris Attacks Commits Suicide

A French police commissioner has reportedly taken his own life after meeting the relatives of a victim murdered in the Charlie Hebdo massacre last Wednesday.

Helric Fredou, 45, shot himself in his office with his police-issue gun on Wednesday night in Limoges, a city in central France, according to France 3.