IN THE NEWS

It looks like a typical one-bedroom seniors apartment, but hidden inside are a series of sensors. The apartment, located inside Ottawa’s Élisabeth Bruyère Hospital, is a living laboratory that comes equipped with technology that gathers information to help identify memory and mobility issues.

A new DNA testing device made in Ottawa can cut the time it takes to test for legionnaires’ disease from more than a week to 45 minutes.

The hackers’ targets: The former head of cybersecurity for the U.S. Air Force. An ex-director at the National Security Council. A former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. All were caught up in a Russian government-aligned cyberespionage campaign. None was warned by the FBI.

After arriving in Syria, Zarah's husband trained as a fighter and soon “became a martyr for the caliphate, thanks to God. I loved him. But we all must make sacrifices for our beliefs.” Another woman, originally from Kosovo, said she would "want both her kids to grow up to be martyrs."

Worshippers in Egypt’s North Sinai were killed when a Sufi mosque was bombed and gunmen positioned outside were shooting those escaping the carnage inside. Paramedics and other responders were also shot. Latest reports say 305 people were killed and another 128 are wounded.

Airbus Helicopters has been awarded a contract from South Korea's National 119 Rescue Headquarters for the purchase of two additional H225 helicopters.

While some countries try to kill their citizens fighting for ISIS in Syria before they can return, Canada places its hopes on reintegration and counseling. If that fails, returning terrorists can be prosecuted but lawyers are reluctant to bring the charges.

Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams have made a number of arrests and seized a huge cache of drugs after a raid on a Calgary-based drug operation. ALERT says the year-long investigation, dubbed Project Offshore, has netted over $4M worth of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.

The Canada Revenue Agency's call centres blocked more than half the calls they received and gave taxpayers the wrong answers to their questions nearly one third of the time, according to the federal Auditor-General.

Laser lights were used to illuminate two aircraft and a police cruiser near Halifax airport Monday night. RCMP are investigating the incidents. Directing lasers against aircraft can result in fines of up to $100,000.

Canadian Armed Forces Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels deployed on Operation Caribbe in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea have been working hand-in-hand with the United States Coast Guard over the past several weeks to intercept and seize large quantities of illicit drugs.

Russia's meteorological service said it had measured pollution of a radioactive isotope at nearly 1,000 times normal levels in the Ural mountains, the first official Russian data supporting reports that an accident had taken place.

Human rights groups say at least 24 people have been killed in violence following the presidential vote, which opposition supporters claim was rigged.

Defence Minister Harjit S. Sajjan wrapped up the 9_^th annual edition of the Halifax International Security Forum, where he highlighted Canadian security and defence priorities through discussions with Defence Ministers, the academic community, industry, and officials from across the globe.

Indigenous leaders in Quebec want help to deal with recreational marijuana use. Quebec and Labrador Assembly of First Nations Chief Ghislain Picard said communities are already struggling to cope with substance abuse.

Canadian jihadis in Iraq and Syria face a concerted effort to kill them by the Syrian, Iraqi, US, Russian and (recently) Turkish governments, as well as numerous local and foreign-backed militias. But have little to fear from their own government. According to the 2016 report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada, Public Safety Canada is aware that returning jihadis "may have skills, experience and relationships developed abroad that could be used to recruit or inspire individuals in Canada. They may also engage in terrorist financing, helping others to travel, or even planning attacks in Canada. The attacks directed by Daesh in Paris and Brussels provide examples. Most of the attackers were returnees linked to Daesh."

Assistant RCMP commissioner Curtis Zablocki told a Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities meeting that farmers under threat should call 911, secure themselves as best they can and wait for police. Zablocki said new Protection and Response Teams that include conservation officers and commercial vehicle enforcement officers will allow Mounties to spend more time on core policing.

Twenty countries have joined an international alliance to phase out coal from power generation before 2030. Since signing the Paris Agreement in 2015, which aims to wean the world off fossil fuels, several countries have made national plans to phase out coal from their power supply mix.

The Safe Third Country Agreement specifies that Canada can turn back asylum-seekers coming from the U.S. who failed to make a claim first in that country, but only if they arrive at an officially designated port of entry. Hence the incentive to cross along backroads and through farmers' fields, but there are alternatives that allow the RCMP to reestablish control over the boundary.

CIJA commends the Toronto Police Service after arrests stemming from evidence of antisemitic, racist, misogynist, and pro-Nazi content in a community newspaper.

A gunman who killed four people in rural California fired into an elementary school but was stopped from entering by teachers. One child was shot at the school after the gunman fired into it. Others were hurt by broken glass.

B'nai Brith Canada wants Mississauga, Ontario to enforce its own bylaws after protestors threatened violence against Jews and encouraged terrorism. Demonstrators in July and November urged violence against Jews.

A Montreal writer told an audience that the policing crisis that faces Canada’s black community today is rooted in centuries of racism that dehumanized black people.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Smith acquitted a man of sexual assault against his former wife because of their belief that consent is not required in Canada or anywhere.

For many years, perhaps even for generations, female genital mutilation (FGM) in the U.S. has gone unreported, unsuspected and undetected because of the secretive trafficking of this barbaric practice. A Michigan doctor is being prosecuted in the first federal prosecution, and those working to eradicate this criminal practice hope the attention will help put an end to this family-inflicted brutality against girls.

The RCAF has decided to use a grey colour scheme for the C-295W fleet "to enable surging flexibility" for the "very wide range of missions" it is required to conduct, said a DND spokesman.

Every time she flies, four-year old Alia Mohamed of Nanaimo, B.C. is hauled aside because her name is on the Canadian 'no-fly' list. Her parents and others traveled to Ottawa to ask the government to overhaul what they say is a defective system.

Chairman David McGuinty says if the 11-member national security and intelligence committee of parliamentarians does its job, no other Canadians will face the same kind of fate as Maher Arar and Omar Khadr.

Jack Letts, a teenage convert to Islam from Oxford, moved to Syria where he lived in the ISIL capital. Letts, captured by Kurdish forces as a suspected ISIL fighter, is a joint British-Canadian citizen and Kurdish authorities have talked of possibly releasing him to Canadian officials.

Devin Patrick Kelley, the man who shot and killed 26 people at a Texas church on Sunday, should have been barred from possessing firearms. The United States Air Force failed to place his criminal history in a database that could have prevented him from purchasing firearms.

RCMP officers have arrested five naked people at the scene of a two vehicle collision south of Edmonton. An officer said the situation was "convoluted" and might involve drugs and alcohol.

Calgary police have charged a man and woman with 59 offenses, including possession of counterfeit money and illegal firearms, and the production of fentanyl, an illegal substance. This is the first time charges have been laid under an Alberta law against equipment used to make pills without a licence.

The Syrian army announced on Friday it liberated the long-contested eastern city of Deir el-Zour from the Islamic State group.

Ontario has announced sweeping changes to its policing laws including the ability for police chiefs to suspend officers without pay if they are in custody or charged with a serious federal offence not allegedly committed in the course of their duties.