Health

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian health authorities confirmed an outbreak of diphtheria Friday and reported that 25 people, most of them children, have died so far in one of the worst-hit states in the country's north.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday announced plans to downgrade the legal status of COVID-19 to the equivalent of seasonal influenza in the spring, a move that would further relax mask wearing and other preventive measures a

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a recall for Le Fromage au Village and La Vache à Maillotte brand soft and semi-soft surface-ripened cheese due to possible Listeria contamination.

Data from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control shows the number of deaths linked to COVID-19 in the province since the beginning of the pandemic has surpassed 5,000.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A bill that would ban physicians from providing gender-affirming surgery to minors is advancing in West Virginia.

HALIFAX — A group of emergency room doctors released an open letter to Nova Scotia’s premier Thursday expressing worry that changes announced for the province’s stressed emergency departments won’t address the problem.

CALGARY — An independent review into why it took an ambulance 30 minutes to get to an 86-year-old Calgary woman who was attacked by three dogs says staff shortages and communication issues contributed to the delay.

EDMONTON — Premier Danielle Smith has struck a committee to investigate how the Alberta government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, and has appointed former Reform Party leader Preston Manning to chair it.

NEW YORK (AP) — When New York's first licensed recreational marijuana outlet opened last month, the chief of the state's Office of Cannabis Management, Chris Alexander, proudly hoisted a tin of watermelon-flavored gummies above the crowd.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The U.S.