Ottawa

Two Canadians detained in China on spying charges were released from prison and flown out of the country on Sept. 24, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, just after a top executive of Chinese communications giant Huawei Technologies reached a deal with the U.S. Justice Department over fraud charges and flew to China.

A Chinese court on Aug. 11 jailed Canadian businessman Michael Spavor for 11 years for spying, a sentence swiftly condemned by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "unacceptable and unjust" - and which Ottawa says it plans to appeal.

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Ottawa prepared on July 2 to send military aircraft and other help to evacuate towns and fight more than 100 wildfires in western Canada fueled by a record-smashing heat wave.

According to wildfire officials, at least 152 fires were active in British Columbia, 89 of them sparked in the last two days. Most were caused by lightning strikes.

Several thousand people joined an interfaith marched on June 11 evening honoring the four members of a Muslim family who were killed in an attack that has shocked Canada.

President Joe Biden declared Canada and the United States best friends on Feb. 23, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the friendship "extraordinary" in a virtual meeting turning the page on the turbulent Donald Trump era.

On Friday, President Klaus Iohannis signed accreditation decrees for several Romanian ambassadors, including Cristian Istrate to Russia, Bogdan Manoiu to Canada and Daniela-Laura Popescu to the UK.

A Turkish-Canadian senior public servant, lawyer and university professor was officially appointed on Dec. 30 to the Order of Canada, one of the country's highest civilian honors.

Yaprak Baltacıoğlu was Canada's first woman deputy minister of agriculture and served as a trusted advisor to four prime ministers before her retirement in 2018.

The Istanbul Tulip returned home to Turkey after two centuries, Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands has said.

"Today, after more than 200 years, we brought the Istanbul Tulip home!," Consul General Bart van Bolhuis said in a series of Tweets and shared pictures of the yellow-reddish flower with acuminate leaves.

At least 16 people, including a police officer, were killed in a shooting in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, according to CTV Nevs, qouting Police Commissioner Brenda Lucki.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide passed 1.27 million on April 6 as the pandemic swept across the globe.

Johns Hopkins University's website showed over 69,000 people have died from the virus.

The total number of people recovered from COVID-19 reached passed 262,000, according to the data.

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